John Torode's marmalade glazed Christmas ham
Today John Torode and his lovely lady Lisa Faulkner join us in the kitchen to bring us some festive treats and to start with we have this gorgeous baked Christmas ham.
Ingredients:
1 large smoked ham on the bone, approx 5-6 kg500ml warm water100ml maple syrup.200ml marmalade300g soft brown sugar50ml water12 whole cloves
You will need 1 large baking tray and a pastry brush
**Method:**
Preheat the oven to 160C
Soak the whole ham in a large pan of cool water over night. This will wash away some of the salt but also plump the ham up.
Place the leg of ham, rind on in the baking tray on a wire cake rack or trivet and pour in 500mls of warm water.
Cover the whole thing tightly firstly, with a layer of greaseproof paper followed by a layer of foil. Seal the whole thing really well.
Place in the oven and cook for approximately 3 hours reducing the heat to 150c for the last hour
For the glaze, in a solid based pan place the maple syrup, marmalade and the brown sugar and bring to the boil with 50ml of water. Remove from the heat and keep warm.
Take the ham from the oven and carefully open the foil, being mindful of the steam that will release as you open it
Lift the ham onto a board and begin by removing the rind from the ham by placing a sharp knife under it at the opposite end to the knuckle bone, gently lifting it away from the fat. Try to keep as much fat on the leg so that it will stay moist and protect it.
Decorate the ham by scoring the fat with a knife to make large diamond shapes, taking the knife from one corner to the other perpendicularly. And repeating the process on the other side, then making incisions 4cm apart parallel to the first two. Place a clove in the corner of each diamond.
Brush with the glaze mixture pushing it in well
Place the ham back into the roasting tin on the trivet, over the water
Turn the oven up to 180c and bake the ham for 30 minutes uncovered, until well coloured
Serve the ham hot or leave to cool and store the ham in a cotton bag once cooled, I used to store the ham in a clean pillowcase in the fridge. Yum!