Roast Sirloin of Beef - our Christmas Dinner

We picked up our 1kg piece of Beef Sirloin a few days before Christmas and were very happy with it.  For all that it didn't look all that big - for 1kg of meat - it was comfortingly fat-free other than on the one side and looked gorgeously promising.

Oddly, for me, I wasn't at all worried about cooking this piece of meat.  Ordinarily, if a piece of meat has cost more than the regulation £2-3 (which we allow per meal) then I'm all a-skitter about not trashing it in the cooking process.  This time, however, I was really quite cool about the whole thing.

It may well have been because I was aiming for a piece of Roast Beef that was seared and brown on the outside, but pink and rare on the inside.  In aiming for that, I knew that there was little chance of my leaving the meat so long that it was completely inedible, so there was no cause for worry about that.

I was, however, a little bit anxious not to over-cook it to a point where it was only just pink on the inside and had been practising the "thumb to first finger, press the pad of your thumb" test for weeks.

On the day, I took the meat out of the fridge early on so that it could return to room temperature and not run the risk of it still being cold inside, but cooked outside.  It was a lovely dark red colour, which always bodes well.

I heated a couple of tablespoons of olive oil in the roasting tin on the hob of the cooker and - most bravely, I thought - added the beef so as to sear the outside and obtain that lovely caramelised texture and flavour.  Jeepers, but it's scary stuff, juggling a roasting pan that won't stay still with 1kg of beef that won't stand up, in a puddle of hot olive oil.   The sound alone would have been enough to have had me running for the fire extinguisher a few years ago!

The smell though, ooooh, the smell was just lovely.  I think it was the main reason I kept on juggling the meat, pan and oil - just to keep that smell of cooked beef coming.

I was very glad to finally be able to put the beef to rest in the pan (fat side up), season it liberally with just salt & pepper and tuck it up into the moderate oven for 40 minutes (20 minutes per 500g).

That gave me time to prepare the rest of the vegetables, as I'd already put together the Fennel & Cherry Tomato Crumble Gratin.

It is amazing how quickly 40 minutes can disappear when you're busy - and when it came time to remove the beef from the oven, it felt as though it had only just gone in!  All that practising with the "pad of your thumb" test came into its own as I poked the meat suspiciously with a finger.  Cripes, but it felt awful hard - far harder than I had anticipated.  I've come to the conclusion that I must have very flabby thumbs though, because following on from a half an hour's resting, when it was carved it was perfect.  I was so worried that I'd gone over into "well done" rather than "medium rare".  If anything, I'd say it was somewhere between rare and medium - so I refer you back to the flabby thumbs comment.

To eat, the beef was tender, moist and so flavoursome.  I'd wondered about including some flavours with the beef as it was cooking, but decided not to on the premise that I wanted to be able to taste roast beef and nothing but roast beef, as opposed to "roast beef flavoured with something".  I was glad I'd resisted the temptation.  Even cold the following day, it retained its tenderness and moistness and made the most superlative beef & horseradish sandwich.

Our Christmas dinner, expressed as a Kaleidoscope. It made me chuckle!

For the first time I'd ever cooked a piece of Sirloin to such an exacting end result, I think I did really very well.

Oh - and the 1kg was more than enough for the three of us for Christmas lunch - and four or five sandwiches, plus a salad and a breakfast of roast beef with fried egg.  Worth every penny of the £15-ish it cost us.

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Meal planning to Christmas!

This week's meal plan is a remarkable thing.  I say that, because right up until Christmas Day (Sunday), hubby has chosen (and is doing the lion's share of the cooking) all the meals.  I'm really not sure how or why this has happened, but I am grateful for it - as it has given me a couple of hours' space in each day, with which to catch up with the blog here!

So, without further ado, here is what is on the menu this week :

Tues : Pizza for son & heir plus Green
Pesto, Red Pepper, Olive & Goat Cheese Tart with salad for us adults.

Wed : Bolognese Pasta

Thur : Chicken & Sweetcorn Dinner Wraps, Broccoli, Carrots & Green Beans

with a parsley sauce

Fri : Bacon & Asparagus Risotto

Sat (Xmas Eve) : Chinese Takeaway

Sun (Xmas Day) : Roast Sirloin of Beef, Ottolenghi's Fennel & Cherry Tomato Crumble Gratin, Roasted Butternut Squash, Roast Potatoes, Brussels Sprouts with Bacon,

Yorkshire Puddings and Port Gravy.

