Slices of hot ham with baked potatoes and salad are, I would suggest, almost as evocative of Christmas as turkey. My childhood memory is that we always had glazed ham with spiced red cabbage on Christmas Eve, but since I became a fish cook, I’ve adopted the continental enthusiasm for fish on that night. Ham is now something to look forward to on Boxing Day. I have to admit to having spent four or five years of my life in the eighties and early nineties cooking about two hams a week for the deli I opened in Padstow and I never did really work out how to stop my brown sugar and mustard glaze sliding off the ham in the hot oven and burning in the roasting tray. Now I put water in the tin, so at least the mixture doesn’t burn and I can remove it.

Some gammon can be quite salty, so to decide whether it needs to be soaked or not before boiling, cut a sliver from an inconspicuous part of the joint and simmer it for about 5 minutes. Taste and if it’s too salty, soak the joint for 8 hours or overnight in cold water. If it’s fine, proceed to the next stage.

Weigh your joint and calculate the cooking time. Allow 20 minutes per 500g, plus 20 minutes, so for a 3.5kg joint that would be two hours and 40 minutes.

Put the gammon in a large stock pot and add the cider and enough water to cover. Add the peppercorns, cloves, chilli flakes and bay leaves and bring to the boil. Immediately turn the heat down to a simmer, then skim and discard any scum that rises to the surface.

Cook for your calculated cooking time. At the end of this time, the internal temperature of the joint should be 63–65C when checked with a meat probe in the thickest part. Remove the gammon from the liquid and reserve the strained stock for making soup or boulangère potatoes or to add to a parsley sauce.

Allow the joint to cool enough for you to neatly remove the tough skin, leaving a layer of fat over the whole joint. Using a sharp knife, score a diamond pattern over the fat, then stud the meat with cloves at the intersections of the diamonds.

Preheat the oven to 210C/Fan 190C. Sit the ham on a trivet or wire rack in a roasting tin and pour in 120ml of water to prevent the sugar and fat burning. Mix the glaze ingredients together and brush some over the ham, then place it in a hot oven for 15 minutes. Take the ham out and glaze a second time, then put it back in the oven for a further 10–15 minutes until golden brown but not burnt. Remove and leave the ham to rest for 15 minutes. Carve and serve warm with red cabbage, with parsley sauce and colcannon or leave to cool and serve with pickles and chutneys as part of a buffet.

Portia, who works with me on the recipes, has been cooking variations of this savoury crumble for a while, as her husband has been vegetarian for a few years. I do like the topping with the rye bread and hazelnuts but also the filling that’s made up of winter vegetables, chestnuts, a tiny bit of tomato and some tangy cheese, giving a feeling of comfort in the deep midwinter. My only addition to this to give it a little hook is a more than judicious amount of cracked black pepper.

For the filling, heat the butter or oil in a large pan and add the onion, garlic, carrots and celeriac. Fry them gently for 10–15 minutes until softened, then add the flour and stir to mix well. Add the red wine, tomatoes, tomato purée and stock, then bring to the boil and allow to bubble and thicken for five to 10 minutes. Add the mushrooms, chestnuts, borlotti beans and herbs, season with salt and pepper to taste and cook for about 10 minutes. Tip into a large pie dish or four to six individual ones.

Preheat the oven to 190C/fan 170C. In a food processor, blitz the rye bread to coarse crumbs. Tip into a bowl and stir in the melted butter, hazelnuts and grated cheese, then season with salt and lots of coarsely ground black pepper.

Spread the topping over the vegetable mixture in the dish/dishes. Bake for 25–30 minutes until hot and bubbling and golden on top. Serve with a green salad, green beans or leafy vegetables.

This is based on my recipe for apple strudel which appeared in Long Weekends, but I have substituted just under half the apple filling with mincemeat just for Christmas. This is another dessert worth considering as a lighter alternative to Christmas pudding.

Mix the apples with the cinnamon, lemon zest and juice and sugar. Melt 20g of the butter in a small frying pan and fry the breadcrumbs until golden. Add them to the apples, then stir in the mincemeat. Preheat the oven to 180C/fan 160C. Line a baking sheet with
baking paper.

Melt the rest of the butter in a pan. Place a clean tea towel on the worktop with the long edge towards you. Place a sheet of the filo on top and brush with some of the melted butter. Lay another sheet over it and brush with butter, then repeat until you have used all the filo. Pile the filling on to the filo, leaving a border of about three centimetres all round. Tuck the ends of the filo in and then, using the tea towel to help, roll the pastry away from you to enclose all the filling. Transfer the roll, seam-side down, to the lined baking sheet and brush with the rest of the melted butter. Bake for 40–45 minutes until golden. Toast the almonds in a dry pan until golden.

Allow the strudel to cool to room temperature, then dust with icing sugar and scatter over the toasted almonds. Slice and serve with cream, ice cream or custard.