Claire's Crazy Cakes, Bakes and Kitchen Hacks: Chapter 23 - Glorious Glazed Gammon

Maybe it has something to do with the fact that we can't find the box for our Christmas tree and its still in the lounge, or maybe it's just because you should never need an excuse to eat Christmas food, but gammon has been on my brain for a while.

So I flipped ythrough some youtube videos: BBC food, Woolworths South Africa, Gordon Ramsey, Jamie Oliver.... bla bla bla... yep, I picked up some great hints, but they all missed what I have discovered to be the very most important part of making the best, most delicious and tender gammon:

GET

IT

DRUNK

So, The 1st thing you need to do, is purchase yourself a decent piece of smoked boneless gammon. Mine was about 2kgs. @zakludick and I bought it on special a while ago because all the Christmas meat was marked down (thanks Capitalism). Luckily, because it's smoked, it has a shelf life of 4-6 months so there's no pressure. We probably bought it at the beginning of Feb.

Anyway, back to the Gammon. The day before you want to roast it, take the whole thing, string and all (please remove the plastic though) and dunk it into a bath of cider. Any cider. It really doesn't matter. Soak the gammon overnight. This soaking process is one i never skip and I even do it when I'm going to make pork belly, which is a totally different process.

The night before, I also prepared my fresh herb and garlic mix, which just made my roast veggie tray absolutely divine. If you have the luxury of your own garden, please PLEASE grow your own herbs. There is just absolutely no comparison between freshly picked and store bought or dried. The flavour and fragrance is just phenomenal. I just need to grow my own garlic and I'm set for life! Doing this in advance is a life saver. Peeling and chopping garlic cloves is time consuming and quite annoying. For the rosemary, you can just pinch the stalk and slide your fingers downwards and the leaves will come off easily. From my basil forest, we collected flowers, huge leaves and stalks and all: it all gets chopped up and thrown into the pot.

At this time of the month, I can't buy olive oil, although this would usually be preferable, so I used ordinary seed oil and added this to my herb and garlic mix and also left this to soak and blend overnight.

The next day, I threw my gammon and all the cider into a pot, ready for boiling.

It was at this point that I got my root and fragrant veggies ready for the boil. for this part, you need about 1 1/2 Hours.

You will also need:
1 nice big stick of rosemary.
Ginger roughly sliced
Carrots roughly chopped (about 6 big ones)
Two onions, roughly chopped
Celery (half the bunch: roughly chopped)
Spring onions or leaks: Half a bunch roughly chopped

Throw these all into the pot with your gammon and cider and top off with water until the gammon is completely covered. Put a lid on the pot, turn on the stove and allow this to simmer on a medium heat for and hour and a half.

While this is going, line a big baking tray with tin foil. Who ever has to wash the dishes will thank you! Your gammon will go onto this eventually and the glaze gets sticky and messy.

You can now chop up a bunch of veggies for your easy roast veg tray. I was lazy and decided to gooi (throw) my potatoes into the same baking tray, and they actually turned out really phenomenally.

I used:
The remainder of the spring onion - Roughly chopped
The remainder of the celery: roughly chopped
whole mini onions (about 12 of them) just topped and tailed and peeled.
Large Carrots: about 8 of them - roughly chopped
Baby potatoes thrown in whole

I then smothered them in my garlic and herb mixture and sprikled them with flavoured salt and added a bit of extra oil and then popped them into my oven (which was already preheated to 200 deg Celsius.

I still had a good 45 minutes before I needed to take the gammon out of the pot, so I used this time to make the glaze.

I used a whole crazy concoction, but you really can switch it up. You can make bastings using Coca-Cola, any preserves you can think of, chutneys, mustards, really... so many different options.

I used:
German mustard
Chili oil
soya sauce for colour (just a splash because the gammon is already salty)
an extra splash of cider
apricot jam
fruit chutney

Your glaze shouldn't be too runny as you want it to stick to the gammon, but it should be easy to spoon on or brush on (if you have a basting brush. Use half of it to start with.

I also chopped up half a melon to drape over the gammon after glazing, which was just absolutely fantastic.

It was now time to remove the gammon from the boil and set it aside to cool. That stuff that is left in the pot is absolute GOLD and is a fantastic base for a good soup. Freeze it and save it for another day.

Back to your gammon. It is now going to be extremely hot, so let it sit for a while before you remove the string and the top layer of skin, using kitchen scissors and a very sharp kitchen knife to help you. The skin should just peel off, but if it sticks a little here and there, use the knife to help you. I swore a lot at the string, but I eventually (with help from @zakludick) managed to remove it. I stuck the skin under the gammon, with some of the string still imbedded in it because its actually a fun thing to munch the next day. I have memories of being allowed to chew bits of meat off the gammon string as a kid. Please be careful while removing the skin as you DONT WANT TO LOSE ANY OF THE FAT. The fat is what is going to render into the meat and make it juicy and it is also the part that absorbs all the glaze. If you cut off the fat your gammon will be sad and dry. Once you've removed the string and skin, you can roughly score the fat in a crisscross fashion. This creates lovely crevices for the glaze to sink into as you baste.

Use a brush at first to make sure you get into all the nooks and crannies and you baste all the meat at well as the fat. Now cover the gammon with the melon and stick it in the oven for 40 minutes at 180 deg.

You should also stir the veggies at this point to ensure even cooking. They should be browning quit nicely on the top, but the bottom will be a bit soggy, so you want to even that out.

Then go pour yourself something delicious to drink and put your feet up for a bit.

After about 40 minutes, go back and baste your gammon some more, spooning over the rest of the basting. gather the melon that will have fallen into the baking tray as well as basting that's spilt over and smother the gammon.

repeat this process until your gammon is golden and delicious.

If you dont have a family like mine, you'll have left over gammon fir days, which is phenomenal for sarmies and just munching out of the fridge when no-one is watching!