Well-Seasoned: As Important in Cookware as in Cooking

I cook.  A lot.  Like, at least twice per day – breakfast and dinner for sure, and sometimes I have to heat stuff up at lunch, too.  So my pots and pans get abused!  They don’t get thrown in the dishwasher or anything, but I can tell you that I’ve had to do the terrible soak/scrub/repeat on the pan I scramble eggs in WAY too many times lately.  Then the epiphany happened, and all was suddenly clear: I’d ruined that crucial, seasoned layer on my precious cookware!

 

There are many reasons to season cookware, but the most pressing one for me is that I don’t want to put extra labor into scrubbing burnt eggs and potatoes off of my pans.  All that scrubbing is actually contributing to the loss of that beautiful seasoned layer – in fact, a well-seasoned pan should not have to be scrubbed too much or washed with soap – and a well-maintained, seasoned pan will just get better with use.  (This is what I hear, anyway – my pans inevitably get a hasty scrub from me or someone else.)

 

Here are some things to consider when seasoning (or re-seasoning) your stainless steel or cast iron cookware:

 

-         Pots and pans should be seasoned with a fat you would want to consume – so don’t use vegetable (soybean) oil unless you would use it in cooking.

 

-         Good (traditional) seasoning fat choices include palm oil, lard, and chicken fat.  You just want the fat to have a high smoke point.

 

-         If your cookware is coated with a non-stick surface like Teflon, you cannot season it.  You shouldn’t be using it anyway, though, because you’re leaching cancerous chemicals into your food!  (Confession: I still have a non-stick griddle I whip out every once in awhile for pancakes.  My denial is based upon the fact that no metal utensil has ever touched it – only a plastic spatula – so I ignore the fact that the Teflon and the plastic are harmful in anyway.  Perhaps this admission will be my turning point.)

 

Seasoning your cookware is also really easy.  All you need is the fat of your choice (I used organic palm fruit shortening), a paper towel, an oven or stove top, and the cookware that needs seasoning.  The cookware must be completely clean and thoroughly dry.

 

1.  Using your fingers, spread the oil/fat liberally over the entire cooking surface.  How much is liberally?  Well, I tried to photograph it, but this makes it seem like the oil is in hills.

 

 

Really, the oil covers everything, and there is enough on the pan that there is extra in some places (where you can actually see the white).

 

2.  Heat the pan.  I did this on the stove, but an oven works well, too, especially for that very first seasoning – the one you do before you use them the very first time.  Keep the heat on until the oil starts to smoke – then remove from heat and allow to cool completely.

 

 

3. With a paper towel, rub the oil in well, making sure to wipe out any excess.  It should look very shiny, like this:

 

 

 

My cast iron skillet could probably use more seasoning, too, but I’ll do that another day.  Ah…procrastination!

Are You Picky About Meat?

I really wish I had time for this to be a testimonial on why I eat meat after years of vegetarianism, but I don’t.  Instead, I wanted to share this article at Slashfood about how Bill Niman, founder of Niman Ranch (a pioneer in sustainable, humanely-raised meat) sold his share in the company and will no longer eat their meat.  Sounds like people think he’s being a bit of a cranky old man, but I really think it’s just more evidence of the equivocality of Big Organic.  All of these fancy labels adorned with idyllic farm scenes want you to make the connection between that illustration and how the animals were actually raised, but the more Michael Pollan (or Barbara Kingsolver, Eric Schlosser, etc) you read, the more you see through all of it.

 

To help wade through the world of responsible meat-eating, Sustainable Table offers this guide that explains the terminology on the labels at the grocery store.  Even better, look for a local (preferably, family-run) farm that aims for transparency and will show you around.  We currently have a source for raw milk and pastured chicken and eggs, but nothing else, so hopefully this doesn’t come across as preachy!  Especially because we love red meat most of all.  J

Mardi Gras

Hopefully that title didn’t make you think I was posting about king cakes – if so, sorry.  Today is Fat Tuesday (aka Mardi Gras), and tomorrow is Ash Wednesday, which marks the beginning of Lent.  I’ve decided to give up chocolate this year, which means I won’t be able to indulge in my beloved chocolate milk, so why not go out with a bang and post my chocolate syrup recipe?

