Ham Glazes

The forums over on Taste.com.au are down at the moment and have been for some time. I know one person looking for one of these glazes so thought that it would be easiest to post them on here. The lovely members over at Taste forums have some fabulous recipes, fingers crossed we can get back on there one day. I will be a bit more diligent about saving after this. I will link both of these recipes back to the sources as soon as it is up and running again. 

 The first recipe is by forum member ParisLady.

PL’s Ham Glaze

Half a cup of brown sugar
Quarter of a cup of brandy (or whatever spirit you have - I used Gentleman Jack bourbon)
Third of a cup of honey
One tablespoon of seeded mustard
One tablespoon of Dijon mustard
Combine all ingredients well
Use a sharp knife to cut (in a zig zag fashion) around the shank of your ham, about 8 -10cm from the end. Run a knife under the rind around edge of ham, easing the rind off but trying to leave as much smooth fat on the ham as possible.
Score the fat in a diamond pattern and baste ham well. I don't use cloves for my ham - after one Christmas when I bit into a full clove with my mouthful of ham and I don't want to repeat the experience. (I don't think it needs the cloves or that they add anything.)
Cook in a 160 degree oven for two hours, basting every 20 minutes.

The second one is from forum member Traveller. 

Traveller’s Ham Glaze

My Christmas ham Glaze is always Coopers Oxford Seville Orange Marmalade* (1 Jar) and (Beauforts) extra strong Dijon mustard (5 generous Tablespoons, or 4 tablespoons of any Dijon Mustard and 1 of Hot English Mustard).
Combine and stir together over low heat until amalgamated, remove the skin of the ham leaving a thin layer of fat and score it in a diamond pattern, spike the interstices with a clove, then generously brush over the marinade; baste by brushing with additional glaze every 15 minutes while you "bake" the ham. 

*Forum member didn't have access to that particular marmalade and just used a regular one. 

To anyone who tries them, enjoy and let me know what they are like or pop on over to the forum when they are back online to let all of us know. 

 

Ham, Lychee & Baked Ricotta Salad

Just a quick post tonight goes with what a quick meal this was. It was incredible though. Whilst in the supermarket getting more milk I saw that the lychees were on special so I purchased a bunch of them. I just love lychees. I love to just sit with a bowl and a paring knife and just eat them. Last year I made a tart with some of my left over ham and served it with a salad that contained nectarines and it was very good. So I wondered whether ham and lychees would go together and they did, wonderfully. I had also purchased some baked ricotta while I was in the supermarket so added that in as well. I think that perhaps it might have been better with feta although I had been worried about it being too salty with the ham. For the dressing I made a simple raspberry vinaigrette which had just the perfect amount of sweetness to go with it. 

I don't really have amounts for you, I just piled some stuff on a plate until it looked right so I will just give you the ingredients. 

Ham, Lychee & Baked Ricotta Salad

Shaved ham 

Lychees, peeled & halved 

Red onion slices 

Tomato, cut into wedges 

Baked ricotta, cut into wedges

Mixed salad leaves 

Bread, toasted & cut into cubes (I used pasta dura) 

Vinaigrette: 

Raspberry vinegar

Mustard 

Olive oil

Redcurrant & Balsamic Glazed Ham

Happy new year to all of you that are reading my little blog. I am not sure how much I will be posting. I am still not feeling very inspired to write much about food. I wasn't really that inspired to cook much either until the past week or so. I have gotten back to menu planning and have stuck to it reasonably well so far. 

Since I was away for Christmas I didn't make myself a ham before I went away however once I got home I decided that it would be a good idea to buy a ham and glaze it so that I could get some meals out of it and then slice it up and vacuum pack it in portions for me to have throughout the year. I ended up buying an exceptional ham from my local butcher. I got them to remove the skin and score the fat for me, so that was two less steps for me to do. 

I decided to go with this recipe over on Taste.com.au. However, I didn't have much cranberry sauce left but I did have a jar of redcurrant jelly in the cupboard so I decided to use that as suggested in the notes. I also added some wholegrain mustard into the glaze mixture, probably 1 - 2 tablespoons. I also pour over about a third of the glaze and then basted with more every twenty minutes for an hour. It was lovely and caramelised after that. The ham itself was smoky and salty and the glaze was the perfect contrast to that. I really enjoyed this glaze. I would like to try it with the cranberry sauce as the original recipe intended.