Friday 3 May 2013

Easy Roast Ham with Pineapple

Simple roast gammon joint with pineapple, roast potatoes and peas

A pre-packaged, supermarket gammon joint is not something I generally tend to buy. Unfortunately, these past few weeks, I have been travelling to various places for work and had so much on, I just haven't had the time to spend cooking for this blog that I normally have. This option therefore looked feasible and I was to be honest delighted with the results. The ultimate beauty is that the hands on cooking time is very short.

Ingredients (Serves Four)

20 small new potatoes
Sea salt
2lb boneless rolled gammon joint
Olive oil
Black pepper
2 sprigs fresh rosemary
2 whole cloves of garlic
Frozen peas as required
8 rings of pineapple canned in own juice (not syrup)
Malt vinegar for seasoning peas

Supermarket gammon joint

Directions

The potatoes need to be boiled, drained and cooled before they can be roasted, so get them in to a big pot of cold, salted water and bring it to a simmer for half an hour. Drain, return the potatoes to the pot and cover.

Preparing gammon joint for roasting

The gammon joint actually came with the cooking instructions on the pack but they amount to twenty minutes per pound plus an extra twenty minutes.

Lightly oil a big sheet of tinfoil in the centre (I used olive oil) and make sure you have removed all types of packaging from the gammon before sitting it in place. Season with black pepper only. Put it in to the oven - preheated to 400F/200C - for the alloted cooking time. (You may want to uncover it for the final ten minutes' cooking time to let it colour up but this is optional).

Checking gammon joint for doneness

Ten minutes or so before the gammon is due to come out of the oven, carefully rub/peel the skins from the potatoes. This is a bit of a fiddly and annoying task but unfortunately, it needs to be done.

Roasted gammon joint ready for resting

Take the gammon from the oven and carefully open the foil package. Watch out for escaping steam which can burn! Pierce it with a skewer and you should feel only minimal resistance where it is fully cooked. The juices should also run clear. Lift it to a large, warmed plate with a carving fork and cover with fresh foil to rest.

Garlic and rosemary for roasting potatoes

Carefully pour the gammon cooking juices in to the roasting tray. Add the peeled potatoes. Break the rosemary sprigs in to a few pieces and scatter them over the potatoes. Lightly crush the garlic cloves but there's no need to peel them before they are added to the tray. Gently stir everything around with a wooden spoon.

Potatoes, rosemary and garlic ready for roasting

Turn the oven up to 450F/220C and cook the potatoes for twenty minutes or until crisp and golden.

Carving the roasted gammon joint

During the last five minutes of the potato roasting time, pour the peas in to a big pot of boiling water. SImmer for three minutes before draining through a colander. Season with malt vinegar and black pepper.

Lay the gammon joint on a chopping board and carefully slice/carve.

Plate the gammon slices and peas. Take the tray of potatoes from the oven and plate with a slotted spoon.

Finally, garnish each plate with two pineapple rings.

Roast gammon with roast potatoes and peas

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