 

This chocolate syrup is no different than any other one you’ll find out there, except that I’ve made substitutions on the sugar.  Most recipes call for white sugar, but I used half sucanat and half dark muscovado sugar.  The muscovado is new to me, so by all means substitute brown sugar instead or use mostly sucanat and add a small amount of maple syrup or molasses.  I’ve heard that sucanat can be used in place of both brown sugar and white sugar, but I find that it needs a tiny bit more molasses to be substituted with conventional brown.  You’ll have to play with it anyway to get it just to your taste, but it’s nearly impossible to make a bad batch – you just add more of whatever is lacking.  And do not omit the salt – it just won’t taste right.

 

Why the unrefined sugars?  Well, I’m sure I’m not the only one out there with blood sugar issues.  Sucanat and muscovado sugar won’t cause a spike in your blood sugar like the refined ones do, plus they’re loaded with vitamins.  Who knew sugar could kind of, sort of be good for you?

 

One last note – this is not supposed to be a thick sauce.  This is best in milk or coffee, and maybe on ice cream, but don’t expect a fudgy sauce.

 

Chocolate Syrup

 

¼ cup cocoa

¼ cup sucanat

¼ cup dark muscovado sugar, tightly packed

A couple pinches of finely ground sea salt

½ cup water

Dash of pure vanilla extract

 

1. Measure out the first four ingredients and mix together well.  These are things that like to get clumped together, so break up the clumps as well as you can.

 

 

2. Add the water and put on the stove at medium heat.  I like to work out any remaining clumpiness at this step, too.

 

 

3. Bring to a boil, and let it stay there for a minute.  Then turn off the heat and pour the syrup into a liquid measuring cup.  After it’s cooled a bit – like when it’s not too hot to touch – add the vanilla and stir.  It is now ready to serve, or you can wait until it cools to room temperature.  Enjoy it with a glass of raw milk or some almond milk.

 

 

If you’re in possession of self-control, you can make a larger batch and keep it in a squeeze bottle in the refrigerator.  I, however, am a profligate chocoholic and can’t handle having too much of this around at one time.

Weekly Menu Plan + What Should I Do With The Turkey?

Is it obvious that I haven’t finished this week’s meal planning?  If you have an idea for the turkey, let me know.  It has to be dairy- and soy-free, of course.  And preferably gluten-free, but I don’t want to be too demanding.

-         Hamburgers with sweet potato fries

-         Red beans and rice

-         DIY pizzas

-         Braised short ribs, millet pilaf, seasonal vegetable

-         Split pea soup

-         Soaked buckwheat pancakes, bacon, blueberries (the last of the ones I picked last summer! Single tear…)

-         Something involving the last of the turkey that’s been in my freezer since Thanksgiving

I’m hoping to go into more detail later on the red beans and rice, short ribs, and pancakes, but it might not happen right away.  And I’m serious about the turkey recipe – I’ve got way too much of it to just throw it into a soup.  I also really don’t like turkey very much, so it needs to be veiled in some way.  If I have any more demands, I’ll let you know…

Date Night in Decatur

Food and literature are my two favorite things – so tonight’s date with Husband connected a bit of both.  Who am I kidding: every date involves both.

 

First, we visited the Dekalb Farmers Market – home to just about any edible you can think of.  It’s not a true farmers market, but more of a huge international grocery store where things like split peas and buckwheat flour can be purchased inexpensively in bulk.  They also have the cheapest price on SAF yeast.  My husband is also interested in food, so I promise this was fun for him – though he was more into the beer and fresh seafood.  And the chocolate stout cheese, of course.

 

For dinner, we ate at Cakes & Ale, a little restaurant that uses fresh, local (as much as possible), sustainable ingredients.  I could only take one picture before it got too dark, so here’s one of the arancini we started off with:

 

 

These arancini are little balls of fried risotto and sheep’s milk cheese with fennel pollen in the breading.  There’s a better picture on the website, though.

