Monday, April 25, 2011

Kickin Ham Dinner

Easter Greetings! The weather has started getting nicer...this means it is grilling season again. We took the traditional Easter Ham Dinner and put a spin on it this year. Instead of waiting for hours, baking a ham in the oven, we had our boneless ham sliced into 2"-thick slabs and grilled them in about half an hour. This resulted in a tender meat with a delicious charred flavor...not to mention the glazes. I was inspired by a few ham glaze recipes in The New Best Recipe...as you'll see, all sound amazing, and I can promise that all taste amazing. The consensus was that all the glazes tasted pretty much the same...though I swear I picked out the Coke/lime glaze. Moving on to the sides...again, New Best Recipe inspired my take on scalloped potatoes (though of course I added more cheese than "necessary")...and same inspiratory source for the green bean dish (something a bit different...if you like lemon pepper, you'll like this). The whole meal cohered rather nicely, being that there were a few repeated ingredients. Read on for deliciousness.


Grilled Ham Slices
7 lb boneless ham, sliced into 2"-thick slabs (this yielded about 7 slices)
Glaze of choice

1. Prepare the glaze(s).
2. Preheat grill, on high, for about five minutes to get the grate sizzling.
3. Use a spoon (forget the brush, this glaze will be too thick) to slather one side of each ham slice with glaze. Plop that side down on the grill. Glaze the top and sides. Shut the grill lid.
4. Return in about 7-10 minutes. Flip the slices and glaze the new top side. Repeat until a thermometer inserted into the middle of each slice reads 145 (about a half hour to forty five minutes depending on the heat of the grill and the thickness of the slabs).

Glazes!!!

Coke-Lime Glaze
1.5c brown sugar
1 c Coke
Juice from 2 limes (about 1/4c)
1T or so of lime zest (about half a lime's worth)

Pineapple-Ginger-Red Pepper Glaze
1.5c brown sugar
Juice drained off from one can of chunk pineapple (about 3/4c)
1 small piece candied ginger, minced (or 1/2t ginger powder, or 1t fresh sliced ginger)
1/8t (that's a pinch, people) red pepper flake

Orange-Cinnamon-Star Anise Glaze
1.5c brown sugar
Juice from 2 navel oranges (about 1 c)
1T or so of orange zest (about half an orange's worth)
1 stick of cinnamon (or 1t ground)
4 star anise pods

Mix ingredients in a small saucepan. Heat over high heat, constantly stirring, for about ten minutes. You will get to a point where the entire mixture bubbles up--when this happens, remove from heat and stir until you see the surface of the liquid again. Put back over the heat and stir until the bubbles get up high again...repeat. You'll want to prepare this at least a half hour before you're ready to grill the ham. The glaze will thicken up upon sitting, but when you stop after ten minutes or so, it will only seem syrupy. It will get more like molasses after sitting for a half hour or so. As you can imagine, you can make whatever glaze you want. Just start with 1.5c of brown sugar and add a cup or so of liquid and you're in business.

Scalloped KA Potatoes

8 medium potatoes, unskinned, sliced into 1/8"-thick slices
1 c chicken broth (I recommend Progresso--it is the most natural)
1 c cream (remember, 2 c in a pint)
2 medium onions, quartered and sliced
3-4 cloves garlic, minced
1 c shredded cheddar cheese
1 c shredded parmesan cheese

Here's a tip for cutting onions...use the natural growth pattern of the onion to your advantage. After you skin the onion, cut it in half from root tip to leaf tip end. Cut each of those halves in half again, in the same direction. Now, slice perpendicular to those lines. You will end up with a whole bunch of sliced onion that will fall apart along the growth rings, with less work for you. Yay!

After you slice the potato, par-boil them in water for about ten minutes, until they're pretty soft.

1. In a large pot, saute the garlic and onion with a bit of oil or butter.
2. Add the par-cooked potato slices, broth, and cream.
3. Cover and simmer for about 10 minutes.
4. Dump into a greased lasagna pan and top with cheese.
5. Pop in preheated 425 degree oven for about 15 minutes.

Lemon-Pepper Green Bean Dish
2 bags french cut green beans
1c chicken broth
2T corn starch
1T lemon juice
1t black pepper
3 garlic cloves, minced
Bread crumb, for garnish

1. First up...if your green beans are frozen, thaw them. I put them right in the pot and put it on medium heat til they're thawed.
2. Toss in the garlic and saute a bit with some oil.
3. Mix in the chicken broth and corn starch. Stir and up the heat to high...keep stirring...in about 7 minutes or so it'll thicken up.
4. Stir in the pepper.
5. Turn off heat. Stir in lemon juice. Let stand for ten minutes or so. When you serve, top with bread crumbs.

That's it! Enjoy!

And the next morning, take some leftover ham and dice it...mix with some of the leftover potatoes...fry it up with an egg and a bit of oil. Top with cheese, of course. Yum!