Christmas lunch and things to make with ham!

Happy new year to everyone! Here is my delicious Christmas lunch (feels like weeks ago already). We had a three bird roast this year instead of goose, tasty but maybe I'd prefer just turkey or back to goose. Sausages and bacon are always a must and plenty of stuffing. I'm not keen on parsnips so they were left off my plate, cooked carrots are tolerated but at least they looked pretty.

But this year the prize for best vegetable went to the humble sprout! Who would have thought it! It was Heston Blumenthal's sprout recipe that did it for me, cooked with bacon and butter in slices rather than the whole sprout. Granted it is rather difficult to spot them on the plate as they were cooked to within an inch of their life - the preference of my brother! We did make them again and kept them green this time!! Delicious. http://www.waitrose.com/recipe/Heston's_Christmas_Trimmings_-_Brussels_sprouts.aspx

The best part of Christmas for me is the ham, both roasted and boiled. We had 2 big hams and still have 1 in the freezer for future use! Still not bored of it though and there's so much you can do with it. First of all there's slices of ham with nice bread, cornichons and chutney - heaven. Or ham and cranberry sauce sandwiches. Then of course warm ham with pineapple. And with the pineapple left over I made Thai Pineapple Rice from the book Thai Food by David Thompson. Instead of prawns I used ... chunks of ham of course! I'd only had this dish a couple of weeks earlier in Rice in Manchester and it was very tasty so thought I'd try and recreate it myself, with great success.

Had to make a classic pea and ham soup, I used half frozen peas and half frozen broad beans and made a stock from the ham bone of our roasted ham which nicely removed all the ham left. Healthy, simple and yummy.

And lastly a ham and pea risotto. I used the jellified juices of the roast ham diluted with some water because wow was it salty! It was still pretty salty but it gave the rice a delicious flavour.

Now, what else can I do with the next ham? Ham croquettes? A ploughman's lunch? Eggs benedict? Can't go wrong really whatever you choose.