What To Do With Leftover Ham - 5 Recipes

For Christmas we baked a wonderful yummy ham.

(Picture from Honeybaked Ham... yummmmy!)

But since there is only three of us, and one is pint-sized, we have a lot of leftover ham.  Good thing I have a set of leftover ham recipes that go beyond the basic ham sandwich.  There are not a lot of pictures with this post so you will have to use your imagination a bit. I hope these recipes and ideas inspire you to use up the rest of your leftover ham!

Ham and Egg Scramble

This is another one of those use what you have on hand recipes. We had this for breakfast this morning but I didn't even think of taking pictures.  But it did inspire this post.  For my egg scramble I use:

1 cup chopped leftover ham
1/2 cup chopped mushrooms
1 chopped red bell pepper
1/4 cup mined onion
6 eggs
salt to taste
1 Tablespoon olive oil
1 Tablespoon butter

In a skillet add the olive oil and chopped veggies.  You do not have to use the vegetables listed above but can throw in any combination you happen to have on hand.  Once the veggies are softened, add the chopped ham and cook until the ham is warm.

While cooking, put the eggs and salt in a bowl and beat with a whisk or fork until well combined.  Move the veggies and ham to one half of the pan.  Add the butter to the now clear half of the pan.  Spread the melting butter around to coat that half of the pan.  Add the eggs to the clear, now butter coated half of the pan.  Use a spatula to continuously scramble eggs in the pan.  Once about half of the egg is cooked, combine the eggs and the veggie/ham mixture and continue to scramble another minute or two.  Do not over cook the egg. Transfer to a plates and serve immediately.  Scrambled eggs, contrary to every restaurant buffet, do not sit well.

Ham and Egg Bake

My egg bake recipe is here.  Instead of using sausage, use ham.  Super yummy!  This recipe does not need to have the hash brown crust.  It can be cooked directly in a greased pan instead.  

Ham and Potatoes Au Gratin

I made this the other night.  Again I wish I had thought to take pictures.  Blogging is going to drive me to capture pix of everything I cook, just in case.  Well my family seems to understand... or they are afraid and don't want to startle me in someway.

You will need:
6 cups water (boiling in a sauce pan)
1 teaspoon salt
4-5 medium sized potatoes, peeled
2 cups chopped ham
1 Tablespoon butter
1 cup cream
1 cup milk
2-3 cloves garlic, minced or 1/4 cup onion, minced
1 teaspoon salt (this is in addition to the salt listed above)
1-1/2 shredded cheese

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.

Bring your 6 cups of water and 1 teaspoon of salt to a boil in a medium sauce pan.  While the water is heating, wash and peel the potatoes.  Slice the potatoes into 1/4 inch thick slices.  Then cut all the slices in half.  Once the water is boiling carefully add the potatoes to the boiling water (please wait until boiling). Reduce heat to a simmer to prevent bubbling over.  Gently boil potatoes about 10 minutes.  This will significantly cut down on the oven cooking time.  It drives me crazy that every Au Gratin potato recipe has a 50 to 60 minute cook time when it really is more like 1-3/4 hours to get the center potatoes truly soft and cooked through.

Drain the potatoes into a colander in the sink.  Let them sit a few minutes to really drain off the water.

While waiting, in a bowl whisk together the milk, cream, salt, and garlic or onion.  You can add pepper to this mix too if you like.

Butter the bottom of your baking pan.  Take about half of the potatoes and add them to the pan then layer with about half of the chopped ham.  On top of that add about half of the milk and cream mixture.  Then repeat with the remainder of the potatoes, chopped ham, and mix and cream mixture.

Put in the oven for 30 minutes, uncovered.  After 30 minutes, add the shredded cheese and cook another 20 minutes until browned and bubbly.  Let set about 5 minutes before serving.

Ham and Bean Soup

This is one of my favorites.  We make a big pot and freeze it into many meals for the long and way too cold winter. (Did I mention tomorrow our high is supposed to be -10?)

I mention this here as a place holder.  I will be making this later this week and will post the recipe specifically.  And will take pictures this time!

Update: This recipe has been posted.  Find it here.

Ham and Pasta Alfredo Bake (Also Known as Ham Mac and Cheese)

This is super simple recipe.  And again is one I throw together with what I have on hand. Generally you will need:

1 box of pasta, any shape will do

salt

4 Tablespoons butter

1 cup cream

1 cup milk

1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese

2 cloves garlic, minced

1-1/2 cup shredded cheese (I like to use 1/2 Gruyere and 1/2 cheddar but any combination will work)

2 cups chopped ham

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Prepare pasta until cooked al dente (in other words until not quite done and still chewy).  Drain in a colander over the sink.  Let sit a few minutes to drain well. 

