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Cooking With Enameled Cast Iron - Yahoo Recipe Search
Food52Chicken and rice is a soulful combination, with rich traditions all over the world. I love a one-pot meal, and there are lots of good ways to cook chicken and rice together. Me being a Cajun, jambalaya comes to mind. But something that’s always nagged at me when doing a chicken and rice dish is the shame it is to not end up with crispy skin on the chicken. Often you spend time browning the skin and getting it crispy at the outset, only to lose that effect by finishing the chicken either covered with a lid or submerged in liquid (or both) with the rice. So. I’ve been tinkering with a technique that does a pretty good job of solving this problem. The trick is to bake the chicken, on top of the rice, in the oven. That way, both the chicken and rice are cooked through in the same pot, thus still allowing the chicken to flavor the rice, as it also develops and keeps that crispy skin, because the skin is exposed to the hot oven, not covered with a lid or submerged in liquid. You get the added bonus of the roasted flavor and crispy bits on the edge of the rice that only an oven can produce. Important to note: I use chicken thighs in this recipe, because they have a lot more flavor than white meat, and they’re much more forgiving – you have to try pretty hard to overcook chicken thighs, unlike breasts. And with this recipe, you do need some time in the oven for the rice to cook. As always, bone-in will give the dish more flavor, but boneless thighs are good too, if you can find them with skin on. One way to think about cooking is to cross reference flavor profiles with cooking concepts. For example, I mostly developed this “oven-baked chicken and rice” concept with a Cajun flavor profile, which for me entails some type of Cajun seasoning (like Tony Chachere’s), bay leaves, and maybe thyme; a veggie combo of onion, bell pepper, celery, and garlic; and garnishes of Louisiana-style hot sauce, green onions, and parsley. This recipe, on the other hand, is the same technique, but with a Thai-inspired taste. So the seasoning I use here is soy sauce, fish sauce, Sriracha, peanut butter, coconut milk, and lime zest; the veg is onion, red bell pepper, jalapeno, garlic, and ginger; and the garnishes are lime juice and cilantro. I’m sure there are other ingredients that would make this recipe more authentically Thai, but frankly, my closest grocery store doesn’t have a great Asian food section, and I’m always in favor of using what’s at hand, so I’m happy to keep this recipe more streamlined. The point is – feel free to cook with whatever flavors you want. I can imagine Mexican, Indian, Italian, French, and Spanish versions of this concept. P.S. Fish sauce is ubiquitous in southeast Asian cuisine – it gives dishes a funky, possibly umami(?) kick. But as Jacques Pepin would say, be parsimonious with it. A little bit goes a long way, and generosity here could leave your meal smelling like a dirty sock. P.P.S. My girlfriend just gave me a really nice 3.5 quart enameled cast iron braising pan, which I used for this dish. It’s twelve inches across, which turned out to be the perfect size - big enough to hold all the ingredients, but shallow enough so that the oven browns the chicken skin. Any heavy, oven-proof 12-inch pan should work fine.Food.comFrom the "French Farmhouse Kitchen" by Eileen Reece. The French method of cooking the majority of their dishes in enamelled, cast- iron "cocottes" and casseroles, sealed with a heavy lid, is greatly responsible for the fine flavor of their food.Food.comRecipe paraphrased from a recipe in Cooks Illustrated 1/2008 This recipe comes out best made in an enameled cast-iron dutch oven with a lid that fits tightly. It can also be made in a regular cast-iron dutch oven or a heavy stockpot. Use a mild flavored beer like Budweiser or a mild flavor non-alcoholic beer. The bread is best the day it's baked. It can be wrapped in foil and stored in a cool dry place for 2-days. This recipe makes one large, round loaf of breadFood.comAnother great version of Cook's Illustrated Almost No-Knead Bread. Makes an unbelievable loaf of bread! An enameled cast-iron Dutch oven with a tight-fitting lid yields best results, but the recipe also works in a regular cast-iron Dutch oven or heavy stockpot. Because of the high temperature required besure the pot (and lid) can handle the heat. You may have to improvise a new handle on the lid. I've also used my Romertofp clay baker and had wonderful results. This