Mon : (Boxing Day) Sandwiches.

Exciting stuff, eh?

The Tart we had on Tuesday was one which we decided on the filling for, then went out and bought each ingredient.  It was absolutely fantastic - and together with the salad of beetroot, cucumber and salad leaves - was such a great success.

Watch out for the blog post which details the tart, as you'll undoubtedly want to give it a go!

Wednesday's Bolognese Pasta started out life as an ordinary Bolognese sauce to be had over spirali pasta.  However, hubby had a number of great ingredients at his fingertips and used them well.  He included red wine along with char-grilled red peppers - and had the expert help of son & heir, who decided to become involved somewhere along the line.

Hubby Head Chef also became down-graded to Sous Chef somewhere along the line too - and son & heir took up the mantle of being Head Chef to the point of dishing up.  He did a good job - and it was nice to see him interested in cooking, as his guitar has taken up all of his attention, just lately.

The end result was really very nice indeed - a lovely change from a thick tomato sauce.  I'd have quite happily continued eating that, if I hadn't have filled up so quickly!

Thursday's Chicken & Sweetcorn Dinner Wraps was something that I had a lot of trouble getting my head around.  Hubby had a picture in his mind, though, that he was going for - and it was based around a Chicken & Sweetcorn Crepe.  The wraps we use, these days, are corn wraps (as they're better for me than flour wraps) and I was having trouble seeing how they were going to go with broccoli, carrots and green beans along with parsley sauce.

Having both seen and tasted the dish, I take my hat off to him - as the chicken & sweetcorn was dressed in a lovely white sauce, all of which was wrapped in a corn wrap and then baked in the oven.  This, basically, converted the wrap into a kind of pie affair - which worked perfectly.  I was surprised and delighted by this one - and will blog the recipe in due course, as it's very well worth passing on.

Friday found poor old hubby in the kitchen yet again, this time creating one of his legendary risottos.  Son & heir had requested a chorizo risotto, which had somehow transmogrified into a "something with bacon" risotto by the time we got to doing the shopping list.  Knowing that son & heir likes asparagus - and in our efforts to encourage any eating of anything green - we swallowed our reluctance to buy out of season vegetables and bought some Moroccan asparagus.  The ensuing Asparagus & Bacon risotto was completely gorgeous, as only hubby's risotto can be.

Saturday (Christmas Eve) is our one guaranteed night off from cooking.  We've tried to make it a family tradition that on Christmas Eve we always have a takeaway of one sort or another.  Financial constraints have precluded us from carrying out this tradition in the past, but we're living up to it this year.  We must be getting better at forward planning, or something!  I understand that, at the last count, we had all voted for a Chinese.  Suits me!

Which brings us to Christmas Day.

Now then, where else would I begin, but with breakfast?  In years gone by, we've had a "special" breakfast on Christmas Day.  However, what with all the unwrapping of son & heir's Christmas stocking, then cooking the breakfast, the day has begun to slip behind on timings before we've even started.

So this year, we're going to have a bit of a French breakfast of coffee, croissants and pain au chocolat - which is a whole lot easier to prepare and clear up from and which will (hopefully) buy us a bit more time.  Of course, what we'll spend that time doing will probably be teasing son & heir about when we're going to be opening the main presents, plus teasing the poor boy that he's got Vegetable Casserole for lunch and teasing him a bit more that we've decided not to watch t.v. in the evening and play Ludo instead.  He'll be begging for eggs & bacon for breakfast next year.

We've decided to eschew the traditional Turkey for Christmas lunch this year.  After all, how could we hope to beat the superlative Kelly Bronze Turkey that came in the Foreman & Field box from Knorr?  Just couldn't be done - not on our budget, anyway - and, to be honest, we've done the Roast Turkey thing now and are looking for something different.

Hence, we popped down to the local Butcher this morning and picked up our 1kg piece of Sirloin of Beef.  1kg doesn't look like much, represented in Sirloin, does it?  Still, it's large enough for the three of us for a Christmas Dinner, which is what it's all about.

