Roast Ham

OK OK so this all sounds simple yeah, ham is ham right? 

Most people, veggies excluded love a slice or two of ham. You know the stuff, the succulent slices lying sultrily at the deli tempting you to part with your hard earned or perhaps some of the supermarkets finest pre-packed for your convenience. I’m not talking the reformed crap that you can get for £1 I’m think about the quality stuff that costs about £2-£3 for a couple of slices.

What really amazes me is how people will readily purchase the sliced stuff when cooking your own joint is not only simple but so much cheaper

This recipe starts of with a simple boiling process, with a few additions for flavour. Now you could eat it at this point and boiled ham is great in its own right but roasting, ahhh roasting, with the glaze gives that lovely sticky coating and renders the fat down a little further, plus you can make an amazing sauce with the juices

Interested, the please read on you don’t know what your missing

Ingredients

Gammon joint - smoked or unsmoked its up to you

1 Onion peeled and halved

2 Carrots chopped into chunks

1 Stick of Celery chopped into chunks

Couple of sprigs of Thyme

Cloves

Small bottle of quality dry cider about £1.50 per bottle

1 apple halved

Honey

Good Dijon mustard

Pepper corns

Water

Oh you might want to get some string, I'll explain later ...

Boil the ham

Remove the plastic from the gammon but not the plastic ring that holds the meat together

Put the gammon in the pan together with the Celery, carrots , apple, thyme, onion, a few pepper corns and about 5 cloves

Fill with water enough so the ham is covered

Bring the water to the boil and simmer for about 90mins to two hours

Turn off the heat and leave in the pan for about 30 mins

Glaze

Heat the oven to about 160 degrees

In a small pan put half a bottle of cider a good dollop of honey and a couple of teaspoons of mustard

Bring to the boil and let it reduce (keep boiling until most of the liquid has gone), by now you should have something that resembles a syrup, you'll need to stir every now and then, if the cider starts fizzing up to much turn the heat down a bit.

If it becomes so sticky that you cant get your spoon out, just add a little water

Glazing and roasting

Remove the gammon from the pan and take off plastic sleeve, if it starts to come apart you will need to tie it up with string if you're not sure this link might help

http://uktv.co.uk/food/stepbystep/aid/533114

Remove all but 5mm of the fat and then, with a sharp knife, do diagonal scores across the fat so you get a diamond pattern

Stud the fat randomly with cloves

Put the gammon in a small roasting tin

And cover with some of the glaze

Put the ham in the oven for about an hour

Every 15 mins add more of the glaze until there is None left, if the bottom of the roasting tin has become dry add a little of the water so it loosens the bits at bottom.

Once the glaze has gone you should have enough liquid in the bottom of the roasting tin(by adding water every 15 mins if you need to) so that you can use a spoon to baste the gammon.

Remove from the oven and let it rest for 20-30 mins.

You can also deglaze the bottom of the pan with some Water/Cider/Wine and then add cream to make a sauce if serving hot