Ham and Potato Soup: Quick and Simple Real Food

Get ready for this.  A flavorful soup with just two ingredients (okay, three if you count the water), that's good for you (mmm...that bone broth), and can be done in just less than an hour (really). 

If you like, add a little cream, sour cream, or cream cheese to finish.  Sprinkle the top with green onions, shredded cheddar, croutons or freshly ground black pepper.  Make it your own.  Or stop right here with just the two ingredients.  That's what I'm doing today.  Keeping it real.

If you don't have a pressure cooker, feel free to cook this for several hours in a slow cooker or a covered pot in a low oven.  You'll get great results, just not quick ones.  Keep this recipe in mind for the leftovers of your after-Easter ham.

Quick and Easy Pressure-Cooked Ham and Potato Soup

1 pound ham hocks (or a large, meaty leftover ham bone)
2 pounds (more or less) potatoes

Place rack in bottom of pressure cooker per manufacturer's instructions.  Place ham hocks or ham bone on rack.

Add about 2 cups of water to cooker, place lid on and heat over high heat until steady stream pours out of valve.

Place weight on valve.   Once weight begins hissing or rattling (will depend on your particular cooker) reduce heat just enough to keep weight hissing or rattling.  Begin timer and cook for 45 minutes. 

Meanwhile, peel potatoes and cut in to cubes of approximately 1 inch.  Keep potatoes covered with water until ham has finished cooking.

Remove cooker to sink and reduce pressure by running cold water over cooker.  Carefully remove lid and set aside.  Spoon out ham hocks with a slotted spoon and set aside.

Drain potatoes and add to liquid in pot.  Add about 1/2 cup additional water.  Replace lid and return to high heat on the stove.

When a steady stream of steam is coming from valve, replace weight.  When hissing or rocking begins, adjust heat as before and begin timer to cook for 6 minutes.

Meanwhile, pick ham from bones and set aside.  Discard bones or save to make more stock.

After potatoes have cooked for 6 minutes, remove from heat and reduce pressure using cold water method.  Carefully remove lid.

Using tongs, carefully remove rack from pot.  Add ham pieces to pot and stir vigorously to break up some of the potatoes to thicken the soup.  Transfer soup to serving bowl or tureen and serve.

Makes about 4 servings.

Super Simple Ham and Egg Skillet

I threw this together from leftovers one morning last week.  I liked it so well, I'll be making it on purpose next time.

Super Simple Ham and Egg Skillet

For each serving:

1/2 cup chopped cooked ham
1/2 to 3/4 cup cooked grain  -- I had farro, but you could use rice, wheat berries, steel cut oats, etc.
1/4 to 1/2 cup shredded cheese of choice
1 teaspoon butter
1 slice (ring-shaped) green bell pepper
1 egg
salt and pepper to taste

In a small skillet, cook chopped ham and cooked grain over medium-high heat until ham begins to brown and mixture is heated through.  Spoon onto serving plate, sprinkle with half of cheese,  and cover with clean towel to keep warm.

In same skillet melt butter over medium heat.  Place pepper ring in pan and let cook for about 1 minute. 

Break egg into center of pepper ring in skillet.  Cook egg until done to taste.  Carefully transfer egg and pepper ring to top of grain and ham mixture.  Sprinkle with salt, pepper and remaining cheese as desired. 

Serve immediately.

Monday Meal Plan

I haven't done a weekly dinner menu on the blog in a long time, so I thought I'd do that this morning.  All the turkey leftovers are gone, and I now have several jars of canned turkey stock in the pantry for future meals.  It's time to start eating some of the venison and pork in our freezer.


Sunday:  Copycat of Macaroni Grill's Penne Rustica. 

This was actually a leftover makeover, but not from Thanksgiving.  We went out last Wednesday night for a belated birthday dinner for Shane.  Without getting into much detail, we were all disappointed with our meals from a well-known chain steak house.  Kat ordered a Parmesan-crusted chicken dish, but brought most of it home as leftovers, which eventually found their way into this dinner. 