While pasta is cooking in a sauce pan melt butter then add garlic to cook 2 or 3 minutes.  Add milk and cream and whisk together then cook until just simmering.  Whisk in Parmesan cheese and remove from heat.

Grease a baking pan.  Add cooked pasta and ham then cover with cream sauce you made above.  Last top with the shredded cheese.  Bake 30 minutes until top is browned and the sauce is bubbly. Classic comfort food!

Happy eating.  Please follow me on Facebook, Pinterest, and Bloglovin.

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Scape and Basil Pesto

Now that our Garage Sale is over, I can get back to blogging.  In the middle of the garage sale madness, our garlic put on their scapes.  A scape is a garlic flower bud.  If left on the plant the scape will blossom into a white allium type flower just like the Chive Blossoms. 

Garlic Scape

The scape is the curlicue part of the garlic plant pictured above.  Garlic cloves are a type of bulb, just like a tulip, well technically just like an onion but people are more familiar with tulips.  Scapes grow on hard necked varieties of garlic.  Hard neck garlic is generally grown in the north while most soft necked garlics are grown in warmer climates.

Garlic growers usually remove the garlic flower bud, the scape, before it opens.  This forces plant growth back into bulb production rather than into flower production.  And since we grow garlic for the blub, not the flower, I snap the scapes off my garlic too by just snapping the scape off the plant, usually just below the curlicue. 

Harvested Garlic Scapes

Usually we grow enough garlic to last until the next year's garlic crop.  However, a significant amount of our garlic did not survive our insane spring weather this year.  The weather kept vacillating between fifty degrees and twenty-five degrees.  Just as soon as the garlic, and most of the other bulbs in the garden including the tulips and hyacinths, started to grow there would be a hard freeze followed by growing weather and another hard freeze.   The picture above is the entire harvest of scapes.  Usually we have at least twenty times that amount.  If you don't grow garlic (which you should do because it is so easy) you can buy scapes at the farmer's market. 

But whether we have a little or a lot of scapes, we need to do something with them.  My favorite thing to do is to turn them into pesto.  If I had more scapes this year I would also have pickled some and used them fresh in cooking.

A traditional pesto recipe is:

2 cups basil leaves
2 garlic cloves
1/3 cup pine nuts
1 cup olive oil
1/2 cup parmesan cheese

For a garlic scape pesto there are a variety of recipes.  Some using basil and some not.  The most basic garlic scape pesto recipe uses scapes in place of garlic cloves, from 1/2 cup to 1 cup of chopped scapes in place of the garlic cloves.  Scapes taste like garlic; surprise, surprise I know. 

But since I rarely follow a traditional recipes (and I never ever have pine nuts in my pantry), my scape and basil pesto recipe is:

1 - 2 cups chopped garlic scapes (20 - 30 scapes)
2 cups basil leaves (about two large fistfuls of fresh leaves)
1/2 - 1 cup olive oil
1/2 cup finely grated parmesan cheese
1/2 cup finely grated Pecorino Romano cheese
1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
1 teaspoon sea salt or kosher salt

This recipe has a lot of bite to it.  I think the vinegar balances nicely with the spiciness.

To start, put whole (washed and dried) scapes into a food processer to chop coarsely. 

Chopped Scapes

Then add the basil on top and pulse several times.

Adding the basil to the chopped scapes

You may need to add the basil in small amounts.  This is especially true with my rather small food processer.  After a few additions of the basil, the green mixture no longer pulses well.  This is when I start adding the olive oil.  Drizzle some of the olive oil in along with each addition of basil and pulse a few times.  Once all the olive oil and basil is added, run the food processer until the mixture has the consistency of a thin paste.  You don't want to be able to see chunks of scape or basil.

Next I add in all the grated cheese, balsamic vinegar, and salt. 

Note, depending upon your taste you may want to add the vinegar in a little at a time to suit your own taste or skip it all together for a more traditional pesto.  I often add more than the 1/4 cup.

Another note, I grate my own cheese with a micro planer for pesto.  It is so much better tasting than the pre-grated stuff in the green can if you know what I mean.  And since pesto is not cooked, the flavor of each ingredient is very important.

Pulse the pesto until thoroughly mix.  Then taste test.  If the pesto is too spicy or sour for your liking, add more cheese.  Remember the Pecorino Romano is very salty.



Ready to Use

Most often I put pesto on cooked pasta.  But it also is great as a spread for sandwiches (try pesto with salami, gorgonzola, lettuce, and capers in a whole wheat wrap... trust me, try it).  It also is great on chicken!

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