French Provincial Cooking - Elizabeth David [136]
Carve two fairly thin slices of the gammon per person and arrange them in a shallow metal dish. Pour some of the hot sauce over them, put the dish over a low flame for a few seconds just to give the ham time to heat up again, and serve at once.
The rest of the ham can be kept warm in a low oven, and more carved for second helpings.
Although vegetables are not usually served with this dish, you can, if you like, have a few plain boiled potatoes. A straightforward green salad afterwards will be welcome.
JAMBON À LA CRÈME AU GRATIN
HAM WITH CREAM AND CHEESE SAUCE
Make a cream sauce with 1 oz. of butter, 2 tablespoons of flour and, when these have amalgamated, 4 tablespoons of warmed white wine. Then add pint of warmed milk. Season with a little salt and a generous amount of freshly milled pepper. Simmer this sauce, very gently, stirring frequently, for 15 minutes. Now transfer the saucepan in which it is cooking into another large and shallow one containing hot water (or, of course, a proper bain-marie if you happen to possess such a thing) and add 4 or 5 tablespoons of fresh thick cream. Stir again. Lastly, add 2 tablespoons of grated Gruyère or Parmesan cheese. The cheese must not dominate the sauce but is there to give it pungency, as a condiment. Add more salt if necessary, always taking into consideration the saltiness of the ham. Of this you needs lb., cooked, and cut in thin even slices. Into a shallow gratin dish, pour a little of the cream sauce. On top put the ham, in one layer, with the slices overlapping each other. Cover completely with the rest of the sauce. Add some minuscule little knobs of butter. Place in a hot oven, near the top, for 5 to 10 minutes. Finish under a hot grill for a minute or two and serve immediately, when the surface is blistering and bubbling.
JAMBON À LA CORSOISE
HAM WITH TOMATO AND GARLIC SAUCE
This is a dish I remember from my first visit to Corsica, which now seems a very long time ago. In the little town of Piana of the red rocks, I took a room in the house of a very humble family. There were a large number of children in their teens. Their mother was a great big brawny woman with a robust sense of humour. Amid a tremendous clatter we would all sit down to meals at one big table. Madame’s cooking was of the same nature as her own: rough, generous, full of character and colour. There were great dishes of ham and tomatoes, eggs and olives, plenty of salads and oil, huge hunks of bread and great bowls of bursting ripe figs. In all the years since then I have never quite forgotten the very special savour of that food. The ham dish was made with thick slices of the Corsican version of prosciutto, or raw ham, fried and served on top of a tomato sauce freshly cooked in oil and well spiced with garlic, pepper and herbs. Nowadays I sometimes make it with gammon rashers, but cooked in a baking tin, just covered in water, in the oven, then drained and just barely browned in olive oil. Served on a big round earthenware dish, surrounded by the tomato sauce, flavoured with plenty of dried basil as well as garlic, and with some croûtons of bread fried in oil, this makes a splendid quickly cooked dish for lunch or supper.
JAMBON AU FOIN
The old-fashioned French farmhouse way of cooking a ham was to tie it in a cloth, place it on a bed of sweet hay, completely surround it with more hay, then cover it with water and boil it in the usual way. The hay is said to give a particularly fragrant flavour to the ham.
A purée of dried split peas would often be the accompaniment to hot boiled ham.
LE JAMBONNEAU
CURED KNUCKLE OF PORK
A jambonneau is a little knuckle of pork, cut and cured separately from the ham, being simply salted for about 6 to 8 days. It is then simmered for about 2 hours in stock with carrots, onions, a clove or two, and a bouquet of herbs, including a bay leaf.
It is left to cool