The Christmas tree and decorations have been packed away, the mistletoe tea towels and Santa oven gloves washed and stowed, and the left over Christmas pudding safely wrapped in foil in the freezer. All that’s left of Christmas is the extra 2 kgs sitting snuggly around my waist and hips….oh and of course, the rest of the Christmas ham.

We’ve had ham sandwiches, toasted ham sandwiches, ham with mashed potato and salad and ham with sauerkraut (home-made!) and steamed potatoes. And yes, I am a bit over ham.

But I do love a good jambalaya, so that’s where my last batch of chopped ham ended.  Every time I make jambalaya, that song “Jambalaya(On the Bayou)”  takes up residence in my head and won’t leave. In the end I thought I may as well just give in so I headed off to You Tube to really indulge. I just love You tube, you learn so much that you din’t know you needed to know. I actually didn’t know that Jambalaya  was originally a Hank Williams Snr song, my favourite  has always been Creedence Clearwater Revival, although I am quite fond of The Carpenter’s  version. Anyway I chose one  which happened to be karaoke version with the lyrics printed on the screen. “Yay,” I thought,  “sing-along”!🎤  “Jambalaya, and a craw-fish pie, billy gumbo”…….OMG, you’ve got to be joking. For 40 years I’ve been singing billy gumbo, 40 years, and it’s wrong ! Now I’m not sure what I thought billy gumbo was, maybe cousin Billy’s gumbo recipe, I don’t know, but actually it is ‘fillet gumbo’. Thanks to Wikipedia I found out that fillet gumbo is made with filé powder which is ground sassafras leaves. So there you go!!

My daughter told me that what I had done was called a mondegreen (If you aren’t a follower of Spicks and Specks and don’t know what this means, click on the word, you can read all about it) And here I’m the one that’s the teacher and should know all that stuff!

Anyway, back to jambalaya. This delicious mixture of meat, vegetables and rice is a Louisiana Creole dish, a sort of a cross between Spanish paella and  jambalaia which is a provençal dish. Jambalaya, like most creole dishes, starts with the ‘trinity’ of celery, peppers and onions. I usually use ham or a smoked sausage, but chicken can also be used, or all three if you like. Shrimps and oysters are also popular. Creole seasonings typically include paprika,cayenne pepper, dried oregano, thyme and garlic .For a great creole seasoning recipe you can’t go past the best Creole chef, Emeril Lagasse. The original dishes used white rice but  I use brown rice and it’s just as tasty.

For quite few years I have been using this recipe from epicurious, one of my fave food websites. This recipe here is the original and I pretty much did it as it says but without the chicken, and I added some okra which I am just learning to use. Instead of the cans of tomatoes and tomato sauce (which I don’t think is like our good old Heinz or Rosella tomato sauce) I just used a couple of cans of diced tomatoes and sloshed the cans out with some vege stock I had in the fridge.

 JAMBALAYA

PREPARATION

Add oil to a large nonstick saucepan. Over medium heat, sauté onion, garlic, bell pepper and celery until onion is translucent.

Add parsley, ham, chicken, bay leaf, and cayenne pepper. Cook, stirring often, 5 to 6 minutes.

Add tomatoes (with juice), tomato sauce, and 1 3/4 cups cold water. Gently simmer, uncovered, stirring occasionally, about 5 minutes.

Pour rice into the pan and stir well. Bring mixture to a boil. Lower heat and simmer, covered, 45 minutes or until rice is cooked and absorbs most of the liquid.

Stir in shrimp and cook 5 minutes more. Remove bay leaf. Season to taste with cayenne pepper and salt.

HAM HASH

This is another great way to use up the Christmas ham. The original recipe is Corned Beef Hash but it is just as delicious using ham. The recipe is by Adrian Richardson from Secret Meat Business and is found on the  LifeStyleFOOD website. It’s very easy and I am always sort of surprised when it comes out of the pan looking so good.

INGREDIENTS

•  4 large red-skinned potatoes, half boiled, grated (I don’t par boil the potatoes if  I don’t have time and it still turns out ok)
• 1/2 red onion, finely dice
• 1/2 bunch spring onion, finely chopped
• 1/2 bunch parsley, finely chopped
• 500 gms ham, finely diced
• olive oil
• salt & pepper

* I add a couple of eggs because it never seems to me that it would stick together, but it probably would

PREPARATION

Place the diced ham in a large mixing bowl. Add grated potato, red onion, spring onion, parsley and a good pinch of salt and pepper. Mix with your hands until well combined.

Heat a little oil in a frying pan over medium-high heat. Using a spatula, press the corned beef mixture into a flat cake, and cook until the mixture is browned and crusty on the bottom, about 10 minutes.

Flip the cake, and continue cooking until the mixture is browned and crusty on other side, about 8 minutes.

Transfer to a plate, cut into wedges and serve with bacon and eggs. (That’s what Adrian says, we think it is deliciously yummy just as it is!)

I love both of those recipes, I hope you give them a try. In return I’d love to hear what you do with your left over ham.