Category: pork

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gammon ham honey

sous-vide gammon with honey

It’s been four years since I last discussed the modernist technique of sous-vide and despite promises I never tried any homebrew recipes. Now, armed with a Sous Vide Supreme and Vacuum Sealer I can have a more serious crack at it. But first, for the uninitiated, what is it? Let’s experiment with a sous-vide gammon recipe.

What is sous vide cooking?

Brought into restaurants in the Seventies by Georges Pralus, the trade took to it as a simple way to cook large batches of ingredients and hold them at the right temperature. A bit like how when slow cooking you can let it go over by half an hour and it makes little difference. It’s a water bath, cooking food held under vacuum in a plastic bag.

Popularised by Heston Blumenthal banging the drum for scrambled eggs and steak, and popping up in just about every cookery show nowadays, sous-vide is now starting to penetrate the home kitchen. Step forward the SousVide Supreme. John Lewis stocked this model in September 2010 and following a wave of Heston-branded publicity, it’s making it’s way on to Christmas lists everywhere. And at £300+ it definitely has the gift price tag.

Why the price? The machine itself is fairly unremarkable to look at, but it’s precision is the key. The temperature must be stable to keep the food safe. Heston has run tests on this model where this was accurate by about 1/10th of a degree over seven days. And if it’s good enough for HB, it’s good enough for me.

I was talking with an ex-chef mate of mine who was skeptical of the safety of the process. He was always taught to get food above 65°C. In traditional cooking methods this makes sense as it only takes 30 seconds at that temperature to kill off the Big Three (salmonella, E.Coli and listeria), whereas at 55°C it takes around 15 minutes. Douglas Baldwin, author of an excellent sous-vide book, has an excellent discussion on this at his website.

What is gammon?

Gammon is a type of cured ham that is popular in many parts of the world, but referring to it as ‘gammon’ is mostly used in the UK and Ireland. It is typically made from the hind leg of a pig and cured using salt, sugar, and other flavourings, and often smoked. A gammon is the bottom end of a whole side of bacon (which includes the back leg), ham is just the back leg cured on its own. Gammon is used as an ingredient in dishes like ham sandwiches, eggs Benedict, and gammon steaks. It is known for its salty and slightly sweet flavour, as well as its tender and succulent texture. Some people prefer to cook gammon with the bone in, while others prefer to remove the bone before cooking to make it easier to slice and serve. In the UK gammon is often served at Christmas or Easter. I like to cook one early in the week and make several dinners out of it.

Cooking sous-vide gammon

I’m used to simmering gammon, but it must be just around the 100°C mark (not that I’ve ever taken a temperature). This was 62°C for six hours and came out great. My aromatics of honey and bay were subtle, but the texture was very firm. Rather than flaky or stringy this was meaty.

Sous-vide really does lock in the natural flavour of many foods. Or to be more accurate, the food never reaches the temperature where the cell walls burst or proteins start to denature, at which point flavour literally leaks or is wrung out. As with my sous-vide gammon, it never hit the point at which it gets to the flaky texture. The gentle cooking, while slower, cooks the food to the most tender point. It’s slightly bonkers, but completely great. It takes a bit of getting used to, but it’s going to creep into my kitchen more and more.

Here’s a video version of the recipe:

Make sure you check out A Glug of Oil’s recipe for sous-vide gammon too!

Sous Vide Supreme gave me a machine to try. Here’s the Sous Vide Supreme machine that I’m using https://amzn.to/3llT97r

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sous-vide gammon with honey

An unusual way of preparing gammon; held in a water bath for several hours and cooked in a sweet-spiced liquor.
Course Main Course
Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 6 hours
Servings 6 people
Author Gary @ BigSpud

Ingredients

  • 1 kg smoked gammon joint
  • 1 tablespoon honey
  • 1 leaf bay
  • 1 teaspoon fennel seeds
  • 1 teaspoon black peppercorns

Instructions

  • Preheat your sous-vide oven to 62C.
  • Rinse your gammon joint in cold water to calm down the salty taste.
  • Vacuum seal your gammon joint in a food-grade bag along with the bay, fennel, peppercorns and honey.
  • Sous-vide for 6 hours. Slice and serve.

Video

Notes

Reserve the cooking liquor. Boil in a pan to reduce and drizzle over sliced gammon. For a glazed finish put the gammon in a very hot oven and baste several times over 20 minutes until sticky. 
Categories
batter mushroom onion pork

pork & mushrooms with onion yorkshires and creamed onion gravy

Snuggle down, because it’s cold and wet out there. Time for a sausage ‘n’ starch dinner to both fill up and warm up.

This started, as many of my recipes do, from a single ingredient and spiralled out from there. Knorr sent onion gravy pots to try. You whisk a blob of jelly into simmering water and it creates a savoury sauce. The flavour is nice although it has a faint flour back note to it. Some years ago in New York I tried a creamed gravy and it was the business, so creme fraiche is a nod to that amazing condiment.

I paired it with pork and mushrooms to make a satisfying, meaty dinner. Onion gravy was always destined to go with Yorkshire pudding, so an onion-flavoured Yorkshire seemed to be the perfect partner.

If you’re looking for something to make you snuggle up of a brisk evening, this should tick the boxes. It’d be great with sausages too.

