Waste Not! Issue #3: Easter Ham

Ok, first of all I know Easter is over and long-gone but realistically you could at any point find a great deal on a bone-in ham, so why not .  Also, I admit I was a bit ``hammed out`` after Easter - well really I was completely fooded out - so it took me a while to get to the left overs to play around with another round of Waste Not!

So in this issue we`ll pretend you are having company over and want to make a simple but elegant main course, but want left overs to turn into a few different preparations during the next week.

Round 1:

Marmalade Glazed Ham with Orange Tea Sauce

This dish is incredibly easy and it is very hard to destroy a ham.  In fact, you really have to be bent on killing it completely to do anything wrong with this recipe.  The glaze is based on orange marmalade with a bit of mustard, and the sauce uses a few flavoured teabags, a bit of marmalade and some mustard.  Wonderful and wonderfully simple.

Served with :

Boursin Cheese Mashed Potatoes
Roasted Asparagus

Round 2:

Spaghetti Carbonara

This dish is a perfect quick mid-week dinner.  The sauce is really just a few eggs, mixed with some parmesan cheese, but combined with the ham, pasta and herbs, the taste is wonderful and light.


Round 3:

Ham and Cabbage Soup

A delicious and hearty soup that makes great use of the ham bone and the left over meat embedded there.  It is wonderfully rich and slightly smokey. a fact you could probably play up even more with a few drops of liquid smoke.  I find the use of sweet potatoes instead of white potatoes adds a slight sweetness and smoothness to the soup that is just out of this world.

Marmalade Glazed Easter Ham with Orange Tea Sauce

Once or twice a year I like to make a ham, generally at Easter and then maybe one other time.  I usually go for the smoked bone-in hams mostly because I find the flavour is much better with the bone.  Also, it gives you a great start to an interesting stock for another use.



For ham:

1 10-15 pound smoked fully cooked bone-in ham

Glaze:
1 cup orange marmalade (1 jar Robertsons Marmalade preferred and reserve 3 tablespoons)
1/4 cup Dijon mustard
2 tablespoons water

Orange Black Tea Sauce:

2 cups water
4 orange-spice herb tea bags or black tea bags
1 cup pineapple or orange juice
3 tablespoons orange marmalade
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
1 tablespoon cornstarch dissolved in 1 tablespoon water

Directions:

Position rack in center of oven and preheat to 325°F. Trim any rind and excess fat from upper side of ham, leaving 1/4-inch-thick layer of fat. Using long sharp knife, score fat in 1-inch-wide diamond pattern. Insert 1 clove into center of each scored diamond. Place ham in heavy large roasting pan. Bake until thermometer inserted into center of ham registers 150°F., about 3-4 hours depending on the size.

When ham has been cooking for about 3 hours.....

Melt 1 cup marmalade in heavy small saucepan over medium heat. Whisk in 1/4 cup mustard and 2 tablespoons water. Cook on low until mixture melts and can coat spoon without dripping, about 6 minutes. Set mixture aside. Increase oven temperature to 425°F.  Remove ham from oven and from cooking pan.  Line same pan with foil.  Return ham to pan. Generously spoon marmalade mixture over ham. Bake ham until glaze is set and begins to caramelize, about 20 minutes. Let ham stand 20 minutes before serving.

Meanwhile, prepare sauce:

Bring 2 cups water to boil in heavy medium saucepan. Add tea bags. Remove from heat; cover and let steep 10 minutes. Discard tea bags. Add 1 cup orange juice and 3 tablespoons orange marmalade to tea. Boil mixture until reduced to 1 cups, about 12-15 minutes. Whisk in 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard and any reserved pan juices. Return to boil. Whisk in cornstarch mixture. Boil until sauce thickens slightly, about 4 minutes. Season sauce to taste with salt and pepper. Carve ham and serve with sauce.

Spaghetti Carbonara

Another great recipe to make use of left-over ham.  Normally, Spaghettin Carbonara calls for the use of bacon or pancetta, but I thought this was a way to use up my left-over ham, while reducing the amount of fat in the dish a bit also.  

The only thing people might find a little concerning about this recipe, is that it calls for the addition of raw eggs as part of the sauce.  No fear - just be sure to make the sauce while the pasta is cooking to ensure sure that the pasta  is good and hot when the sauce is ready.  The hot pasta will help cook the raw eggs in the sauce.

Spaghetti Carbonara

1 500 gram (1 pound) box spaghetti
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1 cup left over ham, cut into small dice
4 garlic cloves, finely chopped
2 large eggs
1/2 cup freshly grated parmesan cheese (Parmigiano-Reggiano preferred)
Salt and pepper to taste
1/3 cup Italian parsley, chopped

Directions:

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil, add the pasta and cook according to package directions, usually for 8 to 10 minutes or until tender yet firm.  Drain the pasta well, reserving 1/2 cup of the cooking water to use in the sauce.

