How to cook Chinese Ham ... chicsanders' style!

It's not just beginning to look like Christmas...

it even smells and tastes like Christmas in my kitchen.

Presenting this year's Christmas Ham.

***

I learned how to cook Chinese Ham from my Nanay.

Every year, she would cook a minimum of two 

Chinese hams.  One for Christmas day and 

another for the New Year.

This year, I cooked the ham slightly different from

the usual recipe which requires pineapple or orange juice,

brown sugar, cinnamon, peppercorns and bay leaf.

Click the link below for Nanay's way of cooking

Chinese Ham

Nanay's Christmas Ham Recipe 

***

You will need the following:

Chinese Ham

Mountain Dew 1.5 liters

3 T anise seeds

white sugar 1 cup

Blow Torch

Pineapple slices

Maraschino cherries or Red Kaong

What I did:

Scraped off molds and wax that coats the ham.

Washed, scrubbed, brushed the ham. Rinsed it well.

(Actually, it was the angel who did this.)

I used to soak the ham in pineapple or four seasons juice

for 24 hours.  But this time, I didn't.

Boiled the ham in 1.5 liters of Mountain Dew.

It wasn't intentional. I intended to use Royal Tru Orange,

 but somehow,

the little-old-me, grabbed the Mountain Dew. Oh my...

Added 3 tablespoons of anise seeds.

Boiled the ham for almost three hours,

until there was no more liquid in the pot.

(Last year, the 'little-old-lazy' me used the crock pot)

When done cooking, I removed the thick skin of the ham.

Placed a cup of white sugar on top of the ham

and caramelized the sugar using a blow torch. 

Set it aside to cool the ham.

Garnished it with pineapple slices and maraschino cherries

or just our plain old local red kaong.

Will post the prettified Chinese Ham tomorrow

when I serve it during the Sanders' Christmas Dinner.

*** 

Chicsanders' Chinese Ham

served with Queso de Bola

and 'tasty' white Gardenia bread