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pork & mushrooms with onion yorkshires and creamed onion gravy

Prep Time 5 minutes
Cook Time 15 minutes
Total Time 20 minutes
Author Gary @ BigSpud

Ingredients

  • Vegetable oil
  • 2 eggs
  • 2 tablespoons heaped flour
  • Some milk
  • 1 red onion sliced
  • 2 pork loin steaks sliced
  • 250 grams chestnut mushrooms sliced
  • 1 leaves sprig thyme picked
  • 1 Knorr onion gravy pot
  • 1 tablespoon creme fraiche

Instructions

  • Preheat the oven to 180C. Add a thin layer of oil to a casserole dish and pop in the oven to heat up.
  • While the oil heats, whisk the eggs and flour together then add enough milk to make a gloopy batter. Season with a little salt and pepper.
  • When the oil is smoking hot, add the onion slices and then the batter on top, then return to the oven for 20 - 25 mins until the pudding is puffed and browned.
  • While the Yorkshire bakes, fry the pork, mushrooms and thyme together over a medium heat until the pork is cooked through and the mushrooms tender.
  • As the pork finishes, make up the onion gravy as per the packet instructions and then whisk in the creme fraiche. Serve a slice of the Yorkshire pudding with the pork and mushroom mixture, with a helping of the creamed onion gravy.
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balsamic vinegar food peppers pineapple pork red onion video

sweet and sour pork

I’ve been trying video recipes again. Sadly not at the luxurious Food@52 kitchens but in my own.

Freedom Food are asking for people to come up with a video recipe featuring Freedom Food ingredients and Fairtrade produce, so I’ve gone with pork and pineapple to recreate that Chinese takeaway classic, sweet and sour pork. It takes around ten minutes to cook and is really versatile – you can swap out the pork for chicken or fish, or even skip meat all together. Cubed tofu would be a tasty substitute. You can also serve it with the carb of your choice. I’ve gone with rice but it would be just as tasty with boiled noodles or even better, crispy noodles.

You can find this video for sweet and sour pork on my YouTube channel. If you’d like to vote for it in the competition, or enter yourself, go to the Freedom Food page.

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sweet and sour pork

Prep Time 5 minutes
Cook Time 10 minutes
Total Time 15 minutes
Author Gary @ BigSpud

Ingredients

  • 250 g rice
  • 1 vegetable stock cube
  • 2 Freedom Food boneless pork chops cubed
  • 1 teaspoon five spice
  • Pinch chilli powder
  • 1 tin Fairtrade pineapple chunks
  • 1 red pepper diced
  • 1 red onion sliced
  • 2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
  • 1 teaspoon cornflour

Instructions

  • Add the rice to a hot saucepan, and add twice the amount of boiling water and the stock cube. Cover and simmer.
  • Heat a pan over a medium heat. Toss the pork in the five spice and chilli, add a little oil to the pan and chuck in the pork. Stir fry for a minute or two until coloured all over, then remove the pork to a plate while you cook the everything else.
  • Add the peppers and onions to the frying pan and cook until tender. Add the pineapple and all it's juices, along with the balsamic vinegar. Add a splash of water to the cornflour, mix well and add to the pan. Bring to the boil then add the pork back in. Check for seasoning and keep cooking until the pork is cooked through. Serve with the rice.
Categories
bacon brussels sprouts chicken cream food potatoes red onion

parmesan chicken with potato and sprout gratin

Yes! It’s sprout season again. Please don’t just boil them and leave them alone, there’s so much more to the little farty ball. Like here, a Brussels Sprout gratin baked with potatoes and cream for a great side dish.

There’s a video version of the gratin on my YouTube channel here:

I was chuffed with how everything turned out save for one flaw. To quote Michel Roux Jr “where’s the sauce?!” It needed a meaty gravy just to lend a little more moisture. But beyond that, it was dead good. A sprout is for Winter, not just Christmas.

Want more Brussels Sprout recipes? My Christmas dinner isn’t complete without sprouts and chestnuts, and you must check out my legendary sproutotto.

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parmesan chicken with potato and sprout gratin

Course Side Dish
Author Gary @ BigSpud

Ingredients

  • 500 g potatoes
  • 250 g Brussels Sprouts
  • 1 chicken stock cube
  • 1 red onion
  • 4 rashers smoked streaky bacon
  • 150 ml single cream
  • teaspoon wholegrain mustard heaped
  • 2 skinless chicken breasts
  • 1 tablespoon flour
  • 1 egg beaten
  • 2 handfuls panko breadcrumbs
  • 1 handful parmesan finely grated

Instructions

  • Get a large pan of water on to boil and preheat the oven to 200C.
  • Use a food processor to thinly slice the potatoes, and add them to the water with the stock cube. After 5 minutes pass the Brussels through the processor too and add to the water.
  • Heat a casserole dish over a medium heat. Thinly slice the onion and bacon and fry in a little oil in the dish until starting to colour. After the sprouts and potatoes have had 3 or 4 more minutes drain and add to the casserole dish. Stir well, season, pour in the cream, stir in the mustard and then transfer to the oven to cook uncovered for 15 minutes, until golden on top.
  • Meanwhile heat a frying pan over a medium heat. Bash the chicken breasts with a rolling pin until thin and season. Dust lightly in flour, roll in beaten egg and then in the parmesan and breadcrumbs. Fry in shallow oil on both sides until golden. To be sure use a probe thermometer checking it reaches at least 65C inside. Serve on top of the gratin.
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