Only_Oli (The O_Zone)

Ingredients :
A smoked Gammon (!) – about 2KG
2 Carrots / 2 Onions
2 Table Spoons of Pickling Spices
1 Table Spoon of Black Pepper
3 leafs of Laurel
5 to 10 cloves depending on taste
1 bunch of Thym
2 Table spoon of Honney (Oranger is nice but accacia is good also)
Chicken Stock cube

How to Make:

Put the Gammon in a large pan of cold water (no salt) and bring to simmering boil.
Cover well so that it does not dry out during boiling
Add the chopped carrots / onions / pickling spices / Laurel / Thym / Cloves
Leave to cook slowly for 90 minutes (for a 2KG)
Transfer to a large oven proof dish, cover with the Honney
Dilute the chicken stock in a little bit of the cooking water
Keep the cooking water to add during the oven cooking
Put into oven at 190 degres celsius.
Cover with aluminium foil.
Cook until nice and brown, basting often and sometimes adding a bit of the
water from the initial cooking. This will take another 90 minutes or more.
Simply check until it looks like it is ready to eat or you cannot wait anymore !

Goes well with new potatoes and some syrup fruits such as Peaches and Cherries…

Ingreditents :
2 Grapefruits
2 Oranges
750g of granulated sugar
400ml of water

How to Make :
Wash the fruits first
Peel the fruits in 4 big peel pieces
Cut the peels in 5mm wide pieces
Put in a large pan with lots of water.
Start from cold (important) and then boil for 30mins.
This will take the bitter out of the peels and cook.

Put in an another pan all the sugar with 400ml of water.
Disolve fully the sugar and bring to boil. once boiling remove from heat.

Drain the peels in a colander and put into the sugar syrup.

Bring back to a boil and cook for about one hour, uncovered so that the water evaporates. Watch the cooking especially at the end when all the water “goes” and you are left with the peel that have been candied.

Work quickly before everything goes “solid”. Lay the peels on non-stick paper and let them cool down.

Once cooled, you can dip them in chocolate to make “belgian orangettes” or simply pour sugar on them to make them crystals. Or simply leave like this and eat away….

I also “recover” some of the left over sugar in the pan and crush it quickly before it goes too hard. Then I keep to put in coffee and other hot drinks that will benefit from a “orange” taste sugar…hoo  hoo special !

Definitely a Christmas favorite.