Christmas Crasher

The fridge broke. It's true, on the day before Christmas Eve it died. All our food and drink had been bought and stashed and the fridge crashed and burned. Almost literally in the case of burning as the machine just got warmer despite the motor working very hard. We gave up on it in the end and fortunately it being cold in our shed, we were able to put perishables in there, where at a temperature close to what we would find in the fridge but at no cost, the food kept well until needed.

I didn't have to do any complex cooking this Christmas as we were away, but I did buy two large pieces of meat, a boned rolled shoulder of pork and a smoked gammon ham. Roasted the first for about 4 hours in a moderate oven (gas mark 5) after blasting it on full power for the first twenty minutes to get the crackling going.(Hint, put the pork uncovered in the bottom of the fridge ((or shed))after patting it dry with kitchen paper, provided the butcher has scored the skin well it will crackle up a treat).

Boiled up the ham and as soon as it had started to boil discarded the water - this gets rid of excess salt - and put in fresh, bringing it back to the boil then simmering gently for four hours. Believe me these were big pieces of meat. We had a small family lunch here - just 9 of us and ate the meat as cold cuts with pickles, baked potatoes, salad and coleslaw plus some excellent home-made bread supplied by bro-in-law and his partner. A lovely feast with red wine or white.

A tip, if you scrape the scum off the surface of the second lot of ham cooking water once it reaches the simmer and add a small peeled onion, a carrot and about six whole pepper corns with a bay leaf - at the end of the cooking time you're left with the most wonderful, rich, smoky ham stock. Pea and ham soup tonight.