Sour Cherry Thyme Glaze and Glazed Ham

The Robber had never had a real Easter dinner before, and so it fell to me to provide it for him. So we made everything: ham, rolls, potatoes, salad, green beans, pie. Goodness, so delicious. For the ham I wanted to try something new, so I got this little recipe from the NYTimes. Unfortunately it was a little bit of a disappointment. Not bad-- but not my favorite either. Maybe because we used black-cherry instead of sour-cherry preserves? I thought the cherry flavor wasn't strong enough, neither was the thyme. It was all overpowered by the shallots and the mustard. Of course we didn't use sherry so the Robber substituted orange juice and ended up adding some brown sugar and it was all very strange. But in case this sounds good to somebody else and they want to try it out, here is the link and the recipe:

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/20/dining/202hrex.html

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/20/dining/201hrex.html

Ingredients:

1½ cups sour-cherry preserves

½ cup chopped shallots

2 tablespoons Dijon mustard

1½ tablespoons sherry vinegar

1½ tablespoons fresh thyme leaves

1 teaspoon crushed dried red pepper

1 6- to 8-pound bone-in shank-half ham, or 15- to 17-pound bone-in whole ham, fully cooked

1 tablespoon whole cloves

Directions:

1. Combine all ingredients in a food processor and pulse until smooth. Transfer to a jar with a tight-fitting lid and store in refrigerator until needed. Making glaze a day in advance allows flavors to bloom and thickens glaze, which makes it easier to apply.

2. Place rack in lower third of oven and preheat to 325 degrees. Trim tough rind from ham, leaving as much fat as possible. Place ham flat-side down and score the rounded side all over with diagonal cuts about 1½ inches apart and ¼-inch deep, forming a diamond pattern. In center of each diamond insert a single clove.

3. Place ham in a roasting pan and bake until a meat thermometer inserted into thickest part reads 135 degrees, about 15 minutes a pound. One hour before ham is done, remove it from oven and brush all over with glaze.

4. Return ham to oven and continue to bake, glazing ham once or twice more until ham is done. Remove ham from oven, tent with foil and let rest 10 minutes before carving.

Time: 2¼ hours for a half ham, 4¾ hours for a whole ham

Yield: 1¾ cups, enough for a whole ham, 10 to 12 servings for a half ham, 24 to 26 servings for a whole ham.

Old-Fashioned Ham with Brown Sugar and Mustard Glaze

I used this recipe for my second annual ham for Mormon med school dinner. Seems it is always my turn at Christmas, and I always end up baking a ham. Last year's ham was such a success that I wanted an equally good recipe but something different. So I settled for this more classic take on ham from Epicurious. Original recipe here:

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Old-Fashioned-Ham-with-Brown-Sugar-and-Mustard-Glaze-241636

Many of the reviewers suggest mixing all the glaze ingredients together and pouring it on top of the ham but no consensus is reached. I did not mix and found assembling the glaze components on the ham to be a bit tricksy, and in the end after baking and before serving I roughly scraped off the glaze components anyway. So take that for what you will.

The reviews of this ham were raving, as they were for last year's ham, so I may be the new official ham-baker around Rochester.

Here's the recipe:

Ingredients:

1 10-pound smoked ham with rind, preferably shank end
1 cup unsweetened apple juice or apple cider
1/2 cup whole grain Dijon mustard
2/3 cup (packed) golden brown sugar
1/4 cup honey

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 325°F. Place ham in large roasting pan. Pour apple juice over ham. Cover ham completely with parchment paper, then cover ham and roasting pan completely with heavy-duty foil, sealing tightly at edges of pan. Bake ham until instant-read thermometer inserted into center of ham registers 145°F, about 3 hours 45 minutes. Remove ham from oven. Increase oven temperature to 375°F.

2. Remove foil and parchment from ham. Drain and discard liquids from roasting pan. Cut off rind and all but 1/4-inch-thick layer of fat from ham and discard. Using long sharp knife, score fat in 1-inch-wide, 1/4-inch-deep diamond pattern.

3. Spread mustard evenly over fat layer on ham. Pat brown sugar over mustard coating, pressing firmly to adhere. Drizzle honey evenly over.

4. Bake until ham is well glazed, spooning any mustard and sugar glaze that slides into roasting pan back over ham, about 30 minutes. Transfer ham to serving platter; let cool at least 45 minutes. Slice ham and serve slightly warm or at room temperature.

Notes: I could not find a non-pre-fully-cooked ham, so I essentially skipped most of step 1. I did cook the ham in the apple juice at 225 for 30-45 minutes, just to get it a little warmed up and let it absorb some of the juices. Then I did the glaze at described above. I didn't really measure the brown sugar, just used what I needed to pat sugar all over the slidy mustard. I think it would be equally good with non-whole-grain dijon mustard and that it might be a little easier to work with.

Had lots of ham left over even with people eating a lot so I froze it in slices. We'll have to see how well that ends up going.