I made a few changes to the recipe.  I subbed in a cup of turkey stock for a cup of the cream (and used half-and-half instead of cream to begin with), I added quite a bit more garlic, and omitted the shrimp since we didn't have any in the freezer.  This turned out to be a nice baked pasta dish and quite the improvement over the original chicken dish from the restaurant.  We served it with a green salad and bacon-cheddar scones.

Monday:  Venison chili with corn chips, sour cream and shredded cheddar; peanut butter sandwiches; celery/carrot sticks. 

I call this one of my school lunch dinners, because we always had peanut butter sandwiches and celery/carrot sticks at school whenever we had chili.  I need to get a chili recipe posted on the blog.  My chili used to be ultra-simple:  ground meat, tomato soup, packaged chili seasoning, chili beans.  Lately, though, I've been using tomato sauce and pinto beans grown and canned from our garden, as well as chili seasoning I put together myself.  I need to get those changes on paper -- or on blog, as it were.

Tuesday:  Pork Chops with Onion-Mushroom Gravy

Here's another recipe that used both canned soup and dry soup mix, but that I've changed to include homemade versions instead.  I should probably get those changes recorded, too.  This dish will be served with potatoes and Brussels sprouts, but I haven't yet decided on the recipes for those.

Wednesday:  Texas Chili Cheese Bake

This is a fun dish using leftover chili layered over toast and shredded cheese, then broiled quickly to heat it through.  We'll probably have leftover Brussels sprouts and some home-canned peaches or apples to go with it.

Thursday:  Chinese Steamed Pork Dumplings, Egg Drop Soup, Garlic Green Beans, Almond Cookies

I'll be trying my hand at Chinese steamed dumplings.  If they turn out alright, I'll post the recipe.

Friday:  Kansas City Steak Soup with Venison, Cornbread, Home-canned Fruit

This is a family favorite but I'm trying something new this time:  I'm going to make a HUGE batch and pressure can it.  I've done a lot of pressure canning this year (pinto beans, green beans, chicken stock, even fish), but it will be my first time canning something like this with so many ingredients.  I can't wait to try it!

Saturday:  C.O.R.N. (Clean Out Refrigerator Night)

In other words, I'm taking a night off!

Nowadays, Even Sandwiches Are Controversial

I hope all of you had a very nice Thanksgiving.  Ours was wonderful, if very un-traditional.  I made most of the dishes ahead of time, so yesterday all that needed to be made was turkey and stuffing.

Kat went to a midday feast with her mom and step-dad, which left Shane and I with several hours of free time.  I spent mine in the RV, sewing.  Shane spent his in, out, and under the RV, getting it winterized for the off-season.  Around 4:00, we came in and started working on our Thanksgiving supper.  Shane deep-fried the turkey while I heated the side dishes.  By the time everything was ready, Kat was home to eat with us.  We enjoyed our meal while watching a movie.  Eating in front of the TV made it as much a holiday as anything else did; that's not something we do often.

We really enjoyed our casual, quiet holiday.  I think making side dishes ahead of time is the way I'll "do" holidays from now on.  Although we ate late in the day, we weren't tired from cooking all day, so cleaning up was a breeze.

So now, what to do with the leftovers?  Enter the controversy.  I plan on making Kentucky Hot Brown sandwiches.  I have never had one, have never been to the Brown Hotel, and in fact, have never been to Louisville at all.  I just thought the sandwich I saw in a magazine looked tasty.

Apparently, though, some folks get a little "tetchy" if the sandwich isn't made exactly according to The Brown Hotel's original recipe.  And, OMG, if you accidentally (or intentionally) call it a Hot Browns instead of Hot Brown, watch out!  Bobby Flay uses white cheddar and gives the bread a French toast treatment, both of which are apparently no-nos.  My Recipes' version calls for Parmesan (Mornay sauce), but is otherwise similar to the original.

