I just “Wordle-d” our esteemed blog on a whim. As much as I like a nice cast iron pan, it seems like we could use a few more posts about cheese, cookies, bacon and gravy, am I right? Perhaps this could inspire a few posts of our favorite things that are not on the list or have a poor showing?

boxofbirds

Mmmmm chocolate cake

When I was a kid back in the Hendricks county public school system, there were two school lunch items I loved absolutely: pizza, which were these rectangular crusts covered edge to edge with tiny cubes of pepperoni, a sweet and salty tomato sauce, and gooey mozzarella cheese, and wacky cake.   Wacky cake was a chocolate square, not too dense, definitely not brownie-like, dusted with powdered sugar.  I remember the top crust having a special texture, unctuous but not slimy, more like batter but baked through.  I’ve been thinking about it a lot lately.

I got the new issue of Cook’s Illustrated yesterday in the mail (thanks Mom!) and there, 2/3rds of the way through, was a recipe for Emergency cake – a cake for when you are short on time or ingredients, developed during the war years.  This one called for mayo instead of butter or oil, which I didn’t have on hand (no neutral oil in the house either, so I wasn’t going to whip any up), so I substituted a bit of butter and an extra egg.  It also called for a cup of hot coffee, which I’m sure would add to the flavor profile.  But the only coffee I have in the house are the hand roasted beans gifted to me by a friend at the new year, and those are my special occasional treat.  So I used hot water instead.   It made a nice, deeply chocolate cake, moist and what I think of more as a cake brownie.  Not wacky cake, but delicious all the same.

1 1/2 cups flour

1 cup granulated sugar

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp kosher salt

1/2 cup cocoa (dutch process preferred)

2 oz bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, chopped or chips or morsels (opt.)

2 Tbsp butter

1 cup boiling water

2 tsp single fold vanilla (or 1 1/2 tsp double fold)

2 eggs

Heat the oven to 350 deg F.  Butter an 8 or 9 inch square baking pan.

Mix the first 4 dry ingredients well in a large bowl.  Put the cocoa, chocolate, and butter into a second large bowl, pour in the boiling water and stir well until the chocolate and butter have melted.  Add the vanilla to the chocolate mixture.  Whisk the eggs into the chocolate mixture.  Pour the chocolate mixture into the dry ingredients and stir until well blended.  Spoon the batter into the prepared baking pan evenly.  Bake for 25-35 minutes, until the top springs back when lightly touched.  Cool on a rack for 1-2 hours, dust with powdered sugar.  Cut into squares and serve from the pan.

A couple of notes: The chopping of the dried cranberries is a bit of a chore because they are so sticky. I have used both a “chop-o-matic” style food chopper, which is a bit faster, but a pain to wash, as well as a sharp kitchen knife, which takes a bit more work, but is easier to clean. Your choice. I toast the chopped nuts under the broiler for a few minutes. Just make sure you watch it like a hawk as they burn easily. You could also toast them at a lower temperature, or by tossing them in a large skillet over medium heat. You’ll save a lot of money if you buy the oatmeal, dried cranberries, and hazelnuts in bulk.

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 cup butter
1/4 cup shortening
1 cup packed brown
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
2 cups rolled oats
1 1/2 cups chopped dried cranberries
1 cup chopped toasted hazelnuts

Preheat oven to 375.
In a mixer, cream both sugars, butter and shortening. Beat in eggs and vanilla. Mix in flour, baking powder and baking soda. Stir in oats, cranberries and hazelnuts. Spoon large tablespoons of the dough on to a cookie sheet and bake for 9-12 minutes depending on how soft or crunchy you like your cookies.

boxofbirds

Ingredients:
4 large-ish sweet potatoes, peeled and cubed
1 medium onion, chopped
2 fat shallots, chopped
1-2 Tbsp smoked paprika (to taste)
1-2 Tbsp ancho chili powder (to taste)
1 Tbsp Jamaican curry powder
Water or stock
1 veg bouillon cube
1/2 C cream or half ‘n half
Salt/pepper to taste

Saute the onion and shallots in a few glugs of oil until translucent and soft. Add the potatoes and stir, then add the spices and stir to coat. Saute and keep stirring for a few minutes. Pour in water or stock to cover the potatoes, and add the bouillon cube. Bring to a boil, then let simmer until potatoes are thoroughly cooked. When they’re done, whizz the soup with some kind of blender and then stir in the cream.