 

They also have some bottled Maine Root sodas made with fair trade cane sugar.  Not local, but the orange soda was awesome.

 

Afterwards, we found the book that tied the evening up quite nicely:

 

 

I really can’t wait to read it, since Somerset Maugham’s Of Human Bondage is one of my all-time favorite books.  Supposedly, Cakes and Ale makes very overt jabs at Thomas Hardy and Hugh Walpole (two of his contemporaries).  I’m a huge Thomas Hardy fan, so I can’t wait to see what all the fuss is about!

Sprouted Lentils and Other Fancy Stuff

If you didn’t know this already, sprouting is AWESOME.  It’s so easy and so addicting!  This week I tried my hand at lentils:

 

 

I used them to make this Curried Sweet Potato Soup.  Since sprouts are pretty tender, I just added them in close to the end.  I also didn’t mash any of it, because I wanted something a bit brothier today.

 

 

I also took a picture of my spaghetti, which I always seem to forget to do:

 

 

Yeah, it’s just sitting on a mound of cheap grocery store pasta.  I hate pasta, so it makes no difference to me.  Way to love my family!  But really, we only make two dishes that require pasta, so that’s fine.  Avoiding pasta is the one part of going gluten-free that is effortless for me.  Now if I could just get started on a good gluten-free bread recipe…

Occupying Toddlers While Cooking

This is why toddlers need something to do while I slave away in the kitchen:

 

 

I don’t write very much about my children, mainly because I write as a release from what I do for twelve hours out of the day, but it seems germane to a discussion of healthy cooking to hash out what to do with the little ones while preparing those healthy meals.  Ideally they would just play quietly amongst themselves while I tie on an apron and get down with my bad June Cleaver self, but those of you with kids know how unlikely that would be!

 

So here is a list of things that work for us – each one doesn’t work every time, but I just cycle through this stuff until something does.

 

-         Peeling garlic.  My daughter (3 years old) is a pro.  I usually have to start it for her, but she loves helping Mom with one of the base ingredients of just about every meal.

 

-         Sifting and mixing.  I doubt this idea is new to anyone, but it usually works well for us.  If you’re worried about the kids messing up dinner, just give them a bowl of their own ingredients to mix and make a mess with. 

 

-         Also related to this is sorting and pouring – give them some small cups or bowls and chopped vegetables, dried beans, or pasta and let them have fun!

 

-         Counting practice.  There are so many things to be counted – tablespoons of oil as they go into the pan, cups of flour being poured into the mixer, etc.  Or use some chopped veggies or dried beans (like in the last example) as manipulatives in simple addition and subtraction problems laid out on the counter.  Toddlers love to count!

 

-         Food storage percussion time.  This one is obvious, but it works really well with my fourteen month-old!

 

-         Setting the table.  My daughter likes to do this one piece at a time, so I let her place each dinner plate, salad bowl, napkin, fork, water cup, etc., as well as any other accoutrements like bread and butter.  She is quite meticulous and will arrange and re-arrange each piece several times.

 

-         Talking about the food being prepared and why we have chosen to eat it.  I’m no nutritionist, but I can give a basic defense behind everything – good or bad – that I choose to eat.  I tell them that the eggs are full of vitamins and protein to keep us healthy and strong, plus they’re a great source of fat for my dairy allergic daughter.  I explain that we can’t have cantaloupe right now because it would have to be shipped from far away Chile and wouldn’t taste very good, but that the blueberries in our freezer are available to us because we froze them after we picked them last summer.  Of course they don’t understand all the underlying concepts, but at least they are getting some knowledge hooks that will help them make these connections on their own as they get older.

 

 

If you think this is a short list, you’re right!  I would love suggestions, so please pass along any you have.  

Seafood Hates Me, aka, the Coconut Shrimp Post

Let me just get this out of the way at the beginning: dinner sucked.  It’s completely my fault because I’ve only eaten shrimp maybe three or four times before, but I thought coconut shrimp would appeal to me because of the coconut factor. 

