Hai!

Happy New Year to you all. This was originally planned as a post xmas post but I got too lazy on the couch with the cricket and booze and chocolate and leftovers and G.F.
Oh and I’m a chef, so busy 😉

Leftovers, right?! What to do with all that ham and those plump delicious cherries?
(you’ve probably eaten them all already but keep it mind for next year huh.)

French Toasties!
Basically a ham and cheese sandwich dipped in egg, then pan-fried. The past couple of Xmas breakfasts I’ve made French toast using brioche and served it with cherries.
They’ll work well here too.
The French love to serve fruit with savoury, as do we here in Queensland.

Ingredients
Ham –
Cheese – I used some mozzarella left from the pizza post.
You could use something with more flavour – brie would be a welcome substitute.
The French would approve 🙂
Bread – we are using sensible thick cut multi-grain.
Eggs
Milk
Butter for cooking
S&P
Cherries – other fruits are nice too

HOW
Pip the cherries – or have your Kid do it like I did, and put them aside.
You can crush them or stew them a little with some sugar to make a compote but we left ours raw and yum.

Make sandwiches with the ham sliced nice and thin and plenty of cheese.
Be generous, this is meant be a little decadent.
Make sure everything is tucked inside nicely, no dangly-outy bits.
You can easily omit the ham for vegetarians.
You don’t need to butter the bread in this instance.

Beat the eggs with a little milk and a pinch of salt.
We found that 1 egg and a splash of milk  per sandwich was ample.

Pre – heat a non-stick fry pan to moderate. Add a good chunk of butter.

Dip a whole sandwich into the egg mix and let it sit for 10 seconds and then carefully flip it over, let it sit for 10 seconds, lift it out carefully and place in the fry pan.
Repeat with the next sandwich. And the next.
I don’t know who’s at your place but we’re just making two.
Use a spatula to check your progress, turn over gently when ready and repeat on the other side.
A moderate heat means the sandwiches are slowly going golden on the outside whilst the cheese melts in the middle.
Don’t rush them. 4 – 5 minutes each side maybe?
See if you can get them as golden as ours!
Remove from the pan, drain on a little paper towel and serve hot with plenty of cherries. This is very much a knife and fork sort of sandwich.

What Kid Did
Kid was very productive today. She pipped the cherries using a small cheese knife, apparently they have a la-di-da cherry pipper at her other home ;p
Kid made the sandwiches, beat the eggs and put it all together.
All I did was cut the ham and supervise the pan frying.
Nice work Kid X
Kid also watched me lose my shit at the electric stove for not working to my standards. Wow.

What else?
When I was a kid there was always a ham in the fridge at Xmas, I’m sure a lot of you can relate. Mum was very particular about the ham and I inherited some quirks/skills thanks to her. Nobody was allowed to cut the ham other than mum.
It had to be sliced in a particular way (against the grain, which is absolutely correct as it turns out) the outer layer of fat would be meticulously removed and then the whole ham would be stored in a cloth bag (or an old pillowcase?) in the fridge until just the bone was left.
And mum knew if someone had ‘hacked into the bloody thing’ while she wasn’t around.

At Xmas this year I was not only asked to cut the ham but asked my professional opinion on the preparation and baking of said ham.

Good skills thanks mum. Great memories.

This post was largely written before the outrage that occurred in Paris.

Je Suis Charlie
Can’t we all just get along
X