Balsamic and Dijon Glazed Ham With Roasted Pearl Onions

I got bold and decided to bake a ham for a Christmas dinner I hosted yesterday. I had never baked a ham before, let alone any other large piece of meat. Never a roast or even a chicken.

I asked Mom how to bake a ham but she says she always fries her ham. R. had never baked a ham either. So that left me with Epicurious. I searched Epicurious for baked ham recipes by the number of forks and read through them until I found a recipe that looked like maybe it could be tackled by a novice.

I settled on this recipe, originally from Bon Appetit, and was wonderfully delighted by the results. First I give the Epicurious instructions, then what I actually did, and then some final commentary.

Ingredients:

2 pounds pearl onions

1 cup (packed) dark brown sugar
5 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
3 tablespoons Dijon mustard
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) butter, diced
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper

1 8- to 10-pound half ham shank, fully cooked, fat trimmed to 1/2-inch thickness

Directions:

1. Cook onions in large pot of boiling salted water 2 minutes; drain. Trim root ends, leaving base intact. Peel. (Can be made 1 day ahead. Cover and refrigerate.)

2. Preheat oven to 325°F. Combine sugar, vinegar, and mustard in bowl for glaze. Transfer onions to 11x7x2-inch glass baking dish. Add 2/3 cup glaze, butter, 1 teaspoon salt, 1/4 teaspoon pepper, and 1/2 cup water; toss to coat. Cover with foil.

3. Line large roasting pan with foil. Making 1/2-inch-deep slits, score ham with diamond pattern. Place ham in pan and roast 45 minutes. Place onions in oven. Roast ham and onions 25 minutes. Uncover onions. Continue roasting onions and ham 50 minutes.

4. Baste ham with some of glaze. Continue to roast ham and onions until deep brown and glazed, brushing ham with glaze every 10 minutes, about 30 minutes longer. Transfer ham to large platter. Transfer onion mixture to bowl. Serve ham, passing onion mixture separately.

What I did:

Following the comments of multiple reviewers of the recipe on Epicurious, I used 2 lbs. of frozen pearl onions instead of fresh ones. I put the ham face side down in a glass casserole pan and poured in about 1/2 cup of apple cider. I covered the dish with foil and baked it at 325F for about 45 minutes.

In the meantime, I mixed up a double recipe of the glaze (vinegar, dijon, brown sugar, salt, and pepper), again in response to the commentary on the original site. After the ham had baked 45 minutes, I pulled it out of the oven and dumped the 2 lbs of onions (I did not thaw them first) around the ham in the pan and then I poured the sauce all over everything. This totally filled up my pan. I cut up a half stick of butter and put it in dabs on top of the ham and onions.

Then I put everything back in the oven, covered with foil, for another two-ish hours. At some point, my roommate noticed the pan was overflowing, removed about half the sauce, basted the ham, and put it back in the oven. When it was done cooking, I pulled it out and sliced it. The meat was delicious and tender and the onions had a perfect sweet-sour carmelized flavor.

Notes:

Doubling the sauce recipe was problematic, since I just ended up removing the sauce anyway. I can see why you might want to double it if you cook the onions separately as the recipe suggests, but if you cook it all in one glass pan I think just one recipes worth would be adequate.

I liked the sweetness the apple cider flavor gave to the ham. I might want the onions crispier if I cooked them again in the future, but I don't know if that's possible when trying to cook them in a pan where you want to create a tender ham. I'm not sure if the butter is really necessary.

Lots of juice left over. I saved some just in case B. comes to town and needs some sauce to cook chicken in. Turns out sauce is necessary for cooking chicken.

I would definitely make this recipe again because it was so easy and because everyone loved the result. It was a big hit especially among the male guests. But I'm open to learning other/better ways of baking a ham too, since I think the flavoring pulled off the success of this ham, not necessarily my technique.

Refridgerator Cabbage Goulash

The end of the monster cabbage!!!

I chopped that cabbage right up, with all the other vegetables I owned, and stuck it all in a pot. Take that cabbage!

I got the inspiration for this dish from http://www.cheriestihler.com/recipes/sides.html under Spicy Fried Cabbage, but modified it according to the vegetables I had in the fridge. This is what I made:

5-6 T. olive oil
2 russet potatoes-- peeled and chopped into thin slices
3 small cloves garlic-- minced
1/5 monster cabbage-- cut into thin strips
5 stalks celery-- cut into pieces
1 ear corn, cut the kernels directly off the ear
1/2 package sliced ham, cut into squares
1/2 tsp. ginger
1/4 tsp. allspice
1/4 tsp. white pepper
2 dashes nutmeg
1 1/2 tsp. salt


Heat oil in large saucepan on medium high. Add celery, potatoes, ham, and garlic. Stir-fry until potatoes are becoming soft, add cabbage and spices and stir until everything is coated evenly. Add corn, cover, and cook on medium low covered for 10-15 minutes or until cabbage is soft. Serve warm.