Christmas is behind us now, it was fun and there were some lovely moments but I’m not sure I actually enjoyed it! A lot of hard work for a day, I always enjoy Boxing Day and the days between Christmas and New Year the best and New Years Day is my favourite drinking day of the year. Well it used to be, back in my crazy days when I had the time, stamina and disposable income to fritter away on full days spent in a pub with pals nursing a hangover through to a new day! Anyway I digress I wanted to share my Boxing Day menu, I’ve never posted a recipe on my blog before but it rocked! I’ll definitely be doing it again as it required seriously low effort which meant I wasn’t stuck in the kitchen, it was really delicious and everyone who ate it wanted me to send them the recipe so thought I’d share:
It’s a Nigella Lawson recipe, Ham in Coca-Cola and I served it with dauphinoise potatoes and steamed broccoli & green beans. I have cooked dauphinoise before but it is a time consuming one, not least in cleaning the pan afterwards so in the spirit of keeping the family together at Christmas and me out of the kitchen I bought the dauphinoise potatoes and also the green veg. That meant all there was to cook with the ham and the great thing about this recipe is you can do it the night before and it then just takes 40 mins the day after and when its done you also have a soup for lunch the day after that too! So here’s what you need and what you do to make Ham in Coca-Cola.
2kg mild-cure or unsmoked gammon
1 onion, peeled & cut in half
2-litre bottle of Coca-Cola – the “full fat” red kind, diet is not an option here!
For the glaze:
Handful of cloves
1 heaped tablespoon of black treacle
2 teaspoons English mustard powder
2 tablespoons Demerara sugar
Put gammon in pan skin side down, add the onion, then pour over the coke. Bring to the boil, reduce to a good simmer with the lid on and cook for 2.5 hours. I do this the night before, take it out the pan and leave to cool (don’t throw the coca-cola ham stock away I have another recipe for that!). In the morning remove the skin, leaving a think layer of fat, score the fat with a sharp knife to make big diamond shapes & stud each diamond with a clove. Then spread the treacle over the clove budded fat, taking care not to dislodge the cloves. Pat the treacle with mustard and sugar. Cook in a foil-lined roasting tin for approx. 30-40 minutes from room temperature at 180*C/gas mark 4. If it’s been in the fridge it may need another 15-20 mins and if you’re cooking all in one go so the ham is hot from the pan the glaze will only take 10-15 minutes at 240*C/gas mark 9. Ham in Coca-Cola DONE!
On 27th December I used the coca-cola ham stock to make another seriously yummy Nigella recipe, her South-Beach Black Bean Soup it is such a great winter warmer & dead easy, here’s what you do:
500g black beans (I used two pre-soaked tins)
Coca-cola ham stock from recipe above
juice of half a lime
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon ground coriander
To serve: sour cream, fresh coriander, lime wedges
Take about 3 ladles of stock with 1 of the tins of beans, add the lime juice & ground spices, blitz with a hand blender to a muddy puree and stir back into the pan with the other tin of unblitzed beans, simmer for 10-15 minutes and that’s it! Swirl some soured cream in as you please. South-Beach Black Bean Soup DONE!
