So I think I totally fucked up my cast-iron pan. I know there has been a lot of discussion in this thread on what is the right way to season your pan. I took the advice of one the articles posted about using flax seed oil. I thought everything was fine until last night when I used the pan to make stir-fry...potatoes stuck so I rinsed the pan using just water and now it's rusted. Some parts of the pan are dark and on the bottom, it looks like oil is dripping. Can someone explain to me what the hell I did wrong??
What kind of stir fry has potatoes in it? The starch from your taters caramelized to the pan. Your taters have water in them which lead to your pan rusting and ruining the season. I'd keep all starches away from your cast iron.
My boyfriend likes potatoes in his stir fry, so I make it that way from time to time. Thanks for the tip. So all I have to do is re-season the pan and it should be fine?
Can't guarantee it, but the one time the GF used water to cook we had a similar thing happen (pan looked rusted to shit). All I did was: 1) put a generous serving of bacon grease in the pan on the stove on medium-high heat until melted down 2) bake on 350 for about 20 minutes Repeat once When it cools down after the second round in the oven just gently wipe the pan, leave a little more of a grease sheen than you would after a normal "cleaning." For us it was fine right after that. I generally agree with less starches on the pans, but we use to bake loaves of bread in our dutch ovens and make naan in our skillets and they seemed to react fine to those. You might want to replace your boyfriend though, potatoes in a stir fry?
I've been cooking a lot of pork tenderloin since I found the magical chest of discount meat in the back of the commissary. $1.44/lb? Yeah, I'll grab 5. Anyway, I found a recipe that cooks it perfectly every single time. The rub is up to you. I've done a sugar, white pepper, basil and garlic salt rub and it turned out great. Here's what you do: -Dry rub, cook plain, marinate....it is up to you. My dry rub took 5 minutes versus waiting for it to marinate overnight. -Preheat oven to 500 degrees F (I have an oven thermometer in there, turns out my oven takes about 3x the time the preheat timer says to actually reach the correct temp). -cook for exactly 5.5 minutes per lb of meat. Calculate cook time based on the weight on the sticker. -turn off oven heat. DO NOT OPEN THE DOOR. Leave in for 1 hour. -take out, let it sit under some foil. Slice it up and enjoy! This results in very juicy meat that is just slightly pink on the inside. Here is the link from Food.com to give credit to the source: <a class="postlink" href="http://www.food.com/recipe/perfect-pork-tenderloin-63828" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://www.food.com/recipe/perfect-pork ... loin-63828</a>
Dont worry, you can rescue cast iron from pretty much anything Main key is using course salt and oil as an abrasive to rub it off, then wash it, then reseason and you're good.
So, now that I have some free time, here are a few recipes I made with success. When I make these items next, I'll definitely put up pictures in a step-by-step tutorial. Unfortunately, a lot of these are made up on the fly, so "measurements" are imprecise at best. Potstickers Ingredients Package of wonton wrappers* 1 large chicken breast (or use equivalent weight in ground chicken) 2 green onion stems, green part only 1 tsp of finely minced ginger 1 tsp finely minced garlic 1 tsp soy sauce 1 splash of sesame oil 1 dash of rice wine vinegar** 1 dash of rice wine 1 egg, beaten Water or chicken broth on hand in easy pour container of your choice Canola oil *notes* You won't use all of the wonton wrappers, because you get like 60 and this recipe will make about 20 potstickers. See Bluedog's post for alternate uses. These wrappers aren't only found in Chinese specialty stores - for some reason, you can usually find them at a local supermarket in the refrigerated produce aisle. It should be next to the tofu. A lot of the liquid seasonings can be found in the specialty aisle of major grocery stores. Granted, they are expensive, so if you had to choose 2, go with the soy sauce and sesame oil. Substitute the vinegar with a mild vinegar of your choice (or use less of everyday white vingear) and a small splash of white wine or chicken broth instead of the Chinese rice wine. Rice wine vinegar can be substituted with regular vinegar, but use plain white vinegar sparingly, it tends to be way harsher in acidity. You're just looking for that subtle Asian flair to impress your friends. Kitchen gear Skillet with lid Metal spatula Large/medium mixing bowl Cutting boards Chef's knife Plates/tray to set up potstickers Small bowl Small tablespoon if so desired Directions 1. Finely chop the garlic, ginger and green onions. Set aside in mixing bowl. 2. Finely mince the chicken breast until it looks "pulpy". Yes, this sounds gross, this is essentially old school ground chicken. This makes it a super lean recipe as well. Besides, it's how Mom did it. To achieve this, just dice the chicken one way, cut it another and then keep dicing. I suppose you could use a food processor if you have one. Alternatively, whip out a pound of ground chicken and throw it into the bowl. 3. Mix the herbs and chicken together, until it looks well mixed. 