chouxchouxbedoo: Slow cooked gammon in cola

The evenings getting darker and chillier tell it's time to get the slow cooker out from the back of the cupboard and put it in it's winter home, on the kitchen counter. I love my slow cooker. I usually prepare the meat and vegetables the night before and store the casserole part of the slow cooker in the fridge. That way, in the morning all I have to do is put the casserole in the outer, switch it on and off I go to work. When I return the house smells wonderful and dinner is almost ready. At the very most I may have to cook some rice, pasta or potatoes, hardly an effort.

I'm going to buy one for my very dear friend Karen for Christmas. She works shifts as does her husband, often they need to eat at different times or finish at silly o'clock and the last thing they feel like doing is cooking a meal for the family when they get home, so I thought it would be a big help for them. I run the idea by her first and she thought it would be a great idea, as long as I get her a recipe book to go with it, not a problem!

My lovely friend The List Writer was thinking of getting one and asked my advice. I'm glad to say she hasn't been disappointed and has been putting it to good use. Her recipes have inspired me to cook some different things in my slow cooker as I have to admit I was sticking to the old tried and tested casseroles and stews.

So today I cooked one of my family's favourites Gammon. I usually boil it on the cooker top in a big pan with some carrots and celery for a good couple of hours but you do have to be home for that, as if left it could boil over or the pan could run dry. Today I decided to cook it in cola, (yes you read that right!) in the slow cooker, leaving us free to come & go as we pleased without worrying about pans on the hob! The result was melt in the mouth gammon that quite literally fell apart.

Here's what I did.....

I placed the gammon joint in the slow cooker (mine was about 1.3kg)

I chopped up 4 carrots and cut a large onion into quarters. I stuck a clove into each quarter of the onion.

I drained and rinsed a tin of mixed beans and put them into the cooker.

I popped in 2 bay leaves.

I put a litre of cola in a sauce pan with about a tablespoon of dark brown sugar, a heaped teaspoon of English mustard and a squeeze of tomato puree. I brought it all to the boil and then poured the mixture over the ingredients in the cooker.

Now usually I don't precook anything other than mince, but you want the mixture combined so that you can just leave it to do it's own thing in the cooker on the high setting.

After about 6 hours we were ready for tea. As I've already said the meat just fell apart. I separated the juices from the gammon and vegetables and put it back into a saucepan and set it to boil and reduce for about ten minutes while I mashed some potatoes and cooked some peas. My slow cooker has a 'warm' button, so while I was mashing, cooking and reducing, I left the gammon and vegetables in the cooker to keep warm.

The whole family really enjoyed their tea and there was no gammon left at all!

I'm looking forward to trying some more old favourites in the slow cooker and some new recipes too. Long Live the Slow Cooker!