Recipe: Sloppy Stew's Pulled Ham

UM, can someone say YUMMERS?! This recipe is inspired by two things. The first being the huge hock of leftover ham we had in our freezer from thanksgiving (I've learned to ALWAYS accept leftovers from get togethers: a great way to save money in the long run!), and the second being Stewart and his love of MEATY greasy grimy diner food stuffs. We had three guys over for dinner and I wasn't sure if they were being polite or if the sandwich actually filled them up. But, the sandwiches were huge. I made scallop potatoes to go with the sandwiches, but they didn't cook in time, so we just had potato chips and then black forest cake my grandpa brought out. And lots of water. This shit is salty. But SO GOOD. (ps. one of the people we had over for dindin doesn't like spicy things, so if you DO like spicy things, up the chipotle to taste).

Sloppy Stew's Pulled Ham Sandwiches
Makes 8 servings

Ingredients for the ham:
- 8 cups of chopped cold ham (use leftovers!)
- 1/2 red onion, chopped (about 2 cups)
- 1 cup water
- 1 cup apple cider vinegar
- 2 cups ketchup
- 2 heaping tablespoons brown sugar
- 1 tbsp chipotle puree
- 1/4 cup soy sauce
- pepper to taste

Sandwich Dressings:
- the other 1/2 of the red onion cut into thick slices
- one cold, crisp green pepper cut into 8 thick slices
- chipotle mayo
- 8 whole wheat kaisers
- 8 processed cheese slices (this is what we had in the house, but a good sharp cheddar would also do)

To make the Ham:

Saute ham, onion, and water in a sauce pan until onion is translucent and the ham is falling apart. Add vinegar, ketchup, brown sugar, chipotle, soy sauce, and pepper; mixing well. Cook on medium-low until liquid reduces by half.

To assemble the sandwiches:

Cut open kaiser. On bottom half spread mayo and then layer cheese on top. Pile 1/8th of the ham mixture (about a cup) on the bottom layer. Place onion and green pepper on top of ham and top with bun.

(omg, now i want another one. haha) and, ETA: haha, i forgot it was vegan MOFO!! OMG!!! of course you can replace the ham with 8 cups of cubed firm tofu, and the mayo with soy mayo (or just chipotle mixed with a bit of earth balance, yum!..and use rice cheese!!!) XO ETA: a few days later! My forgetting that it was vegan mofo paired with this post meant that I got pulled from the veganmofo blogroll. And despite my reitterations that I forgot, this was posted and I was told they'd "try". Super disappointing. So, I'm not going to vegan blog. It's a lot of work and if I'm not part of the broooha, then whatever.