4. Add the liquids - soy sauce, rice wine vinegar, rice wine and sesame oil. For the soy sauce, I tend to use small "capfuls" each of the seasonings. You want to achieve a moist look; but not one where the sauce ever collects at the bottom of the bowl. That's way too much. The seasoning here is to provide flavor and moisture to the lean meat without making a sauce. 5. Mix the filling and then refrigerate for at least 15 minutes. 6. Once ready, lay out the wonton wrapper on a clean cutting board or plate. Break an egg into a bowl and beat. 7. Take a dollop (use 3/4 of the tablespoon as a rough guide) and place the filling directly in the center of the wonton. 8. Dip a finger into the egg and wet two adjacent corners of the wonton (or if using the circular wrapper, wet a semi-circle). Fold the egg-touched corners to the dry corners to make a triangle or half moon. 9. Repeat until done. 10. Heat a regular skillet on medium-high until *almost* at temperature. Add about a tsp of canola oil to the pan, swirl and then drop in as many potstickers as the pan can handle. 11. Wait for the sizzle. Wait another 30 seconds or until you think a nice golden crust has formed. 12. Add a quick splash of liquid (water or broth) to the bare areas of the pan and then immediately cover the pan with your lid. 13. Wait about 1.5 minutes and then uncover. Your potstickers should be ready if the wrapper looks wrinkled on top of the filling. If unsure, add another small splash of water and cap for another 30 seconds. 14. Take your spatula and give the bottom of the potsticker one good scrape to remove it in one piece. Plate and serve immediately. 15. As always, check by opening one to see if it's cooked. Bonus, you get to taste one right away. The bottom of the potsticker should have an awesome golden crust while the filling is moist and delicious with a soft top. Delicious. Note that you can make a bunch ahead of time and then store them for about a day in the fridge. Make sure you put them on wax paper and make sure the wontons don't touch each other - they stick. Summer berry chocolate shot glasses with homemade whipped cream This is an incredibly easy dessert that had my girl raving - mostly about the whipped cream and berries. It looks impressive and takes virtually zero effort compared to a cake or something. Serves 4 (2 per person) Ingredients Dark melting chocolate Berries of your choice (strawberries, blueberries, blackberries, raspberries, etc) 1 lemon (for zest and for juice) 1/3 cup of heavy whipping cream 1/8 cup(?) powdered sugar Tools Paper bathroom cups (3 oz size) Squirt bottle* Medium pot with simmering water half-way up Flat surface (cutting board) with waxed paper Empty freezer space Another cutting board for fruit Zester Medium bowl Whisk Notes: Spoiler Melting chocolate is chocolate that's been doped with high fructose corn syrup. Normally, I don't advocate this, but you get a nice sheen that's hard to replicate w/o the syrup. Feel free to replace this with normal milk chocolate and tell me how that goes. Unfortunately, because it does contain HFCS, even the dark chocolate variety is almost overly sweet like a candy bar. Thus, we use the tart fruit and lemony whipped cream to counter this. As for where you can buy it, check out the specialty crafts section of your grocery store. In Super Wal-Mart, right next to the sewing aisle, is a craft baking aisle. There you can buy bags of melting chocolate and the squirt bottle. Alternatively, if you've got a good eye and won't spill, forego the bottle and set up a bain marie (bowl over a pan of simmering water) to melt the chocolate and spoon it into the bathroom cups. Make sure you buy the paper cups in 3 oz size. I think 5 oz. is a little too big and therefore time consuming to actually make the shot glasses. Also, you're going to want to snip the paper cup to help take out the chocolate cup from the mold. Plastic's a little bit more brittle and has those ridges in the middle