What's Cooking EDF #5

[Jeff W]

I want to start using cast iron cookware. Should I buy Lodge Logic brand via Amazon(I have Prime--free shipping; Seems too cheap to be any good though) or look around on eBay for Griswold or Wagner? I am too lazy to drive to thrift stores looking for bargains.

Right now I grill everything, so I'm not 100% sure which pieces I need to start out. Mark Bittman recommends:

"I bought five, and I could live with four (though I’d rather have six): a small, medium and large cast-aluminum saucepan (total: about $30); a medium nonstick cast aluminum pan (10-inch; $13); and a large steep-sided, heavier duty steel pan (14-inch; $25)."

I mainly want to cook meat (esp. fish) and vegetables. Do I need all that stuff? I will prob. get a dutch oven too for roasts.

[SamIAm]

The Lodge brand is NOT too cheap to be any good. It's just so cheap that it's awesome. [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img] Go lodge.

I've heard differing opinions on preseasoned vs not. Cook's Illustrated says the seasoning is worth the $2 difference.

[Jeff W]

I'll prob. start with the Lodge Logic Combo Cooker:

[ QUOTE ]
It's a deep skillet, a fryer, a Dutch oven, and the lid converts to a shallow skillet or griddle. This versatile piece of cast iron cookware allows the preparation of almost any recipe. Great for kitchen and outdoor cooking. Includes a 3 qt deep skillet / Dutch oven base, and 10.25 inch shallow skillet / griddle / lid.

[/ QUOTE ]

I pretty much only cook for 1-2 people at a time, so hopefully this should be sufficient and it's a minimal investment to try out cast iron.

I haven't heard great things about their pre-seasoned cookware, so I might try to buy unseasoned.

[bobhalford]

My mom gave me a pre-seasoned Lodge Logic cast iron pan recently. I went out and bought a rib eye steak and followed Alton Brown's method for cooking steaks. You can find this on Youtube.

The first time I did it, the steak came out perfectly. I couldn't believe it. This tasted better than any steak I'd ever had, and I did it myself!

I don't know how Lodge compares to other brands, or how pre-seasoning affects quality, but I can't imagine my steaks coming out better. The pan cost only $10.

[luegofuego]

me and my girl are inviting a couple people over for dinner tomorrow night. i'm really looking forward to it as we did a whole menu with really cool stuff... will post pics and tr tomorrow. girl is vegetarian and i am not much for meat so it will be completely vegetarian so that made it kinda interesting. here's the menu:

apertifs: cucumber roll, piece of toast with mushroom mousse, thinbread-roll with chevre and honey. also we're gonna make apple mojitos.

entree: sweet potato- and truffle ravioli

main: cabbage and mash potato pudding (we did a trial run of this yesterday and it was both delicious and beautiful)

desert: panacotta w fresh berries

hope it goes well.

[luegofuego]

lol forgot to take pictures of pretty much everything

[dylan's alias]

[ QUOTE ]
My mom gave me a pre-seasoned Lodge Logic cast iron pan recently. I went out and bought a rib eye steak and followed Alton Brown's method for cooking steaks. You can find this on Youtube.

The first time I did it, the steak came out perfectly. I couldn't believe it. This tasted better than any steak I'd ever had, and I did it myself!

I don't know how Lodge compares to other brands, or how pre-seasoning affects quality, but I can't imagine my steaks coming out better. The pan cost only $10.

[/ QUOTE ]

The beauty is that there isn't any improvement in cast iron with increased cost. Treat that pan well (no soap, don't scour too hard, keep it seasoned) and use it often. And don't cook very acidic foods (tomatoes). The non-stick surface will continue to improve with age. I had a roommate with a really old cast iron pan that had developed a glossy black surface. You couldn't make anything stick even if you tried. My Lodge is about 8 years old. I'm hoping another 20 years of regular use will do the same for me.

