Category: meat recipes

Categories
gammon orange wine

gammon with a mulled wine glaze

I cannot get through the Christmas season without having a gammon nearby. And most years I come up with a new glaze to finish it off. I’ve blogged about lots of them. This year I wanted mulled wine with my gammon.

it’s very salty and strong, a slightly sweet flavour as well it’s one of my absolute favourites. We call it gammon in the UK: it’s the hind leg of a pork but just the top part so you get that big round of meat. just one of those weird quirks of Butchery that we have a joint called the Gammon which is a basically like bacon but a big joint of bacon or ham. like bacon it’s cured and usually smoked not always but not ready to eat. It needs cooking.

You can roast it in the oven, you’ll get a more intense flavour and it is relatively difficult to keep it tender with this method as all the fat in the joint is on the top – hardly any runs through the meat itself. You can cook it sous vide which I’ve done on this channel before where you have a lot of control over the cooking. Today I am going to cook it in the more traditional method of simmering on the hob with a load of aromatics. This is usually root veg and hardy herbs. The finished gammon is usually juicy and fairly mellow. Some people like to do a quick first simmer before replacing the water to remove impurities, I find this doesn’t seem to be a thing any more.

Mulled wine is a warm, spiced concoction that’s perfect for chilly evenings. It’s a blend of red wine, typically a robust one, infused with spices. Common additions include cinnamon sticks, cloves, star anise, and citrus zest, to make it rich, warming and aromatic. But to some extent it’s up to you what’s in the mix.

To prepare this comforting drink, you gently heat the wine with the spices, allowing the flavors to come together. Sweeteners like sugar or honey are often added to balance the robustness of the wine and enhance its overall warmth.

It’s perfect for the colder months and as such favoured at Christmas. I confess to also enjoying mulled cider too!

This recipe is very straight forward. Simmer the gammon for a couple of hours, then baste in a reduced mulled wine. It’s dead easy to do – the main thing to watch out for is overreducing the wine and burning your pan.

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mulled wine gammon

Course Main Course
Cuisine English
Keyword ham
Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 3 hours
Total Time 3 hours 10 minutes

Ingredients

  • 750 g smoked gammon joint any size will do
  • assorted root veg for the stock onions, carrots, etc
  • 350 ml mulled wine
  • 1 clementine or other small orange citrus
  • 1 heaped tablespoon icing sugar

Instructions

  • Put the gammon in a large pot with any old veg and if you have it, a spoon of black peppercorns and hardy herbs like bay. But no worries if you don't. Cover with water, bring to a simmer and bubble away for about 2 hours. The gammon is cooked when a skewer is inserted and removed easily. Allow it to cool in the broth for 30 minutes.
  • Meanwhile reduce the mulled wine. Add the halved orange and icing sugar and boil really hard. Keep boiling and bubbling until it is sticky.
  • Preheat the oven to 200°C. Transfer the gammon to a rimmed baking dish. Baste the meat in all the wine generously and place in the oven. Every 5 minutes pull the gammon out and spoon on the glaze that has collected in the pan. Keep going for 20-30 minutes until the glaze has hardened and crystallized. Remove from the oven and carve.

Video

Notes

If you don't have any mulled wine, take a full-flavoured or robust red wine and simmer it with cinnamon, star anise, nutmeg and other sweet spices. 
Categories
chicken chorizo food spring onion sweetcorn

chicken, chorizo and sweetcorn pizza

I recently took a trip to Gordon Ramsay’s Street Pizza in St Paul’s. They offer a bottomless pizza option where the pizza is cooked constantly and is then brought round. Grab a slice of what you like!

The pizzas were all great. Even the ham and pineapple was a step above – shredded gammon, strips of pineapple but the fresh pecorino was the finishing touch.

However the one I loved was chicken and chorizo, with a sweetcorn puree base. It was a perfect combo! So much so, I had to make it myself:

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chicken, chorizo and sweetcorn pizza

Course Main Course
Prep Time 2 hours
Cook Time 5 minutes
Servings 23 people

Equipment

  • pizza stone

Ingredients

  • 400 g strong flour
  • 1 teaspoon dried yeast
  • 2 teaspoons sea salt
  • 250 ml lukewarm water
  • 2 teaspoons extra virgin olive oil

For the sweetcorn puree:

  • 198 g tin sweetcorn
  • 2 teaspoons creme fraiche
  • lemon juice

Other toppings:

  • 50 g mozzarella
  • 100 g shredded cooked chicken
  • 5-6 slices chorizo
  • 2 spring onions
  • coriander or parsley to garnish

Instructions

  • To make the pizza dough, combine all the ingredients in a bowl and then turn out on to a worktop. Knead thoroughly for 10 minutes until stretchy and elastic. Form into 2-3 balls and put into an oiled bowl. Cover with a teatowel and leave to rise in a warm place for 90 minutes.
  • Meanwhile make the puree. Blitz all the ingredients together and season with salt and pepper. Push through a sieve to remove the skins and keep refrigerated until needed.
  • After 90 minutes, preheat the oven as high as it will go with a pizza stone in. Roll out the dough on a floured surface. Add the sweetcorn puree and add the other toppings to taste. Cook for 4-5 minutes until golden and risen. Serve immediately.

Video

Categories
carrots chicken food sausages

christmas dinner pie

A Christmas dinner in a pie! What a novel idea. After seeing one on the shelves from Pukka Pies I thought it was worth looking into.

Not content with dominating the Christmas music charts, YouTube channel LadBaby have come out with a pie:

Pukka Pies have been around for ages so it sort of makes sense that these would be the guys to come out with such a pie. This is a fairly straightforward idea so I thought I would give it a go at making at home.

