Gammon style

There's nothing my in-laws like less than a bit of gammon at Christmas - as I discovered a few years ago when I replaced the turkey with a pig. But we are having it again this year, served cold with my cranberry, orange and ginger compote.

Glazed gammon

I had a trial run today - a 6lb (2.75kg) gammon from the local farm which I cooked in ginger beer before glazing it with marmalade, cloves and brown sugar.

Gammon cooked in ginger beer with marmalade glaze

Wash the gammon under some cold water, then put it in a big pan with 3 bottles of ginger beer and enough water to cover it completely. Bring it to the boil, then transfer it - with the hot liquid - into a slow cooker and cook on medium for about 4 hours. (You could carry on cooking it on the hob, but then you would be tied to the house for several hours).  It's cooked when a meat thermometer stabbed into it reads 71 degrees. Take it out of the slow cooker and pre-heat your oven to 220/gas 7. Meanwhile, make the glaze by mixing together 175ml marmalade, 1 tablespoon English mustard, 50g brown sugar and half a teaspoon of ground cloves. Cut off the skin, leaving a layer of fat on the joint. Spoon on the glaze and pop it in the oven for about 20 minutes until it's nicely brown.

You may want to score the fat with a sharp knife to make a diamond lattice pattern and stud it with a few whole cloves before putting on the glaze.

Instructions to my husband

I'm off for the weekend. Here's what I have planned for you to eat:

Tonight : Spaghetti Bolognese and flapjacks (serve the flapjacks for pudding, not on the side). The bolognese is in the slow cooker and the spaghetti is in a bowl in the fridge. To reheat it, boil a kettle of water and put the water and pasta in a pan until the water comes back to the boil (when it has bubbles on top). Get one of the children to grate some cheese.

This is spaghetti bolognese

These are flapjacks

Saturday : A selection of ready made Chinese dishes from a leading supermarket (not just any old ready-made rubbish).

Sunday : Steak and onion pie from the local farm shop with broccoli and corn on the cob. Hint: The corn is the kind that comes packaged in leaves rather than see-through plastic. Located in the drawers in the fridge.

There are no raw meat products in the kitchen and there are plenty of refined carbs in the larder. Any questions, ask the kids!

There is also one of these:

Spaghetti Bolognese

I made the spaghetti Bolognese by combining a 500g pack of lean mince, a chopped onion, half a chopped red pepper and a crushed clove of garlic in a pan and cooking until the mince was brown, bashing out any lumps along the way. I then added half a tin of chopped tomatoes that had been languishing in the fridge, about a quarter of a tin of kidney beans in chilli sauce (unorthodox, I know, but they needed using up too), a 500g jar of Dolmio original sauce, a third of the Dolmio jar of water and an Oxo cube. I let it come to the boil and tipped it into a slow cooker, where it will cook on high for about 3 hours, before being turned off and neglected for another 6 hours.

Have a lovely weekend everyone!

Largeing it

With a large (but forgiving) audience for lunch today, I decided to cook a big cottage pie and an apple traybake.

No shepherds were harmed in the making of this meal

Cottage pie

At about 7 this morning I put 2 chopped onions, a kilo of lean steak mince, 4 chopped carrots, 3
tablespoons ketchup, 2 tablespoons soy sauce, an Oxo cube and one glass of water in the slow cooker on 'high'. I gave it a stir about an hour in to break up the mince a bit, but left it alone after that. At 11.30 I ladled most of it out into a big dish. The mince was a bit clumpy, but so well cooked by this time that a pat with the back of the ladle broke it up nicely. I added 10 mashed (small-medium) potatoes and a handful of grated cheese, before putting it into the oven for 40 minutes, until the top was light brown and the mince was bubbling up from under the potatoes. Served with easy-frozen-peas-y.

Bonus: There was enough mince left over to use as the base for another meal next week.

Apple Traybake

3 large cooking apples
juice of half a lemon
8oz butter, softened
10oz caster sugar
4 eggs
2 tsp vanilla extract
12oz self-raising flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
demerara sugar to sprinkle on top

Pre-heat oven to 180/gas 4. Grease and line a baking tin measuring approx 27 x 20cm. Peel and slice the apples finely and pour the lemon juice over them. Meanwhile, place the butter, sugar, eggs, vanilla, flour and baking powder in a large bowl and mix until smooth. Spread half the mixture in the tin, top with half of the apples, and repeat. You could add handful of blackberries if you have them. Either way, sprinkle over some demerara sugar, and bake for about 45 minutes until golden and springy to the touch. Serve hot or warm, with something cold and creamy.