Christmas Menu 2010 - Easy Glazed Ham

Thought I'd repeat my glazed ham recipe again, because I was so pleased with the way it turned out this year

It looks luscious and it tasted good too!

Here's this years recipe...it's easy peasy. I bought a shoulder of ham, it was about 3 1/2 kilograms.

1 cup orange juice
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup whisky
1/2 cup port
1/2 cup honey
1 tablespoon (or large dollop) grainy mustard
1 teaspoon hot English mustard

Preheat oven to around 150 Celsius and line a baking tray or roasting pan with baking paper.

Mix all glaze ingredients together in a saucepan and let it simmer on the stove until the sugar and honey have all melted together.

Remove the skin from the ham, making an incision in the rind then work your hand under the skin and ease it off, making sure to leave a good layer of fat. Also, leave a layer of rind near the end of the leg. It makes it easier to hold.

Make criss-cross shallow cuts in the fat with a sharp knife, place a clove in each diamond, then spoon or brush some of the glaze over the meat, making sure to cover it all. Let it sit for 15 minutes so it can soak in, then repeat.

Place in oven for 15 minutes, remove and spoon more glaze over the meat. Do this 3 more times and then it's done.

It's well worth investing an hour in this as the comments and compliments alone will be worth it

Enjoy!

Terrine With Pistachios & Cranberries

I always thought terrine's would be difficult to make. I was wrong!

This is a very simple one I made for our family Christmas bash and everyone said it was terrific, so I guess I'll be making it again. And again

I got this recipe from Delicious Magazine (Dec 08) and yes, I actually followed the recipe because I didn't want to "blow it". I did find though that the quantities given were too much for just one terrine, so we ended up with two.

Let's go...

Put in a large mixing bowl:

800 grams each of pork and chicken mince

2 tablespoons fresh chopped herbs like parsley and thyme

3 eggs

1/2 cup brandy

3 cloves garlic, crushed

3 teaspoons salt

plenty of freshly ground black pepper

about 30 slices of pancetta (I accidentally bought prosciutto) but it worked OK

1/2 cup pistachio kernels

1/2 cup dried cranberries

Preheat oven to 180 C.

Lightly grease a 1 litre loaf pan and then line the pan with the pancetta so it overlaps a little and there's plenty overhanging the edges to cover the top.

Place all of the other ingredients into a large bowl and mix with your hands. I always wear disposable gloves when I'm mixing stuff like this.


Pack the mix into the pan and press down. Cover with the overhanging pancetta then cover the top with baking paper and seal well with foil.

Place it in a baking dish and fill the dish with boiling water till it comes about halfway up the loaf pan. Bake for 90 minutes then remove it from the roasting pan and allow it to cool.

I then cut a piece of cardboard to fit the top of the terrine and placed a couple of cans of tomatoes on top to weigh it down so it compresses in the tin. Then I put it in the fridge for a few hours until it was cold

...and this is what I ended up with....and it was absolutely delicious!

It really was worth the effort.

You can also access this recipe at taste.com.au and search for simple terrine