Slow Cooker Pulled Gammon

Why do pulled pork when pulled gammon is so much tastier!

I had a few Sunday as the other half was away and I fancied treating myself to something in the slow cooker. I had planned the a Persian lamb but the supermarket options were limited so I thought why not try a gammon joint in a honey, mustard and bbq sauce.

Ingredients:
1 gammon joint (mine was 1.16kg)
3 tsp whole grain mustard
4 tablespoons honey
2 1/2 tablespoon american mustard
4 tablespoon bbq sauce
Salt and pepper
50ml boiled water

Method:
1. Place the joint in a bowl and mix all ingredients (apart from the water)

2. Leave to marinade for 1 hour

3. Place into the slow cooker on high, and add the boiled water.

4. After 2 hours change to low for another 4 hours.

5.  Place on a chopping board and pull the gammon with two forks. 

The sauce ended up being too thin to just mix in completely. I added a few spoons but not the whole lot. Ate it with with some roasted sweet potato and a.great Seven Brothers beer - happy Sunday! 

Cucumber and Mint Gin

Why not try a cucumber and mint infused gin?

After the immense success of the peach and raspberry gin, (full recipe here) we decided that wedding favours could well be mini flavoured gins. Means favours that relate to us, taste great and people actually remember! So I need to start experimenting and thought cucumber and mint always tastes great in cocktails so why not try infusing with gin. I used a much smaller bottle than I would normally but want to make sure this works first!!

Ingredients:

100g cucumber cut into strips

150ml gin

10g mint leaves (4/5 sprigs)

45g sugar

Method:

1. Sterilise the bottle you want to use

2. Cut the cucumber into thin strips and rip the mint leaves from the same.

3. Add the cucumber and mint to the bottle, and add the gin.

4. Add the sugar and shake (normally I would add sugar before gin but wanted to make sure it all fit first!!!)

5. Shake each day until the sugar dissolves then store in a dark place for a few months and taste regularly. 

Review: Beer52.com

Beer52.com Review

I was advised about a new company providing craft beer direct to your door, so I thought I would check it out and review beer52.com. There was an offer code 'GS9' which meant the usual price of £24 for 8 beers was just £5.95 (postage and packing) so looked a bargain.

Here are the beers ranked in order:

Gentse Strop

Huge amount of flavour, with a hint of wheat beer flavour to it. One for sipping and taking slowly but a clear winner. Will source myself.

Krut Gold 

A clear second place and this was finished in a flash, the only beer that was. Almost a little sweet with slight honey flavours.

Art la Indiana 

Strong flavours and worked amazingly well with a fish curry (which slightly surprised me). Won't be highly rated by all as such as distinctive flavours but good for me.

La Loca Juana

An almost perfect beer, however due the strong wheat flavour that got stronger as I went through the bottle and put me off

Old Tom with Chocolate 

This is where the beers go downhill and stopped being exciting. This tasted like drinking a nice beer with chocolate in your mouth, rather than an infused flavour. Shame as this could have been pretty special.

Ilkley and Hophead

These two beers were put together as both were a bit meh and just very standard beers you would have in your local. Neither special and surprised with were in this box

Brigid Fire

Worst beer of the bunch and by a long way. Horrible beer that was completely overpowering, and couldn't finish the bottle. I do tend to like beers that are smoked or smoked flavours but certainly not this one!! So much sediment in the bottle which was very off putting. 

So was the box any good? Well yes it was decent and I would rate it 6/10 as some of the beers were pretty good. Pretty clear that I loved the continental beers so was beneficial to have a number of these! The box also contain some crisps so the £5.95 seemed a steal. 

Would I use this company again? Well I have already have, even before I finished the first!  This was another voucher code, 'rising' which was a completely free box including P&P. 

Would I pay full price? No I wouldnt, I didn't think it is worth £24 a box. The selection was good but going through these I've realised I don't like craft beers enough to justify this. I don't want to drink carling/Stella but I'm happy with premium lagers and ales I know I love. 

Unfortunately, I  hope this company succeeds but I'm not sure there will be enough demand for this at this price. They also seem very lax in their voucher codes, which is either a massive error or a calculated gamble which could easily backfire 

www.beer52.com