Christmas is almost here and I will be continuing a tradition that I learned many years ago from my father.
Fried ham, home fried potatoes with onions and eggs poached in ham milk gravy. This is a great breakfast and I would encourage all to try it.
My father is gone now. He passed on Christmas Day in 2009 but this is one of the many things I will never forget.
You need to start out with a ham that has been very well brined and heavily smoked. You slice however much you will need to feed everyone that will be at the table and you get a pan that can be used for making gravy (no nonstick).
The pan gets set to medium high heat and once at temperature you put a liberal amount of butter in the pan plus just a touch of oil to help raise the smoke point of the butter. you lay the ham slices in and proceed to fry them until they are very well browned. Do not worry about things sticking to the pan. You need those wonderful brown and burned bits.
Once the ham has been completed you leave the pan on and deglaze it with milk. Enough milk that you can poach eggs in. Stir it around and make sure you get all those wonderful bits off the bottom. Once the milk has taken on all the flavoring you then proceed to crack eggs into the milk mixture and use a spoon to make sure you ladle the mixture over the top of the eggs to get them poached properly.
In another pan you have been frying potatoes with onions to a fairly brown and crisp consistency. When plated you will have a nice slab of browned ham, 2-3 poached eggs and a pile of home fried potatoes along with whatever kind of toast you prefer.
I don’t know exactly when this started. I remember it as far back as I can remember and we have been having that every Christmas. I only make this once a year but this is my favorite holiday meal.
Enjoy!!
