Bourbon Glazed & Cookie Encrusted Ham

In the midst of making Sam's birthday cake and frying a 15 pound turkey (recipe forthcoming), I made sure to put even more meat on the table: HAM.  I've never actually roasted a ham before and this is the first one.  Yet, I have fabulous memories of family cooking ham during the holidays, and I always wanted to try cooking a giant loaf of well, pig's meat.

So, when you've never done anything in the kitchen before, who do you turn to? EASY.  Alton Brown. Alton is like the father of cooking--he explains how everything works, the science behind "everything," and couples some fantastic recipes with his didactic-style cooking show.  I caught the episode he did on hams--"Ham I Am"--a few months ago and this particular recipe stood out: not only was a delicious city ham packed with brown sugar and mustard, but a ham spritzed with Bourbon and graham cracker cookies on top. What's not to love? If you buy the ham pre-cooked, in natural juices, and yes, spiral cut, the below recipe is easy, fast, and clearly delicious.






Bourbon Glazed & Cookie Encrusted Ham 
This recipe comes from Alton Brown over at Food Network and can be found here.  Alton's recipe is brilliant--take a fantastic roast of ham, cover it in a brown mustard, brown sugar, bourbon, and graham crackers and OH MY GOD.  It's soo good.  I've made no changes to the recipe below and I can promise that it is a huge hit.  One important note though: this calls for a "city" ham and after preparing this recipe, I've discovered that not all hams are the same.  Some have water added, some are cooked in natural juices, and some are just processed meat packed on a bone.  To insure that you don't fall into the latter category, check out Alton's episode "Ham I Am" from Good Eats to clarify that you're getting the best ham for your dinner table.

* 1 city style ham (brined, hock end)
* brown sugar, enough for sprinkling over ham (about 2 cups)
* Bourbon bottle & spray spout, 1 ounce
* 2 cups crushed ginger snap cookies

NOTE: The following recipe is part II of Alton's recipe.  Why? Well, I bought a pre-cooked ham (saves you A LOT OF TIME).  For an uncooked ham, check Alton's direct recipe for the first few steps.

1.) Preheat oven to 350F.  Remove ham from packaging, rinse, and dab with a paper towel to remove excess water, oil, or fat.  Place on a roasting pan and brush with a liberal coat of brown mustard.

2.) Sprinkle on brown sugar and press in to stick as much as possible.

3.) Spritz this layer lightly with bourbon.  Laugh at your Jim Beam spritzer bottle.  Proceed....

4.) Pack on as many of the crushed cookies as you can manage.  Make sure to cover the whole surface area.

5.) Tent the ham with tin foil (don't wrap fully, but "tent" loosely, and cook for 1 hour, or until the inside temperature is 140F.

6.) Let roast rest for 15 minutes until serving.  If cooking an uncarved roast that was not pre-cooked, allow to rest for 30 minutes before carving.  Enjoy!


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Beef Wellington

A couple of Fridays ago, I got it into my head that I was going to make Beef Wellington.  I didn't really know what Beef Wellington was, but I did know that it had beef in it...and pastry.  So, with fellow foodie Alexander at my side, we made two stops--one to the local grocery where I do all of my shopping, and one to Whole Foods for a beautiful cut of 3.5 lbs of beef tenderloin. What ensued was a a brilliantly flavorful--ableit pricey--dinner of the sweetest, tenderest beef I have ever had with a flaky, light pastry casing.  But before these two essential ingredients come together, you must smother it with a mushroom puree and Dijon mustard, then wrap it in ham and finally, wrap it puff pastry.  The final baked item is juicy, richly flavorful, and clearly delicious.




Beef Wellington
This recipes comes--as usual--by way of Elise Bauer over at Simply Recipes (you can find it here).  Elise's recipe calls for 1lb beef tenderloin whereas the one below calls for 3.5 lbs.  I highly suggest making this dish on a smaller scale the first time you make it--one, so that you don't sabotage a fantastic roast with dreams of grandiosity, and two, because this tenderloin is...well...very pricey. 

Ingredients:
* 3.5 lbs. beef tenderloin
* 2 sheets pre-made puff pastry (Pepperidge Farm has a FANTASTIC box of 2 puff pastry available in your local grocer's freezer section)
* salt and pepper
* Olive oil
* 2.5 lbs. bella mushrooms
* 10-14 slices ham
* 6-8 tablespoons djon mustard
* 2 egg yolks, beaten

SPECIAL EQUIPMENT:
*Meat Thermometer

1.) Preheat oven to 400F.

2.) Heat 1-2 tablespoons of oil in a saucepan and season your filet with salt and pepper to taste (or "generously" as Elise suggests).  Then, sear fillet on all sides in saucepan until browned.  Elise suggests to NOT move the fillet until it has had time to brown on one side.  Remove from pan and allow to cool and chop mushrooms.

3.) Puree chopped mushrooms in a food processor or heavy duty blender.  Heat saucepan on medium-high heat.  Scrape down food processor's pureed mushrooms into saucepan and cook until mushrooms have not only released their moisture/juices, but also cooked away.  Once the moisture has cooked away from the mushrooms, remove pan from heat and allow to cool.

4.) Prepare the first stage of the Beef Wellington wrap.  Layout a large sheet of plastic wrap and cover with ham so that your slices overlap.  Spread mushroom over the ham slices and beef fillet on top of these two layers.  Pause to spread djon mustard fully over the entire fillet.  Then, roll the ham and mushrooms over the fillet and use the plastic wrap layer to tightly seal your rolled ham-mushroom-fillet bundle.  Ensure that your plastic wrap is tight by using rubber bands to secure the ends, and refrigerate for 20 minutes.  Remove puff pastries from the freezer/fridge and allow to defrost for these 20-30 minutes.

5.) On a clean surface, spread open your two sheets of puff pastry in a surface that is large enough to cover your fillet.  If you're cooking a 1 lb fillet, you may only need one sheet of pastry.  However, if you're making 3.5 lbs (like this recipe), you'll need to lay out both sides of pastry side by side and combine the two at their edges.

6.) Unwrap beef fillet and place in the center of your pastry dough.  Beat 2 eggs and use a silicone brush to brush all around the edges of the pastry dough with this egg mixture.  Fold pastry around the beef fillet and cut off excess pastry.  NOTE: Elise notes that pastry that is more than 2 layers thick will not cook all of the way and remain doughy.  Thus, don't go crazy on the pastry here; one layer is enough.

7.) Place on baking sheet and flip pastry covered fillet to SEAM SIDE DOWN.  Brush the top layer with your egg mixture and score incisions into the top of the pastry dough, but do not go all the way through the pastry.

8.) Bake for 25-35 minutes.  Pastry should be golden brown when removed from oven and meat temperature (yes, you should invest in a meat thermometer!) should be 125-130F for medium-rare.

9.) Remove from oven and allow roast to rest for 10 minutes.  Cut into 1 inch slices (I prefer on a diagonal) and enjoy!

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