Fried Christmas

Happy Holidays, y'all

I'm in the kitchen with one of my favorite friends. This is Leigh-Anne Morgan

We are getting ready to ham it up today. We're creating a Christmas feast that is fit to be fried

We're deep frying a ham, and we're going to be topping it with a sweet pineapple glaze

Does this scare you? No, it does not scare me. I've just never had anything boiling that big in the kitchen

Then we're whipping up some loaded mashed potatoes. Let's mix your wines like when I beat my husband

And next, y'all, it's deep-fried asparagus with a Creole dipping sauce. It's a nice, unhealthy way to have our vegetables

And for dessert, a perfect Christmas treat, red velvet bread pudding. You know what we're going to do

We're going to brine a ham. A fresh ham. What? Is that a northern term

No, honey, that's southern. It is. My people don't do that. They don't

No. Where do your people live? Middle Tennessee. And we don't, I've never heard that before in my life

And what does that mean? It means let it soak in a liquid. Oh, soaking

Yeah, soaking. All right, we're going to use one gallon of apple cider

a couple of measuring cups of water, because when we put our little ham down in there

we want it completely covered. And while you're doing that, I'm going to come over here and start throwing in our dry things into our brown

Okay. You can go back to Tennessee and just impress the heck out of it

I know. I know. All right. Turn on that water, honey. Okay. And while you're doing that, I am going to add a cup of brown sugar

You know what? Leanne, when I'm with you, I start talking real sudden. Why is that

Like you don't already. I know that stuff. Yeah, but it gets more southern

What did you tell me to do with this? I told you to put it in the bowl. Oh, okay, my darling

I'm sorry. Don't let them think you're a natural blonde. Oh. So, a cup of brown sugar

Okay. And I'm going to put a cup of kosher salt, Leanne

This is going to be a sweet, salty, delicious ham. Mm. And I'm going to add a couple of cinnamon sticks

and I'm going to add, you know, just a pinch of cloves

you know, three or four, five or six, seven. All right. Now, if you would take that spoon and stir it

and while you're doing that, I want to tell everybody about you. This is Leanne Morgan

She is one of the funniest housewife comedians in the United States

In fact, she won that title on The View. We get together, and we just have the best time

She's the mother of three precious children, and they are watching their mama brine ham

They didn't know their mama was still about brining. We call it soaking

But doesn't that smell good? That does smell good. All right, now we're going to get our big old piece of meat, y'all, and we're using a fresh ham

Look at here. Look at this pig. Oh, my God. Ain't that pretty

That is pretty. All right, and it's big and it's heavy. It's about a 10-pound leg

And we're just going to ease our meat down into here. We don't want it to slosh all over our Christmas outfits

because I don't have another Christmas top in my closet. So I don't want to mess up our clothes

We're going to store this in a cool place for 24 hours

Oh, okay. Now let's get started on those loaded mashed potatoes. If you would take these potatoes and peel them

pour them, and throw them in your pot, We're gonna need about 6 pounds total

Okay. I'm gonna come over here and make the glaze for the ham. And I am gonna dip back into my brown sugar bowl one more time

And I'm gonna scoop me out another cup of brown sugar. Now, I know you still got your mother

And my mother-in-law. That's wonderful. I know. So you really hadn't had to take over the full responsibility for the kitchen

I haven't. I haven't. And I'm, you know, I do a lot of side dishes, and they usually bring the ham or turkey

For this glaze, Leanne, it's so simple. You see, I sprayed my cup because I'm going to put in honey, and I don't want it to stick to my cup

So a half a cup of honey, a half a cup of Dijon mustard

and I'm just going to use the same cup because I need a half a cup of each

So there we go. And look at that. See how that honey height just rolls right on out of there

Yeah. Because I sprayed that cup. All it takes is one little tap like that

That's good. My one 8-ounce can, y'all, of crushed pineapple. Okay. Liquid and all

Just dump in there. And three cups of pineapple juice. Now I going to just put this on low and let that glaze you know get thicker for us and let it kind of hook down a little bit

So now I'm going to cut the tops off of a couple of heads of garlic, and we're going to roast these all and use them for our potatoes

Just, you know, roll that up just like that. Here, just cut the tops off

I'm going to wrap them in some tinfoil. So we're going to put these in the oven, Leanne, about 350

We're going to roast them off about 30 minutes until they're nice and soft

I just love roasted garlic. Do you? So put that in the oven, baby

Looks like you're going to need a little more water in your pot of potatoes, Leanne

Bring it back here, and we're going to add just a little. Whoa

All right. I'm just going to salt our water, and we're going to let these potatoes just cook away

We got our ham a-brining, and we got our glaze put together, and we are celebrating Christmas together

It's wonderful. I know. Merry Christmas. Merry Christmas to you, honey. Coming up, mashed potatoes loaded with roasted garlic

God, I love it. Then we make some festive, deep-fried asparagus. Is that beautiful or what

