Spiral Ham & Potato Water

Spiral hams are no longer only for Christmas in our home. Every day is a good day to celebrate life, or thanksgiving or sharing. So this year I picked up an extra ham when they were on sale during the holidays.

I’d been craving a good ham sandwich so I defrosted that 10 pound ham holding out in the freezer. I love the fact that it was all ready pre cooked.

After de-fatting and de-boning it, I divided the lovely slices up for later.

The trimmed fat and left over got tossed into the crock-pot, covered with water and generously sprinkled with caraway seeds. From there it spent 8 to 10 hours on low.

Kathy Jones, a good friend of mine that does a 4 mile power walk with me and a couple of other girls 3 times a week had been telling me about a dish she makes for her husband. She calls it Ham Dumplings though she actually makes homemade noodle for it.

So I lugged the gallon of ham stock now sitting in my fridge, skimmed the fat off the top and filled my Dutch Oven 2/3 full with it.

I’ve been out of onions for a while (the grocery store is 30 miles away and that trek is reserved for a full list) so I crossed my fingers, depending on the stock alone for flavor.

Kathy’s recipe called for potatoes and since I have a hard time adding two starches to a dish I decided against them.

However once I got the egg noodles, mixed frozen veggies, more caraway, leftover green beans and ham chunks all swimming around together I realized just how strong the stock had been; too salty for my taste. I also wanted a creamier texture. I popped in a can of cream of mushroom soup, and though it added a nice texture it wasn’t enough.

So, I gave in to the potatoes.

I diced up enough russets to fill my square pan and did the dishes.

Once the cubes were al dente’ I tossed them in, but no, the brown liquid remained overwhelmed with salt and it didn’t give me that creaminess I had hoped for.

So! I dumped in the potato water! That was a big Ah Ha for me!

Perfecto!

I’ve made a mental note for he next time I make mashed potatoes to freeze the potato water. I already save the pinto bean juice when I make chili, so what’s one more container in the freezer? It always tickles me when I perk up a recipe or can save a potential cooking disaster with a pre-made frozen concoction!

~Cheryl