Pan fried Gammon with sticky sauce

Gammon steaks were on offer.  So we needed a recipe to use to tempt Sous Chef J to eat them.  He likes mustard and he loves maple syrup so those were chosen as ingredients.

First task was to cut through the rind and fat of the steaks.  We used a pair of sharp kitchen scissors to do this - cuts were made, through the rind and fat, at intervals of about 2cm.

Taking a tablespoonful of the maple syrup and the grainy mustard, they were mixed together.

Having put the prepared gammon steaks in a pyrex dish, the maple/mustard mix and some seasonings were added.  The steaks were allowed to marinade in the mix.

Cooking the gammon in a frying pan, on a medium heat, for about 6 minutes on each side, they were soon ready to eat.  Leaving the gammon to 'rest' whilst the vegetables were prepared.  We served the gammon steaks with mixed root vegetable mash and stir fried kale.  A successful, simple meal.

Slow Cooker Meat

We use our slow cooker throughout the year but, in preparation for cooler weather, this post is a summary of a number of cuts of meat that we've cooked with it.

Our slow cooker has been used for whole joints of meat, chicken pieces and many stew-type meals... here are a few meat joints that we have slow-cooker-cooked.

This was a beef silverside joint, cooked with small potatoes in their skins.

Gammon in slow cooker, heat on low, ready to be cooked

Gammon resting, under foil, prior to carving

Gammon mid-carving

The method we use is the same, whatever the meat... the slow cooker's 'warmed up' on the high setting whilst the meat is prepared.  For a cooking a joint, the preparation is drying the meat, seasoning it generously, and then placing the joint of meat in to the slow cooker pot.  It's that simple!!  The lid is placed on the pot and the heat is turned down to low.  That's it; it's left alone for about 6 hours (depending on size of meat being cooked) until mealtime.  No water/gravy is added to the pot.  The meat cooks in its own juices (although sometimes we put roughly chopped vegs placed in the bottom of the pot.) 

Liquid from the cooked gammon - nothing extra has been added to the slow cooker

Poultry, whole or pieces, and other meat joints are cooked in this way (we blogged about cooking a duck in the slow cooker here).  If you want crispy fat/crackling, then take the fat off the joint once it's cooked and being rested and add it to a hot frying pan.  It'll soon render down and leave you with lovely crisp crackling.

Gammon fat being removed from cooked joint

Gammon fat - now crackling!

Here are a few pics of duck legs being slow cooker cooked -

Duck legs prepared for cooking - skin pierced and seasoned...

...cooked duck legs some hours later.

The duck meat comes away from the bone easily.

Skin being crisped up in frying pan.

As we said at the start of this post, this is just a few of the meats we've cooked in the slow cooker - we use it for all sorts and have blogged other recipes like meatloaf, stew, devilled chicken, chilli and minced beef surprise.  The slow cooker is a great tool for loads of versatile and easy to make meals.  We love ours even though it's nothing fancy - was from Argos, is a 3.5l capacity and was on offer at under £10... what a bargain!