During my formative years of cooking I was making tofu, a lot...and one particular Easter I made a vegan casserole, that unfortunately didn't over shadow anyones meat/cheese dishes....anyways now that I have my grown up pants on, my own kitchen, and I eat meat, I want to make Easter Dinner- and well what is Easter without a Ham and Potatoes Gratin??!
I am good at cooking vegetables and I really enjoy it, however I am still trying to learn about meats, cuts ect. for some reason in my head I though a ham is a ham? It didn't occur to me that most hams that people eat are pretty much pre-cooked, cured or smoked and practically ready to go. I wanted to make my ham from scratch and scoffed at the idea of paying $50 for a ham..screw that! So I got some local 'fresh ham' from the butcher for $3.50 lb and couldn't figure out the cost difference....well the joy of cooking educated me on that particular reason....unbeknownst to me I was going to be dealing with this ham for many more hours than planned...and well to some this may be a bummer, but for me one of the reasons I enjoy cooking is the challenge...my challenge with this ham was insert flavor so it doesn't just taste like a pork tenderloin.
so first we must brine!!!!!!!
The Ham!
5-7 lb'er
Brine Time:
A vessel large enough to add your ham and brine with a lid.
Water, enough that you can completely cover the ham with the brine.
a generous scoop of sugar
a generous scoop of salt (think the salton sea)
pepper corns
red pepper flakes
herbs
cracked garlic
bay leaves
Step 1: Put vessel with all ingredients minus Ham on the stove. Bring to boil, stir till sugar and salt are dissolved.
Step 2: Remove from heat and allow for a cool down.
Step 3: Put Ham in large vessel and cover with cooled brine, put in fridge for up to 3 days, rotating every time you decide to peak on it.
Now to cook the piggy!
you need:
3 cloves garlic
2 T EVOO
fresh herbs
Step 1: Make a slurry of all of these ingredients.
Step 2: remove pork from brine and pat dry, make a hatched pattern in the fat of the pork.
Step 3: Lather slurry all over porky, making sure to get both front and back, season with pepper as well.
Step 3: Pop into a 450˚ oven for 30min, flip and cook for another 30min, re-baste with remaining mixture.
Step 4: Reduce heat to 350˚ and cook for another hour
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| post brine, after the rub down |
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| after an hour in the oven |
Lets get Glazed!
you need:
2 large blood oranges (sliced)
1/2 honey
1/4 blood orange juice
1/4 good mustard
1 tsp mustard powder
1 tsp fresh grated ginger
1 tsp orange zest
1 clove garlic grated
Step 1: in a sauce pan add all ingredients except sliced oranges and bring to a boil, allow to simmer and slightly reduce.
Step 2: remove ham from oven and place orange slices underneath ham.
Step 3: Glaze ham completely and pop back in oven, cook till ham reaches an internal temp of 150˚, take it out and allow it to rest for 30min. before carving!
it's that easy, and way cooler than pre-made! this was served with an amazing potato celery root gratin, recipe will be posted!
my apologies for lack of photos in this write up, hanging out, drinking and pre-blogging don't always mix...living the moment....
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