Boreegard's Easter Ham Gravy

Mike O'Neil (aka Boreegard), official food columnist for the WV blog has sent me another fine offering for your consideration. Read on:

Bo’s Easter Ham Gravy

Though there were only three of us for Easter dinner this year, I found it impossible not to take advantage of Big Y’s bargain price for their generic smoked butt end ham—98 cents a pound. So I lugged home the smallest one I could find in the bin—around eight pounds. The result, after a proper baking, was a pan with inviting scrapings and drippings begging to be turned into gravy while the meat rested on the sideboard. Here’s how I went about it.

INGREDIENTS

Pan drippings
4 tablespoons flour
1 tablespoon dried minced garlic
1 teaspoon paprika
Ground pepper to taste
2 cups heated chicken stock

TO DO

Heat baking pan and drippings on stove over medium heat.
Stir flour into drippings—scrape and stir until flour is fully integrated.
Add garlic, paprika, pepper.
Slowly add chicken stock and stir slowly until it becomes a fine brown—well—gravy.

I didn’t add salt, feeling that the ham drippings were salty enough in their own right. You may want to. Also, feel free to add herbs for your own signature taste (dill weed, thyme, or marjoram come to mind).

By the by—Ben Franklin’s reported definition of Eternity—two people and a ham, also works for three people and a ham.

Boreegard
April 10, 2012