That is beautiful. And later, I spread some Christmas joey with a little deep-fried ham

Merry Christmas, my Tennessee friend. Y'all, in case you've just dropped in, we are celebrating with a fabulous Christmas dinner, aren't we, girlfriends? Yes

Right now, I'm fixing to put together a loaded mashed potato. I need for you to grate us some cheese, please, for these potatoes

You know, a couple of cups. I like it real cheesy. And we're going to be using a white cheddar

So if you'll start on that, honey, and we'll put us a little butter

Just a little. It's just a little. I know. I don't mind. Okay

I have diced us up, Leanne, about a pound and a half of bacon

and I have cooked that until it's crisp. So I'm going to just take that out now and let it drain

There we go. Ooh, you got it going on, honey. Now let's start beating up our potatoes

Now, the only thing is you'll want to watch out for is don't overfeed them

Okay. Because they'll turn back starchy. So just a little beating, and I'm going to add us a little salt

Got to have salt in that potato. and I'm going to add us a little black pepper

So you get to beating, honey. This mixture whines like when I beat my husband

Does your husband whine when you beat him? Yes, he does. Mine does, too

I need to help you a little bit. No, I'm out of cream. Yeah, that might loosen it up

So about 12 ounces. All right, see if that's not even better for you

All right, and cut your mixer off, and then take it and just bring those potatoes

I know you think I never mixed anything. I have. I promise I have. It's just, you know, cooking with Paula Dane

It's like... Well, honey, don't it's like... Cooking with the president. No, it's not

It is. It's like cooking with your mama. Okay. I've got a laid-back mama

This is going to be delicious, and you know what? What we're going to do is I'm going to put that down in there and just sling those taters off so you don't have to work them off with your fingers

Let's taste them and see if they've got enough salt in them. No, they need more salt

They do. Was there ever a time where you weren't as confident cooking that you are now? Sure there was

Listen, honey, I got married at 18, Leanne. Oh, Lord. I could not boil water because I had a very busy social life

and I was not interested in getting in the kitchen. You know, I was fortunate that I had my grandmother

who was a fabulous southern cook. We were in the kitchen a lot together

Look at these. Oh, God, I love it. Smell. That does smell good

All right, now we're just going to squeeze that Right into there

Now work that garlic in. Leanne, who cooks for your kids when you're on the road

When I'm touring and I'm on stage, my mama's cooking for them at home

That is great. I know. That kitchen is so important. To sit down together at night

It's just a time for everybody to come together and heal at the end of a day

And the kitchen should be one of those places where everybody feels comfortable

all right so we're gonna add in every last bit of this bacon and then just give it a good stir

look how good that looks all right now leanne put your cheese honey bowl that in so going to make some asparagus with a side of Criol dipping sauce And I going to use a fourth of a teaspoon of Criol seasoning

a quarter of a teaspoon of garlic powder, and a quarter of a teaspoon of onion powder

Mm-hmm. And I'm going to add a little bit of salt and three tablespoons of a Creole mustard

Creole mustard has a little kick to it, and I think that's exactly what's in order

to go along with our Creole seasoning. To kick up the flavor

I'll add two teaspoons of a dry ranch dressing, a couple of shakes of hot sauce

one teaspoon of lemon juice, and two-thirds of a cup of sour cream

We've got our sauce together, so there we go. So you got your potatoes together

I think so. Let's give these a little taste. I think we need a little hot sauce in here

Okay. You know, just a little bit, but those taste good. All right, so we are there, baby

We've got our ham now out of our brine. We just want to dry it off good

When we put it down into our fryer, you know, we don't want a lot of liquid on it

We don't want it splattering all over our Christmas outfits. Oh, no

I have got the neatest indoor fryer that a friend of mine, John McLemore, designed this deep fryer

And he gave this to me for Christmas. We have got our grease in here, y'all, preheated to 375 degrees

Just sit that ham down in that basket. Wow. Okay. All right

Here we go. Oh, no. I got it, honey. Deep. Fried ham

Now, we're going to cook our ham, y'all. It's seven and a half minutes per pound for a 10-pound ham

Does this scare you? No, it does not scare me. I've just never had anything boiling that big in the kitchen

But, I mean, that's nifty, the ham. We're going to be fine

It's Christmas time, y'all, in Paula Deen's kitchen. And I'm here with Leanne Morgan

Coming up, y'all, we're still frying up our Christmas. Everything's better fried

With deep fried asparagus and an unbelievable deep fried ham. That skin is going to be incredible

And later, bread pudding just perfect for the holidays. Now, how pretty is that for Christmas

The next dish that we're going to be preparing for our Christmas meal, y'all

we're going to make deep fried asparagus to go with the Creole dipping sauce we made

Now, I like to snap my asparagus, and it will naturally snap the woodsy end from the tender end

Now, when we get these all snapped, what I need for you to do is run it under the water

