aesthete
Assistant Cook
OK, so i found a little inspiration on here this morning, and have decided to post the results to give a little back.
I've been eating off of a ham i picked up about a week ago, and it's been great. there's only so much ham and eggs, ham sandwiches, and whatnot that i'll eat before tiring of it, and i'm a little anxious to get towards the end of the ham so I can try making a soup. to accelerate the process, I made a ham salad. this is my first ever ham salad, and I used a little info from this board, and my experiences making egg salad to guide me.
I took about a pound and a half of the leaner part of the ham, and chopped it up in my vitamix (my food processor was destroyed by a roommate who didn't know not to put the plastic top in the dishwasher) I didn't have great control over the chopping, but the vitamix worked pretty well. I also chopped up a half of a white onion, about 10 slices of jalapenos, a half a roasted pepper, and three boiled eggs.
I mixed all of these chopped ingredients with Dukes mayo (i'm not a miracle whip kind of guy - too sweet for me) probably 3 heaping spoonfuls. (ah, exact measuring) a bunch of ground black pepper, sprinkled some cayenne pepper, and a little ground mustard. after tasting it, I decided it wasnt hot enough, and could use a little garlic. rather than break out more pepper and garlic, i squirted a generous amount of tabasco garlic pepper sauce, and left it at that.
this was all done on the fly, and i'm pretty happy with the result. If I had any celery around, i'd have added it in. If I wanted it less spicy, i'd have replaced the cayenne pepper with dill, and added in some sour cream maybe. My first sandwich was on toasted wheat bread, with melted colby cheese, and boston lettuce. I felt it was a success, though without adding any salt, it's pretty salty. I guess i'm used to it with straight ham, but this is probably the first ham salad i've ever had made with anything but crappy ham from the deli. It's the first time i've ever made it myself. If I had to do it over, i'd cube the ham really small instead of shredding it in the vitamix. the salad was more like a spread than a salad, and it was a little difficult to keep it from leaking out of the sandwich.
I've been eating off of a ham i picked up about a week ago, and it's been great. there's only so much ham and eggs, ham sandwiches, and whatnot that i'll eat before tiring of it, and i'm a little anxious to get towards the end of the ham so I can try making a soup. to accelerate the process, I made a ham salad. this is my first ever ham salad, and I used a little info from this board, and my experiences making egg salad to guide me.
I took about a pound and a half of the leaner part of the ham, and chopped it up in my vitamix (my food processor was destroyed by a roommate who didn't know not to put the plastic top in the dishwasher) I didn't have great control over the chopping, but the vitamix worked pretty well. I also chopped up a half of a white onion, about 10 slices of jalapenos, a half a roasted pepper, and three boiled eggs.
I mixed all of these chopped ingredients with Dukes mayo (i'm not a miracle whip kind of guy - too sweet for me) probably 3 heaping spoonfuls. (ah, exact measuring) a bunch of ground black pepper, sprinkled some cayenne pepper, and a little ground mustard. after tasting it, I decided it wasnt hot enough, and could use a little garlic. rather than break out more pepper and garlic, i squirted a generous amount of tabasco garlic pepper sauce, and left it at that.
this was all done on the fly, and i'm pretty happy with the result. If I had any celery around, i'd have added it in. If I wanted it less spicy, i'd have replaced the cayenne pepper with dill, and added in some sour cream maybe. My first sandwich was on toasted wheat bread, with melted colby cheese, and boston lettuce. I felt it was a success, though without adding any salt, it's pretty salty. I guess i'm used to it with straight ham, but this is probably the first ham salad i've ever had made with anything but crappy ham from the deli. It's the first time i've ever made it myself. If I had to do it over, i'd cube the ham really small instead of shredding it in the vitamix. the salad was more like a spread than a salad, and it was a little difficult to keep it from leaking out of the sandwich.
