Monthly Archives: December 2010

honey-glazed christmas ham

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honey-glazed christmas ham

I absolutely adore a ham or gammon at Christmas. My Mum always had one hanging around the house from Christmas Eve onwards, and it’s something I still do every year. I favour twice-cooking, a long boiling followed by a fierce blast in the oven with a sticky sauce dribbled over the top. I spotted Gordon Ramsay’s recipe from this year’s and knew I had to give it a try.

One of the key things that makes or breaks a dish like this is the quality of the meat. Start from a poorly-reared, not-looked-after anonymous pig and you’ll end up with a bland pointless dinner. It’ll probably be watery, tasteless and feel like a massive waste of time. Do you and your family a favour when buying gammon (or any other meat for that matter) – go up a level in the quality of meat you buy. Put the Basics range to one side and get something a little better. More expensive yes, but with a fuller flavour and the peace of mind that your animal had a decent life. Freedom Food, outdoor reared, outdoor bred, free-range or organic – these are the labels to look for.

If you’d like to learn more about pig welfare, please visit the RSPCA’s Think Pig Facebook page.

This recipe, based on Gordon Ramsay’s, was great. The key is to repeat the glazing over and over, every ten minutes or so. This will help deepen the flavour and form a beautifully sweet and tasty crust that’s irresistible. Aside from as a roast dinner, I also ate this with some bubble and squeak, as a sandwich and with some chutney. Then I also got a wicked stock to make a soup from, so although the meat is expensive in the first place it’s a dish that keeps on giving.

Adapted from a recipe by Gordon Ramsay. The original honey glazed ham recipe is here.

Honey-glazed Christmas ham:

2.5kg unsmoked gammon joint

4 carrots, roughly chopped

2 celery sticks, roughly chopped

1 onion, quartered

4 cloves of garlic

1 tablespoon black peppercorns

1 tablespoon coriander seeds

1 cinnamon stick

3 bay leaves

A handful of cloves

For the glaze:

100g golden caster sugar

50ml Marsala

25ml sherry vinegar

125g honey

  1. Put the gammon in a large pot along with the veg, peppercorns, coriander, cinnamon and bay. Barely cover with water, bring to the boil and leave to simmer for about 3 hours, or until you can easily sink a knife into it. Every so often skim and scum that floats to the surface. Allow the meat to rest in the liquor for at least half an hour, but any more or less wouldn’t hurt.
  2. Pre-heat the oven to 180°C. Melt the glaze ingredients together gently in a saucepan.
  3. Remove the skin from the gammon and score the fat in a pretty diamond pattern. Stud each diamond with a clove. Very gently trickle some glaze over the meat. Take your time and make sure the whole surface is covered. Pop in the oven.
  4. After 10 minutes take the ham out and repeat the glaze, again gently. Do this every 10 minutes until the gammon has cooked for 40 minutes, when the joint is a gorgeous golden brown. Allow to rest for 10 minutes before carving. It’s amazing, and brilliant cold too.
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heston blumenthal’s hidden orange christmas pudding

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heston blumenthal's hidden orange christmas pudding

In my rush to eat this legendary item, I took the worst picture possible. Sorry about that.

The run-up to Christmas 2010 will be remembered for one thing: the craze to eat Heston’s hidden orange pud. The ads appeared on TV, and suddenly stocks were low. Then Waitrose ran out completely, and demand reached fever-pitch. Reports came in that they were selling for over £1,000 and they were the must-have Christmas dinner dessert. How strange.

I knew I had no chance of getting one but entertained thoughts of making my own. Every newspaper seemed to jump at the chance, and Mat Follas had a really good go. But while I was formulating my recipe, I was sent by Waitrose direct.

So what did my family think of it come Christmas day, post Queen’s speech? The consensus was: light, marmaladey, with a moist texture. The candied orange itself is beautiful, sending jammy juice through the pudding. I tasted a lot of hazelnuts myself, and fairly bready. Personally I can take or leave Christmas pudding, so this made a delicious alternative.

Though this does present Waitrose with a dilemma. Do they put this back on the shelf in December 2011? If they do they won’t get the same fervour, and customers getting comfortable with it being available every year. Or do they consign it to the archives as an exclusive and do something completely different? Time will tell…

mushroom risotto

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mushroom risotto

If you hate mushrooms, look away now. This is a celebration of the mushroom in probably my favourite form: a risotto. The layering of flavours here results in an earthy, savoury dish of rice that enriches the heart and tastes of pure luxury.

The key to a creamy, tasty risotto is to give that rice a good bashing. Stir aggressively, so that the starch comes away from the surface. This forms the creamy consistency of a perfect risotto. That, and the beating in of butter at the final stage, before letting it rest a moment.

Mushroom risotto (serves 2):

1 onion, finely diced

1 celery stick, finely diced

4 spilling handfuls of arborio risotto rice

2 garlic cloves, minced

A glass of white wine

200g chestnut mushrooms, sliced. Reserve the stalks

8 dried porcini mushrooms

1 sprig of rosemary

1 litre (maybe more or less) good vegetable stock

Couple of knobs of butter

25g parmesan, finely grated

Few drops of truffle oil

  1. Get the stock on to simmer. Add the rosemary, mushroom stalks and porcini mushrooms.
  2. Gently fry the onions and celery in a little oil until translucent. Add the mushrooms and cook for another couple of minutes to soften.
  3. Turn the heat up and add the rice and garlic, stirring the whole time to toast the outer surface of the rice without burning. After a minute add the wine and deglaze the pan with it.
  4. Add the stock a ladleful at a time, taking care not to add the stalks or porcini. Each time stir the rice well and don’t add any more liquid until the previous one has been absorbed.
  5. After about 15 minutes of adding stock taste the rice for doneness. You want something squishy but not complete mush. At that point turn the heat off and beat the parmesan and butter into the rice. Taste, adjust the seasoning and let stand for a minute or two.
  6. Serve by adding a couple of drops of truffle oil and garnish with the chopped porcini.

heston blumenthal’s perfect spaghetti bolognese

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heston blumenthal's spaghetti bolognese

I happened to read FrontLineChef’s Ultimate Spag Bol recipe one morning on Twitter and almost fell over: it sounds utterly superb. I remembered I hadn’t yet tried Heston Blumenthal’s perfect spaghetti bolognese.