10" Lodge Cast Iron

A few years back, I was living in eastern Washington, where only the most intrepid friends and family members came to visit.  One such adventurous soul was CW, who brought me a copy of The Cast Iron Skillet Cookbook, thinking that, the sort of cook I was, surely I’d have a cast iron pan or two around.  But though I had gotten rid of everything non-stick several years before, at that point I only had a set of stainless steel Revere-ware and some other miscellaneous SS things.  No worries though, because CW also needed a chicken waterer, so we headed out to Ranch & Home, an all-purpose everything sort of store:  chicken waterers, gun safes, Justin boots, cast iron pans inside; hot tubs and livestock trailers in the parking lot.

There was an extensive assortment of Lodge cast iron pans available, but I chose what looked to be the most utilitarian – a 10″ non-preseasoned open skillet.  It was less than $15, hefty but light enough for me to lift with one hand.  CW left for parts west before I could cook anything in it.

People shy away from cast iron, maybe because it is so inexpensive.  More likely it’s because they have heard it takes special care.  You have to “season it”.  It rusts.  It’s heavy.  It’s old-fashioned and science has given us all these wonderful ultra-slick surfaces to cook on.  All of these things are true.  Yet the special care it requires is less than what I had to give my high-tech non-stick pans, and the advantages of cast iron far outweigh any other drawback.

Here are the pluses of cast iron, as I see them:

• Holds heat for a long long time
• Can be heated up incredibly hot – hot enough to get a great sear on meat
• Goes from burner to oven with no trouble
• Produces a fantastic crisp crust on any baked good
• Cleans up with paper towels, hot water, and a brush
• Metal utensils are encouraged – there’s no delicate finish to scratch or damage.

Cast iron does require seasoning, which essentially is the creation of a non-stick surface by polymerizing a thin coating of fat on the metal.  Cast iron is moderately porous – when you run your fingertips or nails over the surface, you can feel a slight grainy roughness.  To season a pan, use your fingers to rub a small amount of solid fat (either lard, tallow, or hydrogenated oil – though some folks use liquid vegetable oil) all over the entire surface of the pan, both inside and out.  Coat the handle too, because seasoning also prevents rust.  After you’ve thoroughly covered it, wipe the pan with a paper towel to take off the excess.  My main mistake when I was initially trying to season my pan was using far too much fat.  It really takes a very small amount.

Put the coated pan upside down in a 350 deg F oven for at least an hour.  I tend to season my pans after I’ve been baking something, or after dinner has come out of the oven.  When the hour is up, turn off the heat but leave the pan in the oven to gradually cool.  It’s easiest for me to leave them overnight, taking them out of the oven in the morning.  The fat will have left a slightly sticky brown coating on the pan – this is exactly what you want, so don’t try to scrub it off!  Just cook in it.  Using the pan frequently for fatty meats like sausage or bacon will help to keep it seasoned, as will making grilled cheese sandwiches or frying eggs in butter or olive oil.

If you cook something liquid and acidic (a tomato or wine based pasta sauce, say), your carefully applied coating will disappear and you will need to reseason.  With daily use of my pans, I find I need to reseason every 3 – 4 months.  The bottom of the pan (the cooking surface) will start to look grayish white instead of black/brown, and things will start to stick a little.

If you are a baker, and have a temperamental oven with hot spots, stick a large cast iron pan on an unused shelf, or invest in a cast iron pizza pan to use as your baking surface.  Let the pan heat up with the oven and the additional mass will even out some of the worst fluctuations, including tempering the loss of heat when you can’t resist opening the oven door to peek.  If I’m making a freeform loaf, I place it on an aluminum pizza pan which I then set atop my cast iron.  Standard loaf pans can either go on top of my cast iron pizza pan or on the rack above.  To get the absolute best crust on corn bread or a dutch baby, pre-heat the pan with the oven and when it’s at temperature, remove the pan, drop in some fat, then pour in your batter.  Return to the oven and bake for the recommended time.

