Christmas Ham

A lot of my Christmas recipes this year came from the Safeway Fresh Magazine.

1 (3.5 - 5kg) Cooked Leg Ham on the Bone
500ml Muscat liqueur
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 lemons, rind finely grated, juiced
1 tbs oil
1 kg small onions, peeled trimmed
1 cup demerara sugar 1/4 cup malt vinegar
1/4 cup seeded mustard

1. Preheat oven to 160C. Carefully remove the rind from the ham. Use a sharp knife to score the fat in a diamond pattern, at least 5mm deep.
2. Pour the muscat into a large oven proof baking dish Add the brown sugar, lemon rind and lemon juice and stir to combine.
3. Place the ham, scored side down, in the baking dish and cook in the preheated oven for 25 minutes, basting occasionally.
4. Meanwhile, heat the oil in a small saucepan over medium heat. Add the whole onions to the pan and cook for 3 minutes or until golden.
5. Add the demerara sugar, malt vinegar and mustard to the pan and simmer for 25 minutes or until the onion has caramelised.
6. Turn the ham and baste well. Continue cooking for another 20 minutes. Add any excess basting liquid to te onion mixture and simmer until liquid has reduced by half. Serve ham warm or cold with caramelised onions.


I used sherry instead of muscat, and Dijon mustard instead of seeded, as one guest does not like seeded mutsard. I did not have malt vinegar , so I used balsamic. Also I got a bit carried away with the reducing, so my onion mixute ended up a bit like toffee, but the flavour was amazing.

This BBQ Ham Salad was very yummy for using leftover ham.