Showing posts with label ham. Show all posts
Showing posts with label ham. Show all posts
I have been a consummate collector of recipes for many, many years. As a girl I used to clip them out of my mother's True Story magazines and Women's Day, Chatelaine, The Star Weekly. I don't know why. It is not like I was allowed to do any cooking until I was much older.
I guess I have just always had a great interest in food and cooking. As a result I have a huge binder filled to overflowing with recipe writings and clippings, and several notebooks as well, the notebooks all being filling with handwritten recipes that I thought sounded tasty or interesting through the years and wanted to save.
The recipe I am showing you today comes from one of my handwritten notebooks. I wish I had been a lot better at taking note of the sources for these, but alas I was not, so where it comes from I have no idea.
I have had it for years and years however, and the fact that it is handwritten probably means it was either from a friend, or from a book I had borrowed from the library.
I had some ham that wanted using and I found this recipe and decided that after so many years of it collecting dust it was about time I tried it!
So today was the day. It is a simple recipe. Simple recipes are often very tasty recipes.
It doesn't use anything you probably don't already have in your kitchen, except for maybe the ham, or maybe you got lucky and you already have that as well.
The ham is ground and mixed with mustard. I chose to chop it very fine in my mini food processor and I used Dijon Mustard because it has a nice bite to it. You could also use deli ham or flakes of ham from the tin.
This gets spread over a scone/pastry type of dough which you roll out very thinly. I added some cheese to the filling, because we like cheese. I toyed with adding some grated onion, but kept it simple this time, with just ham, mustard and cheese.
The filling gets rolled up in the dough somewhat like a cinnamon roll dough. You then slice it and lay the slices in your pie/casserole dish.
A rich cheese sauce then gets poured over top and some buttered bread crumbs are sprinkled over that, upon which the casserole gets put into a moderately to hot oven and baked for a good 40 to 45 minutes.
The pastry puffs up around the ham filling . . . the cheese sauce oozes down in between the rolls and bubbles up, and those crumbs get golden brown.
The flavours in this were very, VERY nice. We both really enjoyed it. Do be judicious with your use of salt, as the ham can be quite salty and so can the mustard and cheese.
In fact, if I make it again, and I think I will, I would leave the salt out altogether.
I chose to serve it with some salad and cooked peas and carrots. We both really enjoyed this. It's also nice to know that you can cut the recipe in half, which I did quite successfully, for the smaller family.
*Ham Pie*
Serves 8
black pepper to taste
120g grated strong cheddar cheese (2 cups)
To top:
15g dry bread crumbs (1/4 cup)
(I used panko)
1 tsp melted butter
I love recipes like this. They are simple and yet at the same time special. Not a lot of faffing about and something which the whole family will enjoy. I hope you will give it a go! Bon Appetit!
Growing up in Canada New Years always meant my mother would be cooking a Ham. We had turkey for Thanksgiving and Christmas and we had Ham for Easter and New Years. I don't know if there is a religious reason for this, or if it is just a family tradition, but it is something I still do. Ham for New Years.
My mother never did anything fancy with it. It would be boiled and then roasted. She usually had a bone in ham, but you never see those over here.
It would be served cold with mustard. We would have mashed potatoes and green beans with it and a special dessert. If we were really lucky it would be a Lemon Meringue Pie.
I don't ever remember her glazing it. Not ever. I do remember seeing photographs of glazed hams in the magazines . . . the fat glistening and cut into diamonds and crusted on the edges with a sweet sugary crust . . . each diamond studded with a clove or a cherry.
They looked so very pretty, and tantalizingly delicious.
This year I bought a boneless cooked ham. Over here uncooked ham is called Gammon and you have to boil it before you can eat it.
However once it is cooked and called a ham it is always edible right out of the pack. I like to heat it through though and glaze it. It just makes something quite simple that little bit more special.
This glaze was absolutely brilliant. Nice and spiced with ginger, both from the gingerale and from the ginger jam, a tiny bit spicy from the Dijon mustard and tabasco, sweet also from the ginger jam and some brown sugar and a smidgen tart from the addition of apple cider vinegar.
Those ingredients get heated together until the ginger jam melts and then all whisked together. I cut diamonds in the ham so that some of the mixture would go down into the ham.
I rolled it in it all over and then I baked it in a moderate oven, basting it every ten to fifteen minutes with the glaze.
Now here is where it gets really special. I crushed gingersnaps for even more ginger flavours and sprinkled them over the top of the ham and basted it again.
Baked for a short time longer it forms a nice gingery crust. I probably basted it two more times before it was done.