To accompany the beef, I'm planning on making the Ottolenghi Fennel & Cherry Tomato Crumble Gratin (which is just glorious), some roasted Butternut Squash (tossed with salt, pepper & garlic), some roast Potatoes for son & heir (he loves them), the ubiquitous Brussels Sprouts with bacon (it's not Christmas unless you've had a sprout), Yorkshire Puddings and a good beef gravy (which may well morph into a port gravy) - all accompanied by various mustards and horseradish sauce, of course.

My Mum has provided us with the traditional Christmas Pudding and I'm hoping that this next year she'll be prepared to hand the job of making the puddings for the family over to me.  Not that her puddings are bad - far from it, they are normally incredibly rich and delicious (if a tad heavy on the nuts!) - but I'd just like to a) take the weight of the task from her shoulders and b) feel that the baton has been handed over.

Christmas Day afternoon, I shall have to make an Avocado Pie to take to my parents' house the following day, as I said we'd only accept the invitation if she let me do dessert!  I'm looking forward to another Avocado Pie, as the last one was super-delicious.

We're all into simplicity on Christmas Day evening - and if anyone gets peckish, I've laid in several boxes of "chuck it in the oven" party nibbles.  We've cheese (Cheddar, Stilton, Red Leicester and a fabulously fragrant (*cough*) Pie d'Angloys which is currently stinking out the fridge) and crackers, together with piccalilli and olives - not to mention the mince pies, nuts and fruit that are the unspoken backbone to Christmas.  So I don't think we'll starve.

Boxing Day takes us off to spend best part of the day with my parents, as I said above.  I'm looking forward to the meal we'll be sharing, as my expectation (I may be proved wrong!) is that we'll be having our traditional Boxing Day lunch of cold turkey, bubble & squeak (drool!), fried potatoes (drool again!), buttered new potatoes (excessive, I know), baked beans, peas and carrots.  Hubby couldn't quite believe his eyes the first time we sat down to this meal, as he considers that a carrot should never share plate space with baked beans.  Along with the pickled walnuts and Branston pickle, redcurrant jelly, cold devils on horseback and cold stuffing balls, this is my favourite dinner EVER.

I can't help but think that, next week, we'll be on salads so as to get over all the rich food.  But hey!  It's Christmas!

Here's wishing you and yours the best Christmas ever, with lots of great food, big happy surprises, good health and loving company.

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Roasted Kelly Bronze Turkey with all the trimmings

Yesterday (Sunday) was the big "roast the Turkey" day.

The full menu for the meal, looked like this :

Roasted Kelly Bronze Turkey

Pigs in blankets

Stuffing balls

Roasted Potatoes & Parsnips

Brussels Sprouts with bacon & chestnuts

Carrots en Vichy

Bread sauce

Turkey Gravy

with a nice Zinfandel served alongside.

Sounds pretty good, doesn't it?

Well, I can tell you that it was almost all absolutely divine - all except the stuffing balls, which were truly disgusting and got thrown into the bin.  However, I'll tell you all about those in just a while.

Let's talk Turkey, first.  I have, at this point, to remind you all that I am coming at this from the perspective of someone who has had to count every penny in order to get through the month.  Literally, every penny.  Some months, we were down to just 5p in the account - but at least the account was still in credit, which is more than can be said for a lot of accounts!  So, to be faced with a Kelly Bronze Turkey that was worth a completely staggering £73.95 ~gasp~ was almost more than hubby or I could bear.  You cannot imagine the sheer guilt involved in converting that much money's-worth of Turkey into meals.  That Turkey was worth more than a week's shopping has cost us, in the past.  It was just jaw-dropping.

Is it a bird, is it a plane? No, it's a Kelly Bronze Turkey!

The only way to approach this process, we found, was to deal with it in two ways.  Firstly, consider it as "work".  We had been given these lovely ingredients by Knorr, to make into lovely meals, in return for blogging copiously about it.  Now the fact that I enjoy doing both those two things, just means that I'm lucky enough to have a "job" that I enjoy - and was going to particularly enjoy working with the Foreman & Field Seasonal Box.  Secondly, we felt compelled to take that Turkey as far as we possibly could push it.  Hence, we currently have on the list, the following : a roast "Christmas" dinner; a Turkey Leftover Curry; a Turkey pie; Turkey stock; a Turkey soup and several lunch incarnations of various leftovers.  Not to mention that the dogs will have enjoyed their fair share of the bounty, too - receiving various inedible bits and the giblets.  If we can take it any further, rest assured we will.

