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Ham dinner #2

This is an update to ham dinner #1 using a whole mini-ham.

Ham sauce

The ham sauce is scaled and slightly modified from this recipe.

I didn't have crushed pineapple so I chopped a can of pineapple chunks in the food processor. The recipe called for ground cloves, but I spiked the ham with cloves instead. Since I was using the food processor I also used it to mix the sugar and mustard which worked well.

The soy sauce isn't in the original recipe, but it makes it closer to Mom's, which did not have mustard, but did have soy sauce.

Mini-ham

This is my ham, a fully cooked 3-pound smoked boneless ham.

You don't need to peel the ham, but Mom always did, and it does make it less smoky. Since it will be glazed with a pineapple glaze, I peeled it.

I reserved one serving for Ham and Swiss cheese sandwich for lunch.

Diced, vacuum sealed, and froze 4 servings of 1.8 oz. for omelettes, and kept one for for spicy western omelette for Tuesday.

Scored the ham and spiked with whole cloves.

If I was going to serve it immediately after cooking I would have vacuum sealed it and cooked in the sous vide for a couple hours so it would heat through, but I was preparing it ahead so it didn't need to be hot, and it's already fully cooked.

Preheat the oven to 400°F. Coat with glaze and cook for 10 minutes. Repeat three more times.

The ham won't be fully heated through at this point! But since I going to reheat it later in the sous vide, I didn't need to fully cook it now.

Remove the cloves.

Slice into ham steaks of 4.6 oz. servings.

Vacuum seal and freeze. Also vacuum seal a package of ham glaze to serve with it.

Asparagus

Cut into 2" pieces and boiled for 3 minutes since these were thin. Could be up to 4 minutes if larger.

I prepared this ahead so I then shocked them in cold water and just warmed it in the microwave before serving for 30 seconds.

Scalloped potatoes

The scalloped potatoes were most of the work. I made an exceptionally small serving in a ramekin since I didn't want to have leftovers. I used basically used this recipe but made an actual béchamel sauce for the sauce.

Béchamel sauce

This is an extremely small amount based on the small amount of potatoes!

Melt 2 tbsp. butter in a saucepan over medium-low heat.

Mix in around 2 tbsp. flour, cook until it's a light golden color, being careful not to burn it.

Add milk to form a sauce, around 4 - 6 oz. Lower heat to simmer for 10 minutes.

All of this is going to the scalloped potatoes, so I mixed the seasoning into the sauce to make assembly easier and more consistent.

I used some Italian parsley and thyme.

Minced with garlic.

Add the herbs to the sauce, along with salt, freshly ground white pepper, and a dash of nutmeg.

Potato assembly

I made these in large ramekins, two individual serving.

I used one large gold potato, 8.6 oz. before peeling, enough for two small servings.

Add layers off potatoes, onions if I had remembered, and sauce.

Bake for 40 minutes at 350°F. Cover with foil for the first 20 minutes.

Out of the oven. They're best served now, but I made them ahead and will reheat later.

Vacuum sealed in the ramekins for easy reheating in the sous vide.

I'll put the ham (vacuum sealed), ham sauce (vacuum sealed separately), and this vacuum sealed ramekin in the sous vide at 140°F for an hour.

I'm going to try freezing one serving. I'm skeptical that it will work well, but if it does, that would be great because it's a pain to prepare this and being able to make several servings in advance would ideal.

Done!

With everything prepared ahead all I needed to do was reheat the asparagus in the microwave for 30 seconds and remove everything else from the sous vide and that was it!

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