Spiced Cherry Glazed Ham

Hello

안녕하세요

(Annyeonghaseyo)

こんにちは

(Konnichiwa)

你好

(Ni Hao)

A typical UK thing is that on a Sunday, we have some sort of roast with all the trimmings. We normally either have bangers & mash or a roast chicken. We sometimes get given some gammon, and while Skye loves gammon, I'm not a fan so always looks for ways for me to enjoy it. That's how I came across this Spiced Cherry Glazed Ham. While it's promoted as a Christmas dish. I think it's perfect for any time of the year.

Let's get cooking!

Ingredients:

1.2kg-1.5kg unsmoked gammon joint

1 small brown onion

1 litre full sugar cherry cola

2-3 tbsp cherry jam

1/2 tsp sweet smoked paprika

Splash red wine vinegar

Whole cloves

Start off by unwrapping and untrussing your ham if you need to.

Place it skin-side up in a large lidded saucepan.

Peel and halve your onion and place the halves in the pan with the ham.

Pour the cherry cola over the ham - add a little cold water if you need to, to make sure it's fully submerged.

Set over a high heat and bring to the boil. Then, turn the heat down to medium low and simmer, with the lid on for 1 hour per kg of ham.

Skim the sum off the top at 15 minute intervals until it stops appearing.

Remove the ham from the pan and discard the liquid.

Once cool enough to touch, with a sharp knife score a diamond pattern into the fat.

Preheat the oven to 230C.

Next combine the jam, paprika and a splash of red wine vinegar in a small saucepan over a medium high heat.

Bring it to the boil, and allow to bubble away for 1 minute.

While that bubbles away, stud cloves into the points of all the diamonds in the layer of fat.

Brush half of the glaze over clove studded fat and transfer the ham to a baking dish. Bake for 10 minutes, brush with the rest of the glaze and bake for a further 5-10 minutes until the fat and glaze are sticky and caramelised.

Now you're ready to slice or pull the ham and serve it however you want.

To say I don't like gammon, this was really nice. It was full of flavour and really juicy. Skye seemed to really enjoy it too.

This will definitely be a normal gammon dish I make throughout the year.

If you would like to follow the original recipe then head over to the Christmas Kitchen: Two person Spiced Cherry Glazed Ham recipe page over on Rachel Phipps' website.

See you soon!

안녕

(Annyeong)

さようなら

(Sayonara)

再见

(ZaiJian)

Bye

Viking Pork

 Hello

안녕하세요

(Annyeonghaseyo)

こんにちは

(Konnichiwa)

你好

(Ni Hao)

Time for another Pinch of Nom recipe, this time it's Viking Pork, I'm not really sure why it has this name, all I could find out that it is a modern branding choice to describe a pork loin with a cheese and onion topping.

This recipe can be found in the Quick & Easy recipe book, under Bakes & Roasts.

Let's get cooking!

Ingredients:

Olive oil

4 lean pork steaks or chops, fat trimmed of all visible fat

Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

1 onion, peeled and finely sliced

160g reduced-fat mature cheddar, grated

1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce

1/2 tsp mustard powder

1 egg yolk

Pre-heat your grill to a high heat.

Put a little oil on a baking sheet.

Season the pork with a little sea salt and black pepper, place on the baking sheet and pop under the grill, turning occasionally until cooked through. This will take around 8 minutes, depending on the thickness of the pork steaks.

While the pork is cooking, put a little oil in a small frying pan and place over a medium-high heat.

Add the onion and saute for about 5-6 minutes until soft and beginning to brown.

When the onion is cooked, place in a mixing bowl with three-quarters of the grated cheese, Worcestershire sauce, mustard powder and the egg yolk and mix well.

When the pork steaks are cooked, remove from the grill and lower the temperature to medium.

Spread the cheese-and-onion mixture evenly on top of the pork steaks.

Sprinkle with the remaining cheese and pop them back under the grill for 5 minutes until the cheese has melted and is golden.

Now your ready to serve with your choice of accompanniment.

I served our Viking pork with some herby new potatoes or you could serve it with some steamed vegatables.

I thought this was really nice, the flavours worked really well. I think next time, I'd have some steamed vegetables, just to add a little more colour to the dish.

This was pretty simple to make, so even a novice cook would have good results with this one.

If you're interested in any of Pinch of Nom's recipe's then you can buy the recipe books in all major supermarkets as well as online retailers Waterstones and Amazon.

See you soon!

안녕

(Annyeong)

さようなら

(Sayonara)

再见

(ZaiJian)

Bye

Asian Pork Meatballs

Hello

안녕하세요

(Annyeonghaseyo)

こんにちは

(Konnichiwa)

你好

(Ni Hao)

I'm going to share with you another Pinch of Nom recipe from their Everyday Light recipe book.

Ever since making meatballs from scratch a few years ago, I've never bought them in since. So when I came across this meatballs recipe, I knew I wanted to give it a try.

This recipe can be found in the Quick Meals section.

Let's get cooking!

Ingredients:

Meatballs:

500g 5%-fat pork mince

1 courgette, peeled and grated

1 carrot, peeled and grated

4 spring onions, trimmed and finely chopped

1 medium egg, beaten

1 tbsp garlic granules

1 tsp onion granules

1/2 tsp Chinese 5-spice

1 pork stock cube

sunflower oil

4 tbsp soy sauce

2 tsp Worcestershire sauce

1 tsp lime juice

sea salt& ground black pepper

Char Siu Ketchup:

250g passata

1 tbsp tomato puree

2 tbsp dark soy sauce

2 tsp Worcestershire sauce

1 tsp lime juice

1 tsp garlic granules

1 tsp granulated sweetener

1/2 tsp Chinese 5-spice

Start by pre-heating the oven to 220C/200C Fan/Gas Mark 7.

Put the pork mince, courgette, carrot and spring onions into a large bowl.

Add the egg, garlic granules, onion granules and Chinese 5-spice and crumble in the pork stock cube.

Mix well with clean hands until combined, then shape the pork mix into meatballs. The mixture will make about 16-20 x 2cm balls.

Add a little oil to a large frying pan and place over a medium heat. Cook the meatballs in batches. Once heated, carefully place half of the meatballs in the frying pan. Fry for 5 minutes before gently turning them and frying for a further 5 minutes..

Try not to touch the meatballs for the first 5 minutes of cooking as they will be fragile and will break apart.

When both batches are cooked place them into a roasting dish and pour over the soy sauce, Worcestershire sauce and lime juice an season with a little salt and pepper.

Place the roasting dish in the oven and cook for a further 10 minutes.

While the meatballs cook in the oven, add passata, tomato puree, dark soy sauce, Worcestershire sauce, lime juice, garlic granules, granulated sweetener and Chinese 5-spice to a small saucepan. Season with salt and pepper and simmer over a medium-low heat for 10 miunutes.

Once everything is cooked, you can serve it all together or have the Char Siu ketchup as a dip with either a mixed side salad, spaghetti or an Asian twist with egg noodles.

You can also make it all in advance, allow to cool and freeze both the ketchup and meatballs separately.

This recipe serves 4, so it was perfect for me an Skye to have as a meal, while leaving me some extra to have for lunch at work.

The flavours were amazing, definitely had an Asian kick.

They were really easy to make and I'd happily make them again, even Skye seemed to be a fan of this dish.

If you're interested in any of Pinch of Nom's recipe's then you can buy the recipe books in all major supermarkets as well as online retailers Waterstones and Amazon.

See you soon!

안녕

(Annyeong)

さようなら

(Sayonara)

再见

(ZaiJian)

Bye