Tin Foil Soldier

stir fry with a twist

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Last week I made a ham and bean soup (sorry, no pics), and then with the leftover ham I made Ham and Potato Stir Fry 2 nights ago.

Ham and Bean Soup:

• 1 bag Cannellini beans
• 1 bag Great Northern beans
• —Soak beans over night
• 1 onion, diced
• 1/2 lb shoe string carrots, cut into 1/4-1/2″ pieces
• 2 cubes of vegetable bouillon (we use organic stuff that’s awesome)
• 2 lb ham, cut into 1/2 - 3/4″ cubes
• Salt
• Pepper
• bay leaves, 2x
• garlic
• cloves

I forgot to put the soup together in the morning, so Kev and I went home @ lunch and speed preped it instead of letting it sit all day in the slow cooker.  I replaced the bean water and brought them to a boil to get things warmed up and started.  I put everything else into the bottom of the crock pot and put it on high.  Once the beans were boiling I poured them in with the ham and onions.

Let that cook for ~4-5 hours, your house will smell awesome, ours did when I got home from work.

Don’t forget to take the bay leaves out, their flavor will get too strong, plus no one wants to bite into a bay leaf.

When making the soup I decided that I had way too much ham and that I would save some for a stir fry.  The other day I bought leeks because they always use them on Food Network and I have never cooked with them so I wanted to give it a shot, supposedly they are like a mild combination of onion and garlic.

Brown Basmati Rice:

• 1 1/2 cup brown basmati rice
• 1 tb butter
• 1 tsp salt
• 2 1/2 cups boiling water

combine all of the ingredients in a 8×8″ pyrex baking dish and cover with aluminum foil.  Bake in a preheated oven for 45 minutes at 425 degrees.

My recipe is different from Alton Brown’s because I only wrote down his ingredients, not the baking instructions, and I found that I like my rice better, it seems fluffier cooked at a higher temp, plus basmati cooks faster than regular brown rice. (long and thin vs short and wide)

Ham, Potato, and Leek Stir Fry:

• ~1 lb ham, cubed into 1/2-3/4″ pieces
• 2 leeks
• 3 potatoes (I used Yukon Gold)
• 1 - 1 1/2 cups tomato sauce
• 1/8 cup half and half
• 1 tb butter
• cumin
• ginger
• poppy seeds
• salt
• garlic

Boil the potatoes first, just to get them out of the way.  Cube the potatoes into 3/4-1″ cubes and boil in water with salt and a generous dosing of garlic powder to flavor them.

Cut the leeks however you want, I cut off the bottom and top, then halved them lengthwise.  Apparently you are supposed to remove the outer layer as it is chewy.  I did not know this, now you do.  I cut them on a bias, creating 1/2-1″ wide strips on an angle.

At this point the potatoes were done so I put them in a strainer in the sink and then melted the butter in the pan I had the potatoes in.  Add the leeks and cook until it starts to turn transparent.

Add the ham cubes, 1/2 tsp ginger, 1/2 tsp cumin, 1 tsp poppy seeds, the tomato sauce and the half and half.

I decided that I was making this to kinda be like indian food, where there is plentiful amount of thick sauce, and it seems like tomato sauce and half and half created a sauce kinda like Indian curry.

After the sauce was stirred together I added the potatoes and folded them in so I didn’t mash them too much.

Serve over rice

I think this came out really well, and if I had removed the outer layer of the leeks it would have been a touch better but it was still delicious.