Ham in Cherry Coke

I'm a bit late in posting this seeing as I made it on Christmas Eve but things have got in the way like the flu, non-existant broadband and 101 school commitments and I'm finally getting round to catching up!

As I say, I made this on Christmas Eve. It's a newly created tradition in my house that I cook a ham (well, gammon if we're going to be correct) on Christmas Eve.  Last year I made Nigella's Ham in Coke and this year I thought I'd try the cherry version.

I really enjoy cooking the ham, it's very therapeutic and satisfying even if Mr M did want to sling the darn gammon at my head that morning (I sent him to the butchers to buy one when he collected the turkey, he came back with one half the size I wanted so I sent him back to change it... If he'd just done what he was told in the first place...)

This was so easy to make and very tasty, it lasted well in the fridge and over the course of a week I think we (I mean Mr M when I say we, I was on hunger strike due to the aforementioned flu) ate it all.  I think overall I preferred last years ham and may default back to that one for Christmas 2011. I'm not sure, I just felt that something was missing but even so, it was top. There's nothing like fresh, home-cooked ham.

Ham in Cherry Coke

Ingredients

approx 2.5kg boneless mild cure gammon

approx 6 cans of cherry coke

1 onion, halved

For the glaze;

16 whole cloves

3-4 tbsps cherry jam

1tsp smoked paprika

1/2 tsp red wine vinegar

Method

Place the gammon into a large saucepan and fill with cold water. Bring to the boil, drain and rinse the ham, rinse the saucepan and pop the ham back in. (This is to get rid of some of the saltiness).

Add the cherry coke and the halved onion. You want the liquid to cover the ham completely so if you've not got enough cherry coke, top it up with some water.  Put the pan back on the heat and bring to the boil.  Simmer and partially cover the pan. Leave on the heat for approximately 2 hours.

When it comes to glazing the ham, preheat the oven to gas mark 8/230 degrees.  Remove the ham from the pan and sit it on a large chopping board. Strip off the rind and some of the thick fat layer.  Cut a diamond pattern into the remaining fat - you want the lines about 2cm apart and then stud each diamond with one of the whole cloves.

Pop the cherry jam, smoked paprika and red wine vinegar into a saucepan and whisk it all together over a high heat. Bring to the boil and let the pan bubble away so that the glaze reduces to a kind of syrup.

Sit the ham in a roasting pan on some foil. (the glaze will burn and make an awful mess so don't forget this part!)  Pour the glaze over the top of the ham and pop in the oven for around 15mins or until the glaze has burnished.

Take the ham out of the oven and allow to rest on a chopping board before carving.

For some strange reason I always struggle to locate cherry jam in the supermarkets, this time however I found some lurking in the Polish section of Tesco!

A tip from Nigella is to use a snug pan when boiling the ham - that way you'll need less Coke!

love & kisses

Mrs M x