Sunday, December 11, 2011

My First Ham

Alton Brown's "Good Eats" Recipe

Get a "City Ham" which is just the bone-in, fully cooked, water-added.

This one weighed in @ 9 lbs. (Still some in the fridge)

Preheat oven to 250 degrees
Make a tin foil tent by rolling out about 5 ft. of foil
cut in half and line up side by side, overlapping by a few inches, then fold over the flap a few times to create a seal.  Place ham on a dry kitchen towel in a roasting rack and put tent over ham, making sure that it is not touching the ham, but creating a seal with the roasting rack.

Bake for 3-4 hours, until center of ham is about 160 degrees

(While ham is in the oven, put ginger snap cookies in a food processor and chop fine)

Change oven temperature to 350.

While ham is still warm, rub or brush dijon mustard over whole ham

Then, cover mustard layer with dark brown sugar

(This next part requires some hardware, a spray bottle of bourbon.  This step could probably be skipped if you don't want to buy a bottle of bourbon and a spray bottle just for this one ham, but it does add flavor and adhesiveness for the final layer)

Generously spray ham with bourbon

Finally, coat with chopped ginger snaps

Put tin foil tent back over ham and cook for 1-2 hours, or until center is 165 degrees





To slice, get a pair of locking pliers to grab hold of the bone

Use carving knife if you've got one, or a good serrated knife otherwise


So delicious!!

Lobster & Avocado Wontons


A variation on a family favorite...

Bring Vegetable, Canola, or Peanut oil to 350 degrees

Stuff wontons with cooked lobster and diced avocado (I kind of made a guacamole really)
take egg white and wipe edge of wonton
crimp wonton with wonton crimper or fork

Fry until golden brown, about 2-3 minutes

The sauces I made were a wasabi mayonnaise and a spicy sour cream, both just involve mixing wasabi with mayonnaise to taste, and your choice of hot sauce with sour cream

I would recommend after trying to get a soy-sauce based dipping sauce as well, like the one mom and dad make!

First Thanksgiving Meal


Thank you so much to Alyssa's mom who went and bought this rubbermaid storage box for this 22 lb turkey to brine in! The brine is loosely based on a recipe from a food magazine and is available upon request.


Basting this beautiful bird.  Looks burnt right?  Not the case, 
that's just the sugars caramelizing on the skin!!



Phil carving the finished product


The menu... You can click on the picture to enlarge it.


The spread!!!


My plate: Turkey Leg, sweet potato/caramelized pecan, cheesy potatoes!!, stuffing, green bean casserole


Sorry no picture of the finished product, but here's the inner workings of Alyssa's apple pie