Ham bam thank you ma’am! I love buying a whole free-range ham and glazing it with something spicy and fruity for Christmas Day. I enjoy it on the day but, to be honest, I probably enjoy it in the week after Christmas even more.
Sweet ham goes so beautifully with the stone fruit and spice notes in my jam. You can easily double or triple the jam recipe so you have enough to put in jars and preserve. I make enough to give away and keep myself supplied throughout the year.
Ingredients
- 1 ham on the bone
- 500g fresh peaches
- 20g fresh ginger, peeled
- 1 teaspoon Sichuan peppercorns
- 2 star anise
- 1 teaspoon chilli flakes
- 1 cinnamon stick
- 100g mango flesh
- 200g raw sugar
- 1 teaspoon ground ginger
- 40mls Shaoxing wine
- whole cloves, as required
Read: Kim-Joy’s Christmas Robin Cookies
Method
Remove the outer skin of the ham and score the fat into squares for glazing. (You can ask your butcher to do this. Place the ham onto a large baking tray. Preheat oven to 180ºC.
Place 2cms water in a medium pot and bring to the boil. Make a slit in the skin of each peach and place the peaches into the pot. They don’t need to be submerged, as they will be steaming. Cook for eight minutes. Let the peaches cool a little then slip off the skins. Chop the flesh, discarding stones and skin. Set aside.
Place fresh ginger, Sichuan peppercorns, star anise, chilli and cinnamon into a food processor and chop.
Place chopped peach flesh, chopped mango, sugar, ground ginger and fresh ginger mixture in a medium saucepan and cook until thick and bubbly – about 40 minutes.
Add Shaoxing wine and stir through. Transfer to a container and allow the mixture to cool before pouring half of it over the ham.
Push cloves into the centre of each cross-sectioned square of fat.
Place the ham into the preheated oven for 25 minutes to glaze. After 10 minutes, spoon over more glaze.
Remove from the oven and allow the ham to cool before slicing at the table. Serve with remaining jam.
Variation
This glaze also makes a delicious chutney or sauce for chicken wings and lamb ribs. It’s an unusual but lovely accompaniment to strawberries and pineapple, too.
Read: Healthy Apple and Raspberry Crumble
Leftovers to love
Luckily ham lasts for a few weeks if it’s treated right – that is, covered with a clean, damp vinegar-soaked cloth every time it’s removed from the refrigerator and carved afresh. Many butchers will give you a drawstring ham bag. Otherwise, you can use a pillowcase and have ham-infused dreams for the rest of the year.
Here are extra ham storage tips, thanks to Otway Pork:
Make sure the ham is not out of the fridge for more than two hours on Christmas Day (or any spring/summer day you’re entertaining).
To store, soak a ham bag in a mixture of 2 cups of water and 2 tablespoons of vinegar. Wring out the ham bag and place the ham inside.
Keep soaking the ham bag every two days in the water and vinegar mix to keep it fresh, tender and succulent.
Ham sandwiches are the obvious leftovers solution, but can get a bit boring. You can also add cubed ham to soups, omelettes, pasta dishes, potato salads and cold platters. I love this Red Capsicum Pithivier: parmesan puff pastry is the buttery, flaky base for a tasty vegetable tart.
And when you seriously can’t look at it any more, cubed or shredded ham can be packaged into freezer bags for use throughout the coming months on homemade pizza.
Go to Dani’s website for more recipes and tips.
Do you have a favourite ham glaze? Why not share the recipe int he comments section below?
