Seeking Cast Iron Recipes. - Page 2

[hasya]

Sundaycrepes, that is so funny about the "tortillas" from mung bean. Funny that someone would call it a wrap or a tortilla equivalent. Not demeaning you or the wordpress person. Just finding it amusing :-).

It is a traditional South Indian crepe, so to speak, much like a "dosa" made of black gram lentils and rice. Or of bengal gram-pigeon peas (I think that's the name)-rice (you can add any lentils to this recipe, IMO). PM me if you'd like recipes. DD loves the dosa. For vegan and gluten-free, look for South Indian recipes. Most of them do not use wheat in any form (except when some of them ask for asafoetida and I've found that some of the brands have wheat starch in them, for some reason; although asafoetida gives a nice taste to it and aids digestion when you're using bengal gram in a recipe, but I've skipped it many times, when DD was sensitive to wheat).

I've used this recipe in the past:

 <http://mommydiaries.posterous.com/black-eyed-peas-dosa>

substituting rice for wheat, 1 for 1, with great results. I fermented the batter overnight before making it for my daughter, because I didn't want to take a chance with asafoetida. Wheat starch shouldn't contain wheat protein in an ideal world but who knows! There is another recipe that comes up when you google it, but calls for more cutting and chopping. This is a simple straightforward version, that I like for its simplicity. Oh and I've also tried chopped greens mixed into the batter. I imagine that any chopped up vegetable will work fine as long as it'll cook sufficiently by the time the dosa gets cooked. 

<http://www.friendskorner.com/forum/f22/black-eyed-beans-dosa-194493/> An onion twist. However, sprinkling things onto the batter and pressing them in never works well for me. When I flip it over, I always have some spill out it starts to burn because they are all by their lone self off to one corner of the pan... So, I prefer mixing any vegetables into the batter.

Edited by hasya - 7/27/11 at 1:20pm

[onlyzombiecat]

I use my cast iron griddle for making pancakes, hot sandwiches, quesadillas, tortillas or other flat breads.

[SundayCrepes]

Originally Posted by hasya 

Sundaycrepes, that is so funny about the "tortillas" from mung bean. Funny that someone would call it a wrap or a tortilla equivalent. Not demeaning you or the wordpress person. Just finding it amusing :-).

I live in Tucson. Here we do tortillas, burritos, quesadillas. There is much excitement amongst my gluten free friends that I found a way to eat tortillas that taste good and can be folded for a real burrito. Perhaps in other parts of the world (as in where they originated) they have other names, but here they are blessed tortillas.

And yes, I will pm you for more recipes. Thanks. (BTW, we do have one restaurant in town that serves dosas, we just prefer the curries at the northern Indian restaurants.)

I looked at your black eyed pea dosa recipe, but the second one didn't come through right.

[SundayCrepes]

Originally Posted by lovepickles 

One thing I have noticed is if I cook fish in one of my cast iron skillets the next thing i make in it has a sort of fishy smell. But it isn't bad enough to change anything. My grandmother was very particular about fish but I don't care so much. She never let anyone cook it in the house, let alone in one of her cast iron skillets.

Interesting

[hasya]

SundayCrepes, of course! Just like some people would call a gyro a wrap and Greeks will probably find it funny, lol!

I copied it off the top 1 and 3 results that google threw up for "black-eyed peas dosa". The second one is a mixture of green gram and something else. Oh wait, I just figured the problem. I'll go and edit my post. See if it works now.

The link that you gave says that he/she added ginger and green chillies while grinding for extra effect. Well, I always always add them, because the original recipe calls for them :-). It is just that we take so many things for granted in our own culture, that others find daunting. Like Thai curries. I love them but have no clue how to make a good one! Likewise, any East Asian cuisines. South Asian, yessir!

[SundayCrepes]

hasya, thanks for updating the second recipe. My son just today FINALLY tried the mung bean tortillas and thought they were amazing (as I knew he would if he ever tried them.) So, I won't be touching the recipe for a very long time. We have success, I'm not messing with it. However, someday...

[rookiemtnmama]

I never use soap to wash my cast iron pans. I've always heard that it ruins them. I just wash with hot water and then heat it on the stove to dry, then rub the inside with some oil.

[swd12422]

Once the seasoning is good, I use soap on mine and don't have a problem. I do NOT scour, scrub or anything like that -- that will take the seasoning off. It won't "ruin" them but you'll have to reseason.

On a related recipe-note, does anyone use their cast iron for things like tomato sauce? I've read you can't use tomatoes or any other acids (vinegar, etc) b/c they will react with the iron. Do you use your cast iron for these things or just keep another pan for that stuff? (It seems like everything I cook has tomatoes, vinegar, or both....)

[sunnygir1]

Originally Posted by swd12422 

Once the seasoning is good, I use soap on mine and don't have a problem. I do NOT scour, scrub or anything like that -- that will take the seasoning off. It won't "ruin" them but you'll have to reseason.

