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Serves up to 30 people
12-14 lb (5.4-6.3 kg) ham
1 lb (450g) dried figs
6-8 bay leaves (I also added some juniper berries)
1/2 pint (300ml) wine, cider or water (I used some ... sherry - in this case Sandeman's Dry Don Amontillado)
For The Glaze
6oz (175g) soft brown sugar
I also used cloves to stud the ham and a little English mustard.
Enquire when you buy the ham if it needs soaking; nowadays this is usually unnecessary, though it may need 3-4 hours in a large tub or the baby's bath! And make sure it will go in your oven.
Take a double layer of extra wide tinfoil and lay it on your largest roasting tin; make a bed of dried figs and bay leaves (and the juniper if, like me, you like it ? I took a small handful of dried berries and bruised them lightly), lay your ham on top of it and add the wine, water, cider or sherry.
Take another double layer of tinfoil to cover the ham and seal the edges together very tightly all round, but leaving room inside for the steam to surround the ham.
Bake in a slow oven (300F/150C/Gas 2) for 4-6 hours. A meat thermometer plunged through the tinfoil into the interior of the ham will tell you how it's doing. Cook to a reading of 180F/80C.
To Glaze
You can unparcel the ham while still hot, skin it, score the fat across and across diamond fashion and baste with the sugar mixed with??pint of the cooking liquid. (I also studded the ham with cloves and added a teaspoon of made-up English mustard to the glaze mixture).
Then bake in a moderate oven (350F/180C/Gas 4) for 20-30 minutes, basting from time to time to a good brown.
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Now, this is well worth making this from scratch, but it's also a great way to use up left-overs from your roast chicken (see below).
From scratch:
Poach a whole chicken with a little onion, coriander root and a little crushed garlic, until the chicken is cooked. Remove the bird and set aside. Strain and season the broth to taste with salt and white pepper.
Cook the rice in the usual way, substituting water for the broth.
Serve the chicken in slices on the rice. On the side, serve a bowl of the broth, adding to it a little chopped cucumber and some fresh coriander.
Also on the side, serve this nam jim:
1 tbsp yellow bean sauce
1 tbsp rice vinegar
1-2 bird's eye chillies, sliced
1 tsp sugar (palm sugar, if you can get it)
1 piece of ginger, about 2 inches long
1 tsp soy sauce
a small handful of chopped fresh coriander
1 tbsp chicken broth
Peel the ginger, and grind it to paste (or slice very finely). Add the chillies and coriander. Stir together, and combine with the other ingredients. Serve.
If you're using left-overs:
Make the broth from your chicken carcase, as though you were making stock. Then use your cold, roast chicken in place of the poached chicken. Everything else remains the same. It makes a fine, reviving breakfast, or a very yummy lunch.
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