What's cooking? part 4

I've had non-stick last a three or four years with proper treatment but they all eventually die at some point.

My non-non-stick pans are all Lodge cast iron or All-Clad, some of which are pushing 15 years old now and are going to outlast me. Some things do work much nicer in them, like caramelizing onions and roasting potatoes and stuff. Cast iron is pretty cheap and so worth it to have one even if they are pain to move around.

so what is the difference btw cast iron and stainless steel? i.e. if i was buying one, which should i buy?

Cast iron is relatively cheap, very heavy, dark in color. Lodge is the major company that makes these. You have to season them by coating them with oil and heating them, and you have to clean them carefully to keep the seasoning intact (which makes them somewhat non-stick). They hold heat really well and are great for all kinds of things - fried eggs, searing steaks, roasting potatoes, cornbread, things like that. They are reactive though, meaning you have to be careful with acidic foods in them. Cooking tomatoes, for example, can kind of make the dish taste metallic. They also rust if you don't dry them immediately.

Stainless steel is non-reactive so you can cook anything in them, is bright shiny silver, super durable, and not as non-stick as cast iron. These are the kind that get browned bits of food in them when you cook that you need to deglaze. Stainless isn't a good conductor of heat though so all these pans have either a disc of aluminum or copper (good conductors) at the base, or are made by sandwiching a layer of aluminum between two layers of stainless - this is what All-Clad makes. They're expensive but are super durable and don't need the special treatment that cast iron requires.

I have both kinds and use them for different things. If you have one stainless pan and one non-stick pan you could get by without a cast iron one, but since cast iron pans are like $20 and last forever it's totally worth it to pick one up in my opinion.

If you have one stainless pan and one non-stick pan you could get by without a cast iron one

i got by without a cast iron for years but since i bought the cast iron, it's changed my life. highly recommended. however, if you're not cooking meats, it's probably less important.

agreed

i had a non-stick and a stainless, and only recently got a cast-iron and it was like whoah

I don't know what I'd do if I had to pick just one kind of cookware. I have nonstick, cast iron, enameled cast iron, and stainless -- they all get their at-bats, depending on the food.

do i need to season a stainless steel one? i think i'm just going to replace my non-stick and invest in a silicone whisk and maybe a few other non-metal utensils - i really do like my non-stick and i think the only reason it's fucked out the last couple of weeks is bc i've using my metal whisk in it so much. but i think i'll get a stainless steel as well.

No need to season stainless steel. The only precautions they need are things to keep the steel from pitting, which means 1) hand wash, don't put them in the dishwasher, and 2) in a stainless steel cookpot, if you're bringing water to a boil to cook pasta, don't add the salt until after the water starts to boil.

If you don't have a high-heat silicone spatula, that's a really U&K piece of gear that I usually use instead of a whisk. Safe on all surfaces.

I don't know what I'd do if I had to pick just one kind of cookware. I have nonstick, cast iron, enameled cast iron, and stainless -- they all get their at-bats, depending on the food.
super otm!!
in fact, this was one of my cooking goals of the last year -- to use cookware to maximize the deliciousness of things i was making, to perfect them. has been working out tbh.

Enameled cast iron is the only one of those four that I've never owned - what do you all like them for?

All of the heat-conducting awesomeness of cast iron plus easier care. You can run some water in it and let it soak overnight if you don't feel like washing it until tomorrow.

But as just1n3 mentioned, it is ridiculously heavy. My dutch oven + lid weighs 25 lbs. empty.

i have a little pot with a mini-skillet lid that's enameled cast iron but i really do not like it all that much :( it's not big enough to make anything awesome in and i generally have better luck w/ stainless small pots for sauces. have a matching baking dish, too. they are dansk, and were a gift.

i love enameled cast iron dutch oven and use it all the time but it has 0 nonstick properties

i would love a dutch oven. i think my problem is size.

yeah i never use the matching saucepan, it's too tiny to be useful for me

I'd be lost w/o my cast-iron grill pan

we have a little deck out the back porch and i'm thinking about putting a wok burner there, now that i know my current stir-fry is really just a labor-intensive saute. actual stir-frying is a little frightening, though, anyone done it?

No, never had the BTU's. I've thought about modifying one of those rigs geared toward deep-frying turkeys, but the climate here is too hot or cold to cook outside about 8 months out of the year.

