Boiled Ham - Ver Jus, Cloves, Whisky Mustard, and Lime Marmalade

I suppose I should have blogged a day by day record of the cooking from the larder.  The problem is that with this '2 days at home and 5 days living on the boat in London' lark I do a huge amount of cooking on Saturday and Sunday, and then live off buckets of soup and stew during the week.

We've no shortage of food really, and have freezers to thank for the abundance and variety that we are able to enjoy even without going to the supermarket for a month.  For instance this weekend I boiled a gammon joint that I had purchased very cheaply after Christmas (supermarket had a super cut price deal on them and I bought about 4 of 3-4kg each - made two into gammon steaks and froze the other two whole).

The gammon was simmered gently in ver jus (green grape juice - several gallons of which I was able to make when we had to cut the neighbour's grape vine back off the garage roof last September.  It had been a mast year and I had to think of something to do with about 40kg of unripe grapes.  Result?  Lots of frozen very sour grape juice.)

Anyway the gammon simmered in sour grape juice, a couple of tablespoons of grainy whisky mustard we'd made before Christmas  2012, half a dozen cloves, and half a cup or so of runny lime marmalade - a disaster from about 14 months ago which I am slowly working my way through (see earlier posts on lime marmalade....)

The result was just divine.  After it was cooked, I strained the liquid and thickened it up to make a zingy mustard sauce for the hot ham.

Of course we will be eating cold ham with everything for a week. 

No 45 - Upside Down Citrus Cake

'Birds on Bikes', a group of local women, had their annual tour of the Hayling Art Trail last weekend.  It was followed by a meal and social gathering at the large and very welcoming home of one of the organizers of Birds on Bikes.  The invitation to join them was accepted with delight, and as the main course was to be curry, I had no problem deciding what to make to contribute to deserts; there are still jars of my unset marmalade lurking on my top shelf.... 

So in addition to the Lime Marmalade Cheesecake (see No 36), I made this marmalade cake with oranges and lime marmalade.  (Lime so goes with curry.)  This looks like the sort of thing that could easily weld itself to a baking tin, so I hauled out the silicon bakeware.  

(I hate this stuff, it's rubbish for cooking a Christmas cake in, but for cakes that weld to the tin, this turned out to be just the ticket.)   This is a 23cm cake pan.   If you want a deeper cake use a smaller pan.

Upside Down Citrus & Marmalade Cake

Grease the bottom and sides of the cake pan with a heavy layer of unsalted butter.  Sprinkle in 2 tablespoons of demerrara sugar and arrange thinly sliced oranges in there.

Pre-heat the oven at 180 degrees C.

Cream 200 grams of unsalted butter & 200 grams of golden caster sugar until it is the colour of french vanila ice-cream.

Beat in 4 large eggs, 1 at a time with lots of beating in between.

Add the zest and juice of an orange and zest off a lemon, and 3 generous tablespoons of lime marmalade.

More beating.

Fold in 200 grams of self-raising flour and 50 grams of ground almonds.

Dollop the mix on top of the arranged orange slices, swipe your spatula round the top a bit to even it out, and bake it for about half an hour (in your pre-heated oven).

When it has cooled a bit, tip it onto the serving plate and dress the top with 3-4 tablespoons of marmlade.  Your marmalade won't be an unset disaster like mine so you might need to warm it up first to make it runny.

Et voila...

....marmalade cake

Sorry about the pink cake-carrying understorey.  That colour combination was just so 'in-your-face' I had to photograph it like that.

And the astute among you will have noticed that the photgraphs are two different cakes - of course they are; one of them had to come to work to count for the blog.

No 36 - Lime Marmalade Cheesecake.

As promised recipe that can use Lime Marmalade....  I am not a fan of gelatine type cheesecakes prefering by far the baked kind, but this went down a storm at home and at work.  (Make sure it is well chilled before you transport it anywhere)

Lime Marmalade Cheesecake

Base (for a 9" loose bottom baking tin):
50 g melted butter
1/4 cup (50g) of castor sugar
1/2 packet of gingernuts smashed up in the blender (of use a strong paper bag & a rolling pin).

Put a circle of baking paper in the bottom of the tin, and press this mix into place.  Chill it while you are making the filling.

Filling:
225g soft cream cheese (full fat)
2 eggs (whites and yolks separated)
1/2 cup castor sugar
juice and grated rind of 1 lemon
150 ml cream
4 Tb lime marmalade
15g gelatine powder dissolved in 4 Tb boiling water

Soften the cream cheese and beat in the egg yolks and half the sugar.  Add the lemon, marmalade and cream and blend well.  Then stir in the well dissolved gelatine mix.

Set that aside until it is on the point of setting.  Meanwhile beat the egg whites until stiff and whisk in the remaining sugar until you get meringue consistency.  Fold this into the cheese mix, pour it over the base, and gently shake the tin to level the top.

Chill fo 3-4 hours. 

Topping:
another 4 Tb Lime Marmalade (that's the best part of half a jar of my runny batch gone by now....)
50 g chopped toasted nuts
Whipped cream

Warm the marmlade (your's won't be runny like mine) enough to make it soft spreading consistency (runny is really good) and spread it over the top and sides.  Coat the top and sides with the chopped nuts. 

Decorate or serve with whipped cream - if your cholesterol count will allow.