cast-iron skillet cooking
As previously mentioned, I use our cast iron skillets for a lot of our cooking. Their coolness factor seems to balance out their heaviness and I’m finding the non-Teflon, non-stick properties of a well-seasoned pan a joy to cook with. Here’s a couple of ways I use mine…
I treat myself to collard greens & bacon once in while, but the spouse is mostly vegetarian and we eat a lot of fish. I love our cast-iron skillets for this because I can pan fry it halfway and then stick the whole thing under the broiler to finish. This trick is a great way to cook lots of things, especially if you’re a cheese-lover like the spouse-unit. Cook anything on the stove, sprinkle your cheese on and broil it for that wonderful bubbling cheese effect. Of course you can skip the cheese and instead broil a nice browned crust - the possibilities are endless.
For a quick deep-dish style pizza, lightly rub the skillet with oil or spray with cooking spray and dust the bottom with cornmeal. Stretch your pizza dough to fit and press into the skillet (or *sigh* roll it out). Brush the top with olive oil, leaving a 3/4” border around the edge and add your toppings. Bake as usual, something like 20-30 min at 400 degrees. There’s also this awesome recipe for cooking a pizza in your oven on an upside down skillet.. fascinating!
I’ve also baked desserts in my cast iron. A Dutch baby is fast to make and makes a great dessert when heaped with fresh fruit and a top of whipped cream or creme fraiche. You can do some awesome upside-down cakes in cast-iron skillets, and I’m itching to try a pecan pie in our 10” skillet later this week.
A neat summer idea is to bring your cast iron out for barbecues and grilling. In fact, this is how we ended up with so many! Anything you can cook indoors you can easily cook in the skillet on the grill. We’ve done everything from shrimp stir-frys to roasted potatoes and I hope to try a grilled deep-dish pizza this summer. :-)