for gripping. It the plastic pops, it may shatter your chocolate. Another nice thing about heating the chocolate in the bottle is that the best way to clean out the leftover chocolate in the bottle is to freeze it in the bottle and then squeeze. The chocolate should shatter once frozen, leaving you with some pretty cool chocolate shavings to add to the dish. It makes you look like a classy devil too. Directions: 1. Set a pot with water on medium heat and wait to simmer. In the meantime, fill your squirt bottle with the melting chocolate disks all of the way. Cap it. 2. When the water reaches a simmer, hold the bottle and swirl it around in the pot. It should take about 5 minutes to melt the chocolate. Don't let the bottle go, as if it contacts the hot metal surface of the pot, you'll melt it. 3. Once melted, set the bottle aside for bit and let it cool so that you can handle it. Take out your cups and set up the wax-paper/cutting board combo. 4. Squirt a heavy ~ 1 cm thick layer of chocolate at the bottom of the cup. Start swirling around to fill the walls of the up. You can give it a little shaking motion. If you're really creative, you can make a wave pattern. Once the chocolate has formed a uniform layer along the walls of the cup, set the cup opening-down onto the wax paper. 5. Repeat until done. One small squirt bottle can take care of about 8 cups. Add more chocolate to the bottle if necessary and repeat. 6. Freeze both the bottle and the cups on the cutting board for at least 1 hour. 7. Once almost ready to serve, cut up your strawberries and rinse your fruit. Zest the lemon; set zest aside. Juice the lemon and add to the mixed fruit. 8. In another bowl, add your heavy whipping cream and some of the powdered sugar and the zest. Whisk. If you have an electric whisk, use that, but make sure you don't overwhip. If should form "stiff peaks" in your whisk but not look like ice cream. Taste and adjust as necessary. It should taste slightly sweet and of lemon. 9. To assemble, snip a bare area of the paper cup and unwrap the chocolate cup. Place 2 chocolate cups on a plate and spoon some of your marinated mixed berries into the cups. Top with whipped cream. Ask your date/wife/significant other/friend/whatever if they want some chocolate shavings to look extra fancy (i.e. squeeze the bottle and sprinkle). 10. Get laid.
Here's a simple side dish that goes really well with steak. Italian Mushrooms 1 lb. medium fresh mushrooms 1 large onion, halved and sliced (Vidalia onions are in season, so I've been using them) Half cup melted butter 1 envelope Italian salad dressing mix Put the shrooms and onion in a crock pot, mix the dressing mix with the butter, pour it over the veggies, cover and cook on low for 4-5 hours. Use a slotted spoon to serve. You can slice the mushrooms if you want to serve it over the steaks, but reduce the cooking time to 3 hours. And speaking of Vidalia onions, I smoked a turkey breast yesterday and quartered 2 onions and put them on a slotted tray in the smoker for the last 1.5 hours. The only problem? 2 onions weren't nearly enough. Folks couldn't get enough of them.
Nothing fancy this weekend. Pan-fried boneless/skinless chicken thighs on Friday: Smoked a brisket for about 9 hrs on Saturday. I made a kinda paste that consisted of brown sugar, salt & pepper, cumin, red pepper, chili powder, ground mustard, garlic & onion powder, and then yellow mustard and root beer. Coated about 12 hrs before hand. Came out pretty good, and was gone before I could get the sliced pics: Went great with the mint juleps, even though the race was inconsequential: Finally, breakfast of champions, fried eggs and over de-cased boudin on Sunday:
Took the family to our vacation home for most of the weekend (the hunting camp), and we had a lot of fresh vegetables at hand. Marinated sirloin steak, vegetable au gratin, garlic butter mushrooms, and grilled corn on the cob:
The promised lasagna bites that I made last week! Ingredients Muffin Tins Wonton wrappers 1 pound ground turkey or beef (my mom used buffalo once which turned out pretty awesome so pretty much any ground meat will do) 1 - 1/2 onion chopped 15 oz ricotta cheese Grated mozzarella cheese 15 oz diced tomatoes drained Sauté onions and brown turkey/beef, set aside in bowl using slotted spoon to drain excess liquid. Stir in drained diced tomatoes. Spray Pam into muffin tin cups. Place one won ton wrapper into the bottom of each muffin tin. Spoon in approx. 1 tsp ricotta onto wonton. Next layer in turkey/beef, onion, diced tomato mix, top with mozzarella. Gently place a second wonton into each muffin tin cup and repeat the layers. Bake at 375 degrees for 20 -25 minutes until cheese is melted and wontons slightly browned. Best to check on them after 15 minutes. (I check them at 10 with my gas stove) Makes 24 bites. (I always have leftover meat/onion/tomato mix) What they look like when they're done (they were delicious!): Spoiler
