Gammon and gangsters
THIS Saturday is Valentine's Day but poor old St Valentine has been struck off the roll whilst the Mafiosi are still massacring everybody or having huge trials in Palermo or America. The only ones who have come out on top are the makers of cards and heart-shaped boxes. That shows some- where somebody loves somebody else; isn't that nice? There do not appear to be any special dainties reserved for this day, just chocs and posies, so I bid it farewell and get on to a good robust dish of ham.
Leeks, apart from being one of the most delicious vegetables in any form, have a flavour which has always combined most beautifully with ham. I know they are hell to clean, but they are well worth it, and if they are going to be chopped up, cutting them into chunks for washing makes the earth drop out quite easily under a running tap.
Buy a good piece of gammon weighing at least 4lbs. I use the unsmoked but either is fine. Soak for 12 hours, changing the water a few times. Put it in a saucepan more or less its own size and cover completely with cold water, bring to simmering point very slowly and cook at a bare tremble for half an hour to the pound from the moment you put it on to cook. Take it off the heat and leave for 20 minutes to 'rest', then turn it into the sink to peel the rind off. While all this is happening get on with the leeks and sauce.
Ham with leeks and cream sauce
The gammon as above 2 lbs leeks 3 oz. of butter 3 tablespoons of plain flour 8 oz. of dry vermouth 1 pint of milk 8 oz. thick cream 2 oz. freshly grated gruyere cheese Salt and pepper
Put the leeks through the slicing device of a food processor or slice very finely. Melt the butter in a saucepan and stew the leeks until tender. Add the flour, stirring until all is amalgamated, pour in the warmed vermouth little by little and then the warmed milk, stirring all the time. Season with a generous amount of ground black pepper but very little salt. Simmer for 20 minutes on an asbestos mat, giving the odd stir, then add the cream and the cheese. Check the seasoning, remembering that the ham will be salty.
Carve the ham into slices. Pour half the sauce into a shallow earthenware oven dish, arrange the sliced ham in one layer, then cover with the rest of the sauce. Dot with tiny bits of butter and bake in a hot oven for ten minutes. Finish off under the grill until brown and bubbly. Serve with simple boiled potatoes (there are some excellent Cypriot boilers in the market at the moment) and something bright green, such as broccoli. This is enough for eight to ten people but it is also a good way of using up leftover ham, using half the amount of leeks and sauce.
If you are feeling really tender and romantic you could make a Valentine surprise pudding by moulding some very good vanilla ice-cream into the shape of a heart and putting it in the freezer while you make cherries jubilee to serve with it. Very easy, exciting and good.
Cherries jubilee 1 lb. tin of stoned cherries Grated rind of one lemon
2 oz. of caster sugar . Good pinch of cinnamon 3 tablespoons of kirsch or similar 1 dessertspoon of cornflour 4 oz. cognac 3 tablespoons granulated sugar
Bulgaria produces some very good cher- ries, look out for them. Strain the fruit but reserve the juice. Mix the cherries with the lemon rind, caster sugar, cinnamon and kirsch and steep until needed. When you are about ready for the ice-cream blend the cornflour with the juices which the cherries have been steeping in, until quite smooth, then add a few spoons of the tinned juice; pour into a frying pan at d stir over a low heat until thickened. Pour in more cherry juice if necessary. Stir in the cherries to heat thoroughly, sprinkle with the granu- lated sugar, add the warmed cognac, then set fire to the whole thing, spooning the mixture up and down until the flames abate. Serve over your heart-shaped ice- cream which you have had at the ready, transferred to the refrigerator in a dainty dish. It will probably look like the Capone massacre, thus serving two purposes. Fin- ish off with a tender kiss, having first wiped your face carefully with a napkin.
Jennifer Paterson
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