Tag Archives: skillet

Cooking

Baked Mac and Cheese

After the skillet cookie, my friend told me to bake a mac and cheese. That I did. Recipe from kitchn.com.

Baked Mac and Cheese

  • Boil 8 oz macaroni in salted water, undercooking a little.
  • In skillet over medium heat, melt 2+ tbsp butter. Stir some melted butter into 1/2 cup panko (and 1 tsp fresh thyme).
  • Sift in 2 tbsp flour, whisk for 1-2 minutes, until brown and fragrant. Add 1.5 cups milk. Cook until thickened, about 2-3 minutes.
  • Remove from heat, slowly stir in 1.5 cups (6 oz) grated cheese, such as sharp cheddar. Stir in 1 tsp Dijon mustard, 1/4 tsp salt, 1/4 tsp paprika.
  • Stir cooked pasta. Top with bread crumbs. Bake at 400 F for 15 minutes, until sauce is bubbling and top is golden brown.
Cooking

Skillet Cookie

What’s the best thing to do with a cast-iron skillet that you bought primarily to sear meats? Bake a cookie in it, obviously. Recipe from marthastewart.com. Cost for ingredients: $2.78.

Skillet Chocolate Chip Cookie

remember 10″ skillet.
  • Cream 6 tbsp butter room temp, 1/3 cup packed dark brown sugar, 1/2 cup sugar.
  • Add 1 egg, 3/4 tsp vanilla. Mix well.
  • Add 1 cup flour, 1/2 tsp baking soda, 1/4 tsp salt. Mix until just combined. Stir in 1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips. Optionally refrigerate overnight.
  • Spread into 10-inch cast-iron skillet. Stud with ~1/3 cup chocolate chips.
  • Bake at 350 F for 18-20 minutes (or 22-26 minutes from cold), until dark golden brown. Let cool for 5 minutes.
  • Serve in 8-12 slices with ice cream.
Cooking

Shepherd’s Pie

Gordon Ramsay is my favorite celebrity chef. Sure he’s enormously successful with his food and TV empire blah blah blah, but I love his tireless and meticulous nature, his juxtaposing demanding exterior and soft reverence for food and family. Past his screaming impossible-to-impress image of Hell’s Kitchen, in most other appearances (Master Chef, Kitchen Nightmares, etc) he’s a bouncy skilled chef who says the phrases “stunning” and “the most amazing” and “let the knife do the work” too often. Watching him crash his daughter’s cooking show as the lame dad figure is downright endearing. 

So yeah, in honor of posh Scottish/English/French cooking, I put his shepherd’s pie in the original list’s ~10 dishes. It involved mashing potatoes for the first time and cooking lamb for the first time. Mine came out too tomato-ey and I didn’t have red wine lying around (well, I never have wine lying around).

 

Shepherd’s Pie

  • 1 lb ground lamb. Season generously with salt/pepper. Brown, Drain of fat.
  • In 1 tbsp butter, saute 1 carrot grated, 1/2 large onion grated, 3 cloves garlic grated.
  • Add meat, few sprigs thyme, 1 tbsp tomato paste. Optionally add frozen peas, canned corn.
  • Add 2 tbsp Worcestershire sauce, 1/2 cup red wine. Reduce to half. Add 2 cups chicken stock. Simmer for 3-4 minutes, until thick.
  • Boil 2 russet potatoes halved for about 20 minutes. Skin. Mash. Add 1 tbsp butter, 1/4 cup milk, 2 egg yolks, (parmesan cheese), salt, pepper.
  • Top mince with mash. Use fork to form peaks on top.
  • Bake at 375 F for 20-30 minutes, until potatoes peaks browned.
Cooking

Shakshuka

This week, I bought two dozen eggs at a time. Yes. This is a good brunch food, but I still ate a lunch afterwards.

Taken from the NYTimes.

Shakshuka

  • In skillet on med-low, cook down 1 onion and 1 red bell pepper, sliced thin.
  • Add 3 cloves garlic, sliced thin, and 1 tsp cumin, 1 tsp paprika, pinch cayenne.
  • Add 28-oz can tomatoes and juices, Break up tomatoes. Add 1/2 tsp salt, 1/4 tsp pepper. Simmer.
  • Crack in 6 eggs. Season eggs, submerge in sauce
  • Cover and cook on low for 5-8 minutes, until eggs have set.
  • Optionally top with feta cheese, cilantro, add spinach, serve with pita.
Cooking

Dutch Baby

This dish is not Dutch. Apparently Americans in Seattle who created this named it after the German word “Deutsch,” which of course means German in German. Americans are the worst.

This is one of the funnier uses of a cast iron skillet I’ve stumbled across. I just dumped the batter in and it crept up the sides and exploded in volume!

Dutch Baby

  • Melt 2.5 tbsp butter in hot 10” skillet.
  • Pour in 3 eggs, 1/2 cup flour, 1/2 cup milk, 1 tbsp sugar, pinch nutmeg and cinnamon.
  • 425 F, 20 minutes. 300 F, 5 minutes more.
  • Serve with powdered sugar, fruit jams, etc.