[dylan's alias]

I made a cake last night for Thanksgiving dinner. My wife's grandmother used to make a chocolate cake that had a "tunnel" of fudge running through the center. She stopped making it in the early 1980's and more recent attempts failed because one of the ingredients was no longer available. About 3 years ago, I read an article in the NYTimes about that specific cake. It used a canned frosting as a major component, and it was discontinued. The article explained how to make it from scratch. It isn't my favorite cake by a long-shot, but it is nice to be able to recreate a family memory that appeared to be gone forever. So, I present the Tunnel Of Fudge cake.

My advice - use a stand mixer. If you don't have one, make sure you are using a huge bowl for the hand mixer. Things will fly all over the place otherwise.

The end result is definitely unique - there is a slightly hard cake shell about 1/2 to 1 inch thick and the center is a gooey fudge.

Here's the link to the article Recipe

2 1/2 cups roasted walnuts or walnuts and pecans, chopped
2 tablespoons butter
5/8 teaspoon salt
Nonstick cooking spray
1 1/4 cups butter, cut into tablespoon-size pieces
1 cup sugar
3/4 cup dark brown sugar, packed
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/3 cup vegetable oil
2 large egg yolks
4 large eggs
2 cups confectioners sugar
2 1/4 cups bleached all-purpose flour
3/4 cup natural cocoa powder

1. Place a heavy baking sheet or pizza stone on a shelf in the lower third of the oven. Heat the oven to 350 degrees.

2. On a large baking sheet, roast nuts in the oven for 10 minutes. Keep watch that they do not burn. Pour into a bowl, and add butter and 1/8 teaspoon salt. Toss well and set aside.

3. Generously apply nonstick cooking spray to the inside of a large Bundt cake pan.

4. In a mixer, beat butter to soften until it becomes fluffy. Add sugar, then the brown sugar and continue to beat until airy. While beating, if the bowl does not feel cool, place it in the freezer for five minutes, then resume beating.

5. Beat in 1/2 teaspoon salt, vanilla and vegetable oil.

6. Beat in two egg yolks. Crack the four whole eggs into a large mixing bowl. With a small knife, cut yolks and barely stir the eggs, minimally blending the whites and yolks.

7. With the mixer on the lowest speed, beat the eggs into the batter in three batches. Mix in confectioners' sugar and the cocoa.

8. In a large mixing bowl, stir flour and walnuts together. Then with a spatula stir the flour-nut mixture into the batter. Pour the batter into the Bundt pan.

9. Bake for 45 minutes. You cannot use the toothpick test because the cake contains so much sugar that the center will not set but will remain a tunnel-of-fudge. You are dependent on a correct oven temperature and the 45-minute cooking time.

10. When removed from the oven, the cake will have a runny fudge core with an air pocket above the fudge. About 30 minutes after taking the cake out of the oven, press the inside and outside edge of the cake bottom down all the way around to minimize the air pocket. Let the cake, still in the pan, cool on a rack for two to three hours. Invert the cake onto a platter and let cool completely.

[ElSapo]

My grandmother had a similar-sounding cake. As I recall it (it's been years), it was a dense spongy cake that she would poke holes in and let a rich, fudge-like icing run down into. In my family it was called a "hot fudge cake," and while she wrote down half the recipe at some point it was mostly illegible and incomplete.

I have vivid memories of this cake, and have tried in the past to recreate it. I'll look at your recipe and try again. Thanks for posting it.

On a side note - I wonder if there's a market for a kind of "food detective" business. A chef who comes to your home and helps you try and reconstruct recipes that have been lost or partially lost in families.

Economically it's probably not, but seems like an interesting idea.

[BK_]

Scallops with Roasted Grapes and Toasted Almonds



I recently went to Degustation in NYC and had a really good scallop appetizer of scallops, grapes, dehydrated cherry tomatoes, and a really light mussel broth. Ever since then I have wanted to make a dish with grapes and scallops.

Roasted some farmers market green grapes with salt pepper and olive oil. Browned some really nice (but small) scallops and served everything with some baby greens, toasted almonds, and a light mustard vinaigrette.

I loved the acidity of the grapes and vinaigrette with the richness of the scallop. Next time we will buy larger scallops and use less lettuce for a better presentation.