I was on the catering team last year, and this year was no exception. Along with general vegetable duties, I was responsible for cooking and bringing a ham, cranberry sauce and bread sauce.
The ham was boiled for 3 hours in cider and apple juice with some onion and carrot. When it had cooled a little, I cut off the rind, scored the fat and studded it with cloves. I then made a glaze of brown sugar, mixed spice, maple syrup and some of the cooking liquid and covered the ham with it. It was then roasted in the oven for ten minutes and then allowed to cool.
For the cranberry sauce, I cooked a tub of cranberries with some sugar, orange juice and port until almost all the cranberries had popped.
Bread sauce is nice and easy too. Finely chop an onion and soften in some butter. Add some milk and then breadcrumbs or just torn up bread. Add these in a proportion to make it nice and thick and saucy. Then season with salt and pepper.
I also had great fun making the gravy in a pan that was too small, and also decided that I wanted the gravy to be a bit thicker and less weedy looking, so threw in some gravy granules and cornflour to the turkey juices. It turned out yummy, although it did have a moment when it was put onto a still hot hob in a plastic jug...
To go with all of this, we had:
Roast turkey (thanks Lizzie!)
Roast potatoes
Roast sweet potatoes
Roast parsnips
Sprouts
Cauliflower cheese
Carrot and swede mash
Stuffing
mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm
14 very happy well fed archers (plus a bunch of sci-fi people who pinched all our leftovers)
