Easy beef pot roast

I treated myself to a 29cm oval Le Creuset casserole a couple of weeks ago. The first dish I made with it was the Taiwanese three-cup chicken, a nod to my roots. But to really test out the cookware, I made a simple pot roast with neither bells (herbs/spices) nor whistles (thick gravy). 

Beef pot roast

Baked cider ham fillet with sticky mustard glaze

This is the first time I've ever dealt with a whole chunk of ham. I'm not a lover of any pork products and it's really in the last few months that I started using them in my cooking. This baked cider ham requires a bit of effort, mostly preparation time. Before cooking, I soaked the entire fillet in cold water in a large stockpot for 24 hours, changing water every 4 hours the first two times and then every 8 hours. Then the ham sat in a bath of cider, thyme, shallots, bay leaves, and peppercorns for another 24 hours before baking. The result was delicious, well worth all the prep work! 

Baked cider ham with sticky mustard glaze