Orange Ham with Celery Mash and Chard

This is a lovely Sunday dinner or festive meal. A ham cooked with an orange marmalade glaze and served with a celery root mash  and some quickly sauteed Swiss chard . I rarely make ham but, I thought it would be nice for a change. The ham is salty and sweet with the glaze and the smooth, creamy puree gives you the mouth feel of potatoes without the need for gravy.The Swiss chard is a mild green served with a squeeze of lemon at the last moment.

You will Need:

Ham

• a fully cooked Ham (mine is a small half good for two)
• 1/2 cup orange marmalade
• 3 cloves crushed garlic
• 2 tbsp honey/maple mustard
• 1 tbsp lemon juice (1/2 small lemon juiced)
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 1 tbsp cider vinegar
• 1/2 orange juiced (the other half you can slice rings and use in the pan/on ham)
• cloves to stud the ham
• salt/pepper
• 1 onion chopped in big chunks

Celery Puree

• celery root
• enough milk or water to barely cover celery root chunks
• 2 tbsp butter
• 1 clove garlic chopped

Swiss Chard

• bunch of Swiss chard (stems chopped fine and leaves cut in strips)
• 2 cloves garlic chopped finely
• 1/2 lemon juiced
• salt/pepper

Heat oven to 350 degrees F.

Step 1: I could not buy a spiral sliced ham so I just scored the cooked ham with a knife in thin rings. I sliced almost down to the middle of the ham. This allows the glaze and the clove scent to go into the ham. I took cloves and stuck them in the top to perfume the ham while cooking.

Put ham into a baking pan with chopped onions on the bottom to serve as a raised bed.

Step 2: If you have seen Celery root in the store and always wondered what to do with it this is a good way to try it. It is very hard and you slice off the ugly outer with a large sharp knife and get down to the clean white inner. You will waste some of the flesh but, it is not an expensive vegetable. It has a mild celery taste.

Step 3: carefully cut in half and then put the flat sides down on the board to cut into large chunks.

Step 4: place in large pot with chopped garlic and almost cover with milk (you can use water or chicken stock)- you don't want too much liquid because you don't strain the milk after you have cooked the celery. I simply take the milk, the garlic and the celery and put into the food processor to puree while it is hot. I use milk to make it seem like mashed potatoes. You can puree in the food processor as long as you like to get a smooth texture. Taste and adjust with butter and salt/pepper. This can be returned to the pan and reheated right before serving.

Step 5: take all ingredients for the Ham glaze in put into a small saucepan. heat until melted and runny.

Step 6: spoon some of the glaze on top of the ham and you can add some slices of orange to the top of the ham or to the pan for flavour. Put in oven uncovered for 30 minutes and then glaze again and return for another 30 minutes.

Step 7: separate the stems from the leaves of the chard. I throw out any tough bottom portions of the stalks and chop finely. take the leaves and pile on top of each other then roll up lengthwise and slice (chiffonade)

You do this because the stalks take longer to cook then the leaves. I separate and cook stalks first then add leaves at the end.

Step 8: when ham is ready remove from oven. This is a fully cooked ham so you just need to heat through and get a nice glaze on top. Remove all cloves from top. Let rest while you prepare chard.

Step 9: in some olive oil fry stems on medium heat for a few minutes until still crunchy, add garlic then add leaves cooking until dark green. Will take a few more minutes. Just before serving add squeeze of lemon (do this at the table to avoid the chard from discolouring)

Step 10: reheat the celery root puree and slice ham topping it with any leftover glaze for a sticky sweet finish.

I like the outside sticky piece. There is also a wild rice salad on the plate which I will do in a separate post.

Big Pete lies the softer inner slices.

Sweet Sticky Ham candy slices!