I got a propane burner last year, but haven't used it yet due to ph34r.

so i ended up buying a kitchen aid non-stick stainless steel chef's pan - it's really deep, has a glass lid... but i think i might i have buyer's remorse?! idk, i was so overwhelmed at the store... just too many to choose from, i stood there staring helplessly at my husband, juggling aloud all the different reasons i should buy each pan but it was all too much!

this pan, when i got it home and read the little instructions tucked inside, says it's only for low to med heat?! so not sure what i'm gonna use for frying shit. oh, and i got a silicone whisk - it was fucking expensive but it seems pretty good? like, not as flimsy as i imagined, pretty sturdy in fact.

but i do plan on rounding out my kitchen tools with a cast iron + regular stainless steel in the near future, esp since i'm cooking so much lately.

I'd be lost w/o my cast-iron grill pan

― attention zabahz shoppers... (m coleman), Monday, March 28, 2011 6:36 PM (2 days ago)

how do you use this? i have one and whenever i try to cook something on it it sticks really bad and burnt stuff collects in the ridges. maybe it's not seasoned enough

says it's only for low to med heat?!

That's true for non-stick in general. It's not that it won't work at higher heat, but it'll lose its coating faster, and there are health concerns with the breaking-down coating etc etc. When I had a too small, ridiculous college town, have to put the microwave on the kitchen table, now where do we put the toaster, why did we ever move here, kitchen, I kept buying the same oven-safe non-stick pan over and over, because I liked having one pan I could do almost anything with - but it never lasted long, because that oven often gets hotter than the coating likes.

I don't use cast-iron nearly as often as I'd like, because I cook with acids too much and can't afford enameled. My two non-stick pans definitely get a workout.

What I'm cooking lately - dan dan noodles, I think sunchokes later today, some kind of smothered rabbit and grits this weekend.

xxpost

I cheat and use a little canola-oil spray when cooking. since you can't grill outside where I live in NYC, the grill-pan is essential for burgers, hot dogs, chicken, shrimp. it can get smokey, tho.

recent hit was cod w/tomatoes & bread crumbs. sauteed 1 lb of grape tomatoes and a chopped red onion in olive oil for ten minutes, then dumped it over cod filets, added 1/2 cup of bread crumbs. topped lots of salt pepper & fresh parsley and a couple tbsp olive oil. baked for 20 minutes @ 350 and serve w/crusty bread and steamed green vegetable. "simple but effective."

I felt funny about using cod, keep reading about how fished out it is but the fish store labelled it cod (scrod) - guess that means it's generic white fish not proper cod? anyway its tasted good and had the texture of "real" cod.

i love a sturdy white fish with tomatoes!
miss west coast rockfish.

Was inspired by this thread and made tilapia w/ tomatoes, kalamata olives, basil, smoked paprika!! It was super zesty :)

cookware protip: All-Clad has a factory seconds store online. When I was growing up in P'burg (near where All-Clad is made), my mom and I would get up at 5 in the morning to go to the semi-annual factory seconds sale at the racetrack grounds (this was pre-Internets, obv). All of my All-Clad is seconds, and I've had all of it for almost 20 years and *still* can't figure out why it is "seconds."

I treat non-stick stuff as disposable: I have a 12-inch for fish fillets and frittatas and a 5-inch for omlettes, and replace them every couple of years when the coating looks sketchy. I do make sure they are oven safe to 450 F +, because I do stick them in the oven to finish off a fat fish fillet or egg dish.

My Chinese coworker/friend--an incredible home cook who years ago went to culinary school in China and worked in several restaurants--told me that she and all of her Chinese immigrant friends use a cheap, non-stick, flat-bottomed-but-deep-and-round-sided, glass-lidded pot in lieu of traditional wok for stir-fry. I took her advice and have never looked back, and won't until I get serious BTUs working. I find these things at Bed, Bath, and Beyond for under $20, and even less at the Asian markets around town. I don't put them in the oven (don't need to with stir-fry), but replace them every couple of years and stick to wooden utensils.

i have to check the brand on my stainless, flat, deep, glass-lidded pan because it is one of my favorite things to cook in! i made puttanesca in it last night because you can saute things really well and then dump in the tomatoes on top. much better for sauteing things that go in a sauce than a deeper pot, imo.

some kind of smothered rabbit and grits this weekend.

