Tag: ham

Turkey roll

As Christmas gets ever closer, if you haven’t got your food sorted, there’s no need to panic – it might be time to cheat! And cheating doesn’t mean poorer quality when you buy from Tesco’s Finest range. Don’t spend time fiddling around with bacon and sausages – buy your pigs already in blankets! Roasties can be hit and miss – make sure yours are always a hit with Finest Goose Fat Roast Potatoes or follow our easy recipe. Add Christmas cake, pud and mince pies to your shopping list and make sure you keep our roast turkey with olde English chestnut stuffing recipe handy and you’re all set for the big day. Happy Christmas! Nichola Palmer – Recipes Editor, goodtoknow

A delicious, moist and tender beef fillet wrapped in crusty puff pastry. A red wine sauce accompanies the beef. Great for Sunday lunch or dinner celebrations

Serves: 12
Prep time: 45 mins
Cooking time: 1 hr 20 mins
Total time: 2 hrs 5 mins
Skill level: Bit of effort
Costs: Mid-price

Salt and freshly ground black pepper
1-1.5kg (2¼-3lb) beef fillet
60g (2oz) butter
2 shallots, peeled and chopped
2 cloves garlic, peeled and crushed
250g (8oz) chestnut mushrooms, finely chopped
2 teaspoons chopped fresh thyme leaves
250g tub mascarpone cheese
2 tbs wholegrain mustard
2 x 80g packs Parma ham
375g packet ready-rolled puff pastry
1 medium egg, beaten

For the sauce:

2 tbs olive oil
350g (12oz) shallots, peeled and chopped
2-3 cloves garlic, peeled and crushed
3 tbs tomato purée
2 tbs balsamic vinegar
200ml (7fl oz) red wine
300ml (½ pint) hot beef stock

This recipe is a great idea for an alternative to turkey for Christmas dinner.

Season beef well. Heat 30g (1oz) butter in a large frying pan over a medium heat and, when foaming, put the fillet in pan and brown it all over for 4-5 mins, taking care not to let the butter burn. Cool meat, and cover.
Meanwhile, melt rest of butter in the pan, add the chopped shallots and cook for 1 min. Add the garlic, mushrooms and thyme and fry for a few mins.
Beat the mascarpone with the mustard until smooth. Mix in mushroom mixture. Season.
Lay half the Parma ham slices on a large piece of cling film with slices overlapping. Spread half the mushroom mixture on one side of the beef, then turn it over on top of the Parma ham. Spread rest of mushroom mixture over top and sides of beef, then wrap the rest of the Parma ham slices round, overlapping on top of the mushroom mixture. Wrap in cling film and chill in the fridge.
Heat the oven to Gas Mark 7 or 220°C. Unroll the pastry and cut off a third. Roll out the smaller piece to 5mm (¼in) thickness and 2.5cm (1in) bigger than the beef. Prick several times with a fork. Transfer to a baking sheet and bake for 12-15 mins or until brown and crisp. Allow to cool for a few mins, then trim to the size of the beef. Remove the cling film from the beef and place on the cooked pastry, brushing pastry edges with egg.
Roll out the rest of the pastry to a rectangle 25 x 30cm (10 x 12in). Cut 10 diagonal slashes in the pastry. Cover the beef with the pastry, tucking the ends under the cooked pastry base. Brush with beaten egg. Cook on a baking sheet for 40 mins for rare to medium-rare; 45 mins for medium. Leave to stand for 10 mins before serving.
For the red wine sauce: Heat the olive oil in a pan, and fry shallots until soft, about 10 mins. Add garlic and tomato purée and cook for 1 min, then add the balsamic vinegar. Bubble for 1 min, before adding red wine. Continue to boil for a few mins to reduce, then add the beef stock and boil for 10 mins more until reduced by a third. Serve with the beef. Freeze unbaked. Defrost overnight in the fridge. Cook as above.

By Woman’s Weekly

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Christmas Hamlets – To Eat or Not to Eat Will Not Be a Question

I had been fantasizing for weeks about doing a whole,
home-cured ham for the holidays. I always get lots of requests for this kind of
thing, and was fully prepared to give it a go, but then a strange thing
happened, I heard the word “Hamlet.”

It was on TV, and completely unrelated to
cured pork, but for whatever reason the word made me think of cute little,
individually sized hams. That’s all it took, and off I went trying to figure out how
to make this thing happen. I knew I wanted a process that wouldn’t require the
pink curing salts used in commercially produced hams, not because they are
unhealthy, they’re not, but because it would be hard for some of you to find.

I’ve read things in the past about using celery’s naturally
occurring nitrates to accomplish the same thing, so that’s what I used, and as
you’ll hear me say several times in the video, I was thrilled with the results!
While not exactly like a classic city ham, this was very close. The firm, moist
texture was great, the salt level was spot on, and since we used loin instead
of leg, there’s even a little less fat.

I’m afraid I won’t be able to help much with questions about
how to do this with bigger or different cuts, as this was my first foray into
home-cured ham, so if you are going to attempt this, please go to a good
butcher to get the exact same size “chops” that I used. If you do, and follow
these simple steps, I think you will have a holiday meal “to die for.” Sorry, but you didn’t expect me to do this entire post without one forced reference to
the play, did you? Enjoy!

Ingredients for 4 Hamlets:

4 thick-cut (10-12 oz) center cut, boneless pork loin
“chops”

For the brine:

1/2 cup *kosher salt plus 1 tablespoon

(*if using fine table salt, you’d only need barely 1/3 cup)

3/4 cup packed brown sugar

1 tsp finely ground black pepper

1 tsp allspice

1/2 ground cloves

1 bay leaf

1 1/2 cups boiling water to dissolve salt and sugar

3 celery stalks (about 2 cups chopped)

1/2 yellow onion

3 cloves garlic

2 cups cold water to puree vegetables in blender, plus add
enough cold water to make 2 quarts total volume of brine

Brine for 48 hours before roasting

For the glaze:

1/4 cup packed brown sugar

2 tbsp Dijon mustard

pinch of cayenne

whole cloves as needed

Roast at 325 degrees F. until an internal temp of 145
degrees F. is reached.

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Christmas turkey alternatives

If you’re getting a bit bored of the same old Christmas turkey, we’re got plenty of alternatives that will make a lovely main on the big day. Whether it’s a small duck or an extra large goose, there are plenty of other meats and vegetarian dishes that can take the place of the traditional festive bird.

We’re here to make Christmas as stress-free as possible and that includes making sure the main event – Christmas dinner – goes off without a hitch. It’s such a big part of Christmas day so there’s a lot of pressure to make sure it goes smoothly and that everyone is happy with the food choices you make.

We’ve rounded up loads of classic roast dinner main recipes which are sure to please the family. Succulent ham, tender beef or an earthy nut roast, our selection of turkey alternatives includes a great variety of different flavours and tastes that will suit veggies, meat-lovers, fussy eaters and of course the kids!

Don’t forget to save any of the recipes that you like in your very own Recipes Book. It’s the perfect way to keep all of your favourites recipes in one place, which is ideal for Christmas Day. You won’t have to spend ages searching for that delicious dish that caught your eye.

From all of the goodtoknow team, we hope you have a lovely – and delicious – Christmas!