5 Healthified Southern Dishes plus HAM!

Last month, I spent a good bit of time working on five healthified southern recipes for Our State Magazine’s online food blog.  For me, recipe development starts with research.  I look at recipes online, brainstorm, bookmark, flip through cookbooks, and talk to my foodie friends, all the while scribbling down notes and ideas.  Then comes the testing.  I lay out the ingredients and get to work, jotting down notes (usually on the back of some random envelope from the recycle bin) as I go, tasting and adjusting continuously.

Obviously, one of the perks of developing recipes is eating the wares.  Well, after you’ve snapped approximately 3,000 photos of each dish, that is.  Normally, I incorporate whatever recipe I’m working on into my weekly meal plan.  No sense in wasting food!  But, at the time of this healthy southern recipes project, I also happened to have a a whole ham to cook for the North Carolina Pork Council.

Want to throw a successful holiday party?  Just add ham.

Simple Ham

Using Bon Appetit’s Ham Glaze Formula

• 12-14lb smoked, bone-in ham
• 1/2 cup bitter orange marmalade
• 1/4 cup honey
• 1 tbsp adobo sauce (plus 1 chopped chipotle, if desired)
• 3 tbsp bourbon

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.

Combine marmalade, honey, adobo, and bourbon in a small bowl.

Pour two cups of water into the bottom of roasting ham, then place the ham on top of the roasting rack in the pan.  Brush the ham with the glaze, tent the meat with foil, then place in the oven.  Bake, brushing occasionally with remaining glaze, until the ham is warmed through, approximately 1.5 hours.

Check out the recipes for lightened up coleslaw, Greek yogurt mac and cheese, shrimp & grits,  blackened catfish po’boys, and maple pecan sweet potato casserole over on the Our State Magazine Our State Eats food blog!