Cheesy Scalloped Potatoes and Ham for Recipe Friday

I love scalloped potatoes and ham. It is great comfort food. I haven’t made it in a long time, but the other day at the grocery store I bought a ham steak so that I could make it some time soon. My mom used to make it when I was a kid, though her recipe didn’t have as much fat and cream in it as mine does. And since my son likes cheese, when I made this last night I decided to make it a little cheesy.

Cheesy Scalloped Potatoes and Ham

Ingredients:

3 large russet potatoes
1 lb ham steak
1/2 large sweet onion, chopped
2 tbsp olive oil
1/8 cup flour
1/8 tsp celery salt
1/4 tsp summer savory
1 pint cream
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
salt and pepper

Directions:

Saute onions in olive oil. Add flour and seasonings and stir until flour is mixture is thickened and all flour is moist. Stir in cream. [Note: I use heavy whipping cream, but if you want less fat you can use regular cream or even milk.] Simmer until thickened. Stir in 1/2 cup cheese until melted. Set aside. Peel and thinly slice potatoes. Trim ham steak, remove bone, and cut into small pieces. Spray cooking spray (such as Pam) in the bottom of a 13″ x 9″ glass baking pan. Layer 1/2 of the potato slices on the bottom. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Layer 1/2 of ham pieces. Pour 1/2 of cream mixture over potatoes. Repeat with a second layer. Top with 1/2 cup cheese.

Bake at 375° for 45 to 50 minutes, or until potatoes are fork tender and cheese in browned on top. If you have a convection oven, bake in convection mode for 35 minutes. Remove from oven and let sit for 5 minutes before serving.

If you wanted to be a bit healthier, you could serve this with a salad or green vegetable, but we just went with the scalloped potatoes last night. By the way, I thought I was going to have a lot of leftovers of this since it was so much, but all I got was one tiny container for my lunch today. And there are only 3 of us!! I think we all went back for seconds.