Brooke Fraser's Fig Glazed Ham!

Recipe: Brooke Fraser's Fig Glazed Ham!

Author: Brooke Fraser

Today I’m sharing with you my favourite favourite favourite ham recipe. It is to. die. for. and so easy that it’s kind of unfair.

I made this at the first Christmas I ‘hosted’ as a married woman and it was a smash hit! It was definitely a big deal for me to leave my family Christmas in NZ (four generations, 30 people) and have my first Christmas with my new family in Australia, but this ham helped me start a tradition of my own. I can’t even remember where I got the recipe, it might have even been out of a supermarket catalogue pullout, but it is now handwritten in my recipe journal and a firm favourite. Enjoy hot at Christmas lunch, then cold over the following days in sandwiches, salads or on it’s own. I even eat the cooled, caramelized glaze with a spoon. So wrong yet so right.

Here it is!

FIG GLAZED HAM

Prep time 20 minutes/Cooking time 40 minutes/Serves 6 (at least)

3-4kg half leg ham (7-9 lbs)
½ cup maple syrup
1 cup fig jam
1 cup macadamia nuts, roughly chopped (I add more)

1. Preheat oven to 160°C (320°F)
Remove rind from ham by easing it off gently with your fingers. Use the tip of a sharp knife to score the layers of fat at 2cm (0.8 inch) intervals.

2. Put syrup and jam in a pan over a medium heat and stir until jam has dissolved. Remove from heat and stir in nuts. Put ham in a deep baking dish, spread syrup miture over the top and bake for 40 minutes until golden. Allow to rest for 10 minutes before carving.

Not the most amazing presentation last year, I’ll admit that, but we were eating on a porch on the sand in a rented house, so an al foil tin from the local grocery store was the best we could do! Still tasted redunkulous.