Zank's Iron Skillet

Bacon Cheese and Mushroom Polenta

2009-08-22T14:49:00.017-04:00

Polenta has come full circle from it's origins in early Roman times as gruel or porridge to a premium dish in fine restaurants. This comforting peasant food can take on many forms from a creamy grits style to grilled on a Weber, deep fried or baked in the oven. Here's one of my takes on this classic comfort food.
This polenta is of the formed, baked variety. The original recipe that I have used for years called for 4 cups of water to one cup of cornmeal, Fontina cheese and oyster mushrooms. I have since come to prefer a creamier more savory version and have modified the base recipe in this version. One of the great things about this recipe is that you can easily substitute what you have on hand or prefer and still follow the basic recipe.

To cook the polenta bring 5 cups of chicken broth to a boil in a high quality 3 quart sauce pot with thick solid base. You will need the thick base for even slow cooking. Once the chicken broth comes to a boil, slowly pour in a fine stream of a cup of yellow cornmeal whisking with a wire whisk. Continue whisking until the mixture returns to a boil then reduce heat to low or very low if cooking with gas. Cook for about 20 minutes, whisking until the cornmeal slowly falls off of the back of a wooden spoon adding water as necessary to maintain desired consistency. I alternate between a whisk and a wooden spoon while stirring. I use the spoon to scrape around the bottom curve of the pot to prevent sticking. When the polenta is done, remove from heat and whisk in 4 tbs soft butter.
Wait a minute! I said slow cooking and now I'm talking about 20 minutes! Well if you cook it over medium heat you will end up with a clump of yellow goo so I guess it's all relative. I really cook this to feel adding water if needed over a low heat and may cook it for 30 minutes. You can cook this for an hour or more if you like;)
Next pour the polenta in to a greased 9x13 casserole dish and place in the refrigerator to cool completely for about 2 hours or so.

While the polenta is cooling, saute a pound of your mushrooms of choice. I used baby Portablellas and cooked about a 3/4 lb of bacon until crispy. Coarse chop the bacon and set aside. To assemble, invert the polenta onto a cutting board and cut in half. Top one half of the polenta with mozzarella cheese, mushrooms and chopped bacon. Place the other half of the polenta on top and top with mushrooms, bacon, Fontina cheese and grated Parmesan cheese.
Place the assembled polenta in a preheated 350F oven for about 30 minutes until the cheese is melted and polenta is hot.

What you will need
1 cup of yellow cornmeal
5 cups of chicken broth
3/4 to 1 lb cooked bacon
1 lb mushroom
4 oz sliced Italian Fontina Cheese
4 oz sliced or grated mozzarella cheese
freshly grated parmesan cheese for topping

Goat Cheese Stuffed Burger

2009-08-18T19:45:00.004-04:00

Goat cheese stuffed burgers topped with roasted red peppers is a nice way to mix it up from your standard cheeseburger fare. Start with about 3oz of your ground meat of choice and form into a patty with a well in the middle to hold the goat cheese. Spoon about a teaspoon of garlic and sun dried tomato mixture into the well. I found this at a local Publix but a homemade mixture would do nicely. Next slice a piece of log roll fresh goat cheese about 1/2 inch thick on top of the sun dried tomato garlic. Now form a large golf ball sized ball of your ground meat and form it into a patty to place on top. Form the patty until it is well formed and nothing will ooze outside while cooking. Cook for about four minutes per side on a grill or iron skillet until medium.
Prepare your roasted red peppers, either fresh of jarred to your preference. I used jarred red peppers lightly marinated in Zesty Italian Dressing. I like serving these with stone ground dijon mustard.

Golden Potato Squash Torte

2009-07-12T08:56:00.007-04:00

I love potatoes, squash and onions so when I came across this recipe I just had to try it. Well after visiting two stores and no green onions, I decided to substitute yellow onion. Who knew there was a green onion shortage? The original recipe called for cooking this in two 8" cake pans. What's up with that?

Oil your cast iron skillet then layer the potatoes in concentric circles overlapping slightly. Layer the squash the same way then sprinkle on about a third of the cheese mixture and press down to flatten. Drizzle with a little olive oil. Add another layer of potatoes squash and cheese mixture, finishing with a layer of potatoes and cheese, lightly pressing to flatten each time and drizzling with olive oil. Cover with foil and bake for 40 minutes in a 375F oven. Remove the foil and bake for another 25 minutes.
For the cheese mixture combine Parmesan cheese, flour, thyme, green onions, salt and pepper. Reserve a handful of the green onions for garnish.

What you will need:
A large Iron skillet
5 Yukon Gold potatoes sliced thinly
2-3 Yellow squash
1 bunch green onions, thinly sliced
1 cup grated Parmesan cheese
2 tablespoons all purpose flour
1 tablespoon chopped fresh thyme
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
3/4 teaspoon ground white pepper
Olive oil

Fouth Of July 2009

2009-07-05T19:10:00.008-04:00

It's the Fourth of July and I'm heading down I75 to Kevin's for pool time, music and Big Green Egg fun! Last year it was beef tenderloin, this time it's pork spareribs smoked on the BGE. Oh and I got to meet up with a long lost friend. It doesn't get any better than that ;)
Three and half hours or so at 250F with lump charcoal and some soaked hickory chips is a beautiful thing.

Pool Dogs

Pitas Inside and Out

2009-06-23T18:41:00.007-04:00

A quick trip to the grocery story with no real plan in mind for dinner and I find myself aimlessly wandering the aisles. Man I was supposed to have a plan here. What happened? I set out the early morning hours with a cup of coffee in hand reading some of my favorite food blogs thinking "I really need come up with an idea for dinner. These recipes look great" and yet here I am desperately trying to formulate a plan on the fly when I spot the pita bread. Hmm, maybe something light like a vegetable stuffed pita. Oh and those Brussels sprouts I passed earlier looked good for a side...
Wait that rotisserie chicken might be good in the pitas. So much for the vegetarian idea.
What I decided on was pitas with rotisserie chicken, fresh tomatoes lightly marinated in Italian dressing, red onions with a light olive oil and balsamic marinade, goat cheese and fresh spinach and an artichoke bruschetta.
By the time I got started making these pitas I had decided to not only stuff them but to make pita pizzas out of them. Sometimes not having a plan works out okay.

Tomato Pie

2009-06-17T20:36:00.007-04:00

No it's not a pizza pie. It's a southern thing. A trip to the farmers market yields a bunch of large beautiful ripe tomatoes and with that comes a need for recipes. I can eat a thick slice of tomato with mayo on wheat bread and make fresh tomato sauce but I'm always looking for ways to use fresh tomatoes in the spring and summer. I used this recipe as a starting point but made some minor changes to suit my tastes. First off, the method I use to peel the tomatoes is slightly different. I do cross slice the tomatoes on the bottom as she does but I dip mine one at a time for 10 seconds in low boiling water for 10 seconds then into a colander and spray with cool water.
Second, I don't think she seeded them enough. After I peel the tomatoes, I slice them in half then squeeze them to work out the seeds, After that I do the coarse chop and place them in a colander with a liberal sprinkling of salt and let them drain for at least 30 minutes, shaking occasionally. Too much moisture and seeds are the enemy of a good tomato pie!
I don't have a secret ingredient (yet). I just use dried basil, garlic powder, a sprinkle of sugar to counteract the acidity and cracked pepper. There is no need for more salt during the pie assembly as the salt used during the draining process is more than adequate.
The only other thing that I did differently was to use half mozzarella and half cheddar. Also 1/2 cup mayo per 2 cups of cheese is really quite enough Paula Dean.
I really recommend using the coarse chop on the tomatoes rather than tomato slices because it is easier to eat as you won't pull a whole slice of tomato out when you take a fork full!

