Stem ginger in syrup is a wonderful thing. Spicy and sweet, it is a fantastic ingredient in cakes, and chopped up, mixed with vanilla ice cream. But I prefer my cooking savoury and so have used this stem ginger kindly sent to me by Opies for review with this gamon recipe.
It is about the simplest thing Ive ever cooked. Two ingredients but 10 times the pleasure. And virtually zero effort.
1. Just take a gammon joint (from a free-range pig, obviously), soak it in water for a couple of hours to make it less salty, then bung it in a slow cooker with a litre of water.
2. Cook on LOW for 4-5 hours until the gammon is very tender. Remove from the slow cooker. Pat the gammon dry and transfer to a roasting dish.
3. Pre-heat the oven to 180C. Stud the gammon all over with slices of stem ginger. Drizzle with syrup from the jar. Bung in the oven for 15 mins, until the fat chars a little.
4. Remove from the oven. Allow to rest. Carve into thick slices. Serve with potato salad, tomatoes and leaves. I also served it with silverskin onions and Opies gherkins. Because they sent me some to review, along with the stem ginger. And very nice they were too.
