Ham Cooked in Coke: Slow Cooker Heaven

This is the time of year when I love to get out the slow cooker. There is something magical about coming home and the house is full of the smell of food cooking. I love the fact you can just put food in it, go away and magically dinner is waiting for you. On a cold dark evening when you get in from work it is fabulous not to have to start preparing a meal.

One of my favourite slow cooker meals is ham cooked in coke. It really is that simple, buy a ham or gammon joint, cover it with coke and turn on the slow cooker. Make sure you use full fat coke not diet coke and when you get home you will have a delicious ham joint which is full of flavour. I throw a few vegetables into the mix as well. All you need to do when you get home is cook some potatoes and serve. A good tip is to buy a large gammon joint. The bits you don’t eat are lovely on sandwiches or served cold with a salad.

The key is to experiment. You can add different vegetables, spoonfuls of mustard, herbs or tomato purée. You will find a combination that you love or make it slightly differently every time. Either way it will disappear from the plates quickly. This time I added capers to the mix, I had some left off from when I created my Spanish Chicken recipe. I have to say they worked really well and I would use them again. If you want to go to the trouble of boiling your ham in the traditional way and then roasting it in a marmalade glaze to make extra special you might want to try marmalade glazed ham. Both of these are great recipes for a special occasion like Christmas Eve, but the advantage of the slow cooker recipe is you can just leave it cooking without worrying about timing.

Ham Cooked in Coke Recipe

Ingredients

• One ham or gammon joint. Make sure it is not too big to fit in the slow cooker
• 2 onions
• 2 leeks
• 2 carrots
• 2 dessert spoons of capers
• 1 tablespoon whole grain mustard
• 1 bottle full fat coke

Method

1. Put the ham joint into the slow cooker
2. Chop the onions, leeks and carrots into small pieces and add to the slow cooker.
3. Add the whole grain mustard and capers
4. Pour coke over the joint until it is just covered.
5. Turn on the slow cooker and leave. I left mine on medium heat for about eight hours, adjust this depending on your slow cooker.

Serve and enjoy. I always use a little of the coke mixture and add it to some gravy granules to serve with the ham. It makes a lovely flavour filled gravy.