Boxing Day delights

Season’s greetings – and two mouth-watering recipes – from Michelin-star chef, Nick Nairn

Nick Nairn reveals the best way to use up leftover Christmas ham, plus a delicious recipe for sticky toffee Christmas pudding

Ilove a ham on Christmas Day but I usually have some left over and this is my favourite way to use it up. The schnitzel crust brings welcome texture and the sauce elevates it to a gourmet eating experience that’s just perfect for eating on Boxing Day.

Today’s second recipe is for a sticky toffee Christmas pudding which combines two of my favourite puds. It’s ideal for making in advance. You can easily reheat it in the microwave but my favourite way of doing it is to heat the sauce and immerse the cubes of pudding and allow them to absorb as much sauce as possible.

Not one for the slimmers, but utterly delicious! Spiced Ayrshire Ham Schnitzel, Parsley and Caper Sauce, Mini Fondant Potato and Sprouts in Bacon Crumb

SERVES 4

FOR THE HAM 700g unsmoked boneless gammon joint (tied) 1 white onion

1 carrot

2 celery stalks

1 bay leaf

FOR THE SCHNITZEL

4 x 160g piece cooked ham

50g plain flour

Half a tsp grated nutmeg

Half a tsp ground cinnamon

Quarter of a tsp ground cloves

1 egg, beaten

200g panko breadcrumbs

30g unsalted butter

30ml olive oil

FOR THE FONDANT POTATOES

24 even-sized small potatoes

175g unsalted butter

Salt

Freshly ground black pepper

FOR THE PARSLEY AND CAPER SAUCE

30g unsalted butter

25g plain flour

200ml reserved ham stock

30ml double cream

20g baby capers

10g chopped parsley

FOR THE SPROUTS IN BACON CRUMB

200g Brussels sprouts

50g cooked smoked pancetta

20g unsalted butter

Preheat the oven to 180°C. Cover the ham with cold water in a large lidded pan and bring to the boil. Drain the water, add fresh cold water, chopped vegetables, and bring back to the boil. Reduce the heat and simmer for around 1 hour 20 minutes (20 minutes per 500g). Remove ham, cool completely and retain stock.

Carve the ham into nice thick 160g pieces. Mix the flour with the ground spices and coat the pieces of ham in the flour, dusting off any excess flour. Place the floured ham into the beaten egg and then into the panko breadcrumbs to give the ham a good covering.

Heat a large frying pan, add oil and then butter. When the butter foams add the schnitzel and cook until the breadcrumbs are golden brown, turning two or three times. Total cooking time around six minutes.

For the fondant potatoes, use an ovenproof frying pan which will hold all the potatoes in a single layer. Slice the tops and bottoms off the potatoes which should give you unpeeled cylinders around one inch high. Cut the butter into cubes and line the base of the frying pan with them. Add the potatoes, cut side down, on top of butter to fill the pan, season well.

Pour in enough cold water to come to the top of the potatoes and heat on low-medium until it’s just bubbling gently but not too hot as water will evaporate too quickly and burn potatoes. After around 30 minutes the potatoes should be nicely browned, and water should have evaporated. If not quite cooked turn the potatoes round and cook in the oven for a further 10 minutes. Remove from the oven and leave to stand in a warm place until ready to serve. They’ll need 5-10 minutes for the butter to be absorbed.

For the sauce, melt the butter in a suitable saucepan before adding in the sieved flour. Cook this mixture out gently for a few minutes until it smells biscuity then add all of the stock and whisk until it thickens. Finish with the cream, capers and parsley and adjust the seasoning with salt and freshly ground black pepper.

Wash and prepare the sprouts using a small paring knife to criss-cross the base and cook in seasoned boiling water until tender. Refresh the sprouts straight away in iced water to retain the colour.

Chop the pancetta into cubes and in a dry pan fry gently until crisp before placing in a paper towel and cool completely draining away any excess fat. Use a food processor or a spice grinder to blitz the pancetta into a crumb. Cut the sprouts in half and gently fry in the butter, coating them in the pancetta crumb to serve.