Easy Christmas Dishes: Gammon, Sprouts, and Parsnips

We recently teamed up with Ameer of the fantastic Choola street food. He joined us for our Christmas tasting event at the shop and cooked up these three simple yet delicious recipes for us. We are so excited to share these with you.

Cola & blood orange marmalade gammon

Ingredients:

• Gammon joint approx. 2kg
• 2L bottle of Cola (any full-sugar variety)
• 3-4 x Bay leaves
• 4-5 x cloves
• 50g x ginger (sliced)
• 2 x star anise
  For the Glaze:
• 200g jar of Blood orange marmalade (or you can use your preferred marmalade)

Method:

1. Add gammon and spices into a pot, with the full bottle of cola. Bring to a boil, then gently
   simmer for 2.5 hours.
2. Carefully remove gammon from the pot and let it air dry for 10-15 minutes.
3. Remove the skin, leaving the fat on the gammon and score with a knife in a criss-cross
   diamond shape.
4. Glaze the gammon with the marmalade – be generous with this.
5. Put the glazed gammon into a pre-heated oven (220 degrees fan oven) for 10 minutes until
   the glaze is bubbly and sticky.
6. Rest and serve.
   

Note: For extra flavour, you can also strain the liquid from the pot where the gammon was cooked and
reduce this on the hob until it’s thick enough to coat the back of a spoon. You can either pour this
over the gammon after it’s cooked in the oven or add this reduction to your gravy.

Bacon Brussells sprouts

Ingredients:

• 1 kg brussels sprouts
• 150g smoked bacon bits (or any smoked bacon sliced into small strips)
• 50g unsalted butter
• Cracked black pepper and sea salt to taste
  

Method:

1. Trim the Brussells sprouts and par boil for 3-4 minutes. They should have a good bite to them.
   Drain, then leave to cool and air dry.
2. Fry the bacon lardons in a pan at medium heat until lightly browned.
3. Add your brussels sprouts and butter then sauté for 3-4 minutes.
4. Finish with cracked black pepper and salt to taste.
   

Note: You can prepare a lot of things in advance to give yourself some breathing room on Christmas
day. For example, you can par boil the brussels sprouts the day before. Or even, get all the
ingredients on a tray the day before and simply oven bake on the day.

Turmeric and honey parsnips

Ingredients:

• 1 kg parsnips (peeled and cut into thick batons – chips style)
• 100g honey
• 80g unsalted butter (small cubes)
• ¼ teaspoon turmeric
• 1 teaspoon fennel seeds
• Salt to taste
  

Method:

• Par boil parsnips with turmeric and a little salt for 5 mins. Drain, then leave to cool and air
  dry for 10 mins.
• Place the parsnips on a baking tray lined with baking parchment. Add the butter, fennel
  seeds, salt and drizzle the honey over the parsnips. Give them a little mix to spread evenly.
• Bake in a preheated oven (200 degrees fan) for 18 minutes, turning half way through.
  

Note: Alternatively you may also use your air fryer (200 degrees for 15- 18 minutes), or simply pan-fry until golden.

Check out Choolas instagram or find them at the Pitt Street Market in Edinburgh Thursday to Sunday.