Chicken Carbonara About 1lb of chicken breast, cubed up About 12oz bacon, diced About 12oz of linguini pasta 1/2 cup shredded Parmesan cheese 2 eggs 1/4 cup heavy cream 1/4 cup white wine 1/4 cup chicken stock 1 whole lemon worth of juice 1 can of peas Chopped Parsley Salt and pepper I had three bowls- one where I mixed the eggs and cream (with salt and pepper), one where I mixed the wine, stock, and lemon juice, and one large serving bowl where I had my cheese and parsley (with salt and pepper). In a large skillet, I fried up the bacon. I think that it is quicker and easier to diced it before you fry it instead of cooking it whole and them crumpling, but whatever floats your boat. When down, scooped it out and set on a plate with paper towel to drain. In the bacon drippings, brown your chicken (seasoned with salt and pepper) until its nice, browned, and crisp. I don't like rubbery chicken, and much prefer if it has a little browned (not burnt black- you'll know the difference) crunch to it. Scoop out when done and set aside in anther plate. Throw in your stock/wine/juice mixture, and cook down a few minutes, scraping the good stuff from the bottom of the pan. After about 5 minutes, reduce the heat to low, and add the peas to cook just for a bit- maybe 3-4 minutes. Oh, while you're doing all of this, cook your pasta (yall know how to boil pasta) and try to have it ready for this point. Drain in a collander, and then throw into the serving bowl that had your cheese and parsley, along with the bacon, chicken, and peas/wine/stock/juice mix. Pour in your egg/cream mix and stir everything together. It was pretty good, though it may not look it.
Finally got started on our new smoker yesterday. Found an old oil tank out in a field that the owner said we could have if we just hauled it away. Really is going to need to be cleaned up to get all the rust off, but it'll be worth it. This was taken after we made the cuts and tacked on the hinges for the 3 door opening we're going to have. We're still in a preliminary planning stage, but the early thought is to have a water pan on the bottom with 6 or 8 smoke stacks, two permanent racks in the bottom/middle and then a removable rack up top along with a mount for a rotisserie to be used if we take the top rack out. The plan is to have it all fabricated and built for labor day.
Have I mentioned I love my Weber grill? I threw the corn on when the chicken was about halfway done (right before I took this photo). Beer can chicken + roasted corn on the cob = cheap and delicious and doesn't heat the house up in the summer when it's already warm inside.
It was cook-out-of-the-pantry/freezer weekend at my house, so I went simple. The only think I had to buy were the mushrooms. But this is an easy, cheap, stick-to-your-ribs kinda meal that I like to put on at the end of along day of work and just sit around and drink beer while it simmers. Spoiler First, I thawed-out some boneless porkchops (love when they have these for 2-or-3-for-1 at the grocery, so I load up and always have them in the freezer), seasoned with salt and pepper, and then throw them into the pot to sear in bacon fat (used my jarred, collected bacon drippings instead of cooking a batch of bacon. It was easier and more cost effective, but it made me a little sad). Flipped once they got nice and crisp Pulled them out and set aside. Sliced about 3 medium onions and threw them in, scraping the good stuck-on bits of the pork from the bottom of the pot as I stirred. Cooked down about 10-15 minutes until them cooked down a little bit. Added my mushroom, browned them for 5 minutes or so Next, I added in about half a stick of butter, melted down, and them stirred in about 2 heaping tablespoons of flour. I stirred pretty constantly at this point, letting it go for 2-3 minutes. Deglazed with Madeira wine, 4 cups of beef broth, and a can of golden mushroom soup. Added the pork back in, a bunch of water to cover everything, and brought up to a boil. Kicked it back down to low/simmer (uncovered), and then went and drank beer for the next two hours, stirring every once and a while. Done once it got to the nice, thick consistency I wanted and the pork was fork tender. Served it over eggs noodles (I told you this was cheap-o, but I'd be lying if I said I didn't have a soft spot for these) with greenbeans and new potatoes.
