The most delicious diet ever! Gammon steak with fried duck eggs

Published: 22:31 GMT, 20 January 2017 | Updated: 22:31 GMT, 20 January 2017

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Tom Kerridge serves up a second helping of mouthwatering dishes from his brilliant new Dopamine Diet book

Served with a hot gherkin gravy, this is a smartened-up version of the ham-and-egg teas of my childhood

Served with a hot gherkin gravy, this is a smartened-up version of the ham-and-egg teas of my childhood.

You have to be a bit fast and furious to get it all ready at the same time, but it’s not difficult as long as you have all the ingredients prepared before you start.

Serve it with some lightly cooked greens or a crunchy slaw. And be sure to ask your butcher for the best gammon steaks they have.

Carb count: 9g per person

Serves 4

4 thick gammon steaks
Vegetable oil, for cooking
4 duck eggs
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
¼tsp dried chilli flakes
For the hot gherkin gravy
100g (3½oz) pancetta, diced
1 onion, finely diced
1 garlic clove, grated
½tsp chilli powder
¼tsp cayenne pepper
¼tsp smoked paprika
2 large dill pickles, sliced into discs, plus 50ml (2fl oz) pickle liquor from the jar
250ml (9fl oz) chicken gravy (I make it with Bisto gravy granules)
60g (2¼oz) pork scratchings, lightly crushed

To finish

Dill fronds

First, start making the gherkin gravy. Place the pancetta in a small pan over a medium-high heat until it renders its fat and becomes crisp. Scoop it out with a slotted spoon and set aside. Add the onion to the pan and sweat gently, stirring from time to time, for 10 minutes until soft.

While the onion is cooking, preheat the grill to hot. Grill the gammon steaks for 3-4 minutes each side; keep warm. Once the onion is softened, add the garlic to the pan and cook, stirring, for a minute. Sprinkle in the chilli powder, cayenne and smoked paprika and cook for 2-3 minutes. Add the dill pickle liquor and chicken gravy and bring to the boil. Stir in the reserved pancetta, sliced pickles and pork scratchings. Keep warm.

Heat a little oil in a non-stick frying pan and fry the duck eggs until the whites are set, and crispy at the edges if you like. Season with salt, pepper and the dried chilli flakes. Place a gammon steak on each warmed plate and top with a fried egg. Spoon on the gravy and scatter over the dill fronds. Serve immediately.

Recipes adapted from Tom Kerridge’s Dopamine Diet: My Low-Carb, Stay-Happy Way To Lose Weight, published by Absolute Press, £20. To order a copy for £15, visit mailbookshop.co.uk or call 0844 571 0640, p&p free on orders over £15. Offer valid until 4 February 2017. Photography © Cristian Barnett

WHAT IS THE DOPAMINE DIET ?

Dopamine is known as ‘the happiness hormone’, a chemical released in our brains when we experience a pleasurable sensation – whether from food, laughter, sex, alcohol or gambling.

Our bodies create it by breaking down an amino acid called tyrosine, which can be obtained from lots of foods. These recipes are low in carbohydrates but high in tyrosine to boost dopamine levels – so you’ll enjoy eating them. Many are also high in protein, which helps you feel fuller for longer.

A typical low-carb diet has a carbohydrate intake of less than 100g a day, though I aim to have less than 90g. The net carb counts given with these recipes indicate the total carbohydrate count in a serving of food after you’ve deducted the fibre content and any sugar alcohols.

The net carb value has a significant impact on your blood sugar levels – and it is the reduction in those that ultimately causes your body to burn stored fat for energy.

WHAT TO HAVE FOR BREAKFAST

When you ditch the habit of tucking into a bowl of cereal or a couple of slices of toast, it can be a challenge to come up with easy low-carb alternatives. Here are some of the things that work for me:

Plain wholemilk yoghurt, sometimes with fruit.
A full, cooked breakfast if I’ve got the time.
An omelette, either hot or cold.
Cold sausages and some good, hot mustard. If I’m cooking sausages for dinner, I do a few extra to have for breakfast the next morning.
A Turkish-style breakfast of salami, cheese and olives (below) – and add a boiled egg if you like.
Some slices of avocado with smoked salmon and a squeeze of lemon.

PICK ME UPS

Like lots of you, I’m on the go all of the time. With my job and way of life I’m active, at work and doing things for 16-18 hours a day. Naturally, at times I find myself tired and in search of a pick-me-up. With my new regime, I’ve had to make an adjustment as to what that can be. It might be something as simple as a bit of leftover roast meat or a quick omelette. Other times, I reach for something instant to get me through. These are the things that work for me when I need a boost – they might work for you too!

Coffee At the start of this journey, I looked at low-carb diets which stressed the importance of eliminating caffeine, but I was mad about caffeine and I still am. Caffeine can deplete dopamine, so it isn’t to be recommended, but I love my coffee! It’s a stimulant and helps keep me awake. I’ve included it in my regime and still lost weight, so you don’t have to step away from the espresso machine.

Chocolate Before I embarked on this regime, I never thought I had a sweet tooth. Once I gave up alcohol though, my body started to crave the sugar it was missing from booze and I found I needed to balance that out. I was avoiding cakes and desserts, so I started to reach for a bar of chocolate when the cravings struck. I realised quickly that this wasn’t good. If I had to have chocolate, I made sure it was the best quality I could find, at least 70 per cent cocoa solids. It’s low in carbohydrate but still feels like a treat. Eventually, those cravings subside so I find I reach less and less for a bar of chocolate, but I do allow myself the odd square now and again.

Fruit This has become a high-priority food for me. I know that fruits are quite high in sugar, and some low-carb diets severely restrict their consumption, but they feel like a healthy treat. And at the beginning at least, not a day went by without me grabbing a handful of grapes. I’ve also developed a love of apples, enjoying their crunch and flavour. It’s a bonus that some of the fruits lowest in carbohydrates – berries for example, at only 6g per 100g – are rich in antioxidants.