Baked Ham with Hibiscus Ginger Glaze

My appa was a big fan of Christmas festivities. He loved the Christmas tree and the nativity scenes - we set them up year after year at home. Since he passed away on the 24th of December, for many years amma and I didn't celebrate Christmas.  Then my children came along and I started enjoying the festival once again.  In India Christmas is all about the food, family, new clothes, carolling and decorations.  Gifts and Santa were foreign concepts when I was a kid. Of course now it is very commercial in India too.  I try to make Christmas very much about food and family as much as I can and when my dear friend Munavar suggested that I make a festive ham, I decided to dive right in.  I have not made such a big ham - but we had invited a few youngsters and hoped that this ham would be demolished with a few left overs for lunch the next day.

Updated: New pictures 

Ingredients:  

 3.5 kg of Ham - to feed 9 adults

For the glaze:

1 bottle of preserved hibiscus

2 tablespoons ginger – grated finely

1 star anise

1 stick cinnamon

1/3 cup brown sugar

1/3 cup maple syrup

1 tablespoon orange marmalade

1 fresh orange, juiced

3 teaspoons chilli jam (optional)

salt to taste

 

For studding:

A handful of cloves - Thank you, Deeban, for the wonderfully fragrant cloves from your garden!  They were just perfect for this.

Preparing the Ham:

Here is a picture of the ham with the rind on:

The first thing to do is make a cut at the "handle end" (joint end) of the ham like this and cover the joint with Aluminium foil. You will be using this end to hold the ham to move it when you are cooking it.

There are many methods you can follow to remove the rind. I made several shallow cuts with a sharp knife and gently removed the outer layer, leaving the fat intact.  Then using the same sharp knife, score the ham diagonally to the left first and then to the right, making a chequered pattern. Place a clove in the centre of the check - as many as you like.

The checked pattern is hard to see until you bake the ham and the lines start to get defined.  Turn the oven on to 160 degrees C.

Once the cloves have been studded on to the ham, prepare the glaze.  Take a saucepan and add 1/3 cup of hibiscus liquid from the preserved hibiscus and all the other ingredients.  Mix well and heat it till it becomes a thick, gooey, delicious, fragrant liquid.  All the sugar should also have dissolved by now.

Take a large roasting dish and line with two sheets of baking paper.  Place ham inside and brush with the glaze.  Put the ham in the oven.

Brush more glaze on the ham every 20 minutes till it becomes caramelised and succulent.  This will take about an hour and a half to two hours.  You also have to turn the ham around and cook the bottom half around the half way mark so that the entire leg is beautifully cooked and caramelised.

Take it out of the oven and add the finishing touches.

I used the cinnamon and star anise from the glaze as a decoration on the ham.  I also stuck the hibiscus on to the ham for added dramatic effect and threw on some pomegranate seeds for a different shade of red.

Serve with roasted vegetables, salad and chilly jam , mustard and any condiments you like.

The picture below is from Christmas 2022 - with hibiscus and some raspberries.

Merry Christmas!