After seeing Lizzie’s photograph of one of these little breakfast pots from Leon, I couldn’t resist giving one a whirl as they looked so easy but so tasty. The most difficult part was finding a smoked (as I wanted as much flavour as possible) ham hock. In the end, I gave in and bought a smoked gammon joint instead. I’ll have to find a local, un-supermarket-ed piece of meat from a farm shop or similar if I do it again though, as this one was far too salty as I forgot to do the ‘soaking’ thing before cooking. For a more detailed explanation, have a look here to prepare your joint properly!
Ingredients:
ham hock, smoked or otherwise. I used a gammon joint
free range eggs
plain flour
gruyere
truffle oil or butter
milk or cream
pepper
Method:
Roast or boil the ham hock or gammon joint as per the instructions. Otherwise, for about 20/25 mins per 500g, plus 20/25 mins.
Meanwhile, make up a white sauce: stir some plain flour and truffle oil / butter together over a hot heat until they form a ball. Add milk or double cream, or a little of each, gradually, whisking after each drizzle is added. Keep the heat high, but ensure you don’t stop whisking or it’ll stick to the pan. When you’ve reached a thick, creamy consistency, stop. Add pepper and finely grated gruyere.
Poach the eggs. 1 per pot.
Once everything has been cooked, it’s simply a question of assembling it all! Stir some pulled ham into the sauce and spoon into dishes / pots. Add a few more pieces of ham and pop the poached egg of top. If you wanted, you could simply crack a raw egg over the top, grate over a little more cheese and pop under a hot grill until cooked instead.
What is should look like, photo courtesy of Lizzie. Many thanks…
Mine…
As I said at the top, the idea of this was really appealing to me but as soon as I added the truffle butter to the white sauce, I knew I wasn’t gong to like it. I usually enjoy the flavour of truffle, just not like this. I also wasn’t keen on the fruity gruyere. So, call me a traditionalist, but if I made them again, I’d forgo the truffle and add a spoonful of Dijon mustard instead. I’d also swap the gruyere for a strong cheddar. But these are pots and flavours you can play with and adapt to your own tastes. Perfect for a special breakfast if you’ve cooked the gammon the day before, or if you have some left from your Sunday roast. Any more leftover gammon is perfect for ham, eggs and chips for tea the next night too!
