Cast Iron in Kathy's Kitchen

Cooking in cast iron is becoming more popular again, especially since we live in a time when we do so much BBQing. Our regular readers may already know that in our home my husband is my biggest competition in my kitchen. He loves grilling and has 3 Big Green Egg grills, and I'll never say no to something coming off those grills. He uses cast for anything from baking corn bread, mac and cheese, brown butter seared steaks, cast iron pizza, egg bake, fajitas and chili.
Cast iron also works well in your oven and on the stove top. If you have an old pan that has turned rusty, give it a wash, re season it and start using it.

Cast requires a little bit of care.

1. Wash cast in hot water. It's best to not use soap. Rinse well and place in a warm place to dry so that it does not rust. I put it into my oven to dry. Place cast in oven, turn oven to heat to 350. Once heated turn off and leave pan inside oven to dry.
2. Store in a dry place so they don't get rusty.
3. Seasoning your pan is key. Seasoning is basically just rubbing your clean dry cast with a good coating of MELTED or liquid vegetable oil and then putting the pan upside down in a 400º oven for an hour. Turn oven off and leave pan in to cool. MAKE SURE YOU PUT FOIL ON SHELF BELOW INVERTED PAN TO CATCH THE DRIPS OF OIL. Every so often your pan will need to be re seasoned. 

Cooking with cast.

1. Cast iron takes time to warm up and preheating your pan will make for better baking and cooking. Follow directions on recipes as they will vary.
2. Cast iron gets very hot, make sure you have heavy oven mitts when handling and also a good trivet to place it on when it comes out of the oven or off the grill. DON"T put it on your counter top. 
3. It's important to give your pan an extra rub with oil before using....just like you would prep any of you baking pans.

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