That wound up being rabbit smothered in kimchi, ginger, and some kind of green onions, with dan dan noodles, not grits. Lots of riches at the Korean market.

Just now put some dough/batter/whatever for black-eyed pea "falafel" in the fridge, we'll see how that works out.

I've been thinking lately about making blackeyed pea hummus. I like the flavor of b.e. peas 1000x more than chickpeas.

That should certainly work! Hummus takes so well to seasoning, there's plenty of room there for the flavor of blackeyed peas.

Bill, who do you get your grits from? I've bought my last few batches at the Dekalb Farmers Market in Atlanta, but I'm running low and don't have a trip planned any time soon.

http://www.noramill.com/store/index.php?cPath=48

Same with my cornmeal. I've had Anson Mills before, but apart from AM's use of particular heirloom breeds and all that, most of what makes them special is just that they stone-grind the grits and don't keep everything sitting in warehouses for a year. Nora Mill is much cheaper, and I buy five pound bags and keep them in the little dorm fridge that I don't have any other need for.

Oh, and actually - these aren't my everyday grits because they're more expensive, but the roasted and blue corn grits from Muddy Dog are terrific: http://muddydogcoffee.com/coffee/index.php?cPath=67

(I'm also hooked on their aged peaberry coffee, when I can afford it - but it was the blue corn grits that got me to finally place an order after being aware of them for a year or two.)

Good to see you here again btw mister!

I'm about to dive into the unknown waters of vegan-friendly cooking, and it's good to have a new challenge to my repetoire. Now, if only I had a fscking decent kitchen to do so in. Soon, soon.

Soon soon you're a balloon. Thanks Trayce. Or ty ty tbh challops bazinga, I guess, in nu-nu-ILX speak.

Okay, the black-eyed pea falafel definitely works, I'm having some now with comeback sauce and pepper vinegar. They had too little flour at first, but that probably has more to do with using canned peas than with the chickpea/BEP substitution.

I also soaked some rice for risotto per this method, because I want to get the basics of arancini down before making fried jambalaya sometime after Lent.

Or ty ty tbh challops bazinga, I guess, in nu-nu-ILX speak.

Hahahah =)

This weekend I'd like to try making indian kofta balls, they look reasonably simple, just crumbled paneer, nuts, mashed potato... kind of like a gnocchi I suppose. Never thought about it that way. Anyone tried them before?

I cobbled together something similar (didn't have paneer, which isn't readily available here) not long ago. I didn't use any of these recipes, but read through them to get a feel for, you know, how it all works (it's one of those things people make a million different ways):

http://loveetocook.blogspot.com/2010/12/malai-kofta-potato-croquettes-in-gravy.html
http://www.monsoonspice.com/2009/03/malai-kofta-temptress-seducer-and.html
http://www.tarladalal.com/Aloo-Kofta-in-Makhani-Gravy-31033r

Oh nice thanks! Non-paneer versions welcome anyway so theyre veganised I suppose.

vegan paneer recipe here

Ah! Now, I did wonder if one could make paneer with soy milk. So it does curdle succesfully if you add citric/vinegar to it then? I must try some scientific comparison tests w/milk version.

I also soaked some rice...

... and salt-cured some egg yolks. Threads like this make me realize how much I have in progress at any given moment, and what a pain in the ass my kitchen will be for my survived-bys in the event of my untimely demise.

Ramp season! I've got five pounds coming from my ramp guy. Deviled eggs, falafel, kimchi, dip, and a ramp-filled leg of lamb for Easter. I'll figure out what to do with the rest of them when I see how they are this year.

I've never had ramps. Maybe I should find a source this year.

Should definitely be in season by you - if you want to go the mail-order route, eBay is the best bet, and sellers generally won't insist on the unnecessary overnight shipping that online stores do. A lot of the stuff that comes to my mailbox, I might not get if I had to pay for it, but ramps are a staple. Whatever I don't use fresh, I freeze the greens and pickle the bulbs. Or this year, make kimchi out of them.

I always know when my ramps have arrived because I can smell them as soon as I get out of the car - even before I open the parcel locker, nevermind the actual package itself.

Going to get a fresh pineapple and some guajillo chiles and make a pork shoulder al pastor, probably Sunday.