Bolognese has a strange and maligned history in this country. It’s one of those quirky dishes that are echoes of the home country, like chicken tikka masala, or pizza. I’ve had many a spag bol in my time and plenty of them have made this blog. I particularly recommend Antonio Carluccio’s version which is a cracker.

As his recipes go it’s not one of his most complex; braised meat + soffritto + tomato compote slow-cooked together. I still cut a little of it out when it comes to the tomatoes – I can’t believe the ‘fresh’ tomatoes in December can be much cop so I went for a tinned variety and took it from there. That said it’s very close to the original. To save time I recommend having two decent casserole pans on the go, this will cut down time right at the beginning.

Is it perfect? Not for me. It’s far too sweet for my taste, I would prefer it far more savoury. Although it’s still very tasty and quite complex, different layers of flavours coming through as you enjoy each mouthful. In a nod to old-school spag bol the spaghetti is served under the ragu, yet the buttering it receives is fab and definitely worth a try.

Big love to the superb Bunting’s of Maldon for their excellent meat.

Spaghetti bolognese (serves 6):

For caramelised onion:

1 onion, sliced

1 star anise

For the soffritto:

3 sticks celery, diced

3 carrots, diced

2 onions, diced

8 garlic cloves, minced

For the ragu:

300g pork loin steak, diced

200g beef braising steak, diced

½ bottle white wine

300ml whole milk

For the tomato compote:

2 tins tomatoes

30ml sherry vinegar

5 drops tabasco

5 drops fish suace

For the pasta:

100g spaghetti per person

50g butter

  1. Heat some oil in a large casserole pan and fry the onion and star anise together for 20 mins until caramelised.
  2. Whilst the onion is caramelising, in another large casserole pan fry the soffritto veg in some olive oil for about 10 minutes until softened.
  3. Return to your onions. When they’re done put them to one side (discarding the star anise), add a little olive oil and use this pan to brown off the meats. Take your time with this and make sure there’s enough room for all the pieces of meat to brown, so do these in batches as necessary.
  4. Deglaze this pan with the white wine and turn the heat up. Scrape the bottom of the pan and keep this going until it’s reduced by half.
  5. When your soffritto is tender, add the caramelised onion, diced meat and reduced wine to it. Add the milk and top up with water until all the ingredients are submerged. Leave uncovered on the lowest heat for 6 hours, stirring occasionally. Add water if necessary to keep the liquids topped up. (The milk can make it appear a little granular, this won’t affect the final product.)
  6. For the compote, add all the ingredients to a little olive oil over a high heat. Cook rapidly until thick, then stir this into the rest of the bolognese. Cook for a further hour. Turn the heat off and let it rest for 5 minutes while you cook the pasta. You should check the seasoning at the point – a little extra sherry vinegar can help cut the richness.
  7. For the spaghetti, cook according to packet instructions and drain. Rinse briefly to ensure it doesn’t stick then return to the pan to warm. Toss in the butter to coat well.
  8. Serve the spaghetti by twirling around a carving fork. Add a generous serving of bolognese and top with plenty of freshly grated parmesan.

chestnut and brandy torte

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chestnut and brandy torte

Merchant Gourmet threw down the gauntlet again: use their chestnut products in a really festive  way. I’m a fan of chestnuts at any time, not just Christmas, whether it’s fried with bacon and sprouts, stuffed into a chicken, giving body to a soup, or dressing a hearty pasta dish.

But how to give them a real Christmassy twist? I racked my brains and brought in as many festive foods as I could: that boozy treat Brandy butter, juicy sharp cranberries and just a whiff of clementine. The result is a rich, dark torte, with a fudgy centre and citrussy base. The real kicker is the cranberry, providing a sharp tang against all the sweetness.

Give it a try this Christmas. I think you’ll like it.

Chestnut and brandy torte (about 10 slices):

For the base:

200g digestive biscuits, crushed to dust

50g butter, melted

50g dried cranberries

Pinch of cinnamon

Zest and juice of 1 clementine

For the filling:

200g Merchant Gourmet whole chestnuts

50g icing sugar

200g brandy butter

For the chocolate frosting:

200g dark chocolate, chopped

100g butter, cubed

  1. Mix the crushed biscuits with the cranberries, cinnamon and clementine and stir in the butter. Pack the biscuit mix into a 15cm springform tin and pop in the fridge to firm up while you get on with the filling.
  2. Whizz the chestnuts in a food processor and gradually add the sugar. If the mixture looks a little rubbly at this point add a tablespoon of water to form a paste. Add the brandy butter and blend until smooth. Pour this on top of the biscuit and chill for another hour. (If you have some handy, you could use chestnut puree blended with sugar and brandy butter instead).
  3. For the chocolate topping, put the butter and chocolate in a bowl over a gently simmering pan of water. Allow to melt together very slowly until smooth, then add a tiny sprinkle of sea salt. Pour this on top of the torte filling and chill for another hour until the top has set hard. When ready slice with a damp, warmed bread knife to get a clean cut (unlike the one in my picture!).