This year the responsibility of buying the Christmas Ham fell to me, a task I didn't take lightly. Knowing the number of people due to come and the healthy appetite of the clan I bought a decent sized smoked ham leg for $60.
As is usual with Christmas dinners there was a lot of leftovers. My ham was returned to me with less than a quarter of it gone. Enter Project Use-Up-The-Ham!
PROJECT USE-UP-THE-HAM
Objective:
To use up the entire remainder of the Christmas ham in exciting and different ways (i.e. not ham sandwiches every day for a month).
Important Information:
Ham will keep for some time given it is stored correctly. One of the best ways to store ham is in a ham bag (a.k.a a calico bag) which has been soaked in a mixture of 1L of water and a cup of white vinegar. The vinegar acts as an antiseptic while the soaked bag stops the ham from drying out.
The ham bag needs to be re-soaked every few days.
Progress so far:
To date the ham has been used for a number of meals including:
- ham and salad rolls.
- homemade pizza with ham, capsicum, onion and tomato toppings.
- diced ham included in a bento box for lunch
- other, more exciting, options below.
Boxing Day Soup
Don't be fooled by the curious name. It is pretty much just a variation on pea and ham soup.
It uses:
- whatever mix of pulses and grains are in your pantry in the place of the split green peas. (I had split green peas, some red lentils and brown rice).
- whatever soup vegetables such as carrots, celery, leek, turnip, swede etc. you have available.
- Salt, pepper, a bay leaf and some dried herbs. (I used whole peppercorns, thyme and basil.) either vegetable or chicken stock.
- Smoked ham diced in the stead of the usual ham bone scraps.
I put all of these ingredients cold into the slow cooker and let it stink my house up for half a day. And there you have Boxing Day Soup.
Italian Omelette
(adjusted from a Family Circle Recipe- Pasta Cookbook)
Bad photo of excellent food. Italian Omelette went so quickly this is the only shot I got of it.Again, this recipe has a deceiving name. This is nothing like a traditional omelette. It is closer to a frittata.
- 2 tab olive oil
- 1 onion finely chopped
- 125g ham diced finely
- 4 eggs
- 1/4 cup milk
- salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
- 2 cups cooked spiral (or other short) pasta.
- 1/4 cup grated parmesan
- 1/4 cup grated gruyere cheese
- 1 tab fresh basil chopped
- 1/4 cup cheddar cheese.
Add the ham and cook over low heat for a few minutes. Transfer to a plate.
In a bowl, whisk eggs, milk, s&p together. Add the cooked pasta, parmesan and gruyere cheese, herbs and onion/ham mixture.
Return the omelette mixture to the same fry-pan, top with cheddar cheese and cook over low to medium heat until it has started to set. Put the fry-pan under a grill to set the top of the omelette.
The mix of the three cheeses really made this dish sing. The photo doesn't do it justice at all. Dan and I both went back for seconds and I ended up with no leftovers!
Honeyed Ham For Breakfast
Honeyed ham is, in one word, delicious.
Honeyed ham for breakfast is just plain decadent.
Cut off chunks of ham.
Heat either olive oil or butter in a saucepan.
Add the ham and a generous dollop or two of honey.
Fry the ham in the honey mixture until golden brown.
Best served with toast and egg with a cup of tea on the side. Oh yeah!
Ham and Vegie Fritters
When my mum heard of Project Use-Up-The-Ham she offered her suggestion of fritters. This is a family favorite to make use of leftover roast and I can't count the number of times I had fritters for dinner as a child.
- 1 egg
- 1 cup self-raising flour
- 1 cup milk
- 1 onion finely chopped
- pinch salt
- 125g ham diced finely
- 1/3 cup peas
- 1/3 cup corn kernals
- oil for frying.
In a frypan, heat olive or vegetable oil over high heat. Once sufficiently heated, drop two to three tablespoons of the fritter mixture into the oil. Fry each side until golden.
It is imperative that these are served with an emoticon (smiley face etc.) of tomato sauce.
I failed at frying the first batch because I didn't have the temperature high enough or wait until the oil was ready before adding the batter to the frypan. My second batch was more successful. Remember that you are frying these.... they should be golden and crispy and not the consistency of pancakes (though they taste pretty good that way too!)
End report:
With a large amount of the ham now gone I am still looking for ways to use up the last of it.
Suggestions so far have been a ham-based carbonara and fried rice.
Does anyone have any other suggestions for completing Project Use-Up-The-Ham?
You could make MORE fritters and freeze them. They'd be great to whip out for lunch whenever I came to visit! Yum!!! :)
ReplyDeleteI've made a couple of ham dishes this weekend. I bought some to make a quiche (baby spinach, zucchini, mushroom, ham + egg - but of course you can put in just about anything)... I had some left over so I made my avocado gnocchi (mushrooms cooked in port, add ham or bacon, add cream, add avocado... its oh so tasty!)
ReplyDeleteMy mum used to make a quiche without the pastry, in a square dish a bit like a meatloaf, and then freeze it. I think she added a little flour to the mix to give it more stability than just egg.
I should make another fried rice. My last attempt was met with much approval. I chucked in mushroom, capsicum, peas and I can't remember what else. It was awesome. I think it worked well because I remembered to put in a little soy sauce.
Thankfully we didn't have too much of our ham left over - and my visiting family generally eat it for lunch every day.
ReplyDeleteThat being said, I did make a couple dishes to use up some of it. Ham, cheese and pineapple jaffles, and my favourite: pasta carbonara.
Of course, my ham this year was a baked ham, so for me (who rather does not like ham) it gave it a lot of flavour.
Mum - I'd say yes but the rules of the project stipulate that it must be in different and exciting ways. No more fritters! But maybe we'll make some when you and Dad come to visit in April. :D
ReplyDeleteMetanoia - quiche is a brilliant idea! My Mum has a similar recipe that creates it's own base as it bakes - so I'll have to hassle her for that later today.
The avacado and ham gnocchi sounds positively drool-ish.
I feel intimidated by fried rice. :(
Mel - Jaffles are the enclosed toasted sandwiches? I don't have a jaffle maker but the suggestion gives me an idea to do a kind of pastie with a ham mixture instead of the traditional savoury mince.
Thanks for the suggestions ladies. I'll get stuck into cooking for Part 2 tonight!
Well if you're not going to co-operate and make MORE fritters ... what about ham and cheese crepes?
ReplyDeleteOr, my NEW recipe for fritters, where you substitute grated zucchini and carrot for the peas and corn. :) ... well you can't say I didn't try!!