Christmas is the time of year when everybody indulges. For me, growing up in Wollongong on the New South Wales south coast, it was a time to gorge on seafood. Luscious Lake Illawarra prawns, fish and assorted seafood served with salad was always a hit.
If your Christmas lunch also includes chilled prawns and seafood, a tasty accompaniment is a lemon myrtle and lemon aspen mayonnaise. Lemon aspen is a pale yellow indigenous fruit with citrus and eucalyptus tones, and is native to tropical north Queensland. This mayonnaise makes seafood pop and has an aromatic citrus scent without the bitterness of pure lemons.
Lemon myrtle and lemon aspen mayonnaise
1 cup egg mayonnaise
1 tsp ground lemon myrtle
10 lemon aspens, juiced (if you can’t get their hands on these use the juice of half a lemon)
1 tsp honey
Stir the mayonnaise, lemon myrtle and juiced lemon aspens together. Heat the honey slightly, then whisk through the mayonnaise.
Growing up, every now and then we’d have the traditional Christmas feast with baked ham, roast turkey and succulent pork thrown in with lashings of roasted vegetables.
My aunt always had charge of the kitchen. As a kid, it was great to watch her and my mum work their magic. The kitchen was the heart of the house, and what they produced really did feel like magic to me. They’d put all these meats and vegetables together and throw it in an oven and it would come out looking amazing. I’d sit and watch them, trying to get my paws in for a taste, only to be whacked with a spoon.
But that was only half the story: there were desserts too. My mum’s classic trifle, with a batch made for the neighbours as well, was legendary. Christmas was a day of indulgence and spending time with the mob.
Mum passed quite young and my aunt about 10 years ago, but they live on in our memories. These days, Christmas is about spending time with my dad, cousins, nephews, nieces and friends (my cousin’s place is like a revolving door on Christmas Day), and we carry on the traditions we had growing up: laughing, playing cards, singing really bad “koori-okie” and telling stories about relatives past and present, which puts a smile on Dad’s and everyone’s faces.
Life is too short. Embrace the moment and spoil yourself with family, even though now and then they drive us crazy, because Christmas is a day when feasting should be celebrated with the ones you love, with the addition of bubbles and bad singing.
Here, I’m sharing a recipe with you that I am cooking for the family this Christmas: a baked ham with a glaze steeped in indigenous herbs, orange juice and honey, baked with vegetables and topped with muntrie berries.
Muntrie berries are a native fruit that grow in south-east Australia and around the Coorong and Eyre Peninsula region in South Australia. Also known as emu apple, they have the flavour of apple and cinnamon.
If you haven’t yet (and I’m going to sound like Molly Meldrum here), do yourself a favour and get out there and explore the internet to find these foods, herbs and fruits. One excellent source is Outback Pride, which lists local stockists. You’ll be doing your palate a favour and will wonder why they aren’t our national cuisine.
The ham can be served with steamed greens and a traditional gravy.
On that note, Merry Christmas and cook up a storm!
Baked ham with muntrie berries and roasted vegetables
Serves 12
1 smoked ham (7 to 9kg net weight)
1 ½ cup muntrie berries
Glaze
½ tsp saltbush
½ tsp native pepper
½ tsp sea parsley
½ tsp bush tomato, ground
50ml orange juice
½ cup honey
Roasted vegetables
6 carrots
6 parsnips
6 onions (small)
½ kg chat potatoes
½ pumpkin, sliced into four
Preheat the to oven 180C. Take the skin off the ham to expose the fat. If you take the ham straight out of the fridge, sit it in warm water for 5 minutes to soften and the skin will peel off easily. Score the fat.
To make the glaze, mix the saltbush, native pepper, sea parsley and bush tomato with the orange juice and sit for 5 minutes to let the herbs swell and release their flavours, then and honey. Brush the ham with the glaze.
Drop the oven temperature to 150C and cook the ham for 1 to 1½ hours, or up to 2 hours depending on the oven. Brush the ham every 15 to 20 minutes.
Sear the vegetables in a nonstick frying pan until they take on a bit of colour. Brush the vegetables with olive oil, place in the oven and they should be ready when the ham is cooked.
If you have any leftovers at the end of the Christmas meal, the ham can be wrapped in a clean wet cloth, placed on a tray, covered with clingwrap and stored in the fridge.
The ham can be sliced off and used in sandwiches, salads, fry-ups and ham and eggs for breakfast. Leave a bit of meat on the bones then freeze them to use later in a hearty pea and ham soup.
