Our favourite... leftovers
Christmas lunch is finished, tummies are full. The dishes are being stacked away, somebody's uncle is asleep on the couch, the kids are rapidly descending into their sugar crash and the leftovers are being wrapped up.
The leftovers.
So. Many. Leftovers.
Or, as we like to think: The leftovers! So! Many! Leftovers!
A bit of ham planning and prep before Christmas can provide you with a huge variety of tasty ways to use up your leftovers in the days and weeks after the big day. In fact - you may wish you'd sized up your ham to maximise your leftover stock!
The first rule of leftovers: Don't think about the leftovers right away
Christmas dinner is not the time to be thinking about leftovers from lunch. You're tired, the meat sweats may still be in full force and you just want to disappear into a chair and relax.
Keeping your leftovers in tip top shape
What we're doing here is ensuring our leftovers are good to go when we do want them. Store them well in the fridge. There's no need to slice everything up (in fact it's better not to), just plonk your leftover ham in a damp ham bag in the fridge and settle it in for bed. Keep it damp, but otherwise it'll be good for a few weeks. If you do have any pre-carved slices, put these in an airtight container and aim to use them up first.
Plan for variety
A sure fire way to get sick of ham is to do the same thing with it over and over. A boxing day loaded sandwich, full of leftover ham, salads - and even the odd smashed potato and a generous pour of gravy - is great, but you won't enjoy it after the third appearance. Mix up how you're using the leftovers with our fave tried and true noms that will keep you coming back:
Fantastic if you have leftover ham and mashed potato, these crispy morsels will keep the troops happy.
We're really hoping they're bringing this back for 2022, but in any case we'll be taking notes and making this one at home - leftover ham, pineapple chutney, red onion, grilled pineapple and cheese.