Some dishes, to me, are so typically English and bring back memories of food from my past. Gammon is cured (usually wet cured in a salt brine) pork, from the leg. It can be bought smoked, as an entire joint or as steaks. It just can´t be bought in Spain, so I will have to work on a way to make my own.
Meanwhile, I picked up a few small joints of gammon on a pre Christmas shopping trip to the strange place that is Gibraltar. A couple of hours´ drive from Malaga, it is a British Overseas Territory on the southern Iberian Peninsula. I have to confess it´s not my favourite place as it seems to contain all that is bad about Britain packed into a very small area…but I don´t wish to offend and I am sure there is much more to it than I have ever seen on two brief shopping trips.
A trip to Gib, as it´s known to the Brits, allows us ex pats to stock up on things (particularly food) that we miss and either can´t get hold of or can´t be transported over easily by our visitors. So, amongst many other food goodies, gammon it was. I thought that Big Man would enjoy it as he loves pork and ham, but I knew it would be a new and interesting taste for him.
Gammon can be roasted or boiled and served hot or cold. I decided to do a hot dish, boiled gammon with parsley sauce, which is a typical dish of comfort food from my homeland.
Ingredients (serves 4)
- One small brined gammon (about 750g)
- About 6 carrots peeled and chopped into large pieces
- 2 medium onions peeled and halved
- 2 bay leaves
- 4 cloves
- Water to cover
- 6-8 medium potatoes boiled in their skins and peeled and halved to serve
For the parsely sauce you will need half a litre of home made béchamel sauce (infuse the parsley stalks in your milk before making it) and two tablespoons of parsley stirred in at the end. For extra flavour, use half milk and half stock (from boiling your gammon).
Simply put the gammon, onion, carrots, bay leaves and cloves into a deep saucepan and cover with water. Don´t use salt – it will be fairly salty from the brine. Bring to the boil, skim off any scum that rises to the surface, cover and simmer gently for about an hour until the gammon is tender.
When the gammon is cooked, leave it to sit in the hot stock while you cook your potatoes and make the parsley sauce. I used one cup each of milk and stock (which should both be cooled) , 2 tablespoons of plain flour, 1 tablespoon of oil and whisked everything together over a low heat until it started to boil and thicken. This is my cheat´s way of making white sauce. Finally I stirred in my chopped parsley and let it sit for a few minutes.
Remove the gammon from the stock and slice or chop (it will not slice easily when it´s warm, but I don´t mind chunks!). I put some runner beans into the stock with the carrots and onions, bought them up to the boil and then strained the vegetables, reserving the stock for soup. Serve with the boiled, peeled potatoes and vegetables and enjoy the lovely steamy smells of gammon and parsley that will float up and fill you with a sense of comfort.
Chica Andaluza 