Despite my 'normal' working life ceasing on a grey Thursday at the end of March, work has continued at a manic pace, unabated by global events. If anything, things have been even busier than normal. And while I feel fortunate to still be working, I was also very much in need of having the first proper break from my makeshift desk at my dining room table since this whole global pandemic thing started.
And while our original plans were thwarted (much like everyone else) we have finally made it away and I can report having time off is great, not least as it is finally allowing me some time to catch up with the blog. I'm now so far behind that I'm now sat here, in the misty Lake District in mid-October, trying to desperately cast my mind back to warmer days when I attempted to cook my way through most the 'Trashy' chapter in Nigella Bites.
Carrying on the general theme of 2020 why make anything easy and cook one just recipe, when you could cook several. Although the centrepiece of the feast was this ham joint cooked in cola and then glazed and baked until golden. A simple showstopper that Nigella loves so much that it features in two of her books (although the second time with Cherry Coke, which is arguably even better). For this I used a mixture of the two and, as it's not Christmas and large gammon joints are in short supply, a smaller piece of meat. Probably a good thing, as there's only two of us. Although I could happily eat this cold for days.
Ham in Coca Cola
All recipes below from Nigella Bites
1- 1.5kg gammon joint
1 onion (peeled and cut in half)
1 litre coca-cola or Cherry Coke (not diet)
1 handful of cloves
1 heaped tablespoon black treacle
2 teaspoons english mustard
2 tablespoons brown sugar
Put the gammon in a pan, add the onion, then pour over the Coke.
Bring to the boil, reduce to a good simmer, put the lid on, though not tightly, and cook for about an hour.
Preheat the oven to 240°C
When the ham's ready (and ham it is, now it's cooked, though it's true Americans call it ham from its uncooked state) take it out of the pan and let cool a little. Then remove the skin, leaving a thin layer of fat.
Score the fat with a sharp knife to make fairly large diamond shapes, and stud each diamond with a clove. Then carefully spread the treacle over the ham and gently pat the mustard and sugar onto the sticky fat.
Cook in a foil-lined roasting tin for approximately 10 minutes or until the glaze is burnished and bubbly.
Alongside the ham, what better than this creamy, sweetcorn pudding made with tinned creamed corn, a childhood favourite. Although it's not a difficult to make - although Nigella does suggest a slightly more labour-intensive version where you separate the eggs and whisk the whites to make a lighter pudding - if you were pushed for time, or just wanted an easy life, a tin of creamed corn would also work very well as an accompaniment. And maybe some buttery mash for the ultimate plate of comfort food.
Sweetcorn pudding
5 eggs
500g tinned sweetcorn, drained
300g tinned creamed corn
300ml cups milk
300ml double cream
60g plain flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
Grease an ovenproof dish with a little butter, and preheat the oven to 190°C.
In a large mixing bowl, whisk the eggs, the beat in the rest of the ingredients.
Pour the pudding batter in the greased dish and bake for around an hour. The cake should turn golden and be slightly puffed on top. Insert a knife or skewer to make sure it’s completely cooked through.
You might think that the leftover, salty cocoa cola mixture wouldn't be good for much, but Nigella suggests whipping up into this easy black bean soup. Not really my thing, a bowl was quite enough, but was a big hit with the Ewing for a quick working lunch.
South Beach Black Bean Soup
500g dried black beans
Coca-Cola ham stock (see above)
Juice of ½ lime
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon ground coriander
Sour cream
Fresh coriander, chopped
Lime wedges
Put the black beans in and the stock in a large pot. Let the liquid come to a boil and then reduce the heat to low and cook, partially covered, for 1 to 1½ hours. Remove about 3 ladles of the soup to a blender, add the lime juice and ground spices, blitz to a muddy purée and stir this back into the pan of soup. And that’s it.
Swirl some sour cream, and freshly chopped coriander to finish and serve with lime wedges.
And finally, a little glitz and glamour with some frozen watermelon daiquiris, that we knocked up for our friends back when the weather was still good and you could actually visit other people's houses....
Frozen watermelon daiquiris
350 grams watermelon (without the seeds) cut into cubes and frozen
60 ml white rum
60 ml freshly squeezed lime juice
1 tablespoon icing sugar
Add frozen watermelon cubes, rum, lime juice and icing sugar to a blender (I used the Nutribullet) and blend until smooth.
Serve immediately, garnished with a wedge of lime if you want to be extra.
ZA
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