Photo: Becky Luigart-Stayner; Styling: Buffy Hargett, via My Recipes

My version will probably include white cheddar (which I have on hand) and Parmesan (which I have on hand), and will probably not include the egg-dipped bread.  It will probably have double the bacon.  And for that reason alone, it will probably be the best recipe of the bunch.

Ham and Potato Casserole

Last week I baked a half-ham and with some of the leftovers, I made this tasty casserole.  It's basically a gratin or scallop, with ham, potatoes, onions and the very flavorful broth from cooking the ham.

Ham and Potato Casserole

2 Tablespoons fat of choice (I used the fat from baking the ham)
1/4 cup flour (I used whole wheat)
1 cup ham broth (could use just water or chicken broth)
1 cup half-and-half (could use evaporated milk)
1/2 cup water
pepper to taste
6 medium potatoes, peeled and thinly sliced
1 small onion, thinly sliced
2 cups diced cooked ham
1 cup shredded cheese of choice (I used mozzarella)

Heat oven to 350°F.  Spray a 9x13 baking dish with pan spray and set aside.

Melt fat in a large saucepan or Dutch oven.  Stir in flour and cook until bubbly and thick, about 2 minutes.  Whisk in ham broth and half-and-half.  Consistency should be that of heavy cream; add small amount of water to thin if necessary.  Stir in black pepper to taste.

Stir in sliced potatoes, sliced onions and diced ham.  Stir to coat all, then pour into prepared baking dish.  Top with shredded cheese.

Cover baking dish with foil and bake at 350°F for 30 minutes or until potatoes are tender.  Remove foil and continue to bake another 10-15 minutes or until top of casserole is golden brown.

Makes 6-8 servings.

What To Do With Leftover Mashed Potatoes

Mashed potatoes are a favorite here, but I usually make enough to have intentional leftovers.  Here are a few ways to use those leftovers:

• Just reheat them.  I find they reheat pretty well.  Add just a little more milk if necessary.
  
  
• Freeze them.  Potatoes alone don't freeze well, but because of the butter and milk in them, mashed potatoes are great for the freezer.  Just reheat slowly in a pan or in the microwave.  They will appear watery at first, but just stir everything together and they turn out just fine.  I promise.
  
  
• Make pan-fried potato cakes.  My mom did them like this:  Mix a beaten, some salt and pepper and a little flour into leftover mashed potatoes.  Heat bacon grease in a skillet.  With floured hands, scoop up some of the potato mixture, form a patty, fry over medium heat until golden brown on both sides.  Not one to leave well enough alone, I also add things like garlic, chives, chopped bacon, chopped ham, etc.
  
  
• Use them to top a shepherds pie.  Here I've used leftover roast venison and gravy, with some frozen mixed veggies added.  I heated leftover mashed potatoes and blended in cheddar cheese and a little more milk until the mixture was smooth.  I used a pastry bag to pipe the potatoes onto the meat mixture, but a spoon works just fine. I sprinkled it all with freshly grated Parmesan cheese and baked it at 350 degrees until the potatoes were golden.  Obviously, some of them dissolved into the stew below.
  



• I still had some left, so I piped them onto a parchment covered cookie sheet, topped them with Parmesan, and baked them, also at 350 degrees, until golden.  Savory Potato Snacks!  They are crispy on the outside, soft on the inside, and at least a little better for you to snack on than potato chips.





• Do the same as above, but add an egg to the mixture, and you have Duchess Potatoes to serve as a side dish.

Taking Stock

Do you keep a kitchen or pantry inventory?  I like to have a running list of the foods we have in our pantry, fridges and freezers (yes, plural).  It makes menu planning easier and helps keep me from buying things we don't need.

My list isn't always perfect, but it can usually give me a pretty close idea of what we have.  Well, since Thanksgiving (and since Shane came home from working out of town for quite a while), I've completely lost track of what came in and what went out in terms of food.  It's kitchen madness, I tell ya!

Kat goes back to school today and I've got nothing better to do (really??), so it looks my pantry list just got moved to my to-do list for today.