How to care for a frying pan with perfection – Mainline Media News

As a reviewer on culinary and culinary travels, I am often asked for recommendations on directions for gourmets. I have also become a resource for friends, family and readers to answer cooking questions. It was recent; “How to fill a cast iron skillet? I tried several different methods and to no avail; everything sticks! I tried lubricating the pans with oil in the oven for an hour at 500 degrees and inverted the mold. I tried this on top of the plate. Please help! “

My friends in America’s Test Kitchen (www.americastestkitchen.com) sent me information below from the last issue of his magazine “Cook’s Illustrated”. Everything you wanted to know about caring for a cast iron skillet, but were afraid to ask, watch their video https://bit.ly/2zRoh4q.

Steps: “1. Rub the pan with fine steel wool. 2. Wipe loose dirt and rust with a cloth.3. Put the pan on the stove over medium-low heat and add enough vegetable oil to cover the pan tightly. Heat for 5 minutes or until the handle is too hot to touch. Turn off the burner. 4. Add enough salt to form a liquid paste. Putting on a work or garden glove, clean thick bundles of paper towels, steady pot with a tack. Repeat steps 3 and 4 until the pan is smooth and black. 5. Thoroughly rinse the pan in hot water, wipe dry, then cover with a thin film of vegetable oil, wiping off the excess with paper towels.

I can almost guarantee that you are not alone in trying to keep these work skates in the kitchen in great shape, so all your recipes are obtained at will. If you’re unfamiliar, their PBS TV show focuses on culinary education; it’s not one of those culinary reality shows with all the “heated” competitions on time. You will learn cooking techniques to improve your culinary skills.

I like to cook in cast iron pans because they can withstand high temperatures, especially when frying, frying or blackening. It also retains heat well and can pass from the hob to the oven. On the horizon is the season of barbecue and camping – this is the perfect vessel for cooking on the grill or by the fire. Cornbread and cobbler are easy to bake in a pot; I believe it makes moist cornbread. Just be careful as the handles get hot.

Cast iron cookware has been around for hundreds of years and was quite popular in the early 20th century. Most kitchens had one; they were durable and inexpensive. In the mid-1960s, they began to decline when Teflon and non-stick pans were in rapture. Grandma’s cast iron pans are popular items for sale, and there are plenty of them in second-hand ones. As author Stephen King said, “sooner or later, everything old becomes new again.” This is true here as well. Cooking with cast iron is hot again (no puns). There are many exhibitions of utensils, as well as magazines and cookbooks dedicated to this style of cooking.

If you want to have only one book on “Cook in a Pot: Proven Kitchen Recipes with One Pan That Does It All,” published by the editor of America’s Test Kitchen (2015, $ 29.95). Before moving on to the recipes, the information first tells about the discovery of cast iron, why cast iron pans belong in every kitchen, about the evaluation of cast iron pans, about the science of seasoning and how to maintain your cast iron pan, troubleshooting and breaking myths. . A cast iron face test will help you determine which pan is right for you. Each recipe has a caption: “Why this recipe works.” Provides useful and interesting information about cooking. This is one of the features I like in America’s Test Kitchen publications.

Now let’s start preparing for these recipes from the book. Recipe for chocolate chip cookies visit https://bit.ly/2yfH3QX. Recipes are provided by American Test Cuisine.

Baked brie with honey apricots

Why this recipe works: Baked brie with jam or fruit – we love dried apricots and honey – is a popular snack for parties, and for good reason. When the cheese is heated, it magically turns into a rich mixture. Baking cheese in a cast iron skillet seemed like an easy task; because the pan holds heat so well, it will keep the cheese in a perfect juicy, fluid state longer than any other pan. For the sweet and creamy taste in each bite, we reconstructed a traditional whole circle of baked brie by cutting the zest (which doesn’t melt so well) and cutting the cheese into cubes. The result? Our honey-apricot mixture was evenly distributed throughout the dish, not just the spoon on top. We finished the dish with an extra sprinkle of honey and a little chopped chives to enhance the sweet-sweet flavor profile. Be sure to use a firm, fairly unripe brie for this recipe. Serve with Melba crackers or toast.