Shrimp and Grits

2009-06-04T19:10:00.012-04:00

Shrimp and Grits are a Charleston South Carolina classic. Traditionally a breakfast dish due to the plentiful fresh shrimp and Shrimpers in the area, it was later refined and served in fine restaurants. Here's my take on this southern classic.
First use stone ground yellow grits, no white grits or quick grits allowed. Second use stone ground yellow grits.

If you want to start out easy and get the feel for cooking the grits, just try some plain shrimp and grits or maybe some cheese grits. Once you have that down then you can start sauteing some peppers and onions and adding a sauce.

If you want to try the shrimp and grits pictured above there are five steps involved. Cook the grits, make the sauce, saute the vegetables, add the shrimp and sauce to the vegetables and simmer to cook the shrimp and meld the flavors then spoon the shrimp and sauce mixture over the grits and serve. Oh I almost forgot the sixth step! Eat and enjoy.

To cook the grits bring 4 cups of chicken stock to a boil and slowly stream in one cup of grits whisking with a wire whisk. Return to a boil then reduce heat to low and cook for 8-10 minutes stirring occasionally. Now stir in 1 to 1 1/2 cups shredded cheddar cheese and 1/2 cup heavy cream and cook for another 8-10 minutes over low. I also add 1/4 cup fresh grated Parmesan but that's optional. Thin with more chicken stock as needed to keep the grits creamy smooth.
For the sauce add 1 tsp oil, 1 Tbs minced shallot and minced garlic and saute for a couple of minutes then add 1 cup white wine and the juice of 1 lemon and simmer until reduced by two-thirds. Whisk and add 1 cup heavy cream and reduce by one half. Add 4 oz soft butter a whisk until butter is melted. Keep warm.
For the vegetables add 1 tbs oil to your hot iron skillet then add the red onion, red pepper and green pepper and cook over medium to medium low heat for 5-6 minutes until the peppers have softened a bit.
To finish the shrimp aspect, add the shrimp, sauce and chopped cooked bacon to the pepper and onion mixture and simmer for 5-7 minutes until the shrimp are done. Salt and pepper to taste.
Assembly. Plate the creamy smooth cheese grits and spoon over the shrimp mixture. Enjoy!

Shrimp and Cheese Grits drizzled with a wine and balsamic sauce.

Shrimp sauteed in an iron skillet for the above simple Shrimp and Grits

What you will need.
For the grits
1 cup stone ground yellow grits
4 cups of chicken stock
1/2 cup heavy cream
1 cup shredded mild cheddar cheese
1/4 cup fresh grated Parmesan cheese
For the Sauce
1 tsp oil
1 Tbs minced shallot
1 clove garlic minced
1 cup dry white wine
1 cup heavy cream
The juice of 1 lemon
Pinch of salt
The rest of the story
About 1 pound of shrimp peeled and deveined
1/4 cup red onion diced
1/4 cup red pepper diced
1/4 cup green onion diced
3-4 slices of thick cut cooked bacon chopped
Salt and pepper to taste

Carnitas Tacos

2009-05-26T18:18:00.008-04:00

Carnitas are a wonderful thing. Slowly braised Boston Butt tender and succulent on the inside with a nice caramelized crunch on the outside. The principle is simple, cut up a Boston Butt into about 2 inch strips and add just enough water to cover the meat and then slowly simmer until the water is gone. Once the water has simmered away you will be left with the pork and the rendered collagen cooking away to form the caramelized crunchy exterior. The whole process will probably take 2 1/2 to 3 hours. Mine didn't quite turn out as well as I had hoped as I started stirring the meat too much once the water had evaporated and shredded quite a bit of the meat. I used a large cast iron wok but a dutch oven would work very well. The next time I'll be a little more gentle turning the meat once the water has evaporated. Oh and you should never touch the meat during the braising process. Anyway if you want to see it done the right way check out The Homesick Texans version.
I decided to make tacos with Salsa Verde, onions and cilantro on flour tortillas. I served these with baked pablano peppers filled with refried black beans, queso Chihuahua and Mexican sour cream.

Hot Dogs Chicago and WV Style

2009-05-13T19:42:00.003-04:00

I never “got” Chicago style hot dogs looking at pictures of them or seeing them on television. I was like “That’s no hot dog, there’s way too much stuff on them!” Some of them were topped with huge amounts of toppings that would presumably take a knife and fork to eat. It just didn’t make sense to me until one day I went to a Chicago style dog place and had one and it clicked. These are great man!. I can’t believe I never had one of these before. Notice I said Chicago style dog as I have never been to Chicago. I do feel there is a reasonable amount of topping to put on one though even if I were in Chicago. I’m sure I’ll be lambasted for that as well as not using poppy seed rolls.

The pickle wedge is in there trust me

I cook my dogs in a cast iron skillet over medium heat with about 1/2 cup of water or more. After the water simmers away the dogs will be left to cook in the rendered fat.

Traditional Chicago style hot dog toppings. Tomato, relish preferably neon green), minced onion, Sport peppers, yellow mustard, Kosher dill pickle, celery seed and optional cucumber on a poppy seed roll.

My all time favorite though is the West Virginia Slaw dog with chili sauce, minced onion, yellow mustard and sweet slaw on a steamed roll. Again I’ll probably be lambasted for using wheat rolls here but I liked them.

Taquitos #14

2009-04-11T08:11:00.012-04:00

I'll have the #14. Nothing authentic here, just the feel of ordering a number from the menu of your local neighborhood American Mexican restaurant. Tasty, comforting and familiar, it's how Americans eat Mexican food but nothing like real Mexican food. I'm going to have to try some of those Mexican street foods I've seen on Anthony Bourdain's No Reservations but for now please enjoy your number 14.

What you will need for the Taquitos.
2 Lbs chicken breast cut up
1 red onion diced
1 red pepper diced
2-3 jalapeños diced
3 cloves of garlic minced
1 Tbs Mexican oregano
1 tsp ground cumin
Salt and Pepper to taste
Oil for frying
24 Corn tortillas

Heat your cast iron skillet over medium heat, add about 2 Tbs oil, chicken, onion, red pepper, garlic and jalapeños and cook until chicken is done and vegetables are soft about 8-10 minutes. Stir in the oregano and cumin. Add the chicken mixture to the food processor and pulse until coarsely chopped, set aside.
Prepare the tortillas for the filling. There are two ways to do this, restaurant style and nuke. To prepare restaurant style heat about ¼ cup oil in your skillet and place a corn tortilla in for about 3 seconds then turn over for another 2 seconds, remove and place on paper towels to drain. The corn tortillas really only need 5 seconds. To microwave place tortillas on a plate and cover with a damp cloth or paper towel and microwave for about a minute depending on your microwave. Please be careful here as you don't want to start a fire in your microwave.
Place about a tablespoon or so of the chicken mixture in a tortilla and roll tightly securing with a few toothpicks. I always make these too big. I just can't seem to make the small and tight. Oh well. Keep the tortillas covered while working to keep them pliable. Fry the Taquitos for a few minutes, turning after a couple of minutes until nicely browned.

Tuna Salad

2009-03-15T08:41:00.003-04:00

I was eating a lame tuna sub at a well known sub shop the other day when I decided to make my tuna salad so the memory of this tuna sub wouldn't linger too long.

Tuna salad on toasted French bread slices.

What you will need.
Two 12oz cans solid white Albacore or fresh tuna
One 14oz can quartered artichoke hearts
1/2 red bell bell pepper minced
1/2 red onion minced
2 Tbs capers
1/4 cup chopped Italian parsley
1/4 cup chopped basil
2 cloves garlic minced
3 Tbs fresh lemon juice
Lemon pepper to taste
Freshly grated Parmesan cheese
2/3 cup mayonnaise
Or
Extra virgin olive oil

This salad works well with mayonnaise or extra virgin olive oil.

Baked Ziti

2009-03-02T07:44:00.011-05:00

There are a lot of variations on this great Italian comfort food and here's one I made recently. It's easy to make, inexpensive, delicious and reheats well. Pair this ziti up with some garlic bread and a salad and you've got a meal that's sure to please. Try different variations with ricotta, pancetta, prosciutto, meatballs and vegetarian to keep it new and interesting.
I used crumbled sweet Italian sausage but you could just as easily used sliced sausage.
Oh and check out how this Italian lady makes her Baked Ziti.