bread is so good, I'm tempted to invest in a La Cloche.Food and WineGood, easy potato dishes are something I always like to have in my back pocket, especially in the winter when something cozy and belly-warming is in order. I haven’t yet tired of smashing potatoes, and I’m not sure I ever will.The idea for this dish came to me in a dream: What if I just smashed whole roasted potatoes, right in the baking dish, and then poured roasted garlic–laced cream over them, and then baked them with a scattering of Parmesan until they were crispy and golden and delicious? The use of cream here is judicious, and most of it is absorbed by the potatoes, resulting in an unctuous but not overly rich gratin. The shallots end up caramelized and sticky, and you’ll find yourself digging for them.I like to use an enameled cast-iron baking dish for a million different things, from fruit crisps to roasting a chicken to baking a bread pudding, and it’s the perfect vessel to use here. Failing that, a ceramic baking dish works, too, as would a large cast-iron skillet. All the potatoes should fit easily in one layer (leaving a little room for the shallots). Try out different baking dishes before you oil the potatoes (just tumble them in and see if they fit in a single layer) to find the right one. After roasting until just tender, use a potato masher (or the bottom of a sturdy mug) to flatten each one.Sometimes, I like to prep, or mise, all of my ingredients before I start cooking, but that’s not always the most efficient way. Here, each step is quick to prepare and can be done as you proceed with the recipe. There is a little in and out of the oven with this recipe, but it’s seamless and simple and will have your tablemates swooning over the divine combination of basic ingredients that come together in a way that is much, much more than the sum of its parts.If you want to make this a few hours ahead of time, go as far as smashing the potatoes (leave at room temperature) and making the cream mixture. About a half hour before you want to serve, pour the cream over and bake for 30 to 35 minutes. Go with something simple like a roast or steaks and a crisp green salad with this luxurious side dish.Food and WineRagù, as the Bolognese call their celebrated meat sauce, is characterized by mellow, gentle, comfortable flavor that any cook can achieve by being careful about a few basic points: The meat should not be from too lean a cut; the more marbled it is, the sweeter the ragù will be. The most desirable cut of beef is the neck portion of the chuck. Add salt immediately when sauteing the meat to extract its juices for the subsequent benefit of the sauce. Cook the meat in milk before adding wine and tomatoes to protect it from the acidic bite of the latter. Do not use a demiglace or other concentrates that tip the balance of flavors toward harshness. Use a pot that retains heat. Earthenware is preferred in Bologna and by most cooks in Emilia-Romagna, but enameled cast-iron pans or a pot whose heavy bottom is composed of layers of steel alloys are fully satisfactory.Reprinted with permission from Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking by Marcella Hazan. Copyright 1992 by Marcella Hazan. Published by Knopf.Food52There has never been a more one-of-a-kind pizza like the bar pizza. For the most part they are never good, many times they are awful, but that has never stopped anybody from ordering one. Patrons order them because they are drinking. Combine it with hunger and it makes these pizzas far better then they would ever be if a shot of better judgement was in hand. Without exception a bar pizza reigns over the pink pickled eggs languishing in the murky liquid of the large glass jar back by the whisky. Bar pizzas are also infinitely better then the microwavable cups of Spaghetti-Os or the burritos ensconced in a cardboard tortilla. Even so, that doesn't make them good. Here is the catch, in Indiana this food exists and maintains a life all its own because in Indiana if a bar sells liquor by the drink it has to be able to serve food to a minimum of 25 people at all times. On top of that many bars(mostly working class bars) don't have room for a kitchen much less the money for one. To get around this law most bar fly type establishments bring in a microwave, a toaster oven labeled as a pizza oven, or a snack rack where pork rinds rule. Sporks and disposable tableware abide, as do paper towels used as napkins. It is less then the bare minimum and ordering anything while the bartender is busy is likely to make him/her hate