All ready for the oven, including 2 onions "up its jacksy", to quote Jamie Oliver

The Kelly Bronze came, most obligingly, with a booklet with gave full cooking instructions which helped no end.  Just how scared was I, of ruining this beautiful bird by overcooking it?  Yep, you've got it - pretty darned worried.  So I followed the instructions to the letter - roasting the bird "upside down" so that the fat could trickle through the breast meat and so keep it moist and roasting it for the prescribed 20 minutes in a very hot oven, then an hour in a medium oven.

I only wish that I could have bottled the smell of that Turkey cooking.  As hubby said, it took him back to Christmasses of yore, when his Granny would be doing the cooking and Turkeys were fresh as opposed to frozen and more than likely free range.  It sounds a bit of a tall tale, but it truly did smell totally different to a standard old supermarket turkey (the one that we're all, not surprisingly as it turns out, so bored with).

Hand me the carvers, Gloria, I'm going in!

What emerged from the oven was a gloriously golden, beautifully roasted, succulent and supremely tasty Turkey.  I have a terrible suspicion that we've now been spoiled for any other kind of Turkey - and are definitely not going to be spending £70+ on a Kelly Bronze, no matter how gorgeous it is - at Christmas.

Following on from a half-hour's resting time, I carved the Turkey and broke the quantity of meat down into individual meals, to make freezing the remainder easier.  I was - and indeed still am - just amazed at how much meat came off of that Turkey.  To say I was up to my elbows in it, wouldn't be far wrong.

The carcass immediately went into the slow cooker with an assortment of vegetables, to begin the process of making the stock - of which more in another blog post.

The portion of meat for the Roast Dinner went into a pyrex bowl, to have gravy added and be popped into the oven to warm through at dinner time.  So much easier than trying to juggle with roasties, vegetables, gravy AND the Turkey!  In any case, we wouldn't have had room in our oven for the Turkey and the roasties, so it was essential that I roast the bird beforehand.

The "Pigs in blankets" took the form of some Musks's Special Recipe Christmas Chipolatas, wound round with some of Emmett's Black Mild-Cured Streaky Bacon, which we also used for the Brussels Sprouts and the last of which I shall use in the Turkey pie.  At around £4.50 for a 250g pack, the bacon is something else I'll be determined to make the most of!  It was a shame that the chipolatas had been previously frozen, as that has made utilising the leftovers a bit short on timescale, as we obviously can't freeze them again.  They're going to form part of my lunch today, I think.

I liked the chipolatas and son & heir seemed to approve too, but hubby wasn't so keen.  They were an interesting mix of Pork (50%), Bread (wheat flour, water, yeast, salt), Rusk (wheat flour, salt) Cranberries, Chestnut Puree (chestnuts, water, sugar, salt), Dehydrated Onion, Demerara Sugar, Spices, Sage, Orange & Lemon Peel, and Salt.  As a "pig in blanket", the chipolatas were completely overawed by the quality of the superb bacon, but he found them to be too "mealy" and a bit lacking in flavour.  A shame, as they retail at around £3.75 for a pack of 10, which is a wee bit pricey - but then, Musk's do carry a Royal Warrant, which has got to be worth at least 50p on the price.

The bacon though.  Oh, the bacon!  Emmett's have been providing Suffolk ham and bacon since 1820 and also have received a Royal Warrant.  However, the difference is that here you can taste the years in the cure of the bacon.  In fact, just open the bag and inhale - there's a whole lot of history involved in that sweet smokiness.  The depth and layers of fragrance just don't arrive because someone has had a good idea about what to cure the bacon with - they come through years of practice.

The smell of that bacon cooking to accompany the brussels sprouts, dominated the kitchen in the most mouth-watering way possible. Closely followed by the Pigs in blankets sizzling away in the oven, the place took on a very satisfactorily bacony character.  However, the true worth of the bacon is the fact that the flavour is even better than the smell.  I reckon that the Turkey was the star of the show - but the bacon was a very close second.