What you will need.
1 Lb sweet Italian sausage
1 onion chopped
1 green pepper diced
2 cloves garlic minced
1/2 to 1 tsp crushed red pepper
1 Lb ziti
about 5 cups of your favorite pasta sauce
16 oz mozzarella cut into 1/2 inch cubes
1/2 cup fresh grated Parmesan cheese

Cook the sausage, onion, green bell pepper, crushed red pepper and garlic until the sausage is done. Drain the fat and set aside.
Cook the ziti according to package directions, drain and place back in the cooking pot Don't rinse your pasta or PrincessDiana161 will be really upset. Add the Italian sausage mixture, pasta sauce, mozzarella cheese and half of the Parmesan and stir to combine. Spread a little of the pasta sauce in the bottom of a 9 x 13 casserole the pour in the ziti mixture. Sprinkle the remaining Parmesan cheese on top, cover with aluminum foil and bake for 20 minutes in a 350F oven. Remove foil and bake uncovered for another 30 minutes. Let stand for 10 minutes before serving.

Jambalaya

2009-02-14T08:47:00.007-05:00

Is it Cajun style or Creole style? Well it's sort of a cross between the two. I didn't use tomatoes as you would in Creole style but I did add equal parts water and rice in the creole style. Cajun style jambalaya usually calls for twice as much water as rice. Nothing fancy here just simple goodness. The holy trinity married with the andouille sausage, shrimp and spices is really all you need for a great tasting jambalaya.

Cook the sausage over medium heat for 8-10 minutes then set aside. Add a tablespoon of oil to the pot and cook the vegetable until soft, about 10 minutes. Add the andouille sausage back to the pot, add the shrimp, stir in the spices and cook over medium low heat for another 10 minutes. Add the rice and water and bring to a boil. After a boil is reached reduce heat to low, cover and simmer for 20-30 minutes until the water is absorbed and the rice is done.

What you will need.
1 Lb Andouille sausage
1 Lb Shrimp peeled and deveined
1 large onion chopped
1 green pepper chopped
1 red pepper chopped
3-4 ribs of celery chopped
2 tsp cayenne pepper
2 tsp black ground pepper
1 tsp white pepper
1 tsp oregano
1 tsp thyme
3 1/2 cups rice
3 1/2 cups water

Carolina Style Pulled Pork BBQ Sandwiches

2009-02-01T10:19:00.012-05:00

Pulled pork in a 5qt dutch oven is easy and straightforward with a couple of minor exceptions. The first is to cook the pork until it reaches an internal temperature of 185F. At first thought you might think “Whoa that's 25 degrees higher than the USDA recommendation. Won't it be tough?” That might seem valid considering I usually cook pork at 150-155 but the higher temp allows the fat in the Boston Butt to render and tenderize the meat. The second thing is the resting time. Most would let it rest for about 15 minutes or so but I learned a technique from an avid BBQ guy about resting and when I say BBQ I mean slow cooking on a smoker. Wrap the Boston Butt in heavy aluminum foil and place it in a small insulated cooler with towels above and below the meat and let it rest for an hour or so.This step will continue the rendering and tenderizing process. Don't worry it will be steamy and warm when you pull it out of the cooler.
The Carolina style comes from the vinegar and mustard based BBQ sauce.

What you will need for six hungry people.
1 onion sliced
6 cloves of garlic slightly mashed with the back of a knife
1 – 18oz bottle of Carolina style BBQ sauce
1/3 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup cider vinegar
28 oz beef broth
½ tsp pepper
3 ½ lb Boston Butt
2 Tbs cornstarch and 3 Tbs water blended

Combine first seven ingredients in the dutch oven and stir well. Add the Boston Butt, cover and place in a preheated 275F oven. Cook for 3 hours, turning once halfway through. Remove the meat and let it rest for an hour in the cooler (see above). For the sauce, strain about 2 ½ to 3 cups of the cooking liquid into a saucepan, add the cornstarch water mixture and bring to a low boil for 4 to 5 minutes. After the meat has rested pull the pork into long shreds using two forks. Ladle the sauce over the pulled pork or pass separately.

For the slaw combine 1/4 cup cider vinegar, 2 Tbs sugar, 1/4 tsp celery seed and whisk until blended. Add 1/2 cup light mayo, 1/4 tsp kosher salt, 1/4 tsp ground pepper and whisk until smooth. Add a 16oz bag of Fresh Express 3 Color Deli Style Cole Slaw and stir to coat evenly.

Forget serving the slaw on the side. This is the way to eat BBQ!

Filet Mignon with Red Chile Sauce

2009-01-24T07:09:00.008-05:00

Here is my version of Bobby Flay's Filet Mignon with Red Chile Sauce recipe.

Cooking the filet's was pretty straight forward. He did his on the grill and I used my cast iron skillet. Season the filets with salt, pepper and ground cumin. Place the filets in a hot skillet with about a tbs of oil and cook on both sides for about a minute and a half. Place the skillet in a 425F oven for about 10 minutes until medium rare as determined by the finger test. After you spoon the sauce over the filets, place a slice of goat cheese on top and use a blow torch to melt and brown the cheese. I used a Benzomatic MAPP gas torch but I'm sure there are more kitchen friendly models around ;)

For the chile sauce, seed all the peppers then toast them in a hot iron skillet for about 30 seconds per side. Be careful here as they will burn easily. Saute the onions and garlic in a medium saucepan until soft then add the chicken stock and peppers and simmer on medium low for 25 minutes. Using a slotted spoon transfer the peppers and onions to a food processor then add 2 cups of the chicken stock and process until smooth. Pour this chile sauce into a medium hot saute pan snd simmer for about 8-10 minutes. Remove the saute pan from the heat and stir in the creme fraiche and maple syrup.

As for the red chile sauce, my peppers looked smaller so I used an extra ancho and New Mexico chili. I watched this episode on Food Network and he was ambiguous about how much of the stock liquid to add to the food processor so I added the stock until it looked right, about 2 cups.
The recipe says to strain the sauce but the picture on the Food Network site doesn't look strained. I have made this chili sauce a couple of times and I strained it the first time for a velvety smooth sauce. For this recipe I did not strain the sauce and it was a bit thicker which was also very nice.
The addition of the creme fraiche and maple syrup is a must as the sauce will have a raw unfinished taste without it. I was amazed at the price of pure maple syrup at $9.35 a bottle! Also creme fraiche is very hard to find so here are some substitutions. Use honey instead of pure maple syrup. For the creme fraiche use use 1/2 cup each of sour cream and whipping cream, let stand at room temperature for 12 hours then refrigerate.

What you will need for the chile sauce.
2 tablespoons canola oil
1 large red onion, coarsely chopped
3 cloves garlic, coarsely chopped
3 New Mexican red chiles, lightly toasted
2 quajillo chiles, lightly toasted
2 ancho chile, lightly toasted
6 cups chicken stock
1/4 cup creme fraiche
2 tablespoons maple syrup
Salt and freshly ground pepper

Swedish Meatballs

2009-01-11T09:42:00.008-05:00

Time to breakout the meatball recipe and make some Swedish meatballs. Well I guess I can call it that but I didn't use pickles and jam. I served this Scandinavian favorite with noodles and sour cream sauce.

