While I almost didn't prepare anything for our Christmas Noche Buena, I was very much prepared for the New Year Media Noche. Celebrating New Year is more of a big deal for me because I love beginnings, I love starting anew.
Our table spread on New Year's eve consisted mostly of fruits, a noodle dish, leche flan (for dessert), champagne to toast to the new year and my main, Baked Ham.
Our table spread on New Year's eve consisted mostly of fruits, a noodle dish, leche flan (for dessert), champagne to toast to the new year and my main, Baked Ham.
It has been my dream to bake my own ham so I decided last year that I will try my best to make one for the new year. Thank God I found half of a leg ham in the supermarket a week before Christmas. It's so hard to find a small whole leg ham here (everything is so big!) so our best option was to get a half leg.
I started preparing the ham on the 30th December. Boiled the ham in pineapple juice, beer and brown sugar for an hour (no precise measurements, just "to taste"). Then sliced off the skin, scored the ham and pushed whole cloves unto the ham. The cloves add flavor to the ham and at the same time serves as decoration. Covered in foil, I stored the ham inside the fridge overnight.
Three hours before midnight of 31st December, I baked the ham (180-200 degrees) for an hour while brushing sauce from boiled ham unto the surface of the ham every 20 minutes. On the last quarter of the hour, I placed two pineapple slices on top of the ham.
It was a good first try and the Husband approved!
I cooked one of our favorite noodle dishes, Sotanghon Noodles with Scallops and Snow Peas. If you want the recipe, you can find it here.
At the stroke of midnight, we welcomed 2011 with hopeful, happy faces as we toasted "Cheers to a brighter 2011!"