Even the dogs enjoyed the bacon, as I popped the trimmed bacon rind into the oven to bake - and the dogs had that with their tea.  Everyone ate every scrap that was in their bowl, so I think it's safe to say they approved - which I'm sure you are significantly reassured by.  *chuckle*

I wish it were possible to speak in such glowing terms as regards the "Finest Quality Cranberry Walnut & Smoked Bacon stuffing" from Foreman & Field.  As it states on the pack lid, the stuffing has been previously frozen - which wouldn't be a problem, as in my experience, stuffing balls don't tend to hang around waiting to be eaten!  However, it was a big problem in this instance, because as I was forming the stuffing into balls, it was necessary to squeeze the water from the mix.  Gross, or what?  Not a good start - and the situation didn't improve, as the cooked stuffing tasted stale and old.  You know that "old rancid fat" taste that cheap, cheap sausages have?  No?  Well, think yourself lucky then.  This stuffing was on the verge of decomposition, I reckon.

The vegetables that were included in the box (parsnips, carrots, brussels sprouts) were all lovely quality, fresh and tasty.  Something amazing happened with regard to the Brussels Sprouts with bacon & chestnuts, mind you!  Hubby - that self-confessed disliker of all things Brussels Sprouty - ate three of them!  All of which might go some way towards giving you an understanding of how truly gorgeous the bacon was, alongside some beautifully soft, sweet chestnuts.  I'll be using the remainder of the chestnuts in the pastry for the Turkey pie, I think.

Cheers!

The Carrots en Vichy were simplicity itself to make and I think we'll be re-visiting this recipe again, very soon.

You simply prepare the amount of carrots you need, by peeling, then slicing them lengthways.  Place them into a saucepan and just cover with water (Vichy water, if you want to be precise - but we used simple tap water).  Add a teaspoon of sugar and a large knob of butter, bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer and allow the water to cook away until you're left with cooked, glazed carrots.  Gorgeous!

The Turkey gravy was another revelation, as it caused son & heir to abandon his love for dry food in favour of a plate swimming in gorgeous Turkey gravy.  I made the gravy with the Turkey Stock, supported by one of the Knorr Stock Pots to just boost the intensity of the flavours.  I had been able to skim all the fat from the stock, but will have to admit to starting with a butter/flour roux when making the gravy, so it wasn't low fat at all.  What it was, however, was completely gorgeous and more like a Turkey soup than gravy!

Again, I have to thank Knorr for the opportunity of cooking this feast, but most of all, I have to thank hubby for the hours he has put in over the weekend, peeling, chopping, calculating timings, getting things out of and into the oven, watching over boiling pots, laying tables, taking photographs and just doing all the legwork.  I honestly couldn't have done it without him, so he deserves most of the credit for the production of both this meal and the Christmas Buffet.  Thanks, darring!

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You get your Menu Plan all organised - and suddenly, it's Christmas!

Here's the state of this week's menu plan :

That is how much we've had to double-back on what we had planned to do (which was all very nice, but will now have to wait) in favour of working our way through a Foreman & Field Seasonal Gift box, which was very kindly supplied by Knorr.

Stuffed full of goodies!

For all that I was expecting to receive the gift box on Wednesday, I wasn't expecting it to weigh the same as a ten year old boy - nor be bigger than my available worktop!  That white, paper-wrapped lump on the right hand side was a Kelly Bronze Turkey.  The box basically contained everything for a Christmas dinner, plus everything for a Turkey curry on Boxing Day - following a recipe from Marco Pierre White, who is currently working on the "Best of British" campaign with Knorr.

I have been privileged to receive the box in return for cooking with the ingredients and blogging copiously about it.

Incredibly exciting, absolutely amazing and so much fun!

So, following a bit of radical re-evaluation, the week's menus now look like this :

Tues : Son - Pizza, Adults - King Prawn Frittata

Wed : Sausage Casserole

Thur : Scotch Broth with crusty bread

Fri : Fish in batter, hash browns (baked sweet potato for me), peas & baked beans

Sat : High Tea

Sun : Roast Turkey Christmas Dinner

Mon : Turkey Curry á la Marco Pierre White.

The Turkey theme is likely to run over into next week too, as I've plans for a Turkey Leftover Pie, plus soup using the Turkey stock I'll be making.  Well, it was an enormous Turkey - and I'm never one to look a gift horse in the mouth, so I'll be making it go as far as humanly possible!

