Ham in Ginger Beer – The May/June Slow Cooker Challenge

After relying on my Slow Cooker for three months, once I got my oven back, I rather neglected the Slow Cooker.  However, today I was getting my hair coloured and cut, plus doing a few bits of shopping in town, which meant I would be out from 10am until about 3.30pm.  This is when the Slow Cooker really comes into it’s own.

Slow Cookers are brilliant for cooking gammon joints, the slow cooking makes the ham really tender and it’s such a simple dish to make.

Slow Cooker Ham
750g-1.5kg ham or gammon joint
10 black peppercorns
1 tbsp honey
330ml Crabbies Alcoholic Ginger Beer, cider or apple juice
500ml boiling water

1. Place a piece of foil in the bottom of your slow cooker, this will help you lift the ham out when it is cooked.
2. Place the ham in the slow cooker and add the peppercorns.
3. Pour over the bottle of Crabbies Alcoholic Ginger Beer.
4. Mix the honey with the boiling water and pour over the ham.
5. Place the lid on the slow cooker and cook on Low for 8-10 hours or on HIGH for 5-6 hours.
6. When the cooking time is up, lift the ham from the cooker and drain before slicing.
7. Serve hot or cold. 

 I served the ham with boiled new potatoes, cauliflower and parsley sauce.  I added a little of the cooking liquor to the sauce which added a lovely sweetness with just a hint of ginger. We also had the ham cold with salad and the flavour of the Alcoholic Ginger Beer came through more strongly in the ham slices.  I managed to make it stretch to three meals for three adults, with reasonable portions, so really good value all round.

It’s an OPEN themed challenge this month, so feel free to enter ANY recipe cooked in a Slow Cooker or Crockpot, just follow the rules below:

• Make your recipe in your Slow Cooker and post a photograph and the recipe, or a link to a recipe, on your blog
• Link to Farmersgirl Kitchen
• Use the Slow Cooker Challenge logo in your post
• If you use twitter, tweet your post with @FarmersgirlCook and
  #SlowCookerChallenge and I will re-tweet it to my followers AND post
  your post your pictures on a dedicated Pinterest board.

Rules:

• Please do not publish recipes from cookbooks on your blog without permission, they are copyright.
• If you are using recipes from another website, please link to
  the recipe on the website rather than publishing the recipe. 
• You can re post previous recipes on your blog, but please add the Slow Cooker Challenge Logo and link.
• One entry per blog.
• Recipes must be added to the linky by the 28th of each month.

As I will not be available to round up the challenge at the end of May, I am running this challenge over two months. The Challenge will end 28TH JUNE, 2014.