One of the delights of my day (at least on most days) is creating a meal for the enjoyment of our family. Here is one I put together the other day.
We had a pig butchered at Williams Locker recently and one of the great and useful cuts we get is a smoked ham steak.
I diced up about two thirds of the ham steak (saving the other third for ham and eggs for another meal) and fried the ham in a couple tablespoons of butter. The ham has some extra moisture from the brining process, so it takes a little heat to drive away the moisture and get a little sear on the meat. Before I started with the meat, I also put in a box of pasta to boil. Cubed and boiled potatoes would also work well.
I like the flavor of garlic with the ham and cheese, so I put in about half a teaspoon of minced garlic and mixed it in with the ham for the last 20 to 30 seconds of frying the ham. I then added a couple tablespoons of flour and mixed it in to create a roux.
I gave the roux about 30 seconds to cook away the flour flavor and then slowly added milk, mixing it in as I went to incorporate the roux and start the thickening process while also working up the flavorful bits from the bottom of the pan into the mixture. I don’t measure many things, but I guess I added somewhere between a cup and a half to two cups of milk.
While giving time for the roux mixture to heat through and thicken, stirring occasionally, I grated around a 1/2 pound of cheddar cheese. I like the sharpness of cheddar with the ham, a nice gouda or alpine cheese would also work nicely. Once the roux mixture was thickened and bubbling, I added the cheese to the pan and incorporated it into the sauce.
For the last couple minutes of the pasta cooking, I added some frozen broccoli into the pasta pot. I then drained the pasta and broccoli and added it to the pan with the ham and cheese sauce.
I folded the pasta and broccoli into the sauce and then plated it up for eating and enjoying.
We hope you liked this. If we can assist you with your meal creation or understanding of food in any way, connect with us on Facebook and Instagram and sign-up for our email newsletter here.
Best wishes for your food enjoyment, John