>
What you will need
1 lb ground beef
1 lb ground pork
¾ medium onion finely minced
½ cup plain breadcrumbs
2 lg eggs
3/4 cup chopped fresh parsley
¼ tsp ground nutmeg
¼ tsp dried mustard powder
2 Tbs oil

For the sauce
oil from the cooked meatballs
2 Tbs flour
2 cups Swanson beef broth
1 cup heavy cream or 8 oz sour cream
8 oz wide egg noodles
2 tbs soft butter

Combine first seven ingredients ( half of the parsley) and mix well with hands. Yes. Use your hands! Dive right in, don't be scared ;) Divide the meatball mixture into fourths and make six meatballs from each. Preheat your cast iron skillet until it just starts to smoke then add the oil and 12 of the meatballs. Cook for about 10-12 minutes over medium heat shaking the pan to brown the meatballs. Transfer the meatballs to a bowl, cover and keep warm in a 140F oven. Cook the remaining meatballs and warm.
For the sauce, pour the oil and scrapings from the skillet into a medium saucepan over medium low heat. Add the flour and whisk for about two minutes to form a roux. Slowly whisk in the beef broth until the sauce thickens a bit. Whisk in the sour cream and simmer for about 10 minutes until it thickens, whisking occasionally.
While you are making the sauce, cook the noodles according to package directions. Drain the noodles and place back into the cooking pot. Add the soft butter and the remaining parsley and stir until the butter melts. Add the sauce and warm meatballs to the noodle, stir and enjoy

Jalapeño Poppers

2008-12-28T07:51:00.005-05:00

I was perusing the produce area of a local market where I get my chilies and ran across these jalapeño peppers and thought “Man those are some big jalapeños!” I had grabbed about a dozen of them before I had even thought what I was going to do with them poppers popped into my head. I'm not sure these qualify as poppers as they are closer to Chili Relleno size but what the heck.

What you will need
Jalapeño peppers
8 oz softened cream cheese
4 oz shredded Monterey Jack cheese
4 oz crumbled goat cheese
2 eggs beaten
1 cup milk
1 cup all purpose flour
1 ½ cups bread crumbs
Oil for deep frying

Preparation
Slice the peppers lengthwise and remove the seeds. Using a pastry bag, fill the peppers with the cheese mixture and close the peppers to seal. Dip the peppers in the milk then dredge in the flour. Lightly shake the excess flour from the peppers and dip in the beaten eggs the roll in the break crumbs. Fry in 365F oil for 2-3 minutes and let drain on paper towels for a few minutes.

Chili

2008-12-20T08:16:00.006-05:00

People are adamant about their chili. Their style is the only way to make authentic chili and what the heck are you putting in there? Tomatoes? Man you are ruining that chili! Every one thinks their chili is the best and I think that's part of what makes it special. The hard core insist that chili contains only beef and chili powders but most of the chili champion recipes I've seen have tomato sauce in them so I guess there is some wiggle room in making great chili. I generally make chili with just beef but I like to mix it up with beans and diced tomatoes as well. I also frequently make a vegetarian chili that I really like. There are a lot of different ways to make chili so experiment and do what you like but please at least use chili powder and cumin.
This is my recipe loosely based on Debbie Ashman's championship chili recipe

Coarse ground ground beef with dumps one, two and three.

Chili Powder

2008-11-20T13:25:00.004-05:00

Good Chili starts with good chili powder so I’m going to show you how to make your own. All you need is a good source for dried chilies, an oven to dry them in and a food processor to grind them, oh and a recipe. For my base chili powder I use six dried ancho chilies, five New Mexico Chile’s, five Chile de Arbol and a tablespoon of toasted cumin seeds. The Ancho’s are a mild deep red chili that provides the base for the chili powder. The New Mexico Chilies are a lighter red and slightly hotter and finally the Chile de Arbol is small thin red chili that adds more heat and is similar to cayenne in heat. The combination of these chilies provides the depth of flavor that you will need for a good chili. The great thing about making your own chili powder is that you can experiment with different chilies to get the flavor you want. It’s also very inexpensive compared to store bought powder and you won’t be tied to grocery store chili powder and its lack of depth anymore once you start making your own.

First find a good source to buy dried chilies. Dried chilies are not brittle but are somewhat soft and pliable and can either be dried further for chili powder or rehydrated for other dishes. After you get comfortable with making your own base chili powder you can start making different powders for a variety of dishes or dumps for world class chili! Dumps are what the chili champs use to provide even more depth of flavor. Take a look at this to see what I mean.

Start by removing the stem from each chili and slicing lengthwise down the chili to open it up and remove the seeds. Lay the chilies open on a cookie sheet and place in a 300F oven for 4-5 minutes. Remove and let cool for a few minutes until cool enough to handle then break the dried chili into pieces. Place any parts of the chili that have not dried enough to break up back into the oven for about four more minutes and repeat with the remaining chilies. After your chilies are dried and broken into bits place them in a food processor and pulse on low for several seconds to get them started then process on medium for about fifteen seconds and then on high for fifteen seconds more. Toast 1 tablespoon cumin seed in a cast iron skillet until the seeds are about two shades darker than what you started with then finely grind in a coffee/spice grinder. I process only one kind of chili at a time and then at the end combine them all for about another thirty seconds. This should yield about 1 ½ cups of chili powder.

Chilies seeded and ready to be dried

Dried chiles crushed and ready for the food processor

Toasted cumin seeds

I like to make a Saturday afternoon of it and dry a bunch of different chilies. This way I can have my base chili powder and a powder of each individual chili that I can create dumps with or use in a variety of different dishes. I also like to make my own crushed red peppers out of Chili de Arbol or cayenne and leave the seeds in for some real heat.
Have fun making your own dried chili powders and be careful to wash your hands before rubbing an eye ;)

Nachos

2008-11-18T18:59:00.006-05:00

Man there must be a thousand different ways to make nachos. I found these nice little red and yellow peppers and was trying to think of how to use them and nachos seemed like a great idea so I got a flank steak and got to work. Marinate the flank steak overnight in some oil, fresh lemon juice, cumin, cilantro, minced garlic and salt and pepper. Pound the flank steak to about ¼ inch thickness, thinly slice and cook in batches in your cast iron skillet. Now slice up the peppers and sauté for a few minutes until just starting to soften a bit. Squeeze a half of a lemon over some white corn and black beans then toss with some dried oregano and you are ready to go. Layer white tortilla chips, flank steak, peppers, shredded Monterey Jack cheese, corn and beens until you have a few layers. Heat in a 350F over for about ten minutes. Top with salsa, sour cream, chopped green onions and cilantro. Enjoy!

Corn Fritters

2008-11-05T19:51:00.010-05:00

I was eating some steamed frozen corn one day last week and I thought there has got to be a way liven these up a bit. Well a couple of days later while perusing the Whole Foods deli I ran across some corn fritters and picked up a couple. They were good but not quite good enough so I started thinking and looking at corn fritter recipes. The ones at Whole foods were a bit too heavy with the flour and some of the recipes I researched looked to thin. I wanted something with some body but not to thick and floury. So I came across this recipe and modified it a bit.

What you will need.
Six ears of corn
2 eggs beaten
4 scallions finely sliced
1 Tbs chopped fresh sage
1 cup cheddar cheese. I used a nice 15 month aged English cheddar I found at Whole Foods
½ cup or more all purpose flour
about ¼ cup milk
Kosher salt and fresh ground black pepper
Sweet Pepper Bruschetta

Bring a large pot of water to a boil, add the corn and cook for four minutes after the water returns to a boil. After the corn has cooled a bit slice the kernels off of the cob then reverse the knife blade and run it down the length of the cob to milk it.
Mix the kernels with the scallions, sage, cheese and salt and pepper and set aside. In a separate bowl combine the flour, eggs and enough of the milk to make a smooth batter. Add the batter to the corn mixture and stir to mix well. Preheat your cast iron skillet for several minutes until light wisps of smoke appear then add a few tablespoons of canola oil. Drop by large spoonfuls into the hot skillet and shore up the edges of the fritter with a spatula until they hold shape. Cook about four minutes per side until golden brown. Top with sweet pepper bruschetta and enjoy!

On a side note, bruschetta has come to mean something it's not. In it's classic sense it is toasted bread with olive oil, rubbed with garlic. The garlic oils released on the hot toasted bread produce a wonderful aroma and taste. It is the best garlic bread you will ever have. Bruschetta has come to be toasted bread with olive oil and a variety of toppings and now the topping itself has acquired the name bruschetta.

