FLOWER POT KITCHEN: OUR FIRST GLAZED CIDER CURED HAM FROM OUR PIGS

15 Mar 2013

OUR FIRST GLAZED CIDER CURED HAM FROM OUR PIGS

SO EXCITIED OUR FIRST CIDER GLAZED HAM FROM OUR PIGS

I have had to be very patient, which I can do but did find a hint frustrating as I just wanted to get to the finished ham...12 days in the brine and then 24hrs soaking followed by 5 hours gentle simmering and 1 hr setting the glaze and Ta Da here she is in all her beautiful glory...

THE CIDER BRINE

INGREDIENTS FOR THE BRINE

1 ltr cider

4 ltrs apple juice

1kg dark brown sugar

700g black treacle

30g black peppercorns crushed

30 juniper berries crushed

10 cloves whole

10g salt petre

2kg salt

8 bay leaves

2ltr water

Bring all the brine ingredients to a rolling simmer and stir well, cook for approx 20 minutes until almost all the salt has been absorbed into the liquid, leave to cool and place in a plastic tub in the fridge preferably overnight to chill before placing you chilled leg of pork in to cure.

Leave your leg of pork to brine for 3.5 days per kilo. Remove and place in a large plastic tub and cover with cold water to soak for 24hrs. Take your cured leg out and place in a deep stock pot cover with water and throw in a couple of whole carrots, 3 sticks of celery, 10 black peppercorns, couple of bay leaves, 1 onion just halved and a crushed clove of garlic, bring to a gently just simmer and cook for 4-5 hours.

THE GLAZE

300g brown sugar

1 tbsp English mustard

10 cloves

100ml water

Remove from the stock pot and place on a shallow roasting tray, peel off the skin, it will just peel away easily, and then score the fat into a diamond pattern, paint over the mustard and then pat on the sugar, randomly stud the ham with the cloves. Pre-heat your oven to 180 degrees, add the water to the pan and bake your ham for 30-40 minutes, towards the end of the cooking time I like to baste the ham with some of the glaze that has collected in the bottom of the pan.

Leave to cool if you can before trying, this is a bit to tempting for me as it has been 14 days in the making and I just don't want to wait for a taste!!!

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LIFE MY PASSION

Welcome to my daily life of cooking, one winters day many years ago my family and I were all inspired by a back to back rainy day of River Cottage this got us to stop talking about and start actually doing, suddenly three weeks later eight vegetable beds were dug, greenhouse erected and our first vegetables were propagating, this was the start to raising and growing our own food, our fabulous son Oscar changed our path in life which lead us to sell our small thriving restaurant of 10 yrs and to start our new life (Terrifying!) a life of the self sufficient in touch with nature and seasons, taking a step back and looking forward to a slower change of pace and making the most of every moment.

My passion for cooking was stronger than ever and having time at home with Oscar I found I had a new direction and I was no longer striving for perfection, I was suddenly very passionate for the enjoyment of the other side of food, something I had not realised, being the Chef/Cook and every other duty of your own small restaurant made me see that I never actually took time to cook what I wanted!

So there I was muddy boots and hands digging deep in more than one sense and I found myself transported back in time to where everyone grew some of their own food, it is a wonderful world with a real sense of achievement and loss, Slugs Snails and Caterpillars! But thats another story! Childhood memories of summers when I lived with my grand parents reminded me of so much that I had learnt about the make do and mend generation that I had forgotten.

Now as a family we love our free wild food days where we gather what nature has provided, have gone from being mini mini garden urban small holders, who did raised pigs at home because we could not wait to find land and supporting ourselves from our garden to now owning a very small farm that allows us to grow more vegetables for the whole of our family and neighbours, raise our own gorgeous Gloucestershire Old Spot pigs, (Sausages!) and pets! Dorset Down sheep, chickens for eggs and pet goats! Suddenly having large quantities of produce started to wake up the Cook in me!

The Cook was awake that part of me that wants to cook for the masses and I found myself setting up Flowerpot Kitchen, a Farmers Market Stall, I wanted to use our honest raised meats and make old fashioned pork pies, rabbit pies and game pies from the local game keeper along with old fashioned techniques and the best hot water crust pastry. This in turn grew to a small cottage industry from home weekly supplying three farm shops and a deli along with also attending three farmers markets A few years later there came a time when my son Oscar's health changed and it was an easy decision to stop.

I still hold the occasional pop up 40 seater restaurant or gourmet lunch which we do for local charities for the love of sharing food and to remind that Cook in me why I love our go slower self sufficient life!

So here I am sitting amoung the vegetables watching the chickens loving that every season nature teaches me something new and that nature is in charge! She has taught me to just go with it and grow. Give it a try from a tray of salad on your windowsill to a few tomato plants it all counts.