Baked gammon with cheese and potato cake
This creamy potato cake is baked to a golden crunchy crust and is a fantastic accompaniment to a host of dishes. Here we’ve served it with boiled gammon and cabbage – traditional Irish cooking at its best
- 700g/1½lb piece Irish gammon
- 1 medium savoy cabbage, trimmed and cut into wedges
- Flat-leaf parsley sprigs, to garnish
- For the potato cake
- Butter, for greasing
- 2 large Maris Piper potatoes, peeled and grated
- Salt and freshly ground black pepper
- 1 large onion, peeled and very thinly sliced
- 100g/4oz Coolea cheese, shaved
- 25g/1oz Coolea cheese, grated
- 150ml/¼pt double cream
Method
Preheat the oven to 200°C, 400°F, Gas 6. Put the gammon in a large, heavy-based pan, cover with cold water, bring to boil, then simmer for 30 minutes per 450g/1lb. Take off the heat and leave the gammon in the liquor.
Meanwhile, make the potato cake. Butter a shallow ovenproof dish and place a layer of grated potato on the bottom. Season. Top with a layer of onion, season again, then scatter over shavings of Coolea.
Repeat these layers, finishing with a layer of potato, and top with grated Coolea. Pour the cream around the edge, so it soaks through the layers. Bake in the oven for around 30 minutes, or until golden and crunchy.
Just before the end of cooking time, simmer the cabbage in some of the decanted liquor from the gammon for around 3 minutes or until just tender. Drain.
Serve slices of gammon with wedges of savoy cabbage and a generous helping of potato cake. Drizzle over a little gammon liquor and garnish with parsley.
