Here is my recipe for a really tasty ham sandwich that you can make yourself at home, this recipe comes from a loose adaptation of the Cuban sandwich which usually involves generous helpings of ham, roast pork, cheese and gherkins (or pickles) put between a sandwich press.
First things first, you’ve got to start with your ham joint but you will know it as a gammon joint, it is gammon in its raw form but turns to ham once it has been cooked, you will more than likely of had this at Christmas.
For an estimate on how big you need your gammon joint to be, I usually go for ½ lb of meat per person.
Starting with your gammon joint, I went for smoked and I didn’t buy an expensive one, they are more than likely all going to be the same.
Put your gammon joint into a big saucepan and boil it for 20 minutes per lb of meat, you can add some whole peppercorns and a cinnamon stick to the boiling ham if you wish but it is not necessary.
The boiling of the ham allows the meat to cook while retaining all of that amazing flavour, texture and moisture, also it removes some of the salt from the meat.
You can also boil your gammon in cola which makes the meat a bit sweeter and gives it a different flavour.
Once you gammon is boiled you need to remove it from the saucepan and place it in a roasting dish, you may want to cut it in half at this point as it will make for easier carving once the meat comes out of the oven and gives the meat more surface area to get coated in the amazing glaze were about to put on.
In a bowl mix together 2 tbsp of honey with one tsp of Coleman’s mustard, one tsp of wholegrain mustard, a dash of soy sauce and a dash of Worcestershire sauce, this will form your glaze.
Put the joint into the oven and make sure it is covered with foil or a lid and glaze the meat with half of the mixture, you want to cook the meat in the oven for 20 minutes base cooking time plus 20 minutes per lb of meat.
Be sure to glaze the meat every 15-20 minutes until all the glaze is used up and keep pouring the remaining glaze in the pan over the meat.
Once your ham is cooked remove from the oven and let cool slightly, this will make handling and carving the meat easier.
Once the meat is cold enough to handle, take your sharpest knife and slice the ham as you wish, I prefer to cut the ham very thin.
If you want more flavour take the cut ham and submerge the meat in the honey mustard glaze leftover in your roasting tin.
From here, if you want to make the Cuban-like sandwich, you will need a frying pan, some butter, bread, mustard, cheese of your choice, I used cheddar and gherkins.
Butter the bottom side of a slice of bread and lay it butter side down in the frying pan, on top of this bread gently put a layer of Colemans English mustard, then lay your ham on generously.
Next, put some thin slices of cheese on top, there doesn’t need to be a lot, the ham is the main ingredient in this sandwich.
You can turn on your hob now.
Then thinly slice some gherkins and lay them on top of the cheese, this gives the sandwich a nice crunch and flavour.
To finish put a buttered slice of bread on top butter side up.
Depending on how hot your frying pan is, it should be time to flip the sandwich, best done with a spatula if you have one, if not a fork will do, just try and keep the sandwich in one piece.
Fry off both sides until the bread is crispy and brown and the cheese is melted, lastly enjoy your sandwich.