Cinnamon and Cola Gammon Ham with a Honey and Mustard Glaze

The weather has definitely turned here in London and it’s time for proper comfort food when you get home in the evening from the cold after work! Those of you who follow me on Instagram might’ve seen me posting some of the prep photos from this delicious little meal. When I first made this it was because we had a lot of soft drinks in the house after hosting a party, which we don’t really tend to drink. As it happened, we’d also rather impulsively bought a gammon ham which was lying in the fridge with no particular purpose. So this is one of those glorious recipes that you scratch together based on what you have in the house, but is one you like so much you’d buy the ingredients especially next time! And indeed I have done just that, and made it twice just over the last month.

As with any gammon ham, you do need time for this to allow for the various cooking stages. This one has a simmering on the hob and an oven stage. Time actually invested in preparation from you though, is totally minimal. This works well for me as my boyfriend often gets back a few hours later than I do. This means I can just put dinner on and get on with other things without having to think much about it, so it’s good if you need to get other bits done!

I’ve generally paired this with sweet potato wedges, which also just involved minimal input: a couple of minutes of chopping up a few wedges, drizzling them with some oil and seasoning before popping these in the oven along with the gammon. All you need then is to cook up a few veggies a couple of minutes before its all ready and you end up with an impressive mid week meal you’ve barely had to spare a thought for. There’s enough to serve 4 here, so it can easily be used as leftovers for the next day or for some super tasty sandwiches to look forward to at lunchtime.

Ingredients

• 1kg gammon ham
• 750ml cola
• 1 carrot, roughly chopped
• 1 onion, peeled and quartered
• 2 sticks of celery, roughly chopped
• 1 cinnamon stick
• 1 bay leaf

Glaze

• 6 tbsp honey
• 3 tbsp whole grain mustard
• Pinch of ground cloves or all-spice

How to make it…

1. In a large and deep pan, cover the gammon with cola. Then add the carrot, onion, celery, cinnamon stick and the bay leaf. Bring to the boil and leave to simmer for 1 – 1.5 hours, adding any remaining cola or water to keep the ham covered by liquid if necessary.
2. Remove the gammon from the fluid and leave to cool in a roasting tin while you preheat the oven to 190C/Gas Mark 5. You can also use this time to mix the ingredients for the glaze in a jug.
3. Score the fat of the gammon with a criss cross pattern using a sharp knife. Then pour over half the glaze and roast for 20 minutes. Remove from the oven, pour over the rest of the glaze and then return to the oven for another 25 minutes.
4. Remove from the oven and leave to rest for 10 minutes before you start carving.
5. Serve, to be enjoyed either hot or cold!

 

This recipe is another adaptation from the wonderful BBC Good Food, as can be found here!