On a related recipe-note, does anyone use their cast iron for things like tomato sauce? I've read you can't use tomatoes or any other acids (vinegar, etc) b/c they will react with the iron. Do you use your cast iron for these things or just keep another pan for that stuff? (It seems like everything I cook has tomatoes, vinegar, or both....)

I use cast iron for tomatoes.  When I make meat balls I sautee the onions and garlic in the cast iron, mix up the meat balls and sauce, brown the meat balls in the cast iron, pour the sauce over them, put a lid on, and bake.  It does get a little funky if you leave it in there too long after, but I just put the food away right after dinner and it's fine.  No weird taste or color or anything.

I also don't worry about vinegar, lemon juice, or any other acid.  I've never had a problem.

[savithny]

Originally Posted by swd12422 

Once the seasoning is good, I use soap on mine and don't have a problem. I do NOT scour, scrub or anything like that -- that will take the seasoning off. It won't "ruin" them but you'll have to reseason.

On a related recipe-note, does anyone use their cast iron for things like tomato sauce? I've read you can't use tomatoes or any other acids (vinegar, etc) b/c they will react with the iron. Do you use your cast iron for these things or just keep another pan for that stuff? (It seems like everything I cook has tomatoes, vinegar, or both....)

I use cast iron for everything.   I suppose my tomato sauces might be a little darker than someone else's but I've never had any complaints about the flavor.  

Heck, if even Alton Brown has a recipe for baked beans with tomato sauce in it that he recommends be cooked in a cast iron Dutch Oven, I think it's fine.
 

[LionessMom]

i have a large skillet and a dutch oven that i love. i never use soap on them. i reclaimed them and worked hard to get them clean and reseasoned. if any thing sticks i scour it off with a scrubber. i have never had any tastes left over from a previous meal. i just rinse with hot water and a little scrubbing, then dry with a towel and rub with oil. 95% of the time all i do is wipe it out with a rag and re oil. i take them camping with me and use them there too.

[rookiemtnmama]

I also use cast iron for everything. I've never had trouble cooking with tomatoes or other acidic foods, and I have a super picky husband who would definitely let me know if something tasted off to him :)

[swd12422]

Yee-ha! Thanks! I'm glad to know it won't get ruined (both the pan and the food). I'm going to try it next time, since I have two skillets and a dutch oven, which only gets used for pot roast right now. (Looking forward to barbecue, beans, pasta sauce.....)

[SundayCrepes]

Originally Posted by swd12422 

Once the seasoning is good, 

How much use does it take for a pan's seasoning to be "good?"

[swd12422]

Good question....

I was afraid of my pan for a long time and didn't use it much at first. I would recommend using as much fat as you can and frying as much as you can to get it well-seasoned. What worked for me was rubbing the entire thing with whatever grease I was using to cook before I got started. Do the outside, too, and wipe off the excess from the outside before you start cooking. Then do as much frying as you can. When you finish cooking, rinse/wipe it clean and then recoat with grease/oil every time you use it. Every now and then, coat and toss in the oven for an hour or two to harden the seasoning more.

If it's a new pan with no seasoning at all, or very little, try to do things that won't stick and fill up the pan, like frying or gravies with lots of fat in them. I think if you use it every day the seasoning will be good in a few weeks. Since I didn't use mine much, I just kept re-seasoning it (I didn't strip it, just put more layers of fat on and baked in the oven again). I did it 3 or 4 times and fried a few times and it was amazing how fast it went from questionable to great!

HTH

[hasya]

Baked at what temperature?

[SundayCrepes]

Originally Posted by hasya 

Baked at what temperature?

I put my brand new pre-seasoned cast iron in the oven for an hour or two at 350 degrees. I coated with coconut oil. The first time I put really thick coats of oil. While they were in the oven I did some internet reading and found that you should put really think coats on. Like I read, my pans were sticky when I took them out after thick coats. I had to wash with soap to get all the stickiness off.

[swd12422]

WSS!

[LionessMom]

to season, first you have to make sure it is clean and dried off. then you put in the oven at 500 deg for 3 hours. that will bake off the old stuff. let it cool. scrape it or scour it. (you only have to do this if it is looks gross, if it looks new then you dont have to) then dry it. the put in the oven at 350 again for 20 min till it is really dry. then coat with olive oil. make sure you have an old cookie sheet in the bottom to catch oil drips. then put the pan upside down in the oven for 2 hours. coat and repeat until it is a nice glossy black inside. there is your seasoning. it will create smoke. have your exhaust fan on.

i use my dutch oven for everything. whole chickens. casseroles, soups, broths, roasts, biscuits, baked mac-n-cheese, etc. i made green bean tater tot casserole in it. i browned the burger in it, then added the green beans, mushrooms, cream of mushroom soup, stirred, put cheese on top then poured a bag of tater tots on top, then put in the oven at 350 for 45 min. yummmm.  and afterwards all i had to do was rinse it out, maybe scrub some of the cheese off, wipe it down and then reapply some olive oil to keep it nice.