It has been ages since I shared something savoury with you. It’s not because we eat cake and nothing else in this house, it’s because my savoury food is never very photogenic. I would like it to look like this or this but it never does. My presentation skills are always lacking. I never pile things into towers I just spoon it onto a warmed plate. It is especially difficult to get a good photo of an evening meal in an English winter. With a cake I can take it outside and take a photo using the little natural light offered by our dull January days. With an evening meal the sun was last seen a good few hours ago and the lights in our kitchen are of the spot variety which means wherever I stand I am always casting a shadow.
Anyway, I decided that last night’s meal was so good it needed to be shared with you regardless of whether it looks a bit of a mess in the photos. I had roasted a gammon joint, but I should have boiled it or soaked it the previous day because it’s just a bit too salty . So I thought if I layered it into a potatoes boulangere this might reduce the ham’s saltiness but add a good flavour to the potatoes. Then I thought I might add carrots too to add an extra savoury element.
The end result was very comforting indeed, soft and squidgy veg and tender ham with a crispy potato topping. I urge you to try it soon. If I had more time I would have crisped the top more, but we were both very hungry.
Serves 2 hungry people
2 large potatoes, sliced thinly
2 carrots, sliced
1 onion sliced thinly
4 ham slices
400ml vegetable or chicken stock
pepper
butter
Method
I use a tin measuring 26cm x 20cm and butter it generously. Then place a layer of potato, a layer of carrot, a layer of ham, then a layer of onion in the tin and season generously with pepper (you won’t need any salt). Top with a layer of potato and pour over the stock. Dot with more butter. Cover with foil and bake in a preheated oven at 180°, gas mark 4 or the baking oven of the Aga for 1½ hours. Remove the foil and continue to cook for another ½ hour until browned on top. Serve in a pile on a plate if you are anything like me. A chunk of good bread is obligatory to soak up the juices.
Here it is before the final layer of potato.
I’ve got some thick slices of turkey to use up. I could adapt this recipe I think?
Flavia, I think you could definitely adapt this for turkey. I would use chicken stock and season with salt though. Let me know how it tastes if you do try it, I hope you do.
Kath: I clicked through the picture links, and I like the look for your dinner best. It’s bigger- size matters!
Yours, Judith
(although the photos were very nice)
A charmer in more than one sense of the word I see! Thank you VBB you say the nicest things.
Oh how wonderful that would be to come home to… I leave in the dark for work and come home in the dark (and how I empathise about trying to take photographs in the evening – or even afternoon) and then to have to start cooking….I wish that was waiting for me…
Isn’t January a miserable month Wendy? The girls asked me when the sun was going to shine next and I couldn’t give them an answer. Thank you for your kind words.
Let us eat cake! This was wonderful, it certainly hit the spot.
Oh Mr OC you are my favourite food taster.
If a dish includes potatoes, it’s for me. The combination of potatoes and the ham sounds particularly tasty.
Oh Michele, truly a lady after my own heart.
I bought one of those cheap collapsible white photo box thingys and a couple of mini-lights, put it in the garage, the lights fell off the little wobbly table and one smashed, and for some reason my hub strongly objects to having his food taken outside and into the garage for 10 mins to go stone cold before he gets to eat it….so, totally know where you are coming from. Savoury dishes are a complete pain in the proverbial to blog about in winter…! I add leeks as a veg to my ham hotpot, but might try carrots too next time, looks more colourful.
Ha ha, I did think about getting one of those last year but realised that I was unlikely to ever use it as the family may start fighting if dinner isn’t even in sight.