Ham, Egg & Chips

A dish associated with greasy spoons and yet when prepared with care using good quality ingredients it is a culinary tour de force.  I do not understand why it isn't seen more often on restaurant menus.  

Here, the eggs were from my mother's Marans chickens, the potatoes were fried in duck fat, and the gammon ham came from Macken Brothers in Chiswick.  Normally, I would boil ham in water with maybe an onion or two, studded with cloves if I had any, and parsley stalks, a bit of celery, some carrot too.  But my sister Abi who is a Nigella fan (thought they were normally blokes) was dying to try out a recipe which involves Coca Cola.  Having not drunk coke since the age of 8 when it was a weekly treat at the vending machine of Loughton municipal baths I wasn't sure this was a good idea.  I know some fellow foodies drink it in the middle of the night when they've had too many sherberts and certain regiments use it to clean their rifles.  But poaching a ham in it?  Mmm.  

It was one of those be kind to sister days so she won and the ham did turn out very well.  The only downside to this recipe is that the poaching liquor cannot be turned into pea & ham soup, unless you're a coke head of course.