LOTI COOKS | BAKED GAMMON WITH MARKET PRESERVE GLAZE WITH ANGELA CLUTTON & BOROUGH MARKET

Award-winning food write Angela Clutton is showing us how to get the best out of all the amazing produce on offer at Borough Market with the Borough Market: The Knowledge cookbook. Flipping through the book is like taking a tour of the market, with visual step-by-step guides to ingredients, features that highlight the passion and expertise of the market traders, and recipes created by Angela that allow the produce to shine, like this one for baked gammon – perfect for this time of year.

As Angela explains, “a bone-in, beautifully glazed gammon is one of the most impressive of sights on a table, as suited to a Christmas feast as a summer’s garden picnic.The glaze is where you can really use your culinary imagination with jams, marmalades, honeys, mustards and soy sauces. The key is for it to be a balance of sweet and tart, and exactly what I use will change each time I make this according to the Market preserves I’ve got excited about using. This time it’s Taste Croatia’s fig and orange preserve – two flavours that go brilliantly with all things pork. Almost the hardest thing about this recipe is finding a stockpot big enough to take the joint. Note that the gammon can be cooked up to 3 days before you bake it with the glaze.”

Ingredients

5kg bone-in unsmoked gammon
1 celery stick
1 onion
Handful of herbs of your choice, such as thyme, rosemary, sage or bay
1 tbsp black peppercorns
330ml bottle of beer or cider
2 tbsp black treacle

For the glaze:
1 tbsp whole cloves
5 tbsp dried fig and orange preserve
1 tbsp Dijon mustard
2 tsp soy sauce (optional)

Method

1. Take the gammon out of the fridge at least an hour before starting. Sit it in a large stockpot, adding the celery and peeled onion cut into chunks, the herbs, peppercorns, beer or cider, and treacle. Fill the pan up with water, hoping to cover the gammon. If the water doesn’t cover it, you’ll need to carefully turn the joint halfway through the cooking time.

2. Bring to the boil, then turn the heat down and simmer gently uncovered for around 2 hours. As it cooks, skim off any scum on the water’s surface, and top up with more water as needed. The gammon is ready when the temperature inside the joint is at least 70C on a probe thermometer. Let the joint cool in the pot, then carefully lift it onto a baking tray.

3. Proceed straight to the glazing, or keep the gammon in the fridge for up to 3 days and then glaze.Preheat the oven to 200C fan/220C/425F/gas mark 7.

4. Trim off and discard the skin that covers the fat. Score the exposed fat with crosses and stud the centre of each with a clove. Mix together the fruit preserve and mustard, adding the soy (if using).You’re trying to achieve a sticky glaze that isn’t too runny. Protect the exposed meat end of the joint with a piece of baking paper or foil held tight to the meat with more cloves or cocktail sticks. Smear about two-thirds of the glaze over the gammon, covering all the fat. Put it into the oven straightaway. Bake for 15 minutes, then spoon over the rest of the glaze, taking care to cover any bald sections of fat. Bake for another 15 minutes. Remember you’re not trying to cook the gammon, just colour the glaze. Go as dark as you dare.

5. Remove from the oven and let the joint rest for at least 30 minutes before carving. It will keep for up to a week in the fridge.

6. The gammon stock will be full of flavour from the pork and the aromatics you’ve added. Strain it, store it and use for all kinds of vegetable, meat or cheese soups. Bear in mind it will be quite salty, though.

Borough Market: The Knowledge with Angela Clutton, published by Hodder & Stoughton, photography by Kim Lightbody, is out now.

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