One downside of making the pie yourself is the charity missing out. Sales of the pie give a 10p donation to the Trussell Trust, an organisation that works with food banks in the UK. If you’re able, why not consider a donation by following the link or scanning the QR code?

Donate to the Trussell Trust

My version of the pie has chicken, carrots, stuffing, sausages and bacon, covered in gravy and wrapped in a flaky pastry. You could easily swap out ingredients as you prefer. Serve with mash and veg with extra gravy for a satisfying treat.

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christmas dinner pie

A simple and homely pie with all your favourites
Course Main Course
Cuisine British
Keyword pukka pie
Prep Time 30 minutes
Cook Time 30 minutes
Resting time 30 minutes
Total Time 1 hour 30 minutes
Servings 4 pies

Equipment

  • muffin tin or pie dish

Ingredients

For the pastry:

  • 250 g butter refrigerated
  • 300 g flour

For the filling:

  • 1 chicken breast diced
  • 1 carrot large, peeled and diced
  • 2 chipolata sausages skinned
  • 65 g bacon diced, about 2 rashers
  • 80 g sage and onion stuffing made as per packet instructions, formed into small balls
  • pinch dried sage
  • 400 ml chicken stock
  • 1 teaspoon cornflour

Instructions

For the pastry:

  • Grate the butter and mix with the flour. Add a pinch of salt and add small amounts of ice cold water until it comes together and clean away from the bowl (this will not be much, maybe 20-50ml). Wrap in clingfilm and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes before using.

For the filling:

  • Bake the stuffing balls according to the packet instructions. You can cook the rest of the filling while they bake.
  • Cook the carrots until tender - I put them in the microwave with a splash of water in a covered dish for 4 minutes.
  • Get a pan over a medium heat and add a splash of oil. Add the bacon and fry for a couple of minutes. Squeeze the sausages into 4 pieces each and add to the pan along with the chicken. Stir fry for a couple of minutes, colouring on all sides.
  • Add the sage and stock to the pan, followed by the cooked carrots. Bring to the boil. Mix the cornflour with a teaspoon of water and then stir thoroughly into the pie filling. Once blended remove from the heat and allow to cool slightly.
  • Preheat the oven to 200°C. Roll out the pastry on a floured surface to 3mm thick. Cut out circles and line into a greased muffin tin. Add the pie filling and top with another pastry circle. Brush with beaten egg and bake for 30-35 minutes until puffed up and golden.

Video

Notes

Can easily be frozen at any stage. Even the pie filling itself can be frozen separately for making another day.
Categories
beef cheese onion

philly cheese stack burger mcdonald’s style

Every so often, hamburger chain McDonald’s run special burgers for a limited time. For me most of these are missable and I don’t bother, but the one they are running Oct/Nov 2023 in the UK is delicious. The Philly Cheese Stack (note stack, not cheese steak!) is a double beefburger heavy on the cheese and onions. And I think it’s well worth recreating as it won’t last forever!

Here’s what it looks like:

According to the McDonald’s website it contains:

That’s beef patties, bun, cheese slice, cheese sauce, grilled onions, pickles, crispy onions. I had a go at recreating it and I think it’s a terrific knock-off!

Here’s how I tackled the ingredients:

  • Beef patties – many ‘fakeaway’ McDonald’s recipes are on the internet. You just need a fatty mince with salt and pepper. That’s it.
  • Bun – You can make your own bun if you like, I didn’t on this occasion. Whichever soft bun you like.
  • Cheese slice – I used standard cheddar ones from the supermarket.
  • Cheese sauce – I’m sure you could make one, but I found this one from Hellman’s tastes a lot like the one McDonald’s use. Easily found in Tesco’s and other supermarkets.
  • Grilled onions – I mean, grilled is an odd word to use. In the UK that would mean pop under the grill, whereas in the US it would mean ‘barbecue’. I think it just means gently fried here.
  • Pickles – either a great condiment or the devil’s food. You decide.
  • Crispy onions – These are definitely the ones you get to put on salads or from salad bars in restaurants.

Apart from cooking the onions and frying the meat this is an assembly job and dead easy. Please give this Philly cheese stack recipe a go and let me know how you get on!

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philly cheese stack burger mcdonald's style

Course Main Course
Cuisine American
Prep Time 20 minutes
Cook Time 10 minutes
Total Time 30 minutes
Servings 1 person

Ingredients

  • 200 g 15% beef mince
  • ¼ onion
  • 2 cheese slices
  • 1 tablespoon cheese sauce I use Hellman's
  • 2-3 pickle slices
  • 1 heaped teaspoon dried onions

Instructions

  • Season the mince with about ½ teaspoon salt and a few grinds of black pepper. Tumble and mix loosely (don't overwork this mix). Split the beef and form into two 100g balls and refrigerate for a few minutes while you prepare everything else.
  • Get a shallow pan over a medium-low heat. Peel and slice the onion into rings. Add a splash of oil and fry the onion gently for about 10 minutes until softened and starting to gently colour. You're just breaking the onion down a bit.
  • Wipe out your pan with kitchen roll and put the heat up to high. Take your meatballs and put them in the pan, pressing down hard with a flat tool like a fish slice to squidge them into patties just under a centimetre thick. Leave undisturbed to colour for 3-4 minutes. When browned flip to complete cooking for another minute or two. The patty should be thin enough it won't take much cooking by the time it's coloured.
  • While the meat cooks, split and toast your bun as desired. When everything is ready it's time to assemble. From the bottom up: bun, beef, cheese slice, beef, cheese slice, grilled onions, crispy onions, cheese sauce. Eat immediately.

Notes

This recipe is a great knock off of the McDonald's limited edition burger you can make at home. You can make the patties in advance and freeze.
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