Festive food: Christmas honey ham recipe
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SERVES 8
Ingredients
*1 gammon ham, about 2.7kg
*250ml boiling water
*15–20 cloves
*8 pineapple rings (from a can)
*8 glacé cherries
For the glaze
*250ml water
*125ml orange or pineapple juice
*1 tsp ground or freshly grated ginger
*6 cloves
*130g dark soft brown sugar
*170g honey
*340g guava or strawberry jam
*1 tsp freshly grated nutmeg
*1 tsp ground cinnamon
*1 tsp all-purpose seasoning
Method
1. Preheat the oven to 160°C Fan/180°C/Gas 4.
2. Wrap the ham in foil and place in a roasting tin with a rack, with the wrapped ham sitting on the rack. Add the boiling water to the tin (this adds moisture to the ham) and bake in the oven for 2 hours.
3. Meanwhile, to make the glaze, pour the water into a pan over a high heat, then add the orange or pineapple juice, ginger, cloves, sugar, honey and jam.
4. Bring to the boil, then add the remaining ingredients.
5. Simmer for 30 minutes until reduced to a glaze the consistency of runny honey, checking occasionally to make sure it isn’t reducing too fast or too much.
6. Take the ham out of the oven, remove the foil and then take off the skin, leaving a little bit of fat remaining on the ham. Using a knife, score parallel diagonal lines into the fat, then across to make a diamond pattern. Stud the top with the cloves.
7. Pour the glaze over the ham and return to the oven for 30–45 minutes until golden brown, garnishing it with the pineapple and cherries 10 minutes before the end of the cooking time.
Original Flava by Craig and Shaun McAnuff (Bloomsbury Publishing, £22) is out now. Photography by Matt Russell.