Tuesday 30 December 2014

Honey & Black Pepper Baked Ham

Hi

Wishing you all a Blessed Christmas!
You know what?  My family would never live through a Christmas without ham and this year I decided to make my own ham.

I learn to make this ham from a baking session with few friends from church.  We had a great fun baking ham together and we had baked about 15 hams on that day.  Every one of us got to bring home a ham. 

My hubby and children gave a thumb up after eating the ham and that inspired me to bake my own ham for this Christmas.

A baked ham isn’t ham without the glaze.  Look!  The ham looks so gorgeous after the glazing. 

One of our favourite ways to eat ham is to go with baked vegetables.  The baked veggies, especially the capsicums(bell peppers) and carrots , bring out the sweet flavour that goes beautifully with the ham.  

Not forgetting the mango sauce.  The pureed mangos and honey mustard blended with brown sugar and lemon juice make a delicious fruit-flavoured sauce to go along with the baked ham.
The best ham I ever had for this Christmas!  
I’m contributing this recipe to Cook and Celebrate Christmas 2014 and I hope you will like the recipe.

HAM
Ingredient
1 kg        Half cooked ham
400g       Coke Cole
1 can       Beer
2 tsp        Peppercorn
1 pce       Bay leaves
2 small   Onions


Method
(1)Mix the ingredients together in a pot and boil it for ½ hour.  Do not discard the stock.  
(2)When ham is cooled, score ham.  Scoring the ham lets the glaze penetrate into the meat.


HONEY & BLACK PEPPER GLAZE
Ingredient
1 tbsp      Orange Marmalade
1 tsp        Honey mustard
1 clove    Garlic chopped
1 tbsp      Brown sugar
½ tsp       Black pepper
1 tsp        Worcester sauce
1 tbsp      Black pepper sauce
Method
Mix all ingredients and rub onto the cooked & scored ham and cover with foil and bake for 10 mins at 180ºC.

HONEY GLAZE (2nd layer of glaze)
Ingredient
100g       Stock from boiling the ham.
40g         Honey
20g         Brown sugar
1 tbsp      Chopped onion
1 tsp        Black pepper
½ tbsp     Black pepper sauce

Method
(1)Mix the ingredients.  Cook the ingredient until it is thick.
(2)Glaze the ham and put it back to oven and bake for 10mins.
(3)Remove from oven and glaze the balance sauce and bake for another 5 mins.

BAKED VEGETABLES
Ingredient
1 tbsp      Honey Mustard
1 tbsp      Black Pepper
1 tbsp      Chopped garlic
1 tbsp      Salt
3 tbsp      Olive oil
4 large    White onions, cut into large wedges
2 large    Potato, cut into wedges

Method
(1)Mix the ingredient (except the olive oil) and toss the vegetables together in a baking dish.  Before putting it to the oven, drizzles olive oil over it.  
(2)Bake the vegetable until they are soft.


MANGO SAUCE
Ingredient
2 tbsp      Brown sugar
¾ cup      Pureed from 2 small mangoes
3 tbsp      Honey Mustard
1 tbsp      Lemon juice
½ tsp       Worcester sauce (optional)

Method
(1)Mix the ingredient and heat it warm.
(2)Arrange the baked vegetable around the ham and served it with mango sauce.




I’m submitting this post to Cook and Celebrate (Christmas 2014), organised by Yen from Eat Your Heart Out, Diana from Domestic Goddess Wannabe and Zoe from Bake For Happy Kids.


Monday 22 December 2014

Juicy Barbecued Pork

Hi

Year end is the time where friends get together, and catching up with old friends is always a great joy.

Lately I’ve been talking, laughing and sharing life with some really great friends for over 3 decades.  We have the opportunity to catch up on what have been happening and reminiscing on the time we spent together in school, reliving old jokes, sharing our dreams and future.  Encouraging and support each other emotionally and we even get some really helpful advice from our chat too!


One of the things I always tell my friends after meeting with them is that we mustn’t leave it so long next time… I’m so glad that we invariably do it though.  It is tough finding the time in the middle of busy lives.  But often it only takes 1 person’s crazy plan to make occasion happened.

Yes.  This was why I’ve been quiet for a period of time since my last post.  I’m now back again and ready for Christmas recipe!!

How about Juicy Chinese Barbecued Pork, something different for this Christmas? J

Here’s another recipe for Char Siew which I have made recently.  The seasoning is good.  It is sweet and savoury finger licking.  This is the 1st time I’m using pork butt to make char siu.  The meat turned out to be bit dry but it is healthier choice of meat.  The belly is of course the most tastier.
The recipe is adapted from one of Christine Ho’s cookbook – Easy Recipes.
INGREDIENTS
700g               Pork butt
4 tbsp              Lee Kum Kee Char Siu Sauce
1 tbsp              Honey, or to taste

SEASONINGS
1 tbsp              Shaoxing wine
2 tsp                Freshly grated ginger juice 
1 tbsp              Light soy sauce



METHOD

(1)Rinse and cut the pork into strips about 2” to 2.5” in width.  Marinate pork with the char siu sauce and seasonings.  Cover and chill in fridge.  For a better result, marinate for at least 6 hours or overnight.


(2)Preheat oven to 200˚C.  Remove the pork from the fridge and rest in room temperature for 10 minutes.  Transfer into a oven proof ceramic tray (I used non-stick baking pan for easy washing later) with all the marinate.  Cover with foil.  Bake for 50 minutes.  Remove the foil, lower the heat to 100ºC.  From now on, keep an eye on it.  Spoon the sauce over the pork every 10 minutes to keep moist.  Turn to the other side and continue baking.  Keep basting sauce over the port keep moist (This is the key to baking succulent and juicy BBQ pork).  When the sauce becomes less and thickens, brush the pork with honey and bake for 10 minutes (Do not brush any honey too early or the pork will be burnt easily.  Just apply when the pork is nearly done).  The pork will gradually turn red in colour.  When you are satisfied with the colour and the consistency of the gravy, it is done.

(3)Remove from the oven and let the pork rest for 10 minutes.  When it cools down a bit, slice and serves with the gravy.


I’m also submitting this to this post to Cook-Your-Book #19 hosted by Joyce from Kitchen Flavour.