Christmas Ham

[Stones]

Myself and the husband are spending our first Christmas alone and are now faced with cooking Christmas dinner. What does everyone do to cook their ham?

I've been considering using Nigella Lawson's recipe where you cook it in coke (a-cola) which my mum says worked out really well.

Has everyone done all their food shopping now? I have everything except my turkey and the chestnuts fot the stuffing.

[funkyfunkpants]

http://tinyurl.com/ydvtu28

[SquareEyes]

I'm on my own right over Christmas and the New Year. We couldn't find anywhere to kennel our dog, so I had to stay, while wife & kids have gone over to relatives in England (we live in northern Italy now).

I'm thinking it's too much hassle to do myself a full roast dinner, for one, on Christmas day. I'm considering a huge piece of really nice fillet steak instead, with some mash, carrots and something green. Any good tips on how to cook big fillet steaks so they end up medium (just a hint of blood in the middle)? Also any tips on simple but tasty accompaniments? I love pepper and so was thinking of maybe a green pepper sauce or something. I hate mushrooms, so no fungi. I don't have access to a barbie, but I've got the usual kitchen facilities and also a really top notch contact-grill (not a George Forman !).

For New Years: I was thinking of a nice Yorkshire Pudding (I am a Yorkshire man, after all) with the traditional sausage and onion gravy accompaniment. Probably some spuds roasted (as I usually do) in peanut oil with a lot of garlic and fresh rosemary. The Italian sausage tends to be pretty horrible though (fatty, and herb-less), so I'm considering looking up some tasty sausage herb additives and making my own (skinless) bangers.

I might force myself to do a Chinese at some stage. I usually go for a chicken-something, with the meat marinated overnight before in dry sherry (or saki), fresh ground ginger, star anise and a decent soy sauce. I prefer fried to boiled rice, so I'll probably do the rice the day before (maybe a mixture of traditional & wild rice) and let it chill very well in the fridge before it hits the steaming wok. I may or may not throw an egg in at the end, as the heat goes off, and have a gentle toss (ahem) to finish it all off. Some nice stir-fried finely chopped veg too, with a a bit of garlic and ginger in the oil for those. I'll do enough so I can get a couple of microwaved warm-ups afterwards.

Other than that, I'll probably be living out of the freezer

[eefanincan]

We do a ham for New Year's and usually get one of those spiral sliced ones. It comes with a packet that you sprinkle over top and it comes out with a nice glaze/crust on top. I think it's basically brown sugar with a bit of seasoning, so you might want to try something like that.

[11antoniacourt]

oooh Stones I'm so glad you mentioned Nigella's. We did our shopping tonight and I really couldn't decide how I wanted to prepare the ham. I'm going to do the Nigella recipe for sure.

I think we all might have to join SquareEyes for the holidays. Sounds like some great menu choices, excellent kitchen and since the family's away there'll be plenty of room for us all. I wish I could offer some advice on cooking the filet, but we like 'em rare so our grilling technique wouldn't help at all!

[luke]

does anyone know how long it takes to cook those chipolata sausages rapped in bacon? usually i'd just buy them premade and follow the instructions, but my mum has to have a gluten ( wheat ) free diet, so i've had to get gluten free sausages ( and stuffing, gravy, cake, pudding and mince pies! ) and bacon and i'll make them myself - i've just no idea how long sausages take in the oven? i don't want to overcook them and have dried out burnt meat/charcoal bricks!

[11antoniacourt]

Luke, not sure what chipolata sausage is, but I'm thinking that like any other kind of meat, it can be cooked by weight. I would imagine that you can find a clue somewhere on the net, like http://thefoody.com/meat/basics.html .

[Stones]

[luke]

antonia, chipolatas are just thin sausages - its a christmas thing over here, we wrap the chipolata in bacon to go along with dinner



i had a google about and it seems like half hour will do

[faceless]

pigs in blankets - probably the world's best delicacy

[SquareEyes]

Very tasty!

I can't get proper sausages, or any bacon at all, out there in the sticks though :p

I think this is bordering on cruel & unusual punishment. Not only you talking about it, but you're now posting pictures!

By the way, a sausage wrapped in bacon is a thin slice of an animal wrapped around ground-up animal's lips and tits and ears, so it doesn't take a genius to work out that it only takes a few more minutes to cook the extra bits :p

Seriously though. My main tip for these little buggers is - turn them often. They are best when the bacon is just on the verge of being over-cooked. You need to rotate them a lot to ensure that they are cooked evenly without burning.

[11antoniacourt]

[faceless]

Sausages are the victim of capitalism and supermarkets. Get a good one from a decent butcher and you'll recognise the quality instantly.

Recently my favourite has been a dried Polish variety called kabana, here's a cross-section of one so you can see how much red meat there is in it



Delicious!