For one, I picked up a 5 lb bag of Hamakua Mushrooms directly from the farm day before Thanksgiving. Biggest damn bag of mushrooms I have ever seen in my life! I was ridiculously ecstatic and knew that most of what would happen for this year's Thanksgiving leftovers might just be all about these mushrooms.
And the ham, of course. Because I love love love me some ham. I was not even half wrong to think that way and these "mains" alone would have been enough, but holy crap. The sauce? Omg, we had some delicious base sauces. Who can go wrong with an orange garlic mustard glaze? I mean, really. Doesn't it sound good already? But we also do a bang up good cranberry sauce so this was also in play for our leftover menu for days to come.
Having done our family Thanksgiving a few weeks earlier in October when the whole family was visiting, we were completely turkey'd out by the time Thanksgiving Day actually rolled around. The things you can do with a 30 lb box of heritage turkey wings would blow your mind and as you can imagine, the family must have eaten a shit ton of turkey. Well, I assure you we did... like binge turkey'd. Hence the reason we were over turkey by then.
So I said, "Ham." Tsu said, "Heck yea," and thus. the gorgeous Thanksgiving ham feast was on.
Turkey who? I mean, doesn't matter we were having ham. Ham and cranberry sauce are definitely friends. We can't have Thanksgiving without cranberry sauce in my house. One might consider this a cultish classic in that, it's Thanksgiving, no matter what you are serving as long as there is cranberry sauce on the table. I've heard others tell me it's true in their family, too. Weirdo Americans, gotta love that shit.
Ok, it's a BFD... I make enough to store in vacuum-sealed 4 oz freezer jars for Tsu's midnight dining pleasures; it freezes and thaws beautifully. It is pretty darn tasty, won't lie so here is our version:
Orange Cranberry Sauce
- bag of fresh cranberriess
- zest and juice of one large navel orange
- white sugar
- reduce, add ,more sugar if needed. You don’t know until cranberries break down
- cinnamon stick
So no big process, I just put it all in a pan and sim simmer on low until the cranberries break down enough, adding sugar to taste if necessary. This is not a recipe so much as a list of suggested ingredients because I always just sorta wing it. But these are my tried and true ingredients which kinda determine the whole ratio depending on what palatable balance you need to strike.
And it is such a thing, I might just have to try it as an alternate glaze for a ham. Just sayin'.
However... the ham glaze I made this year was simply divine. Just a ridiculously good honey mustard with a sweet and tangy garlic punch.
Tsu is not really a ham junky like I am but he loves pork in general. Me, I could eat it every day. And this meal, I ate every day at every meal until it was gone. I just couldn't get enough of it. No idea what my problem is? I love pork. I don't obsess over good food because we eat well in our house, but this to me, was obsession making. Tsu was pretty impressed and said he could eat it (and he did lol!) until he was sick, it was that good.
My ham glaze:
- ~2 c brown sugar
- juice and zest of an orange,
- juice of grapefruit,
- Hawaiian lemon wedge or lime just to provide a bit of acid
- 5 whole fresh garlic cloves
- 3-4 tbsp butter
- about a cup of Boars Head stoneground honey mustard (we get this at the deli)
- 1-2 cups apple cider, reserved for baking the ham
Put all ingredients except the apple cider in a sauce pot on low. Stir all ingredients over low heat until the brown sugar has melted and all of the ingredients have become well combined. Take off the heat, cover and set aside until you need it.
I had a funky little bbq basting bottle with a silicone basting brush attachment top that I picked up on sale at Ace Hardware. Boy, was this ever handy. I just poured my glaze into this little baster and it made basting such a breeze.
Bake the motherlode of all holiday hams:
Bake the ham cut side down in a Creuset dutch oven with a little apple cider just to coat bottom of pan on 325 for 3 hours or 10 minutes per lb, covered with lid or tented w tin foil.
I brushed a good layer of glaze on the ham to start, then glazed every hour. Remove lid after first hour.
About an hour before the ham is done, add your king mushrooms, if you want to try it. Otherwise, any reserved liquid or glaze can be used again for your mushrooms should you want to have them on the side. I just tossed them in with the ham and they were fantastic.
Glaze the ham again after taking out of oven. Perfect, glossy beautiful ham.
We also served fennel mashed potatoes and homemade Hawaiian rolls, which just sorta made sense, right? We are in Hawaii and Hawaiian rolls are legit a big thing here but hey, I happily made them myself. The fennel was from my garden so it just all came together, but was simple and easy.
I had every intention of making a tarte tatin but I had puff pastry so instead just made apple puff pastries with cinnamon and guess what else? The ham glaze. Before you scoff, it was incredible and we devoured those for dessert and breakfast the next morning. Took me all of like 5 whole minutes and they were marvelous.
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