Classic Bruschetta

The asparagus dish I served with the corn fritters is an easy rustic dish. Simmer the asparagus in about an inch of water for 6-8 minutes until slightly cooked but still has some snap. Shock the simmered asparagus in cold water to stop the cooking and return to the still hot pan used to cook it in. This will help evaporate the moisture on the asparagus.
Wrap the asparagus in a couple of thin pieces of prosciutto and arrange on a serving platter. Drizzle with extra virgin olive oil, fresh lemon juice and an aged balsamic vinegar. Top with Parmesan-Reggiano and oregano and serve at room temperature. Yeah you could whip the ingredients into a balsamic vinaigrette but I like the way you get different melding of the flavors with each bite. Hence the rustic!

Chili Black Bean Patties

2008-10-26T09:38:00.006-04:00

Sometimes meat just isn't on the menu. I had this idea for black bean patties stirring around in my head for a while when I stumbled across just the right recipe from Cooking Light. I modified the recipe slightly (I always do) and came up with chili style black bean patties served with pineapple and red pepper couscous. The pineapple couscous plays well off of the spiciness of the black bean patties.

What you will need.
1 can 15oz black beans drained and rinsed.
2-3 cloves minced garlic
1 tbs chili powder I used my homemade powder
½ of a red onion finely minced
1 large egg white
2oz shredded Monterey Jack cheese plus more for topping
½ cup panko bread crumbs
coarse salt and fresh ground pepper
sour cream

Place 2/3 of the black beans in a bowl, season with salt, pepper, and chili powder and coarsely mash with a fork or potato masher. Place the remaining 1/3 black beans and the egg white in a food processor and process until smooth, about 30 seconds. Add the bean puree to the mashed beans and stir to combine. Add the minced red onion and cheese to the bean mixture and stir to combine. Divide the bean mixture into four even portions and shape into ½ inch thick patties. Place the patties into the panko bread crumbs and press to coat. Fry in your favorite cast iron skillet for about 4 minutes per side. Top with the remaining Monterey Jack cheese and sour cream. Enjoy!

On a side note, a good thing about mashing the beans is that it breaks down the fibers in the beans minimizing the production of gas. Now your friends and neighbors won't be calling you Your Flatulence!

For the pineapple couscous, cook 1 cup of couscous according to package direction. While the couscous is setting, saute 1 can of drained crushed pineapple and a cup of chopped red pepper. Make a dressing for the couscous with 1/4 cup of pineapple juice reserved from the can, 1 tbs olive oil and 1 tbs dijon or whole grain mustard, mixing well with a whisk. Fluff the couscous with a fork and add the pineapple and red pepper mixture and dressing and stir to combine.

Southern Comfort

2008-10-19T10:55:00.006-04:00

It doesn't get more southern than this. Chicken Fried Steak with cream gravy and mashed potatoes. Originating in Texas in the 19th century from German and Austrian immigrants who brought their Wiener schnitzel style with them and created a southern classic. You can use just about any cut of beef that has been tenderized. And by tenderized I mean beaten with a rolling pin like it's your bosses face.
I used cube steak for this recipe and tenderized it with a rolling pin between plastic wrap. The technique is simple, dredge in flour, dip in an egg wash, coat with bread crumbs and fry in an iron skillet. The only caveat is that in order to keep the coating on the steak you need a light coating of flour. Too thick a coating of flour will destroy this dish. After you dredge the streak in the flour shake off the excess flour so you have a light coating, dip in the egg wash and let the excess egg drain from the steak then a nice coating of panko crumbs and your skillet will be happy. Fry for four to five minutes per side and enjoy.

Meatballs

2008-09-28T08:04:00.003-04:00

You have to have a good meatball recipe committed to memory. Meatballs are so versatile that if you keep a few basic items on hand in the pantry and the fridge you can whip up a good meal on the fly without searching around for a recipe. Start with a good basic recipe and then modify it as needed to suit what you are cooking. From meatball subs and spaghetti and meatballs to Swedish meatballs, it all starts with a good base recipe. Whether its a camping trip, a weekend on the houseboat or unexpected company, you'll be ready to make a great meal on the fly and look good doing it .Oh, and it might not be a surprise that a cast iron skillet is the perfect way to cook meatballs.
Today's meatball recipe is meatball subs so I used Italian breadcrumbs, grated parmigiano reggiano and Italian seasoning. If I were making Swedish meatballs I could use my base recipe or maybe add some fresh chopped parsley and ground nutmeg.

My base recipe
1Lb Ground Round
½ C bread crumbs
½ onion minced
1 large egg
2 cloves minced garlic
Coarse salt and fresh ground black pepper

Szechuan Shrimp Stir-Fry

2008-09-07T10:18:00.008-04:00

Stir-Fry is fast, fun and delicious. If you are getting a little bored with soft, steamed vegetables, try stir-frying for vegetables with some crunch and zing. Add some meat or seafood and you have an entrée. The best part is you don't have to get hung up on recipes and measuring. Once you know basic stir-fry techniques you can experiment with different combinations of vegetables and meat/seafood and come up with something unique on the fly.
Here's the basic techniques for stir-fry. Heat a cast iron wok over high heat until smoking hot. Add a small amount of oil and then the ingredients that will take the longest to cook. If your stir-fry has meat add this first as it will take the longest to cook. If you are using shrimp or fish add this after you have cooked the vegetables. If you see liquid pooling at the bottom of the pan while cooking the meat either the heat is too low or you have crowded the wok with too much meat. Don't get me started on a tirade about crowding meat and stewing! Once the meat or vegetables are cooked push them up on the side of the wok. A good wok with have indentations on the sides that will hold the food in place when you push it up the side of the wok. Once your second cooking is done stir all of the ingredients together and add your sauce and stir-fry for a couple of minutes more.. You are probably looking at seven to eight minutes total cooking time.

Szechuan Shrimp Stir-Fry

Ingredients
¾ lb shrimp
1 cup snow peas
½ cup shredded carrots
1 red bell pepper julienned
3 cloves garlic minced
2 tbs minced fresh ginger
Sauce
¼ cup low sodium soy sauce
2 tsp dark sesame oil
1 tsp rice wine vinegar
1 tsp red pepper flakes
Thickening
3 tbs water and 2 tsp cornstarch mixed to a smooth slurry.

Steaks

2008-08-12T20:10:00.009-04:00

A good steak doesn’t need much, just a cast iron skillet, a good rub and some high heat. The best steakhouses use Prime meat and a super high temp infra-red broiler. Cost keeps me from buying prime meat the majority of the time and cost definitely keeps me from buying an infra-red broiler! You can still cook a great steak at home though. Buy a good cut of Prime or Choice steak about an inch to an inch and a half thick. Stay away from Select meat. Make your own rub, heat up the oven and get your iron skillet smokin’ hot and you will be about 12 minutes away from steak nirvana. I am really spoiled cooking steaks this way. I rarely cook them on the grill anymore. After listening to Bobby Flay extolling the virtues of ancho powder numerous times I decided to try his recipe and I’m hooked! Well I tried my version of the recipe. Anyway, making the ancho powder was really easy and adds a great spicy flavor to the meat.
Fire up your cast iron skillet for a few minutes until smokin’ hot then add a splash of canola oil , the steaks and cook for about a minute on both sides. The rub should be cooked to a nice crust but not burned.
Place the skillet into a preheated 425F oven for 6 to 8 minutes until the desired doneness is reached as determined by the finger test. Enjoy!

What you will need for the steak rub.
• 2 TBS course ground peppercorns
• 1 tsp kosher salt
• 2 tsp ancho powder
Sprinkle the rub over the meat and press the rub into the meat with your fingers.

I’ll post soon on how to use your cast iron skillet to dry ancho chili’s to make ancho powder. Stay tuned.

