Sticky gammon steaks

I must confess that ever since I found this recipe and put it on my meal planner for the week I have not been able to stop thinking about it!  So, it was with much excitement that I made the sticky gammon steaks from the Olive magazine issued in August 2005.  The picture is from the GoodFood website.

Instead of using a red chilli, I used some crushed chilli.  While this was quicker than deseeding and finely chopping a red chilli, my main reason for doing it was that I didn't fancy spending €1.99 on a pack of chilli's in Dunnes as I only needed one.

This meal is very quick to prepare and cook - 15 minutes in total - which makes it an ideal dinner for when you are short on time.  To save time with the preparation, you can use crushed chilli as I did.

As suggested I served it with steamed greens (Pak choi as shown in the photo) and some rice.  I broke off some of the pak choi and gave it to the baby to eat as finger food.  He also had a little bit of the gammon, but I didn't give him too much as I was concerned that it might have been too salty for him.

Cost - I am certain before I even start working out the cost of this meal that it is one of my more expensive mid-week meals.  This is because the gammon steaks that I bought  from my local butchers were €4.99.  I know that if I had gone to the supermarket I probably could have picked up some cheaper gammon steaks, however, when I saw the ones the butcher had for sale I had to have them as they were so meaty looking unlike the last gammon steaks I had which were fairly flat and round.  So, before I finish working out the cost of the meal, I would like to point out that this is one of those recipes that you could make for less depending on what gammon steaks you use.

Ok, that said it is time to work out the rest of the cost.  The pak choi was €1.99, the rice was 30 cent, the orange was 7 cent and I have allowed 40 cent for the honey, soy sauce and crushed chilli.  This brings the total to €7.75 for two adults, a toddler and a baby.

Suggestion - I think the same recipe would work quite well with chicken breasts or pork loins instead of the gammon steaks.  Using either of these instead of the gammon steaks would lower the cost of the meal considerably.  Another way of lowering the cost would be opting to use alternative greens instead of pak choi which are quite expensive.  I think that steamed sugar snap peas might work well.

And this is what mine looked like!