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Serves: 8
Prep time: 45 mins
Total time:
Recipe photograph by Toby Scott
Recipe by Dominic Taylor
‘As a chef, even when I’m away from a professional setting I’m always looking for ways to think outside the box when it comes to cooking. When you’re home-cooking a meal for family or friends you still want to impress in a way that feels effortless. I am very fond of classical cookery. Ham was something we ate at Christmas all the time and lends itself well to sweetness as well as spice. I feel really excited about cooking this dish this year as a celebration centrepiece,' says chef Dominic
Serves: 8
Prep time: 45 mins
Total time:
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Mains Gluten-free Christmas Winter Dairy-free
Nutritional information (per serving)
Calories
841Kcal
Fat
24gr
Saturates
7gr
Carbs
89gr
Sugars
47gr
Protein
68gr
Salt
6.5gr
Dominic Taylor
London-born Dom was taught to cook at an early age by his Caribbean parents. After an established career as a chef both in the US and London, Dom realised a long-held dream of bringing Caribbean cooking to a wider audience, starring in Channel 4’s Five Star Chef: Britian’s Next Great Chef. Earlier this year, he opened The Good Front Room in London’s Langham hotel, serving his unique spin on Caribbean food.
See more of Dominic Taylor’s recipes
Dominic Taylor
London-born Dom was taught to cook at an early age by his Caribbean parents. After an established career as a chef both in the US and London, Dom realised a long-held dream of bringing Caribbean cooking to a wider audience, starring in Channel 4’s Five Star Chef: Britian’s Next Great Chef. Earlier this year, he opened The Good Front Room in London’s Langham hotel, serving his unique spin on Caribbean food.
See more of Dominic Taylor’s recipes
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Ingredients
- 1 cinnamon stick
- 2 bay leaves
- 3 thyme sprigs
- a 2kg unsmoked gammon joint
- 1 tbsp black peppercorns
- 1 tbsp whole cloves
- 2 scotch bonnet peppers
- 1 garlic bulb
- 2 carrots
- 3 celery sticks
- 2 onions
For the 'jam'
- ½ x 200g jar tamarind pulp
- 200g light brown sugar
- 15g root ginger, grated
- zest and juice of ½ an orange
- 1 star anise (optional)
- 2 cloves (optional)
- 1 cinnamon stick
- 2 tsp wholegrain mustard
For the nutmeg-roasted sweet potatoes
- 2kg sweet potatoes, peeled and chopped into large chunks
- 4 tbsp olive oil
- 4-6 garlic cloves, crushed
- 4 thyme sprigs, leaves picked
- whole nutmeg, to grate
- sea salt flakes
- zest of 1 lime
- 1 chilli, thinly sliced
Step by step
Get ahead
Boil the gammon and make the tamarind jam a day ahead; remove the cooked ham from the fridge an hour before glazing and roasting. Leftovers keep in the fridge for up to 5 days.
- Tie the cinnamon stick, bay leaves and thyme together with kitchen string. Add to a deep pot with the gammon joint, peppercorns, cloves and whole scotch bonnet peppers. Cut the garlic bulb in half horizontally and roughly chop the carrots, celery and onions then add all the veg to the pot, plus cold water to cover the gammon. Bring to the boil, skim off any scum and simmer for 1 ¼- 1½ hours until cooked (with a core temperature of 75°C, tested with a digital thermometer). Set the ham aside to cool on a plate or board.
- To make the tamarind-ginger ‘jam’, put all the ingredients apart from the mustard in a pan. Bring to the boil, stirring until the sugar has dissolved, then simmer gently for 8-10 minutes until it has a runny honey consistency and coats the back of a spoon. Pass through a metal sieve, mix in the mustard and set aside to cool and thicken.
- When ready to glaze the ham, preheat the oven to 220°C, fan 200°C, gas 7 and line a roasting tin with foil. Remove the skin from the ham, leaving about 1cm thickness of fat. Score this in a criss-cross pattern with a small knife and place the joint in the tin. Drizzle half of the jam generously over the ham and roast for 15 minutes.
- Meanwhile, toss the sweet potatoes with the oil, garlic and thyme plus plenty of seasoning, and grate over about a quarter of a whole nutmeg. Spread out in a large roasting tin. When the 15 minutes glazing time is up, add this tin below the ham. Drizzle the ham with the remaining glaze and roast for another 15 minutes, making sure it doesn’t catch and burn.
- Take the ham out of the oven and leave to rest. Roast the sweet potatoes for a further 15 minutes or until tender and caramelised. Sprinkle with flaky salt, lime zest, and chilli then grate over more nutmeg to serve, alongside the sliced ham.