The end result was a lovely flavoured ham with a gingery crust and the juices in the roasting dish thickened up from some of the crumbs to make a sauce that was just gorgeous spooned over the warm ham.
All in all this was a real winner! We loved it. Oh, I do love it when an experiment or an idea turns out to be every bit as delicious as I had envisioned it to be! I hope you will give it a go!
*Gingersnap Glazed Ham*
Serves 4 to 6 with leftovers
This
is delicious. Simple to make. The oven does all the work. The
leftovers are delicious sliced and served cold with cheese and pickle.
60ml apple cider vinegar (1/4 cup)
1/2 (454g)jar of ginger preserves (about 1/2 cup)
I really do hope you will try this out. I can promise you, you won't be sorry. If you cannot find the ginger jam, use some orange marmalade with a tsp of ginger powder added. It will be every bit as good. Happy New Year!!
This content (written and photography) is the sole property of The English Kitchen. Any reposting or misuse is not permitted. If you are reading this elsewhere, please know that it is stolen content and you may report it to me at: mariealicejoan at aol dot com Thanks so much for visiting. Do come again!
I had some leftover poached turkey and some ham which needed using the other day and so I decided to make a Ham and Turkey Pie. I thought that it would be fabulous and I was right! You could also use chicken, but with the holidays coming up I thought it would be nice to show you it with turkey.
This is so simple to make and so delicious!
I picked up some lovely flat peaches at the shops at the weekend, and they weren't too hard, and not mealy. They were just right. We had a couple just eaten out of hand and then I used several to make this delicious salad which we enjoyed for lunch!
Chicken with a Cheese and Ham Crust. Chicken with cheese and ham on top. Not rolled. Just layered. Completely delicious.
I always think it's pretty amazing what you can do with just a few ingredients and a little bit of ingenuity. Like this recipe here today.
I had a small bit of leftover ham that I wanted to use up and some chicken breasts and so after putting my thinking cap on I came up with a delicious and simple little entrée that went down a real treat and went together lickity split!
I always have cheese in my refrigerator. Actually I usually have several kinds. We like cheese. Guilty as charged.
I always have cheese in my refrigerator. Actually I usually have several kinds. We like cheese. Guilty as charged.
It's just one of those things we are never without. One of our refrigerator basics as it were. I also had a roll that was left from another meal and so I used that as well.
With a handful of stale bread crumbs, some cheese and a bit of chopped ham, together with some chopped parsley and some garlic . . . a knob of butter.
With a handful of stale bread crumbs, some cheese and a bit of chopped ham, together with some chopped parsley and some garlic . . . a knob of butter.
All put together and sprinkled on top of two plain (seasoned) boneless, skinless chicken breasts. Chicken breasts are like the blank canvases of the poultry world.
There is practically nothing that won't go with them, or that they won't go with!
Half an hour in the oven and dinner was served . . . and it was delicious. We had some steamed new potatoes and broccoli on the side.
Half an hour in the oven and dinner was served . . . and it was delicious. We had some steamed new potatoes and broccoli on the side.
In the time it took to do them, the chicken was done and we sat down to a delicious meal which took next to no time to prepare and got rid of a few bits in my refrigerator and cupboard that needed getting rid of.
Thrifty and delicious. You can't go wrong. The quantities are for two people, but this is one of those things that can easily be increased to feed more!
All the flavors of Chicken Cordon Bleu without any of the faffing about! I like that!
Quick,
easy and delicious. I had a tiny bit of ham leftover that I wanted to
use up. Waste not want not. It went perfectly. Kind of like a
deconstructed cordon bleu.
2 single boneless, skinless chicken breast fillets
(about 4 ounces each)
(I used a stale ciabatta roll)
2 TBS chopped fresh parsley
1 small clove of garlic, peeled and minced
1 TBS butter, melted
Preheat the oven to 190*C/375*F/ gas mark 5.
Put the bread crumbs into a small bowl. Toss together with the butter, parsley, cheese, ham and garlic.
Place the chicken breast fillets into a buttered baking dish. Cover each one with an equal portion of the bread crumb mixture.
Bake for 25 to 30 minutes, until golden brown and the juices from the chicken run clear. Serve hot.
*Ham and Cheese Crusted Chicken for Two*
Serves two
salt and black pepper
60g of fresh bread crumbs (about 1 cup)
a small handful of chopped cooked ham (about 1/4 cup)
60g grated strong cheddar cheese (1/2 cup) This content (written and photography) is the sole property of The English Kitchen. Any reposting or misuse is not permitted. If you are reading this elsewhere, please know that it is stolen content and you may report it to me at: theenglishkitchen@mail.com
I was recently asked if I would like to participate in a Challenge put forth by the People from The Laughing Cow to create some scrumptious recipes using their Extra Light low fat cheese spread triangles and leftovers! You know me, I do love a good challenge and this recipe here today is the first which I have come up with for them.