My wife mentioned in her thread that this was her favorite thing I make. It also happens to probably be the easiest. Take a large cucumber and peel it. Slice it as thin as you can (I used a slicer I had on my cheese grater, which made it almost paper-thin) into a large tupperware container. Then, in a large measuring cup, do 3/4 cup of seasoned rice vinegar, 1/4 cup of water, about 5-6 dashes of soy sauce (I like more, so I just do it to taste), about 3-4 cloves minced garlic, about a tablespoon each of sugar, black pepper, and sesame oil (use a little more if you want. I also used a little chili oil and sriracha). Taste and add whatever to get it where you want, pour over the cucumber, cover and put in the fridge for an hour or so. My buddy gave me some fresh blackfin tuna yesterday, too, so I did a light sear and served over the top with a couple drop of sriracha for each slice (after I took the photo).
Alright, since I am a SoCal guy who moved to New England, I know jack-shit about good BBQ. So, southerners: Please give me your best rub and BBQ sauce so I can rib it up. Thank you in advance.
I'm still learning myself about BBQ, but for the rub, most of them that you see out there will be some combination of brown sugar, garlic powder, cumin, onion powder, chili powder, black and red pepper, ground mustard, and salt. Some people do fewer of these things, some do more or a little different, but this is the basic I think. Just play around with it- go to the store and look at the spice section, and if you see something that you think might look good, give it a try. I've never measured anything when making a rub, and it has never come out bad. EDIT: The best rub I've ever had was at The Rendezvous in Memphis. Here is their recipe: http://www.amazingribs.com/recipes/rubs_pastes_marinades_and_brines/rendezvous_rub_and_BBQ_ribs.html BBQ sauce is a whole 'nother animal. It is different every single place you go. Some like it smokey. Some like it sweet. Some like it tangy. Some like it thick. Some like it thin. Some like it ketchupy. Some like it mustardy. Some like it spicy. Some like it molassesy. Some like honey. Some like vinegar. Some like liquor in it. There are even some out there who do a white sauce. Personally, I like a thinner, ketchup-based, smokey, tangy, sweet, vinegar-y kind of sauce. I guess it is closer to Memphis style sauce. In a sauce pan, cook down some shallots and garlic in some butter. Then, I just mixed up brown sugar, ketchup and mustard, apple cider vinegar, liquid smoke, and then seasoned with pretty much all of the dry rub spices above to taste. Maybe a little Worcestershire sauce too. Couldn't tell you the measurements. Basically, I'd Google "Different regional styles of BBQ sauce", and go with something that you think would fit your tastes.
A tip on preparing ribs: the night before, using a spray bottle, spray the ribs down with apple cider vinegar and then apply the rub and let them sit in the fridge. Take them out about an hour or so before putting them in the smoker (if you're not smoking them, you're not doing BBQ, you're grilling). Fruit woods are best for pork--apple, cherry. I think mesquite is too strong and works better for beef. If your using a standard grill, you can still smoke them with wood chips in a pan covered in foil with holes poked in them. Just don't over soak the chips. I usually don't apply sauce during the BBQ process since I usually make/serve 2 different types of sauce. I just heat them up and serve them in bowls and let people put them on themselves. I can send you sauce recipes when I'm on my laptop if you want them.
I made a version of tom kha gai tonight- Thai coconut soup. I think it tasted almost exactly like the ones I've had at various Thai restaurants. I de-boned a rotisserie chicken, and then boiled the bones with onions and pepper trimmings to make a stock. In another pot, I sauteed two sliced bell peppers (red and orange) in olive oil for a few minutes, then added some mushrooms to go for a few more minutes. I then added my chicken from earlier, three cans of coconut milk, about 3/4 a jar of red curry paste (I think it was a 7 or 8 oz jar), 1 lime worth of juice, three big hunks of fresh peeled ginger, two stalks of lemon grass (smashed to release the flavors), some sriacha, and my chicken stock. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, and simmer for about 20-30 minutes. Taste and add salt and pepper as needed. Remove the lemon grass and ginger before serving. Garnish with cilantro, peanuts, and sriacha.