Grilled Cheese Sandwiches

2008-07-27T18:27:00.010-04:00

The lowly grilled cheese sandwich with Wonderbread and Kraft American cheese that we grew up on has grown up and is ready for prime time! With sourdough, White Mountain, Rye, cheddar, Fontina, Gouda, pickles tomatoes, pears, onion and more, you are only limited by your imagination. Whether I’m making a basic grilled cheese or a more refined Panini I love them all, except for the Brooklyn Style Grilled Cheese. That one has way too much butter, lol.

The basic technique is simple. Butter the outside slices of the bread, heat your skillet until slightly smoking, add about a teaspoon of oil and start grilling. Large slices of freshly baked breads will take about four to five minutes per side. Oh, and try not to overload the cheese so it melts out in the skillet like I did.
If you want to make panini style you can get more elaborate with various meats, cheeses and peppers and buy a panini grill to get the nice grill marks or you could just line the bottom of a smaller cast iron skillet with aluminum foil and place on top of the sandwhiches while grilling.

White Mountain bread, Cheddar, Dill Pickle and Lemon Pepper.

Sourdough, Mozzarella, Parmesan-Reggiano, Provolone and Italian marinated tomatoes. And no the cheese didn’t stick.

Occasionally you will hear about a grilled cheese sandwich that looks like the Mother Mary or Marilyn Monroe that sell for thousands on Ebay. I made one once that had a resemblance to Elvis. I wonder if I can sell it on Ebay?

Technorati Profile

Cheeseburgers

2008-07-17T08:48:00.008-04:00

If you did indeed invent the cheeseburger Mr. Lionel Sternberger I salute you! Cheeseburgers are the near perfect food. Besides tasting great they have most of the food groups, meat, vegetables, dairy, grain and beer. Whether you fry them in an iron skillet or grill them on iron grates you will soon be enjoying a delicious piece of Americana, unless it’s the Four Year Old Cheeseburger or the Cheeseburger in a Can.

There is a growing trend of placing the toppings on the bottom of the burger. The theory is that the rising heat from the burger will diminish the freshness of the toppings. This might be fine in a fast food restaurant but the burgers I make at home don’t sit around for long so I’m not worried about it. Even Jimmy Buffet’s Cheeseburger in Paradise restaurant is doing it. I don’t put the toppings on the bottom because I use some mayo on the bottom bun to mix with the cheeseburger juices to form a nice sauce, besides it just looks weird.

I guess you can tell that I like mine with lettuce and tomato….

Steak Sandwiches

2008-07-09T19:30:00.011-04:00

These steak sandwiches are very tender and flavorful. There’s nothing worse than biting into what you think is going to be a tender steak sandwich then fighting with the meat for a minute before giving up and pulling back while the piece of meat flies out of the sandwich and slaps you in the face with a “HA!” I hate it when that happens so I make sure it never does with this recipe. Even if you don’t use the tender nicely marbled Flat Iron steaks called for in this recipe you can still achieve success by using a good cut of meat, marinating it, cutting it into thin slices and cooking it quickly in batches. The reason I use thin slices is that they cook quickly and evenly and if you are using any flavor ingredients as in stir fry they will cook nicely into the meat. Cook the meat in batches so as not to crowd the pan. If you dump all of the meat in the skillet the moisture from the meat and residual marinade will cause the meat to start to stew and you can’t stew in a few minutes. Stewing is a long slow process used on less tender cuts of meat. I recommend using the ciabatta rolls for this recipe as the soft somewhat chewy ciabatta soaks up the juices nicely and holds up well for a sandwich like this.

Marinate the steaks for at least four hours or overnight. Remove the steaks from the marinade, pat dry and place in the freezer for about ten minutes prior to slicing. This will make the meat easier to cut into thin slices. Caramelize the onions in a cast iron skillet and then add the roasted red peppers to heat through and set aside in a bowl. Wipe your skillet with a paper towel to clean and re-heat until just smoking and add a couple of tablespoons of olive oil to the hot pan. Cook the meat for about 1 1/2 to 2 minutes per side. Brush olive oil on the insides of the ciabatta rolls and grill or broil for a few minutes until golden brown. Spread the Dijon mustard on the rolls; add the steak, onion and peppers and provolone cheese. Place the sandwiches on a cookie sheet and place in a 300F oven for about 5-7 minutes to heat and let the cheese melt. Enjoy!

What you will need.
• Two 1LB Flat Irons Steaks
• two onions sliced
• ½ bottle roasted red peppers drained and patted dry
• 4-6 ciabatta rolls
• Provolone cheese slices
• Olive oil
• Whole grain Dijon mustard
• Coarse Kosher salt
• Fresh ground black pepper
Marinade
• ½ cup oil
• 2 TBS red wine vinegar
• 1 TBS Worcestershire sauce
• Salt and pepper
• 1 TBS Oregano
• 2 cloves garlic minced

Fourth of July Weekend

2008-07-07T17:58:00.006-04:00

The Fourth of July weekend, good friends, beef tenderloin on the Big Green Egg, a swimming pool, music and cold beverages is a beautiful thing! Kevin invited me over for beef tenderloin on the Big Green Egg and I was like “Yeah man I’m in!” That BGE is great for everything from slow cooking pulled pork at 235F overnight to cooking fine steaks at 700F so I knew this was going to be great. Plus we had the Tiki God watching over the BGE.

The beef tenderloin marinated and ready for the Egg.

An hour or so and it’s almost ready.

Dana made some great baked beans kicked up with ground beef and bacon. She also made some awesome dirty rice which I didn’t get a picture of. DOH!

The beef tenderloin sliced and ready to eat. The tenderloin was perfect! It was flavorful and oh so tender!

Kevin hands me my plate. I hope there's enough for everybody else.

Disaster Strikes

2008-07-02T18:28:00.008-04:00

Recently I was cooking some Wild Alaskan Salmon in my 12” Cast Iron skillet when the salmon skin stuck to the skillet! I was freakin’! What a bummer! What did I do wrong? I sulked through finishing the rest of the dinner but then soon forgot my woes when I tasted the salmon. I tasted great and I really enjoyed the meal.

After dinner it was time to tackle the skillet demon. As I approached the dirty skillet I had already formed a plan for cleaning and re-seasoning. I was going to start light and only break out the big guns if I needed too. My light cleaning method for a tough job involves the use of coarse kosher salt and soft bristle brush. If that doesn’t work I’ll move up to hot soapy water and a stiff brush or scouring pad. If that doesn’t work I break out the big guns with work gloves, boots, goggles, ear plugs, a sandblaster and cursing! Luckily a couple of rounds of rinsing and scrubbing with the coarse salt and soft bristle brush did the trick. After I dried the skillet thoroughly I placed it on the stovetop with a medium low heat for a couple of minutes to dry the pan, then I coated it with a thin coating of Crisco and re-seasoned.

Everything looks good with the skillet after the cleaning, re-seasoning and cooking some flat iron streaks in it so I decide to try to fry some eggs in it.
YES! WOOOOOHOOOO! I’m back in business baby!

Now what did I do wrong? I think that using it more often for these blog posts and using it for double duty in the same meal I got a bit complacent in the cleaning process. Sometimes I was rinsing and wiping the skillet then oiling it and moving on to the next meal. I wasn’t heating the skillet after the cleaning to dry it thoroughly before oiling and reusing. This crucial step opens up the pores of the skillet to release moisture and then allow the oil to penetrate before closing again after cooling down. Also I think the skillet wasn’t hot enough when I put the salmon in. Oh well live and learn. I’ll try again and let you know how it turns out.

Wild Alaskan Salmon

2008-06-29T09:08:00.009-04:00

I usually cook salmon on the grill but this time I thought I’d try it in a cast iron skillet. Nothing too difficult, just a nice coating of lemon pepper and then a drizzle of sesame oil to finish it off.

This salmon is looking good. I’m really looking forward to this.