Getting back to real life (well, it does seem somewhat surreal to have Christmas arrive suddenly like that!), hubby is the man responsible for Tuesday evening's King Prawn Frittata - and it was one of his truly top-knotch ideas.  Bless him, he's trying to think along the lines of "things that will be good for Jenny's Anti-inflammatory diet" (which Turkey isn't - sssshhh!) which (basically) means ruling out lots and lots of carbohydrates and odd things like raw tomatoes.  This Frittata was really - and I mean really - good.  I'll be blogging it very soon.

So difficult to make this look appetising!

Next on the list was the Sausage Casserole.  Now we've been making Sausage Casseroles for as long as we've been together, hubby and I - and probably even earlier than that.  However, this Sausage Casserole is an adaptation of a Hairy Bikers' recipe for their "Spicy Bean HotPot".  When I first saw it, I liked the spicing involved in it but wasn't keen on the hotpot top of sliced potatoes.  I figured that, if I included some sausages and some mushrooms, it might very easily pass for a spicy Sausage Casserole - and it did, quite beautifully too!  This one will be blogged very soon as well.

My version - hubby's isn't finished yet!

Now we come to tonight's Scotch Broth, which is another of hubby's ideas.  He's taken some details from my Scotch Broth recipe, but is doing his own take on the dish.  He's in the process of making it right now, as I type, so I can't give you any clues as to how it turned out just yet!

We're having fish on Friday for once, but purely co-incidentally, as we're trying feverishly to reduce the amount of things that are roosting in the freezer and make room for the Turkey!  This is the fish in batter that we should have had last Monday, but it got elbowed out of the way by something else.  Still, it'll be nice to have a plain old easy "after school" dinner for once.  I'll be making myself a baked Sweet Potato to have instead of the potato hash browns, and be having peas instead of the baked beans - which is something else that is oddly inflammatory.

From here on in, we're into the Knorr Seasonal Box!

Just how much does that Stilton make your mouth water?

Saturday's High Tea is going to be a tongue-tinglingly, tongue-tastic array of smoked salmon and salmon caviar done three ways (on blinis, as a mousse on pumpernickel and in pinwheels), along with some spectacular Colston Bassett Stilton with grapes, Fenland Celery and crackers.  We're also going to provide some tasters of other cheeses for son & heir who is still undecided as to whether he's a Stilton fan or not.

Dessert will be a lemon & raspberry tart with cream.  All of which is designed to form the type of buffet you might be lucky enough to be presented with on Christmas Day evening.

Is that a Turkey leg, I see peeping out?

Hubby has very generously offered to run the cooking of the "Christmas Day Dinner" on Sunday, which has relieved me of lots of worry as to how the heck I was going to do it.  Apparently I'll be allowed to sit and direct operations plus do whatever can be done sitting down.  It'll be a team effort - which Christmas Dinners often are, if you're lucky!

Monday's dinner will be the first after-Christmas Turkey Leftover Curry I've ever cooked.  Most leftover Turkey in my house, gets used up in copious amounts of sandwiches - so it'll be fun to see what can be done with Marco Pierre White's recipe!

I doubt very much that I'll be sticking to his recipe, as it really doesn't sound like our type of curry at all, as it contains both apple and banana.  Plus, the curry powder that has been supplied, although it smells beautifully fragrant, doesn't give the impression of having much chilli kick.  Hence, I'll be using the ingredients as a base and freestyling thereafter to try and tweak the curry towards more of a genuine curry, as opposed to a curry-flavoured Turkey stew.  Fingers crossed!

So, there you have it.  I doubt very much that I'll be doing any other incidental bits of cooking in the meantime, as I'll be too busy cooking and blogging about it!  As it is, I've had to wade through the backlog of blogs that were waiting to be done, while hubby took care of the cooking, so as to get up to date for the approaching Knorr blogs!  Don't, for a second, think I'm complaining - far from it - it's fun to be busy.  Cooking and writing about it is, after all, what I enjoy doing.

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Making the Christmas Ham

Well now.  It's been a few weeks since I've had time to put fingers to keyboard, which is entirely down to that thing called "Christmas" intervening.  I've sat down this morning and made a list of what I want to tell you all about - and it's come down to twelve individual things!  Now normally, I'd deal with them in chronological order.  This time, however, I can go no further without recounting the sheer triumph that was our Christmas Ham.