Okay. because we're going to shake it up in some flour, and we want to have something that'll help it stick to that asparagus

And in this bag, I'm going to add a cup of flour

And while you're doing that, I'm going to come down here and put the rest of our ingredients together

then put it in our bag. And after you get it shaken up with that flour

we're going to need to put it in a wet batter. So I'm going to measure out about a cup of buttermilk along with one egg

Have you ever had fried asparagus? No, I haven't. Oh, my goodness. I like asparagus, though, but I've never made it fun

You know, everything's better fried. And I'm going to add about a tablespoon of hot sauce to this

And that's going to give it a nice little shot of something, something

So I'm just going to mix those ingredients together. And then I have got our deep fryer heated up to about 360 degrees

And in this bowl, I'm using a cup and a half of self-rising cornmeal

And to that, I'm going to add like a tablespoon of Cajun seasoning

And I'm going to mix that up. So if you'll just take that asparagus, we're going to dip it in our wet and then into our dry and then into the fryer

What are your husband's favorite meals, Leanne? My husband, he's 6'4", a big old athletic boy, and he eats a lot

Does he diet? Well, yeah, and we both belong to several gyms

You would think I look like Demi Moore, but I don't. but no, I have a boy that I train with

a little 26-year-old boy that makes me do terrible things. Mean squats and I call it gladiator Russell Crowe workouts

is what he makes me do. And then I come home and I could eat the wallpaper

off the walls. Michael and I the only thing we exercise is maybe our lip You know I going to wash this goop off my hand so I can get over here and get our asparagus out of the deep fryer

Look over here at this asparagus. Oh my gosh. Is that beautiful or what

That is beautiful. So we're going to put it on this platter right here

Brown that Creole sauce on that pretty red platter. It looks so Christmassy

I want you to try the Creole seasoning now. Mmm. You like it

That is good. It's a nice, unhealthy way to have our vegetables

For dessert, we've got an incredible red velvet bread pudding. I have used my Grandma Paul's recipe for red velvet, and I just put it in a 13 by 9 by 2 pan

And since we're having bread pudding, we don't want to just make it so wet that it comes apart

So we're going to take our cake, and we're going to cut it in cubes

And then we're going to put this on our cookie sheet, and we're going to toast it off

That'll cause the edges to get crunchy and crispy and keep it from absorbing so much that it'll be mushy

So we're going to put this in the oven at 350 degrees for about 10 minutes

All right, so let's come down here and let's check on our ham. Look how dark those edges are

That skin is going to be incredible. Incredible. So y'all don't go anywhere

because we're fixing to take this luscious ham out of that deep fryer

And we're going to be eating a little pig before you know it. Coming up, we unveil the star of our Christmas meal

a deep fried ham with a sweet pineapple glaze and an incredible red velvet bread pudding

I got a devil staring at me. Happy holidays, everybody. We're about to get this wonderful meal put together, aren't we

Now, we're going to finish up our red velvet bread pudding. In this bowl, I'm going to add about three quarters of a cup of confectionate sugar

And I'm going to add one block of cream cheese that I have let sit at room temperature, y'all

So it's going to be nice and easy for us to blend up

Let me see how this tastes. and did it crust up just a little bit for us

Mm-hmm, it did. It's wonderful. Good. All right, so I'm just going to beat these two things together

And you take over this, honey. And I'm going to come over here

and I'm going to mix up our custard. It's just three eggs and one yolk

three cups of half and half, a pinch of salt, and a good old teaspoon of vanilla

And we got our custard, y'all. And I'm going to add just a little bit

until we get it all incorporated. Okay. I'm going to go around there and get our cream cheese down in there

There we go. Now let's pour the rest of this custard in so we can add it to the chunks of the cake

Have you ever had any Christmas disasters, Leanne? We had a Christmas tree, and I can remember Charlie being three

with a little play pistol and cowboy boots on, and every time he'd go by that Christmas tree, he'd fall down on him

and we don't know why. And so there for a long time, he had this pair of Christmas trees because it'd fall on him and get caught up in it

And all of them sticking out would be little cowboy buns. I think that's good

So in the oven we go 350 degrees by 30 minutes. There's a hog in our life

Look at that ham. Is that not like the prettiest thing you've ever seen

Why is that so dark? That is from our brown sugar. And that brine

Oh. Our ham is done. Now we're just gonna unveil our little pig

Merry Christmas. Merry Christmas, my Tennessee friends. If you think this ham looks good now, y'all, just wait until I get done with it

How beautiful is that? So what do you think, Leanne? It's wonderful

That pork is out of this world. That Creole sauce is good

Mm, mm. That's asparagus. And Leanne, you saw how easy everything was to do

It really was. Well, you know what? I got a devil staring at me

Look at that, y'all. Now, how pretty is that for Christmas? Mm, that is wonderful

Mm, mm, mm. Out of this world, I send everybody out there my love, along with my best dishes

And you're here to share with me. Happy holidays, y'all