Ham in White Wine Sauce

By corlear

Jambon au Chablis

This is a useful dish if you have some leftover meat from a cooked joint of ham. It is also used by many French housewives to make a more interesting meal of slices of bought ham. They will buy jambon de Paris cut off the bone. If you are buying ham specially for this dish, try to buy it off the bone as this will have more flavor than the pre-packed slices. Use an enamelled saucepan that will not react with the wine in the sauce.

Ingredients

• FOR THE SAUCE:
• 1 2 slices of ham per person (depending on size of the ham and appetite)
• 1/2 pint dry white wine, preferably a Chablis village wine
• 1 pint well-flavoured chicken stock
• 1 lb fresh tomatoes, diced
• 6 sprigs tarragon
• 1 teas’poon tomato purée
• salt
• freshly ground pepper
• 1/2 - 1 pint thick cream

Details

Servings 6

Preparation

Step 1

Combine the wine, stock tomatoes and tarragon in a
saucepan. Bring to the boil, cover, then simmer gently for 2 to 3 hours.

Strain, then reduce by boiling hard to about one-third of the original amount. Leave to cool a little. Stir in the tomato purée. Taste and season. If it is quite acidic, no matter - the cream is going to balance it.

Add the cream to the sauce and simmer while you warm the ham. To do this, arrange the slices in a dish, pour hot water over them and leave for about 5 minutes. Drain off the water, pour over the sauce and serve.