you. In the moment though, when hunger and alcohol meet, a bar pizza is the best pizza ever. It doesn't happen often but it does happen enough that people continue to order them. If all things aline, it hits the sweet spot—that meaty place on the bat that makes hitting a home run feel effortless. In food speak it is the moment when something is at its best, it is perfectly ripe for eating, and waiting longer is to watch perfection in its decline. Here is the problem, why would I want to make one of these awful pizzas at home? If I do make them at home it doesn't mean I am drinking at home, well not often anyway. It means I have kids, kids that want pizza—all the time. I make a great pizza dough. I make great pizza but then there are those nights where I don't want too. It is readily apparent to me why I need to perfect this pizza. Make it a dinner everyone requests on any given night. The point is, this is a great pizza to have in your back pocket and I never would have thought much about it until I read an article at Serious Eats. At that moment I knew I was going to start making bar pizzas, I was diving in deep and going for it, and I did. Like lots of recipes though, and maybe even more so, this one takes practice. Myself, I always make a recipe three times before I give up on it and in this case it took all three times. It's okay, there is nothing wrong with eating your mistakes when it comes to food. Besides it is not a lot of work and here is why. My kids love spaghetti and there is rarely a day I don't have a homemade tomato sauce of some kind in the fridge. Bacon, ham, salami, or even pepperoni are always in the deli drawer. I almost always have some sort of mozzarella too, either fresh or grated. I have taken too keeping tortillas in the freezer for quesadillas, so adding tortillas as pizza crusts to the list of uses is a plus. . Even so, if you had none of these specific ingredients you have something, say eggs, ham, and gruyere. If not you won't make this pizza anyway. But as I said, I am looking for the sweet spot, with practice I found it, and ever since making bar pizzas is like effortlessly hitting one out of the park. 1. When it is time to sauce the tortilla put a dollop of sauce in the middle of the tortilla and using the back of the spoon spiral your way to the outer edge. If this were a regular pizza I would tell you to stop short of the edge by about 1/2-inch but with this kind of pizza take the ingredients to the edge. It keeps the tortilla from being charred beyond recognition. 2. I have used all kinds of pans to make this pizza, stainless steel, enamel, cast iron and a comal (pictured). I like the camol best but I also know not everyone has a comal. I made these in a 12-inch cast iron skillet for a long time before I started using the comal. I use a comal simply for ease of access to the tortilla. I makes the pizza easier to assemble. 3. Turn on the broiler before taking anything out of the fridge or putting a pan on the stove. It needs time to get hot. 4. Keep all the ingredients at pans edge. These go fast and you have to be ready with the ingredients. 5. It is important to brown the the tortilla deeply before turning it. If it isn’t brown enough the pizza will lack the crunch that makes it so good. 6. Place the top oven rack 7 to 8 inches from the broiler. This prevents the pizza from cooking to fast and keeps the edges from burning.Food.comFrom Gourmet Magazine, November 2007, page 208. Made this for lunch New Year's Day and it was a hit. Substitute chicken if you wish. If you don't feel like messing with the vegetables, use a thawed bag of frozen stew veggies or mixed veggies. Works great. I am not including the stock recipe from the magazine as it is a standard carcass/skin one that doesn't need explanation. I cut the recipe in half and cooked it in an 11-inch enameled cast iron frying pan. Works great. If you are feeling adventurous, sub. chunks of beef, beef stock and some red wine, maybe some garlic and a shot of Worcestershire and make a beef pot pie. If you try it, let me know how it turns out.Food.comA Thai pumpkin soup without the coconut milk or cream and came about as a combination of several recipes on ZAAR. The quantities of vegetables given are a guide line. I also use a heavy enameled cast iron pot to cook in. Will freeze well but needs to be blended when defrosted before heating. The preparation time is taken up in peeling and chopping vegetables you could use predone if available. Also if you wanted to make it vegetarian use vegetable stock in place of chicken.
