Enjoy the festive season with our 3 Way Christmas Hamper Meal — a delicious trio of recipes perfect for sharing with family and friends. Each meal is packed with fresh, seasonal ingredients and festive flavours, making your Christmas table extra special. From hearty mains to tasty sides and sweet treats, this hamper meal brings variety, colour, and joy to your holiday celebrations. Simple to prepare, fun to serve, and full of flavour, it’s the perfect way to make your festive season stress-free and delicious.
Food Lover’s 3-Way Christmas Hamper
For the gammon:
1 onion, chopped
3-4 carrots, chopped
2 celery stalks, chopped
1-2 L water to cover gammon
For the sauce:
For the corned beef:
125 ml (½ cup) Food Lover’s brown vinegar
1-2 dried bay leaves
5-7 pepper corns
Pinch of salt
For the sauce:
500 ml (2 cups) fresh cream
2 large white onions
2.5 ml (½ tsp) black pepper
120 g Food Lover’s fresh cherries, stems removed
1 x 2 L Food Lover’s cola soft drink
500 ml (2 cups) gammon stock or water
1 whole cinnamon stick
3 x dried allspice berries
30 ml (2 Tbsp) Food Lover’s salted butter
Pinch of salt
For the tongue: 1 onion, cut into ¼ pieces 2 bay leaves 5ml (1 tsp) salt For the sauce: 40g hot English mustard powder 385 g (1 tin) full cream sweetened condensed milk 125 ml ( ½ cup) white wine vinegar 125 ml ( ½ cup) water 2 large eggs 1 whole cinnamon stick 2 star anise 2 whole cloves 2.5 ml ( ½ tsp ) ground allspice Pinch of nutmeg Pinch of salt, to taste
Place the smoked gammon in a large sauce pot.
Add onions, carrots and celery stalks.
Bring the gammon up to a light simmer and cook for 2-3 hours.
While the gammon is cooking start preparing your glaze.
Once the gammon has cooked, allow to cool to touch.
Remove the netting gently.
Remove the skin from the gammon, leaving the fat layer underneath behind.
Score the fat and then glaze with cherry cola glaze.
Preheat the oven to 200 °C and roast the gammon for 25-30 minutes, glazing in between.
Slice and serve with the remaining glaze.
For the glaze:
Add the cherries, cola, water/gammon stock, cinnamon stick and allspice berries to a sauce pot and bring the ingredients to a boil.
Allow to cook over a medium heat for 1 hour or until the sauce has reduced by half and can coat the back of a spoon.
Strain the sauce through a sieve, pressing the cherries to make sure all the juice and pulp gets included in the sauce.
Stir the butter into the sauce and then use the glaze to glaze the gammon with and serve the remainder on the side when serving.
Place the corned meat into a large pot, cover with water and vinegar, bay leaves and pepper corns and allow to simmer on a low heat for 2-3 hours until you can insert a fork/skewer into the centre easily.
Slice up once ready and serve with the roasted onion and pepper sauce.
For the sauce:
While you prepare your roasts in the oven, wrap the onions whole with skin on in some foil and place into the oven to roast for 25-30 minutes until soft to the core.
Remove the onions from the foil and remove the outer layer of brown skin and chop off the root base.
Place into a blender along with 125 ml water. Blend until smooth.
Add the blended onions into a saucepot, add the cream and pepper.
Place the tongue into a pot filled with water, enough to cover the tongue.
Add the onion, bay leaves and salt.
Allow to boil for 2 ½ – 3 hours until the outer skin begins to peel off.
Remove the tongue from the broth and allow to cool to touch.
Peel off the skin off the tongue, slice and serve along with the Christmas Spiced Sweet Mustard.
To prepare the sauce:
Combine all the ingredients, except for the spices, using a whisk and then add to a sauce pot.
Add the spices and then on a low heat allow the sauce to thicken, while whisking/ stirring. (This is important as you don’t want the eggs to scramble)
Once the sauce thickens, remove the whole spices, pour into your serving jars and pop into fridge to allow to cool.
Allow to simmer over a low heat until thickened. About 10-15
Season to taste before serving with your prepared sliced corned beef.
