My main goal this Christmas was to create a simple all local and/or organic meal that everyone could enjoy but wouldn't take me all day to make. I probably spent about 3-3 1/2 hours in the kitchen, including cleaning time, and everyone loved the meal!
Before starting, I got all the ingredients together. There was a lot of different chopping and slicing involved and I definitely could not have been as efficient without my multi-use food processor, a must have appliance for easy cooking! Not to mention my wonderful boyfriend, who helps out by washing the cooking utensils and loading the dishwasher.
Mom's Oven-baked Ham
This recipe is for pre-cooked ham. I had never made a ham before and just followed a simple recipe my mom sent me. It was easy to do and tasted delicious.
Ingredients:
Ham (we used a local, pasture raised, antibiotic-free ham)
Port wine
2-3 tablespoons honey and/or brown sugar
1 can pineapple slices
2 teaspoons powdered cloves
Whole cloves
Directions:
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees
Make the sauce by mixing the pineapple juice, powdered cloves, 2tbsp Port, 1 tbsp honey and 1 tbsp brown sugar
More Port, honey and/or brown sugar can be added to taste
Wash the ham with water
Place the ham in a roasting pan with the fattier side down
Pour ~1/2 cup of Port over the ham
Cover with foil (make sure it is completely covered)
Place in the oven (Mom's tip: make sure the oven is hot)
Depending on the size of your ham cook covered for 45 min to 1 hr 15min
*We had a small ham, so I cooked it for 45min*
Remove from the oven and remove the foil
Put the whole cloves in the ham
Use a brush or spoon to cover the ham with the sauce
Cook uncovered for 15-20 min basting the ham with the sauce every few minutes
Remove the ham and decorate with pineapple slices
Tips:
*If you don't like cloves, you can make the sauce without powdered cloves.
*If you don't have a roasting pan, you can use any other oven-safe dish. I used a medium baking dish.
*Simplyrecipes.com suggest following the 10 min per pound rule or cooking the ham until it has reached an internal temperature of 110 degrees.
*If you're ham is not pre-cooked, if you have a bigger ham or if you want a different flavor, check out this Glazed Ham Recipe from Simplyrecipes.com.
*If you want, you can put the whole cloves in the ham before it goes in the oven, for the last 15 min or when it is done cooking. Simplyrecipes.com describes scoring the ham and then putting the cloves, but I did not score my ham.
*If you want warm pineapple slices, add them to the ham for the last 5 minutes of cooking
While the ham was in the oven, I worked on the potato dish:
Scalloped Potatoes (original recipe: SimplyRecipes)
Ingredients:
1 1/2 tbsp butter cut into 1/2 inch cubes
4 sliced medium sized Russet potatoes
1 chopped or shredded white onion (optional)
2 tbsp fresh chopped parsley (optional)
2 slices of bacon, cooked and chopped (try local bacon for nice thick strips)
2 3/4 cup grated Gruyere cheese
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1 1/2 cup 2% milk
1 cup heavy cream
Salt and pepper
Directions:
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees
Butter a large baking dish
Use the food processor to slice the potatoes, shred the onions, Gruyere and if necessary the Parmesan
Save 1/2 cup Gruyere and 1/4 cup Parmesan
Put one layer of potatoes on the bottom of the baking dish
Sprinkle with salt and pepper
Top with the shredded onions
Layer with 1/2 cup Gruyere
Next top with bacon, parsley and some Parmesan
Repeat, layering potatoes, shredded onions, Gruyere, bacon/parsley/Parmesan
Put on the last layer of potatoes
Mix the milk and cream and add to the dish
Dot the potatoes with the butter
Cover with foil and bake for 1hr
Remove from oven and remove foil
Add the remaining Gruyere and Parmesan and bake uncovered for 30 min
I did not start the green beans until right before dinner time. They took maybe 15 min to prepare and while I prepared the green beans, I put the ham and potatoes back in the oven to heat up.
Greens beans with bacon and shallots (original SimplyRecipes)
Ingredients:
1 pound green beans
2 large shallots
2 -3 slices of bacon
salt and pepper
Directions:
Trim green beans and chop shallots
Steam green beans for ~5 min
Cook and chop bacon
Leave ~1-1 1/2 tbsp of bacon oil in the pan
Add shallots to the pan and cook until lightly browned
Add green beans and bacon
Stir to mix and season to taste with salt and pepper
Take Mom's Ham and Scalloped Potatoes out of the oven and serve!
A great way to finish the meal:
Bon Appetit's Caramelized Apple Tart (served with locally made ice cream)
Ingredients:
Crust:
1 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup (1 stick) chilled unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
2 egg yolks
*Note: the original recipe calls for 1 1/2 cup flour and 1/2 cup sugar, but I find the dough stays too crumbly and is a little too sweet, so I reduced the amounts. The dough was still crumbly, so I'm going to keep experimenting and will update the recipe when I find a solution.
Filling:
1/2 cup (1 stick) chilled unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
3/4 cup sugar
4-5 apples, peeled and sliced
Vanilla ice cream
Directions:
Crust:
Mix flour, sugar and salt in a bowl
Rub butter and yolk into flour mixture until coarse meal forms
Gently knead crust until ball forms
Flatten ball into disk
Wrap in plastic and refrigerate for at least 1 hour
Filling:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees
Scatter butter in 12-inch ovenproof skillet
Sprinkle sugar in skillet
Arrange apple slices, tucking to fill in gaps
Heat skillet over medium heat until sugar and butter melt
Cook ~45 min, shifting pan often until sugar is deep amber
Continue tucking in more apples slices as gaps form
Cool about 10 min
Roll out crust on floured surface to 12-inch round
*Note: the crust from the original recipe was too crumbly to roll out, so I rolled it out as best as possible and put it onto the apples in pieces, sprinkling the remaining crumbs to fill the gap. With the ingredient adjustments this should not happen, but if you can't form a nice round crust, put it on the apples in pieces, filling the gaps with the remaining crumbles.
Place crust on apples
Bake until crust is brown (~35 min)
Cool to room temperature
Heat skillet over medium heat to loosen filling
Place large plate over skillet and gently invert the two to release tart onto plate
Cut and serve with ice cream
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