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Monday, January 3, 2011

New Years Day At Almost Heaven South

Time to change header shots, and I thought I'd put this up so I could see it every day and drool a while longer.


My normal bedtime is around 9pm (don’t laugh, I get up early) and it’s been a few years since I last saw the ball drop, so New Years Eve parties are pretty much out of the question at Almost Heaven South. To compensate, we invited a few friends over New Years afternoon to help us get the year started off right with a little eating, football watching, visiting, and otherwise serious laying around.

Since it was a several hour affair, we wanted to serve food items that were available for a long period and required little attention from us so the items we provided were:

Pulley-ham for sandwiches
Hoppin Johns with greens (for luck & wealth)
Manhattan clam chowder
Reuben dip with rye bread

And our guests brought:
Swedish meatballs
Desserts
Drinks

My plan is to spread the posts over a few days beginning with the ham – which is too easy. We just used you basic supermarket on-sale ham half – a whole one works even better. We put it in a pan, cut side down, added a couple of beers (your favorite), covered with foil, and cooked at 250* to a 205* internal temp (about 8 hours) - basting a few times with pan juices the last 4 hours. I set it on three onion slices to keep it off the pan bottom. Then for serving, you just pull off a chunk – it’s too tender to slice (think pulled pork BBQ) – dunk it in the pan juice and enjoy.

We served it with Swiss and Gruyere cheeses, baby dill pickles, mayo, a choice of mustards including a homemade one using the following recipe, and some awesome marble swirl rye bread from Webster's Deli in Knoxville.

Homemade Mustard (makes a little more than a pint.)
From bknox, BBQ Central forum


6 Tablespoons Yellow Mustard Seed (Original recipe used 3 Tbsp)
5 Tablespoons Brown Mustard Seed (Original recipe used 2 ½ Tbsp)
1/2 cup Cream Sherry (I used Harvey’s)
3/4 cup White Vinegar
1/4 cup Cider Vinegar
1 teaspoon Onion Powder
3/4 teaspoon Salt
1/2 teaspoon White Pepper
1 teaspoon Tumeric
Pinch of Allspice


Put everything in a bowl and let sit overnight or longer. Pour it into a blender and blend until mustard like (I used the immersion blender). It has a little bite to it – almost as if some horseradish were added, so it doesn't take much, but I really like it.

The long slow cook gives the ham a unique flavor – tending toward barbecued - and it got many “best I ever had” comments. It’s been a few years since I cooked one like this and I’d forgotten how good it is – one of Bev’s favorites.

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by.

Larry

11 comments:

  1. I love this menu. I haven't cooked a "raw" ham in years. I remember the house smelling so good. What you served it with sounds perfect. Now, about this mustard. A coworker made mustard and gave it to everyone for Christmas. She won't give up the recipe and I've got to learn to make it. I know her's didn't have brown seed and it does have honey. I've asked her if it had horseradish or wasabi and she claims no. Does your version have a strong feeling of horseradish?

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  2. LA - Mine has a good bite too it and tastes like horseradish was added, but it's just the mustard seeds - it's definitely a spicy mustard.

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  3. I love the mustard recipe..will definitely be trying that one soon!

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  4. What a great way to spend New Year's Day. The ham and the mustard both sound delicious and I'm going to give the mustard a shot. Have a great day Blessings...Mary

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  5. I have that same soup mug! Your New Year's Day party is a good idea, so no one has to risk the foolish drunk drivers out there. And we are opposites - we're night owls here. I only got 3.5 hours sleep last night so I can try to get somewhere near a normal schedule again.

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  6. I'm an early to bed, early to rise person too!

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  7. Larry... Love your new opening photo for your site! It does make both Laurie & I hungry just to look at it. The ham was very good and I'm not particularly a ham lover. Laurie loved it too! Great mustard to boot! Take Care, Big Daddy Dave

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  8. Hi Larry, WELL---we all made it through the holidays... Whew----now is the time to start a new year and do it all again!!!!!! I'm 'un-decorating' Christmas this week... Fun Fun !!!! AND--I'll do some heavy-duty cleaning too...

    Your menu for New Year's Day with friends coming and going sounded wonderful. We had Hoppin' John here --so hopefully, we'll have good luck in 2011.

    Love your header... Made my mouth water! ha
    Betsy

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  9. That slice of prime rib in your new header is cooked to perfection. That's what I'm striving for. I was going to try cooking a PR on the weekend but plans changed so will try your method next week.

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  10. So much to love here - the header of course, the way you served the ham . . . it's the way i eat it when I'm cooking it - love it! But my favorite thing here is that mustard recipe. I enjoy a spicy mustard and love making unusual things like that.

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  11. Thanks for the mustard recipe. I have been wanting a good one and I like the sound of this one. The cajun one I made was AWFUL.

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