Making the most of the food you buy: week 1, Smoked Gammon

Lesson one is to get something simple to cook. Lesson two is to make sure it will be tasty and worthwhile. Lesson three make sure you don't waste any pieces and finally eat it all.

Getting ready for a sandwich

What I love about this recipe is that it is so simple and useful. A nice gammon joint at a reasonable price will be enough for about three or four meals and all at a good price.

The recipe here is simple, cut off the fat off the gammon (save for the pork rind) and chuck it into the saucepan. Hard work, isn't it? Next step is to cover the gammon with coca cola. Get set to a boil and then immer down for an hour and forty five minutes. It's ready when you're ready and then drain the water. Cover the cooked gammon in honey and mustard and put it in the oven at gas mark 6 for 30 minutes. Finished.

Now with this you can have it with veg, make a sandwich, next morning with eggs Benedict or anything you like. So simple.

Pork rind with lime sweet chilli sauce

Now these pork rinds are something I would never usually do, but I saw it done on TV and thought why not. This inspired me to make sure I didn't waste the fat from the gammon.

The recipe which I stole from a good diners TV show on food network was as follows:

• Cut the layer of fat off the gammon.
• Cut this into strips and boil for two hours
• Drain and cover in cold water and drain again
• Dry with paper towels and leave in fridge to cool
• Dehydrate for 24 hours????? (Put in the oven on a low heat for a few hours and then leave overnight)
• Fry some vegetable oil and throw in the pork for 30 seconds to one minute.

That seems like a lot of work. It is and was, but I'm happy that the food didn't go to waste and it was very tasty with a sweet chilli sauce. For the sauce this I added some cayenne pepper, lime juice and salt to sweet chilli sauce.

Perfect.

Now don't waste food and make sure you enjoy it.