Ham and Three Potato Casserole
Sister #3 missed out on our family Thanksgiving dinner. She helps D and I take care of the kids when we host our Young Families’ group. I had abundant left overs and instead of getting tired of them during the days following the Thanksgiving, I repanned everything and put it all in the freezer to feed another large group. There are approximately 20 of us in the Young Families Group including toddlers and babies, so this seemed like a good time. I decided that a baked ham would do the trick to adequately feed everybody and that the ham would pair well with my leftovers of sweet potatoes, caramelized onions and roasted garlic potatoes and baked squash and quinoa. The supper was a success, but then I was left with a new challenge-what to do with the leftover ham?
I dug out an old recipe that I know that my family loves but was amazed at how much fat it contained. By the time I had finished modifying it, I had written an entirely new recipe.
The recipe indicates using three different potatoes but this is only because I had three varieties in my fridge. We have loved all the assortment of potatoes in our garden share basket this season. I used the array of pink and blue (looked more like dark purple to me) ones for this dish. I would recommend though that at least one variety be a sweet potato because they have different nutrient values that regular potatoes. In addition, the combination of the sweetness of the sweet potato and the saltiness of the ham, is one of my favourite taste combinations. Add the tartness from the sour cream and the sharpness of the old cheddar cheese and we are really onto something here….
Since I was using more than one kind of potato, I had a hard time judging how many pounds I was using. D eyeballed it at five pounds but I thought closer to ten, so I doubled the “moisture” , that is sour cream and cream soup.
- 5-10 pounds potatoes, cut into bite-sized cubes
- 2 500 ml containers of 1% or no fat sour cream
- 2 cans sodium reduced cream soup (I had mushroom on hand)
- 2 c shredded old cheddar cheese
- ½ c chopped green onion
- 4 c cubed left over ham
- 1 c bread crumbs
- ½ c parmesan
- butter flavoured, canola spray oil
- Boil potatoes until fork tender.
- Drain but retain a cup or so of potato water in case your casserole sauce requires thinning.
- In a very large bowl, mix potatoes, sour cream, soup, cheese, onions and ham.
- If the mixture does not seem wet enough, add and mix in the potato water.
- Spoon into two 9 x 13 inch pans.
- Mix breadcrumbs and parmesan cheese together.
- Liberally shake onto casserole top.
- Cover crumbs with cooking spray.
Under normal circumstances, I would have put the second casserole in the freezer but I love to send our kids home with leftovers after mandatory Sunday suppers, so I did so and now we have enough left for supper tonight!
Kath’s quote: “The most remarkable thing about my mother is that for 30 years she served the family nothing but leftovers. The original meal has never been found.” –Calvin Trillin
Love-that is all.
