What to do with left over ham

I keep on talking about our New Year's Eve ham - what a bargain it turned out to be!

Our family tradition is to all get together on Boxing Day for a meal of baked ham, parsley sauce new potatoes and absolutely any veg as long as they are completely different from those we had with Christmas Dinner. So early in December I'd spotted a nice 2.5 kg gammon joint - perfect for 7 of us with leftovers- at half price, snapped it up and popped it in the freezer.

However my granddaughter in France sprang a surprise on us by being born almost a month early. I think she didn't want to miss Christmas! So I went over to help them out for a few days and the ham stayed in the freezer.

I came home in time for us to have it on New Year's Eve, but this time there were only 3 of us, and while the two men tried manfully to eat as much as possible, there was lots of it left over.

First of all we used the biggest slices for ham, egg and chips. Not a fancy meal, but delicious - especially with home made tomato ketchup!

Then pasta with ham, mushroom and tomato sauce. For this, I shopped an onion and fried it in a little olive oil, then added some sliced mushrooms and cooked until they softened. Then I added diced ham, a little dried oregano and a few chilli flakes, and a small tub of home made tomato sauce from the freezer. It needs to be simmered until the ham is fully heated through, then mixed into pasta and sprinkled with grated Parmesan.

Next came ham and leek flan

And finally, ham and potato hotpot, a dish from The Pauper's Cookbook by Jocasta Innes. The bacon and potatoes are layered and covered with white sauce and baked until they form a rich, creamy, comforting fusion.