For many families, Christmas is a season marked by church services, holiday travel and cherished moments spent around the table, sharing laughter and good food.
As festive menus take centre stage, celebrated cook and recipe book author Mogau Seshoene, known as the Lazy Makoti, has shared expert tips on how home cooks can transform a traditional gammon into a truly mouth-watering showstopper for the holiday feast.
Christmas Gammon Ingredients:
• 2kg boneless gammon
• 2 bay leaves
• 1 onion, peeled and quartered
• 1 tablespoon garlic, minced.
• Pepper to taste
To give your gammon more glaze add the following:
- 2 tablespoon wholegrain mustard
- ½ cup honey
- ¼ cup orange juice
- Zest of 1 orange
- Place gammon in a large pot. Fill with enough water to cover. Then add onion, bay leaves, garlic and pepper.
-
Bring to the boil, reduce to a simmer, put the lid on and cook for around 2 hours or around one hour per kilo of meat.
-
When gammon is cooked, leave to cool in the liquid, then discard the liquid.
-
Remove the rind from the gammon, leaving a thin layer of fat. Use a sharp knife to score the fat in diamond shapes.
-
Preheat oven to 200° degrees.
-
To make the glaze, put the mustard, honey and orange juice and zest in a small sauce pan and simmer over medium heat for 5 minutes.
-
Place the gammon in an oven-safe dish and brush the glaze generously over the gammon, reserving any left over glaze.
-
Bake for 20 minutes brushing with glaze every 10 minutes. Then grill the gammon till glossy and golden.
Allow to rest before carving.
READ MORE:Â The Lazy Makoti Christmas recipes: Ting sorghum tabbouleh salad