 

Many things went wrong: I bought pre-cooked, frozen shrimp from Trader Joe’s (and didn’t read the package well enough to see that it was pre-cooked), my “breading” (dredging in egg and unsweetened coconut flakes) didn’t stick, the sauce was weird (too many things wrong to list), and I accidently overcooked my stir-fried veggies.  I can manage cooking filleted fish, but next time we try shrimp, Husband will cook.  I’m certain, however, that my dislike of shrimp remains.

 

So I’m sorry if I got anyone’s hopes up!  If it’s any consolation, let me list some of the recipes I looked at as research for this project.  I would ask for suggestions, but I don’t feel the need to make shrimp again anytime soon.

 

Coconut Lime Shrimp from Simply Coconut (probably should have just gone this route)

Coconut Shrimp I from Allrecipes

Bobby Flay’s Coconut Shrimp

 

On a more positive note, I’m having so much fun experimenting with sprouting.  I can’t wait to try my sprouted lentils!

Menu Plan Monday: February 16, 2009

Husband has the week off (from work, but not school), so hopefully I can fit in some small projects I’ve been thinking about for awhile.  Here’s what we’ll be eating:

 

Coconut shrimp, vegetables, rice or toasted millet (didn’t make last week)

Curried sweet potato soup (using sprouted lentils)

My spaghetti with seasonal salad

Turkey pumpkin chili, cornbread

Hamburgers with sweet potato fries

Tacos, black beans, Mexican rice or quinoa

 

I’ll post the coconut shrimp recipe after I make it.  I’ll probably squeeze a few other things in after I go shopping, but that’s all I can come up with for now!

This Week In My Kitchen

It’s been a crazy week, but I still have a few things to add to my recipe journal.  By the way, does anyone else keep a journal of their experiences with recipes/ingredients/cooking methods/etc.?  It really helps when you’re trying to tweak recipes or just plain remember what works for you.  I’m terrible at remembering anything, so I have to write EVERYTHING down.  Everything!  I also like to cross things off of lists, but that’s another story.  So back to the food…

 

I (reluctantly) made Italian Wedding Soup on Wednesday, even though I thought I totally wasn’t in the mood for it.  Mine is pretty standard, as far as Italian Wedding Soups go – sauté some onions and garlic in a bit of olive oil, then add broth, some Italian herbs, a leafy green (this time, spinach), orzo, and homemade meatballs.  I really wasn’t in the mood for the pasta (I never am; is it odd to not like pasta?), so I left it out.  What was left was a brothy, spinachy soup with meatballs. 

 

 

Not too exciting, but the kids and I ate most of it before Husband got home.  I think my immune system is controlling my appetite, because I just want to eat brothy foods all the time.  Or maybe it’s the weather?

 

I also sprouted some chickpeas and made this raw hummus (except I add a bunch of cumin and a few pinches of paprika): 

 

 

I actually tried it two weeks ago and forgot a crucial step, so it was worse than disgusting.  Today, though, it turned out wonderfully! 

 

 

I don’t notice a taste difference between the regular and the sprouted hummus, but the superior nutrition is enough to make me want to continue making it this way.  This has also given me the sprouting bug, so lentils will be my next sprouting project.

 

I haven’t gotten around to making the quinoa tabbouleh (or switching up the couscous to quinoa in my Chicken Couscous Salad), so that will have to wait until next week.  I did, however, make an awesome Mexican-style Quinoa (thanks for the nudge, Jo!) and re-read my friend Heidi’s great post on quinoa.  I thought I had pictures of it, but all I could find was a picture of the honey-sweetened millet I made earlier this week:

 

Yes, I take pictures of all the food I eat; doesn't everybody?

 

No coconut shrimp yet, either…I’m trying to concoct a soy-free hoisin-type sauce, but no luck yet.  Any suggestions are welcomed, as we try to avoid evil soy.  Some kind of dipping sauce is essential, since I really don’t like shrimp (it’s in the edible, but not preferable box in my brain) and the dinner (coconut-fried shrimp, sauteed vegetables, and rice or millet) seems like it would be a bit dry without one.  Sauce or not, we’ll eat this on Monday.

 

Hope you had a great week!