As you do, we'd been contemplating what to have for our Christmas Dinner since way before the date and had both been in agreement that Turkey was so yesterday, Chicken was for Christmasses of yore when money was tighter than today.  Goose & Duck were both a temptation, but the worry was that it wouldn't go as far as I needed it to.  Beef was extremely tempting, but too expensive for the size I wanted.  So, we came down on a Christmas Ham (with a piece of Beef to add variety to Boxing Day).

That's a big old piece of pig!

We had been eyeing up the enormous legs of pork in the supermarkets and although we knew we should be buying from the local butcher, I'm afraid the supermarket won on price.  If it's any consolation, we did buy the Beef from the local butcher!  We got a 5kg bone-in (although it turned out to be the tiniest bone) half leg.  Top half - the thigh, effectively.

With kettle added, for size comparison

The next quandary was what to soak it and cook it in.  None of our saucepans were even remotely big enough, and neither was my Mum's pressure cooker.  Then Chillibob remembered the Jam Boiler that our friend Laura had given to us and which had been residing in the shed ever since, awaiting a suitable glut of fruit.

Now that's a BIG jam boiler!

It seemed as though this enormous piece of pork qualified as a glut of pork - so we got the boiler out and gave it a scrub, boiled up some water in it (which took 30 minutes, even starting with hot water!), let it cool and plonked Mr Pig inside.  Perfect!

It took 8 or 9 litres of water to cover it for soaking, which made us glad we'd bought that extra 2 litre bottle of coca-cola, as that was what we'd be cooking it in, the next day.  I added three satsumas, which I'd pulverised the juice out of, some star anise, peppercorns, coriander seeds, cloves, a chilli (which I'd punched holes in, to allow it to steep) and some garlic and left it to swim around for the night.



The following day, I baled out enough of the liquid so that I could remove the pork to drain the boiler.  It was just too heavy to lift, otherwise.  The water had gained an "interesting" hue and it all smelled satisfyingly Christmassy.

Ready to be cooked - in coca-cola, plus some!

Having rinsed the boiler out and placed it (gently - it's a ceramic hob) onto the cooker top, I then went about replacing Mr Pig and setting him to swim in a bath of six litres of coca-cola, topped up with a little water.  To the coca-cola, I added everything but the kitchen sink, which is roughly translated as carrot, onion, celery, cloves, coriander seeds, peppercorns, parsley - all the usual suspects.

I then set it to boil.  Three-quarters of an hour later, it had achieved a gentle bubble.  An hour and a quarter later, I turned the heat down to a gentle simmer - and left it whilst I researched how long to cook the beast.  There seemed to be two schools of thought on this subject - around two and a half hours -v- four to five hours.  So I compromised and looked at it once it'd achieved three hours - and it appeared done.

All studded and ready to be baked

Chillibob had to be press-ganged into fishing Mr Pig - who shall henceforth be known as "Mr Ham" - from the enormous vat, where he had (Mr Ham, that is, not Chillibob) achieved a major suntan and had changed from the translucent Pork appearance to the lovely juicy pink appearance of Ham.  He also smelled extremely interesting!

Having allowed the Ham to cool briefly, I took the rubbery rind off of its back and got busy with the clove-studding.  I'd have left a bit more of the fat on, but knowing how fat-phobic my two chaps are, thought it best to carve as close to the meat as possible.  It worked out fine, but doesn't look as pretty as it would have done otherwise.

The next problem was finding room for it in our already bulging fridge, but with some help from the snow outside bringing the temperatures down we were able to decant the drinks and vegetables to the shed, which helped.  So, that just left the marmalade glaze to put on it tomorrow, before baking.

As a two-day enterprise, it was all going rather swimmingly.

Now how nice does THAT look?  Still pink inside and juicy, too.

Following its marmalade glaze, baking, basting, more baking and a final flourish with a blowtorch (because it was a Christmas present and I could, right?), the Christmas Ham was done.

That 5kg piece of meat has, so far, done three of us for Christmas Day, four of us for Boxing Day, countless sandwiches and cold meat suppers, a risotto, a soup and I've still got 400g of it in the freezer awaiting a potato & cheese bake.  It may have taken three days in total, but boy, was it worth it.

Happy Christmas!

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