Disaster strikes! The skin has stuck to the pan! What a bummer. How am I going to deal with this? That’s another post. Well I can’t be too upset as the salmon tasted great. I guess I’ll stick to baking or grilling salmon until I figure out what went wrong.

Fajitas

2008-06-25T18:14:00.008-04:00

Fajitas are a great way to jazz up a mid week dinner. With a little advance preparation they can be done and on the plate in no time. The bare minimum advance prep is to marinate your meat overnight. If you want to take it a step further and really save some when you start to cook, prep the vegetables in advance too. Start with a flank steak, skirt steak or flat iron steak and prepare the marinade. I used flat iron steak for this recipe. Place the meat in a gallon size freezer bag then add the following marinade ingredients, shake to coat and marinate overnight.
• ½ cup canola oil
• Juice of 3-4 limes
• 2 tsp ground cumin
• 1 tbsp minced cilantro
• 2 tsp dried oregano
• 2 cloves garlic minced
• Kosher salt and ground black pepper to taste
• Splash balsamic vinegar
When you are ready to start cooking, remove the meat from the marinade and pat dry with paper towels, then place in the freezer for 10 minutes before you are ready to start slicing it. This will make the meat easier to cut into thin slices. For the vegetables, slice two onions and julienne one each green, red and yellow pepper. Sauté the vegetables a skillet for about fifteen minutes until they look like this.

While the vegetables are cooking slice the steak against the grain in finger length thin slices. Put the cooked vegetables in a casserole dish, cover and place in a 140F oven to keep warm.
Cook the thin sliced steak on medium high heat for about two minutes per side. It doesn’t take long for the thin sliced meat to cook. Cook the meat in batches so as not to crowd the pan. If you dump all of the sliced meat in the skillet it will stew and come out tough. It will probably take three or four batches to cook the meat. Put the cooked batches of steak in the casserole dish with the vegetables to keep warm.

Once the fajitas are done it’s time to heat the tortillas. Try to find fajita style tortillas as they are a bit smaller, thicker and handle the fajita juices better. Remove the fajitas from the oven and turn the oven up to 350F. Wrap the tortillas in foil and warm in the oven for ten minutes.
While the fajita style tortillas are warming prepare your condiments. Since this was a mid week family style, time saving recipe, I opted for store bought guacamole, salsa and sour cream. Shredded Monterey Jack cheese would be nice also. I served these with tortillas and salsa but I have a good recipe for black bean salad that would be great with this but that’s another post.

If you want to get fancy for guests or treat your family to an extra special presentation there are nice cast iron fajita skillets available for individual service. Place the fajitas on the skillets and place in a hot oven until they sizzle. When you bring them to the table, enjoy the ooh’s and ahh’s. If you use this method you will want to slightly undercook the meat as it will finish cooking in the sizzling skillet.

Cast Iron Skillet Cornbread

2008-06-21T08:59:00.002-04:00

Cast Iron Skillet Cornbread is to some the holy grail of cast iron skillet cooking. Perfect golden brown cornbread perfection is so hard to achieve if you don’t know a few secrets to success. Then there’s the whole white cornmeal or yellow cornmeal, North vs. South issue to deal with. The North vs. South issue continues with sugar or no sugar, flour or no flour or some flour. I tried a Texas recipe with just yellow cornmeal and no flour and it came out like a flat dense Johnnycake. I’m sure some people love it that way but it wasn’t to my taste. Well I’m not here to fuel fire to those debates as I just want to share some secrets that will make your cast iron skillet cornbread cooking experience memorable one. Memorable as in perfect golden brown moist cornbread perfection, not memorable as in “My freakin’ cornbread burned and stuck to the skillet and I hate this heavy cast iron piece of bleep!”. I have also seen a lot of recipes calling for butter in the skillet. I haven’t had much success with just butter as the butter solids tend to burn at these high temperatures. Most recipes I’ve read had said to invert the cornbread onto a plate yet it is rare to see a picture of one this way, so I’m going to show you my bottom. Err, I mean I’m going to show you my cornbread inverted.

Here are the tips to success. Obviously you will want to use a well seasoned skillet. Use three bowls for preparation. One for wet ingredients, one for dry ingredients and one working bowl for measuring the dry ingredients. Your measuring cups for dry ingredients should be flat on top. Measuring cups with curved tops and spouts are for liquids. When measuring use the scoop and level method. Scoop the dry measure cup into the cornmeal / flour then hold over the working bowl and level the top with a straight edge. Next sift the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt into the cornmeal and mix thoroughly. Lightly mix the egg into the buttermilk. Don’t whisk it to frothy foam as there is no need to incorporate that much air into the egg white. Now here’s an important part. Pour the dry ingredients into the buttermilk egg mixture and stir slowly with a large spoon until just combined. Don’t overwork the cornbread! Now add any other flavor ingredients you want and stir gently until incorporated. While all this is going on you should have been pre-heating your oven to 425F unless you have one of those three minute super ovens. Place the skillet with about four tablespoons of oil into the pre-heated oven for about 10 minutes.You can also use clarified butter or three tablespoons oil and a tablespoon of butter. When you remove the hot skillet from the oven pour two tablespoons of the hot oil into the cornbread batter. It will sizzle when it hits the top of the batter, then stir to incorporate the oil. Cook for twenty minutes then remove and let stand for ten minutes. During this standing time, take a knife and run it around the edge of the skillet to loosen the cornbread to make inverting it onto the plate easier.

Skillet Cornbread Recipe Ingredients
• 1 1/4 cups stone-ground yellow cornmeal
• 1 cup of all purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 1 ½ cups buttermilk
• 1 large egg
• Additional flavor ingredients. I used bacon, jalapeño and onion.

Here's one where I used oil and butter. Notice the browned butter solids around the edge. The top looked better on this one. This is the method I usually use.

Time to eat!

Big Skillet Burger

2008-06-18T18:45:00.001-04:00

This one sort of goes into the category of yeah you can do it but why? I mean it tasted really good but I wouldn't eat it as a burger on a bun. If you cut that bad boy into quarters you will need some triangle shaped buns! It's more suited as a meatloaf style dinner. The next time I'll probably add some bread crumbs.

You will need about a pound of ground chuck, about a quarter of an onion minced, one egg, a few slices of cheddar cheese, four slices of cooked bacon and salt and pepper to taste. Mix the ground chuck, onion and egg together with your hands. Divide the mixture into halves and form into patty shapes. Top one of the patties with cheddar cheese and bacon. Place the other patty on top and form until the edges are sealed and you feel guilty. Season the top with freshly ground black pepper. Cook in a cast iron skillet over medium high heat for about 4 minutes then pop into a pre-heated 350F oven for about ten minutes.

Roasted Cauliflower

2008-06-15T08:11:00.001-04:00

After reading Eraine’s blog on roasted cauliflower, I knew I had to have some. I had it before but somehow had completely forgotten about it. How I could forget about something so caramelized, crispy soft and flavorful is just weird. Steamed cauliflower is just so-so and cauliflower with cheese sauce is getting old so this is a great way to liven it up!
I used one whole cauliflower cut up into pieces and coated with olive oil, salt, pepper, oregano and nutmeg. Place the skillet in a pre-heated 450F oven for 30 minutes. Shake the pan about every 10 minutes to evenly cook.

Speaking of pre-heated ovens, it amazes me when someone turns on the oven a few minutes before placing the dish in it then wondering why it didn’t turn out as they had expected. Hello, there is a reason the recipe called for a pre-heated oven. Maybe they think they have some kind of super oven that can pre-heat to 400F in three minutes. But I digress.
After I removed it from the oven I sprinkled on some Parmigiano-Reggiano. Thanks for the great recipe Eraine.

