Buy an easy-to-slice, rolled deboned chicken with a stuffing of your choice to help make your Christmas cooking less demanding.
Author
blucouscous
Category
Christmas
Date
DECEMBER 21, 2020
Yields
8 Servings
To keep in the Christmas spirit, I have used pastry cutters to shape the ham and the pumpkin in a fun way.
- 4 tbsp olive oil
- About 200g butternut pumpkin, cut into bite size pieces about 1 cm thick
- 1 ½ cups pearl couscous
- 1/2 tsp curry powder
- juice of 1 lemon
- salt and freshly ground black pepper
- 2 tbsp finely cut chives
- 80 g cashew nuts
- 24 cherry tomatoes, halved
- 2 tbsp honey
- 1 tbsp Dijon mustard
- 1/2 tbsp brown sugar
- 2 tsp fennel seeds, roughly chopped
- 2 tbsp dry sherry or fresh orange juice
- 1 tbsp finely grated orange zest
- freshly ground black pepper
- about 500g of quality ham about 1 cm thick, cut in 8 pieces
- 1 ripe mango, cut into 8 segments
- 1Preheat oven to 200°C.
- 2In a bowl mix 2 tbsp of the olive oil with pumpkin and toss well together. Spread the pumpkin in a roasting tray lined with baking paper and cook in the preheated oven for about 25 minutes.
- 3 Bring about 2 litres of salted water to the boil, add the pearl couscous and boil for 10 minutes. Drain and cool the pearl couscous with cold water and drain well.
- 4 Pour the remaining 2 tbsp olive oil in a bowl and add curry powder and lemon juice, pearl couscous, a little salt and pepper, the chives, the cashew nuts, the cherry tomatoes and gently toss together.
- 5 In a small bowl mix well the honey, Dijon mustard, brown sugar, fennel seeds, dry sherry, orange zest, and a little black pepper.
- 6 Using a thin knife blade lightly score the ham slices. Place ham on a tray lined with baking paper and brush the glaze on top.
- 7 Lightly brown the top of the ham under a grill or in a hot oven.
- 8 Transfer the couscous salad onto plates or a serving platter. Top with the glazed ham and with mango segments.
- 9 Merry Christmas!