¼ cups of dried apricots, crushed

¼ cups of honey

1 teaspoon chopped fresh rosemary

¼ teaspoon of salt

¼ teaspoon pepper

2 Wheels (8 oz) Hard Brie Cheese, Peeled, Cheese Cut into 1 Inch Pieces

1 tablespoon chopped fresh onions

Put the grill in the middle position and preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Apricots, 2 tablespoons honey, rosemary, salt and pepper in a medium bowl until the apricots are soft and the mixture is fragrant, about 1 minute, stirring halfway in the microwave. Add brie and stir.

Transfer the mixture to a 10-inch cast iron skillet and bake until the cheese has melted, 10 to 15 minutes. Drizzle the remaining 2 tablespoons of honey and sprinkle with green onions. Serve. Served from 8 to 10.

Spinach and feta frittata

Why this recipe works: frittatas are similar to omelets, but they are much easier to cook: all the ingredients are combined at the same time, so you will need much less practical time during cooking. To get the perfect tender frittata filled with flavor, we started with 10 large eggs mixed in half. The water in the milk helped create steam, so the eggs swelled and the fat kept the fritt fragile. We used the microwave to quickly wither the fresh spinach and then drained it so the frittata didn’t overflow with water. Feta cheese and oregano added a wonderful spicy flavor. Active stirring and scraping of the egg mixture during cooking did not allow the eggs to harden and provided faster cooking. Shaking the pan helped the eggs to distribute properly, and cooking the frittata on the stove resulted in a nice browning on the bottom. We then moved the pan to the skillet, where a strong fire helped the frittata swell a little more and solidify without overcooking the bottom. The cast iron held up perfectly under the broiler, as opposed to the non-stick frying pan with plastic handles and a coating that should not be exposed to strong heat. After we moved the pan from the skillet to the grill, the residual heat from the pot helped the frittata finish cooking.

11 ounces (11 cups) baby spinach

10 large eggs

3 tablespoons in half

Add salt and pepper

3 ounces of feta cheese crumbled (¾ cup)

2 tablespoons vegetable oil

1 onion, finely chopped

2 cloves garlic, chopped

1 teaspoon chopped fresh oregano or ¼ teaspoon dried

Adjust the oven rack 6 inches from the broiler element and heat the broiler. Spinach in the microwave and ½ a glass of water in a large bowl covered with a lid until the spinach is wilted and halved in volume, about 4 minutes. Remove the bowl from the microwave and keep under the lid for 1 minute. Carefully remove the lid, letting the steam come out of you, and transfer the spinach to a colander set in the sink. Using the back of a rubber spatula, gently press the spinach to the colander to release the excess liquid. Transfer the spinach to a cutting board and chop finely. Return the spinach to the colander and press a second time.

Using a fork, beat the eggs, half and half, 3/4 teaspoon salt and 1/2 teaspoon pepper in a bowl until it mixes and the mixture turns pure yellow; do not interrupt. Stir ½ cups of feta.

Preheat a 10-inch cast iron skillet over medium heat for 3 minutes. Add oil and heat until shiny. Add the onions and cook until softened, about 5 minutes. Stir in garlic and oregano and cook until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Stir in the spinach and cook until evenly wilted and shiny, about 2 minutes.

Add the egg mixture and, using a heat-resistant rubber spatula, constantly and firmly scrape the bottom and sides of the pan until the eggs form a large curd and the spatula leaves a mark on the bottom of the pan but the eggs are still moist for 1 to 2 minutes. Shake the pan so that the eggs are evenly distributed. Sprinkle the remaining ¼ cups of feta and gently press into the eggs with a spatula.

Transfer the pan to the oven and bake until the center of the frittata swells and the surface just starts to brown, 3 to 5 minutes; when slicing with a knife the eggs should be slightly moist and liquid.

Using potholders, transfer the pan to a wire rack and let the frittata rest for 5 minutes. Watch the hot handle of the pan, run a spatula along the edge of the pan to loosen the frittata, and then pull the frittata out of the pan onto the cutting board. Cut the frittata into pieces and serve warm or room temperature. Served from 4 to 6.

Stephen Frieze is a professor and coordinator of hotel management programs at Gateway Community College, New Haven, Concrete. For the past 14 years he has been a culinary and culinary travel reviewer and is also the co-founder and host of a culinary walking tour of downtown New Haven’s “Worth Tasting”. Stephen@stephenfries.com For more information, go to stephenfries.com.