To clean up a cast iron pan, don’t even think about using detergent or soap – it will attack and remove the coating.  Drain any fat into a can for disposal (or re-use), wipe out as much of the remaining fat with a paper towel (recycle with food waste if your community offers it, or compost it), then run hot water into the pan and scrub any stubborn stuck bits off with a brush or steel Chore Boy (used with a light touch).  Rinse again with hot water, then wipe dry.  Store in the open air if possible – I keep mine on the stove top.  If you need to stack pans for storage and aren’t using your cast iron every day, you might want to rub a small amount of oil or fat on the cooking surface and keep a paper towel between pans – this is only to help prevent rust and isn’t necessary if you use your pans every few days.

If you do find some rust on a pan, simply scrub it well with a steel Chore Boy and detergent, then reseason.

Since my first cast iron purchase, I’ve since acquired the aforementioned cast iron pizza pan, a 14″ skillet (definitely requires 2 hands to lift), a scone/corn dodger pan, and a small 6″ saute pan for eggs.  I don’t use the scone/corn dodger pan often enough, but all the others are in constant rotation.

Update:  Here’s a tasty cornbread recipe, perfect for a 10″ skillet

1 cup medium grind cornmeal

1 cup flour

4 tbsp sugar (or less)

1/2 tsp salt

3 tsp baking powder

2 eggs

1 cup + 2 tbsp whipping cream (30 – 36% butterfat)

1/4 cup water

optional:  1 cup sweet corn kernels (may be fresh, canned, thawed if frozen, or leftover)

Heat the oven to 400 deg F with your cast iron skillet inside.  Sift all dry ingredients together in a mixing bowl.  In a separate bowl, beat the eggs. When the oven (and your skillet) are at temperature, pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and stir well until everything is mixed.  Fold in the sweet corn kernels if you are using them.  Remove the hot skillet from the oven and add a tbsp of solid shortening (lard, butter, Crisco).  Spoon the batter into the skillet over the melting shortening.  Return the skillet to the oven for 30 – 35 minutes.   When done, the edge will be dark golden brown and the center just slightly golden.  A broomstraw should come out fairly clean, but the touch test normally used for cakes will not work.

Slice into wedges and serve hot.  Wrap the cooled remainders and eat within a day – wrapped in foil, they will reheat okay in a moderate oven (20-25 min).  Microwaving will heat them up, but the texture will suffer (still very tasty though!)

jaq

Cranberry quince relish

I admit it – I love (LOVE!) that jellied cranberry sauce in a can.  Love how it floops out of the can whole, with the ring marks on the side.  Love the texture – that weird smooth “apple-pulpiness”.  Having a spare can in the pantry soothes me.  Remember the cranberry crisis a few years back??  I got through it okay, due to my emergency can.

This year, I was smitten and overwhelmed by a 3-lb bag of whole fresh cranberries, which I bought and then stared at for two weeks.  I knew I’d be making cranberry sauce, but put it off until Thanksgiving day.  Which was a good thing!  Because if I’d known how good this stuff was going to be, I would have made and eaten 3 batches by the time turkey day rolled around.

Hat tip to AW for cluing me in on using port for the cooking liquid!

Ingredients

4 dry cups of raw fresh cranberries, washed and picked over

1 cup peeled, cored, and roughly diced quince

1.5 cups granulated sugar

1/2 cup port

1/4 cup creme de cassis (adds a black currant note, but just use port if you don’t have any in the house)

1 generous grind of black pepper

1 chunk of ginger, peeled if fresh, as is if dried

opt:  3/4 cup chopped pecans

Process

Slowly simmer the diced quince in 1 cup of water until tender (approx. 30 minutes).  The water will reduce to about 1/2 cup and the quince will turn a salmon pink.

Put the cranberries and sugar in a large stainless saucepan.  Pour in the port and cassis, then add the quince with its remaining cooking liquid.  Stir over medium heat for a few minutes to dissolve the sugar.  Add the grind of black pepper, then put the piece of ginger into the pot (you will need to be able to identify it and remove it later!).  Reduce the heat to low, cover, and cook for 10 minutes.  The pectin from the berries and quince will make this tend to boil up, so keep an eye on it and stir it down if necessary.  Remove the lid and continue to cook for 10-15 minutes more, until the berries have softened or popped and the mixture thickens.  Allow to cool, take out the chunk of ginger, then stir in the optional chopped pecans.  Serve warm or chilled.

Excellent with turkey, but also will be great with pork or sharp cheese or possibly lamb.  Pretty tasty by itself, with just you and a spoon.

jaq