Here we are at the end of January and I’m just getting around to writing about Christmas leftovers. Well, I’ve been busy trying to sell cars to people who want a $25,000 car for the price of a Yugo. Oh the many times I’ve wanted to say, “that just ain’t gonna happen, folks”.
But, as usual, I digress. Yeah, I cooked this up a couple of weeks ago and it’s a dish that I’ve always liked—about once or twice a year. Scalloped potatoes and ham. Leftover ham. From that big-ass ham I put in the oven on Christmas Day—9 pounds worth for 3 people. And I’ve still got the hambone in the freezer waiting for some cold weather so I can make up a big old pot of beans and corn bread.
Scalloped potatoes and ham is actually pretty easy to make. The only “tricky” part is making the cheese sauce and even that’s not hard and only takes about 10 minutes. And, I also had the bright idea (after getting impatient and declaring the scalloped potatoes and ham done before the potatoes were totally done) of microwaving the potatoes for about 5-6 minutes before slicing them so the dish would get done quicker.
Anyway, it was pretty tasty. It was also cheap and lasted for about 3 days—1 dinner and couple of days of left overs.
Here’s how I did it:
Recipe: Scalloped Potatoes and Ham
Summary: A classic, left-over comfort food casserole perfect for holiday ham left-overs on a cold winter evening
Ingredients
- 6 medium potatoes, peeled
- 1 pound ham (leftover, ham-steak) cut into small cubes
- 1 (10-12 ounce) bag frozen corn, thawed
- 1/3 cup chopped onion
- ¼ cup margarine or butter (1/2 stick)
- ¼ cup all-purpose flour
- ½ tsp salt
- ½ tsp black pepper
- ½ tsp garlic powder
- 2 cups milk
- 2 cups grated cheese (Colby, Monterey Jack, Mozzarella)
- 1 (10-12 ounce) bag frozen corn, thawed
- 1 cup bread crumbs (Cheap Bastid makes his own—2 or 3 slices of bread on a cookie sheet in a 200 degree oven for about 15-20 minutes then crushed in a plastic bag with the rolling pin)
Instructions
- Get out a baking dish—up to 9×13 and either spray it with cooking spray or grease it with butter/margarine. Get out a medium saucepan
- Peel the potatoes, rinse them and put them into your microwave for about 5-6 minutes.
- Chop the ham into small bite pieces.
- Chop the onions
- Slice potatoes into 1/8 inch slices (very thin).
- Lay 1/2 of the sliced potatoes into the bottom of the baking dish. Sprinkle 1/2 of the corn, ½ of the onion and 1/2 of the ham pieces over the potatoes.
- Turn oven onto pre-heat at 350.
- Put the saucepan on the stove set to medium heat. Add the margarine/butter and let it melt. Stir in the flour and whisk to combine. Whisk it until it’s “blonde”.
- Pour in the milk, salt and pepper. Continue to stir constantly until the mixture thickens and bubbles. Remove from heat. Stir in the cheese.
- Pour half of the cheese sauce over the potatoes, corn and ham.
Add a bit of salt and pepper and garlic. Repeat another layer of potatoes, ham, onion and corn. Pour remaining cheese sauce over the top. - Sprinkle the bread crumbs on top.
- Cover pan with aluminum foil and bake for 40 minutes. Check the doneness, remove the foil and give it another 20 minutes to crisp up the bread crumbs. Check potatoes for “doneness”. Remove from oven.
- Let stand 10 minutes before serving. Sprinkle
each serving with fresh chopped parsley, if desired.
Preparation time: 15 minute(s)
Cooking time: 1 hour(s)
Number of servings (yield): 6
That’s pretty easy isn’t it? And it’s good, old-fashioned Scalloped Potatoes and Ham made from leftovers. It’s classic comfort food that will warm you up and fill you up with goodness. It’ll feed a family of 4 and give you some leftovers of your leftovers.
The Cheap Bastid Test: Well, this isn’t bad. A pound of ham cost me maybe $1.25 (that’s figuring a bit of shrinkage from the original ham bought at $.99/lb. for Christmas). The cheese was the pricey part and cost about $1.50 and the potatoes maybe $1. The corn was $1 at the dollar store. Add about another $.50 for the margarine and milk and you come up with a total of right at $5.25. Not super cheap but it’s about $.75 per serving. It’s cheesy, potatoey and “hammie”. That’s good old fashioned casserole comfort food!
Looks yummy! That butter/flour/milk base for the cheese sauce is called bechamel (that’s what I do for mac&cheese as well), and I’ve always found it comes together faster if you microwave the milk to near-boiling before adding it to the roux. Put the milk in the nukrowave first, then be working on the flour/butter, and add hot milk instead of cold milk. Hopefully in this case, the micro isn’t occupied by potatoes the whole time!
RubeRad–great tip on the milk. It should save just a bit of time.
Now that is a meal in itself.. Perfect ofr these -37 C days here..
HUGGG
I like the idea of the corn addition. Then I can think I am getting my vegetables!
Amy, thanks and yes it works without the corn. The corn is just a “little bit extra”.