Roasted Fingerling Potatoes

2008-06-11T18:27:00.001-04:00

Roasted Fingerling Potatoes. Nothing earth shattering here, just simple goodness. Coat potatoes with extra virgin olive oil, season with kosher salt and fresh ground black pepper then add some minced garlic and rosemary. Toss to coat then put them in your trusty cast iron skillet. Put the skillet in a pre-heated 450F oven for about 25-30 minutes. I like to open the oven and shake the pan back and forth a few times during the cooking to get some crispiness on more than one side of the potato.

Caramelized Onions

2008-06-07T08:22:00.002-04:00

Caramelized onions add a savory sweetness to many dishes from Lyonnaise potatoes, French onion soup and steaks to a sandwich topping They are easy to make once you know how. Many beginners tend to cook the onions over to high a heat, burning them rather than caramelizing. I use olive oil and a tablespoon of butter but you can use just oil or clarified butter. I would stay away from just butter though as the solids in the butter will burn. Cooking time will vary depending on the amount of onions used. It may takes as little as ten minutes to as long as 30 minutes or more. Start cooking on medium heat then turn the heat down to medium low after about 10 minutes to prevent burning. You will find that many times you will need to reduce the heat while cooking with cast iron due to its excellent heat retention. Add 1 tsp sugar at the beginning and another about halfway through the cooking time. The sugar is optional as the natural sugars in the onions will caramelize but it speeds up the process a bit and adds a nice touch. Many recipes call for an onion per person. At first thought you might think, “Gawd, that way too much onion!”, but after you see how much they reduce you will understand.
Here are four jumbo Vidalia onions sliced and ready for the skillet.

I used about three tablespoons of olive oil and a tablespoon of butter heated before I add the onions. Now stir to coat the onions with the oil. Continue stirring occasionally, scraping the onions from the bottom of the skillet.

Here’s what they look like at about twenty minutes. At this point I might use them for fajitas or yellow squash and potatoes.

Here we are at about 30 minutes with nicely caramelized onions. I tend to make more than the recipe calls for as I can refrigerate them for a few days or freeze them for up to a month.

Flat Iron Steak

2008-06-04T20:38:00.004-04:00

Flat Iron Steak is an undervalued cut created by research done by the University of Florida and the University of Nebraska on behalf of the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association. This research found this to be the second tenderest cut of beef after the tenderloin. Where in the heck has this jewel been hiding for all these years? It was nestled in the shoulder clod with a thick piece of tough connective tissue which lead to the assumption that it was a touch cut. Researchers developed a procedure to cut the steaks removing the connective tissue, yielding four tender inexpensive and flavorful steaks per cow. I bought these on sale for 3.99 per lb and each was just a little over a pound.

I whipped up a marinade with olive oil, fresh lemon juice, kosher salt, fresh ground black pepper, oregano and a splash of red wine and let them marinate overnight. Using the trusty 12” iron skillet I seared them on each side for about 2 ½ minutes then placed the skillet in a 400F oven for 15 minutes to finish. I topped each with sautéed caramelized onion, mushrooms and A1 sauce. Wow, what a great tender steak for two bucks!

Cast Iron Skillet Primer

2008-05-31T10:17:00.003-04:00

Congratulations! You have just purchased your new cast iron skillet and you get home and start thinking about making some cornbread in it. Wait, not so fast my friend. First you need to prepare your skillet so that it will cook properly and last for a long time.
Cast iron has a porous surface that needs to be seasoned. Seasoning fills in the porous holes with fat and smoothes out the surface. Your new pan will be a steely grey color and it not ready for cooking. A properly seasoned well used pan will be black as coal and have a smooth non-stick surface. With a properly seasoned pan you can cook anything from fried chicken and cornbread to pineapple upside-down cake.

To season a new pan you will first need to clean it thoroughly, as they will have a coating on them from the manufacturing process. Scrub the new pan with hot soapy water and a stiff brush to remove the coating. Hopefully this will be the last time soap will touch the pan. WHAT? How the heck do you clean the thing with no soap? We’ll get to that in a bit. For now let’s get your pan seasoned. Coat the pan with a light coating of Crisco and place upside down in a pre-heated 250F oven for 1 hour. Place a sheet of aluminum foil under the pan to catch the drippings. After an hour turn off the oven and let it cool to room temperature. Repeat this procedure at least one more time. Finish by coating the inside of the pan with a light coating of oil.
You are now ready to cook friend! Just not the cornbread you were hoping for. The first several times use the pan to cook high fat content foods like bacon or hamburgers. Season your pan a few more times during these early uses and you will notice the pan getting darker and the cooking surface smoother. Do not cook acidic foods like tomatoes during this early cooking as the acid will degrade the season surface and you will have to start over. Once the pan is properly seasoned you can use it to cook anything you like.
Cleaning the iron skillet is perhaps the hardest part for the neophyte to wrap their head around. You should never use soap. After the pan cools, rinse and wipe with paper towels until no more reside appears on the paper towels. You can also use a soft bristle nylon brush. For tougher cleanup jobs use a soft nylon brush and coarse sea salt. Rinse and dry thoroughly then coat lightly with oil. Don’t coat with oil if you don’t plan on using the pan for a while as the oil will turn rancid. When properly maintained this way a cast iron skillet can last for generations.
Occasionally a pan will need to be re-seasoned because of buildup that degrades the non-stick surface. To do this you will need to scrub the pan with hot soapy water and a stiff brush or scouring pad. I guess I lied about no soap. After this cleaning you will need to repeat the seasoning process a couple of times. If a pan gets really bad you may need to remove all of the seasoning and start over as it were a new pan. To do this, place the pan either in a fireplace or larger grill where the hot coals have died down a bit to ash grey. Move the skillet around with a poker to prevent it from cracking. After the seasoning has been removed, cool and clean thoroughly. Now season the pan as if it were a new pan.

Happy cooking with your new cast iron skillet!

P.S. Here's some great info from CoastRanger

Good advice about the care of cast iron except for the toss it into the fire to burn off the crud part, too hot for a nice old pan. Leaving it in an electric oven for the clean cycle is not much better.
Soak it in a five-gallon bucket of water to which you have added lye. Leave it for a week and then check it. You can leave it in lye water for weeks. Eventually all the carbon will dissolve and you can use the lye water repeatedly.
Now wash off the pan and go through your seasoning steps.
CoastRanger

Beef Shoulder Filet

2008-05-28T19:00:00.003-04:00

Beef Shoulder Filet also known as Petite Tender Cut is a well-kept secret in the meat case. Developed on behalf of the National Cattlemen's Beef Assn. it is a tender and inexpensive cut from the chuck. Equally at home on the grill or in a sizzling iron skillet it takes marinades and sauces well.

These were marinated with a teriyaki marinade. Don't use a sugar based marinade if you are going to grill because the sugar will burn long before the meat is done. Always add this type of marinade close to the end of cooking. I cooked these in a cast iron skillet on medium high heat to sear for 2-3 minutes per side. Then put the skillet in a pre-heated 400F oven for about 15 minutes until internal temperature is 140F for medium rare.

If you aren't lucky enough or willing enough to own a beautiful black as coal non-stick cast iron skillet, you can still cook with this method. Sear the meat in your skillet of choice leaving at least an inch or more between the pieces of meat. If the meat is crowded too close together it will stew and come out tough. Just before you start to sear the meat, place a casserole dish large enough to hold all of the meat with the 1-2 inch spacing in the hot oven. Once the meat is seared, remove the casserole dish with an oven mitt and transfer the seared meat to it and place in the hot oven. It might take a few extra minutes in the oven to reach to reach medium rare this way but the end result should be the same, a very tender and juicy petite tender!

No matter what cooking method you choose you should let the meat rest for 5-10 minutes to finish cooking and let the juices render back into the meat. The resting will raise the internal meat temperature 5 degrees or more. The meat was very tender but not as flavorful as traditional steak cuts from the short loin, such a T-Bone and Porterhouse.

I sliced some very thin and served with Hoisin sauce, soy sauce and a chili garlic sauce.The rest I sliced as rounds about an inch thick with A1 sauce.

The leftover thin slices made wonderful tender steak sandwiched the next day.