My other half Alan is an excellent cook.
Yes, there it is, I started off with a brag. But to counter that brag, you’ll be pleased to hear that I can personally burn soup, so you understand that my choice of life partner had a LOT to do with my general survival.
Alan cooked the entire Christmas dinner for my family one year when my mum was ill, and it was so unbelievably good that he is now assigned with making the Christmas ham for all eternity.
To give you an idea of HOW good it is, let me tell you this: I have three younger brothers all of whom generally dislike any boyfriends I’ve ever had (that’s their right, you know!), but in between mouthfuls of the Al’s Christmas ham, declared; ‘if you ever break up with him, we’ll actually have to keep him, and not you. It’s been nice knowing you’.
And who could blame them, look at that photo above!
The recipe has been under lock and key for several years now but I have managed to finally extract it from him for you, dear readers, so I hope yours turns out just as good. Enjoy!
Method:
- Place a boned ham in a very large pot
- Submerge with fluid that is really sweet: you can use water with sugar, honey, golden syrup or even pour in two one-litre bottles of coca cola
- Add 1 tablespoon ground cloves
- Don’t bring to boil, leave to simmer on a low heat for approximately eight hours
- Take it out of the water and leave until cool
- Score a criss-cross pattern with a sharp knife all across the skin
- Push a clove into every cross (tedious but worth it!)
- Pop into oven at 280 degrees or as high as it will go (you are trying to crisp the skin so you must monitor it to make sure it doesn’t burn and the result should be golden to brown skin)
- To make the glaze: heat half a jar of good brand honey, half a jar of English mustard and half a jar of orange marmalade in a saucepan until it is thoroughly mixed
- Apply to the outside of the ham and then pop back into the oven at around 80 degrees
- Keep pouring the glaze back over the ham from the tray intermittently
- Serve and get your smug face ready!
Have you any recipes to share with us? We would love to get them!
