The Most Epic Christmas Ham

December 2013 has arrived and have not started to make ham yet so I had no choice but to think of a quick way to make one. I made ham a couple of years ago but the time frame is not enough until Christmas eve. What I did was to look back into some of my notes that I gathered from past research and experience. I also came to face a decision on which one to make. Should it be Italian, french or maybe German. Growing up and observing my family with their likes about food, I realized that they developed a taste for Chinese food which by the way had a high impact to our local cuisines here in the highlands. Though majority are pretty adventurous when introduced with an unfamiliar dish. For example, It's rare that I get a praise and see them enjoy a food I made which I adopted from European cuisine while using local produce. They would sometimes tell me that they wouldn't have thought that doing "that" would make the food excellent.

As for the Ham I decided to go with Chinese style ham which is not really easy since it requires a lot of effort to make compared to European versions. Here are the ingredients and methods of preparation:

• 10 kg belly of pork - had to trim the bones and skin off (used bones to make jus[recipe below] and skin for cracklings[recipe below])

Trimming off the bones and skin

• For the dry cure: 3 tbsp salt, 5 tbsp sugar, 1/2 tsp Prague/curing salt. combine ingredients and rub on the meat specially the fatty parts. let it cure hanging at room temperature for 2 days or in the fridge for 6-10 days.

Dry cure

Studded with cloves and bay leaf

• for the marinade and cooking solution: 10-15 pcs cloves, 3 pcs whole star anise, 1 tsp cinnamon powder/half a stick, dried oregano(optional) 2-3 cups pineapple juice, 3-5 cups sugar(brown) - gather all ingredients and heat on a stock pot over medium heat for 10 minutes until fragrant, let it cool.

The marinade after being reduced and thickened for the Ham sauce

• wash pork under cold running water for 90 seconds. pat dry and put in a zip lock bag before pouring marinade. vacuum seal if possible to make sure that the marinade covers every area of the meat. let it sit for 24-48hours turning once midway.
• Drain meat while saving juices for later. roll the pork making sure that the fatty part is exposed, wrap with ham net or use butcher's twine/string to tie the meat together and hold its shape. bring the juices to a boil and chuck in the tied ham, lower heat and let it simmer for 90 minutes turning once midway.

Used Abaka twine to tie the roll of meat together before cooking in the marinade solution

• let it cool before removing the string/net for glazing (i used brown sugar to cover the fatty parts and used a blowtorch to caramelize the sugar)

Ham after cooking

• for the sauce: reduce the cooking juice and add sugar just enough to make it taste sweet but does not over power the pineapple. add trimix just enough thicken sauce ( i used toasted flour)

Glazing the Ham with heavy duty Blowtorch..Yep that's me holding the torch

That's how it should look like close up, that's a bird not not the pork

There you have it. an ordinary slab of meat turned into a magnificent dish.

jus - pork bones (roasted till caramelized), mirepoix, herbs, tomato paste, water- simmer over low heat and slowly reduce to 1/4 the original volume.

pork cracklings - pork skin -fats trimmed off - boil in salted water for 30mins or until tender. drain water and let the skin dry under the sun until tough. when desired dryness is achieved, deep fry in fat until it puffs up and triples in volume, enjoy with salt,vinegar and crushed garlic.