The chemistry of cooking has always fascinated me. I think it is amazing how a good cook can combine a few simple ingredients and come up with something which is totally delicious . . . and how depending on how you combine them with any number of other ingredients, you can come up with something new and different each time.
Take birds eggs for instance . . . they come in all shapes and sizes and colours . . . and are all basically the same thing, no matter the size or colour. Humans mostly consume chicken eggs, although duck eggs are also quite popular as are quail. Filled with vitamins and coming in their own fragile package you can eat them on their own, cooked or raw and depending on preparation you can come up with no less than 4 different ways to have them all on their lonesome . . . boiled, fried, scrambled, poached . . . and even those can be varied according to what you choose to do with them. What is a frittata or omelette but eggs, beaten and scrambled and put together in different ways with different additions!
But then, beat them up with other ingredients like flour, sugar and eggs, and you have a cake, or cookies, or pies . . . again depending on what you add and how. Then there are the sauces you can make with the components of an egg . . . which again can differ widely according to what you put in and with them, and which part of the egg you use!
I think eggs have to be the most versatile of all basic ingredients! And one of the things we look forward to most when we start to think of breakfast or brunch, and they are something which I always have in the larder.
Over the past two weeks, and for the next two weeks The Sunday Times is publishing a pull out Ultimate Cookbook as part of the Incredible Edibles Food Series, dedicated to food and dining. This weeks focus is on Brunch and Baking, and you can get your copy of The Sunday Times Ultimate Cookbook: Brunch and Baking this weekend, on Sunday the 1st of December, featuring a wonderful variety of the finest and most delicious Brunch and Baking recipes brought to you by a great ensemble of celebrity chefs and restaurants here in the UK.
Three weeks in to this feature and we are enjoying another beautiful selection of recipes which combine two culinary traditions, Brunch and Baking. Brunch is a lovely idea we have adopted and adapted over here from America and it is something we have really taken to here in the UK. It's a wonderfully leisurely way to entertain . . .which can be as indulgent and complicated . . . or as simple as you like it. There are no firm and fast rules. it only really matters that you enjoy yourself and that something incredibly tasty is involved.
If you are looking for indulgence then I am sure a nice hot stack of Nigella Lawson's pancakes, dripping with butter and syrup will do the trick, or maybe Paul Hollywood's, Raised Pork and Egg Pie . . . and if you are looking for something tasty to bake you can't do much better than Mary Berry's Whole Orange Spice Cake, which also graces the cover of this lovely pull out mini-mag.
I could not wait to get stuck in and it was really hard to choose just one recipe to show you here today, there are so many lovely ones, but today I chose Eggs Benedict from Le Caprice, a most prestigious West End London establishment, which was quite popular with the late Princess Diana.
Who doesn't like Eggs Benedict?? You get all the elements of a delicious and simple breakfast . . . ham, poached eggs, and toasted muffins . . . slathered with a rich, indulgent and buttery sauce . . . what's not to like about that!
Some people might be put off from making their own hollandaise sauce. It can be rather fiddly and difficult to do, but the instructions in this recipe were simple, concise and easy to execute and as you can see I ended up with a beautiful sauce. We both enjoyed this very much.
*Eggs Benedict a Le Caprice*
Serves 4 salt and ground white pepper
Put the egg yolks into a small bowl (Or the top of a double boiler) with half of the vinegar reduction. Whisk over a pan of gently simmering water untl the mixture begins to thicken and doubles in size. Using a ladle, trickle in the butter, whisking the mixture continuously. You may use an electric hand whisk. If the butter is added too quickly the sauce will split. when you have added two thirds of the butter, taste the sauce and add a little more or all of the remaining vinegar reduction to taste. The vinegar should just cut the oiliness of the butter. Add the remainder of the butter in the same manner as before. Season, cover and leave at room temperature until needed.
Get your copy of The Sunday Times Ultimate Cookbook: Brunch and Baking this weekend, on Sunday the 1st of December 2013, the third in a four-part series. Featuring a selection of the finest recipes of the celebrity chef era. The Ultimate Cookbook is part of The Incredible Edibles Food Series dedicated to food and dining. This series will finish with the final edition, Dinner Parties on Sunday December 8.
Visit thesundaytimes.co.uk to subscribe and to find out more details about exclusive Times + chef events hosted at some of the country's best restaurants.
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