While the pasta is cooking, heat the olive oil in a deep skillet over medium flame. Add the ham and saute for about 2-3 minutes, until it is a bit crispy. Add the garlic into the pan and sauté for 1 minute to soften.

Add the hot, drained spaghetti to the pan and toss for 2 minutes to coat the strands in any fat at the bottom of the pan. Beat the eggs and parmesan cheese together in a mixing bowl, stirring well to prevent lumps. 

Remove the pasta pan from the heat and pour the egg/cheese mixture into the pasta, whisking quickly until the eggs thicken, but do not scramble (this is done off the heat to ensure this does not happen.) Thin out the sauce with a bit of the reserved pasta water, until it reaches desired consistency. Season with salt and pepper. 

Mound the spaghetti into warm serving bowls and garnish with chopped parsley. Add more cheese for serving.

Croque Monsieur - The King of The Sandwiches!

Being sick and being around sickies last week made me think of comfort food. When I was sick I always remember my Mom making me grilled cheese with tomato soup when I was recovering, so of course that is what I made myself.
It is amazing how wonderful simple food tastes after days of either nothing (air sandwiches LOL) or broth-based soups. Sinking my teeth into that grilled cheese was like experiencing a taste sensation for the first time. The sweetness of the melted butter…the suppleness of the fresh bread…the crunch of its light crust….and the sharp creaminess of the melted cheese.  othing better!

So I am back at work now but still thinking about grilled cheese, so I thought this weekend I would explore different “versions” of grilled cheese. I thought I would start with what Julia Child called the “King of the Sandwiches” – the Croque Monsieur!  I have never actually eaten a Croque Monsieur but for some reason I have decided now that I HAVE to make one. They looked so delicious in that Alec Baldwin- Meryl Streep film I saw last weekend called “It’s Complicated”. I think that is where the obsession began….

There seems to be some debate as to what goes into a Croque Monsieur. At a minimum the traditional Croque Monsier is made with fresh ham (preferably Jambon de Paris), Swiss-Gruyere cheese, Pain de Mie (French sandwich bread) and unsalted butter. Some recipes also call for the addition of Béchamel sauce.

Jambon de Paris is basically an un-smoked, wet cured, good quality boiled ham. I am sure someone will have it at the Market but I haven’t managed to get there this week with the cold, so I am going with the recommended substitute of Proscuitto Cotto, which we can get easily here at any deli counter. As with most sandwich meats, thinly sliced is best.

Pain de Mie is a crustless French sandwich bread that is more or less the same as Pullman Loaf or any fresh sliced sandwich bread you get at a bakery. What it is not is Wonderbread!

Béchamel is one of the 5 French mother sauces, the others being Velouté, Tomato, Hollandaise, and Espanole. Each of these sauces is the basis of other sauces. For example, add shredded cheese to a Béchamel and you get a Mornay Sauce. Hmmmm….I think I feel another themed post coming on….but back to the Croque Monsieur for now.

Apparently at one time McDonald’s – the scourge of France and North America – even tried to introduce the "Croque McDo" sandwich! That is just WRONG on so many levels.

The below recipe is a combination of the traditional Julia Child recipe, mixed in with a bit of Barefoot Contessa, and a sprinkle of Sandra.

Croque Monsieur (Serves 2)

1 recipe Basic Béchamel Sauce
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
4 slices Swiss-Gruyere cheese
4 ounces Swiss-Gruyerre cheese, grated
4 slices Pain de Mie or fresh white sandwich bread, crusts removed
4 slices Jambon de Paris or good quality Proscuitto Cotto, thinly sliced

Prepare Béchamel sauce and set aside to cool.

On a flat work surface, lay one slice of bread and brush lightly with melted butter. Flip bread over (buttered side to your cutting board) and spread the inside with a thin layer of Béchamel sauce. Top with a slice of cheese, several slices of ham, and another slice of cheese. Thinly spread a second piece of bread with Béchamel, lay on top of the open sandwich, Béchamel side down, then brush the exposed top lightly with melted butter. Press the sandwich together firmly, leaning on it with a spatula or the palm of your hand. Trim off the crusts, if desired, and press down again on the sandwich.

In a medium sized frying pan, add 1 tsp of the butter, heat it to bubbling, add the sandwich and brown rather slowly, 2 to 3 minutes on each side, so the cheese will melt. Turn on the broiler while the sandwich is browning.

When finished, slather the top of the toasted sandwich with more Béchamel sauce, sprinkle with a few ounces Gruyere. Place sandwich on an oven safe pan and and broil for 3 to 5 minutes, or until the topping is bubbly and lightly browned.

Eat.