Monday 2 February 2015

Jerk Gammon Hock and Jerk Ribs

I am lucky to live near a fantastic butcher, Aubrey Allen. The meat is fantastic, and they have possibly the most helpful staff I have ever encountered. I went in the other day for nothing in particular, and came out with a large gammon hock for less than £2. I didn't have any recipe in mind, but came across this jerk gammon hock recipe by Jamie Oliver. I was in the mood for something a bit more fiery than just cooking the hock in cider with root vegetables, which would have been my default cooking method for a gammon hock. It's been a while since I have cooked anything by Jamie Oliver, even though I have always enjoyed his recipes.

I had to change the a little- the recipe specified 4 500g ham hocks. Mine was certainly more than 500g, probably almost double that. I made all the marinade, but had about half of it left over. I also cooked it at a lower temperature, but for about the same time- it came out very tender on the inside, and a little blackened on the outside.

I didn't eat it right away, I let it cool and then shredded it up, coating it in a little clementine juice and olive oil, as per the recipe's instructions. The next day, I fried the ham in a hot frying pan, with a little extra olive oil and a squeeze more juice added at the end of cooking. It turns it sticky and slightly crispy- delicious. To eat alongside, I made some coconut rice, with spring onions and lots of freshly chopped coriander stirred in at the end.

I had half of the marinade left, so I used it on some pork ribs, from the aforementioned Aubrey Allen. They weren't like baby back ribs, which is what I was expecting, but far thicker, more like a slab of pork belly:




I cooked them for about an hour at 170 degrees Celsius, and then turned the heat up to 220 and cooked for a further 15 minutes to crisp up the fat.