Continuing with my little "pork-a-thon," I did something for dinner that I had never thought of before--grilling ham. The Man and I were perusing the meats at our local Publix, and I was asking that age-old question, "what do you want for dinner?" He looked around for a minute, and said "ham." "Ham?" "Ham."
Okay, I think, how the hell am I going to cook ham, considering it's 6:30 pm on a Sunday night, and we're still wandering around the grocery store...damned time change Personally, I like me ham baked...with or without those little pineapple rings I also like garlic ham, which my friend Tessa does every year for Easter Brunch. She takes some garlic and a ton of freshly ground black pepper and whirrs it around in a food processor until it makes a paste. Then, you take a small paring knife and gouge holes in your ham and insert this garlic pepper paste. She then simmers it until it's done. You cut off chunks and slices, and when you get a pocket of garlic, it's fabulous! Make sure everyone at the table eats some, or you'll be sorry...and safe from vampires.
Back to the ham in question. I'm rooting around in the pork section of the meat department, and I spy these large center cut slices--the ones with the little round bone in the middle. I grab a couple of those and look at the package for directions. The usual pan frying instructions were there, along with a suggestion that the ham would be "great on the grill." Hmmm, I think, "great on the grill" sounds intriguing. Let's give this a whirl.
Oh man, was it every delectable! Something about fire applied to ham makes the ham transcend the ordinary methods of cooking, like pan frying, and become something out of this world...okay, I was really hungry, and that might have had something to do with it, but I was still pretty amazed at the flavor. I cooked them for about 5-6 minutes per side, and they weren't dry at all...just tender and juicy.
While the ham was cooking, I roasted some green beans and some potatoe wedges, using this odd gray sea salt that I was given and some pesto olive oil went on the potatoes. Very tasty, indeed.
And, here it is 2 days later, and I still can't get over how good that goofy ham was Geez, I need to get a life. Or, another helping!
2 comments:
Tessa's garlic ham -- heaven! Does she really simmer it? I haven't paid that much attention. On Easter, I'm so caught up in All The Food that it's hard for me to concentrate.
Being a Yankee, lamb was always our Easter dinner choice. My mother sticks slivers of garlic into the meat to flavor it. It's hard to find decent lamb down here so I don't cook it very often.
HAM GOOD.
Post a Comment