The One Essential Kitchen Pan

Eat Well, Eat Cheap has always been a big fan of old cast iron skillets. People abuse them. Thrift shops are full of rusty, grungy old ones. Many kitchen cabinets have unused cast iron pans hidden away. We've written that you should salvage any one you find. It's not that difficult.

Now Joanna Pruess of Fine Cooking magazine has written an ode to this neglected-but-essential and indestructible cooking pan. She says its a great pan for searing and sauteing, baking (including desserts), braising and frying.

"My favorite pan to cook in, by far and with no close runner-up, is my 35-year-old cast-iron skillet. It was my mother’s pan, and just seeing it on the stove conjures memories of her fried chicken, her macaroni and cheese, and her pot roast," she writes.

Her article explains how to use this wonderful old invention and includes many recipes for each of the four types of cooking you can do with it.

For those of you who might be young and just starting your kitchen adventures, this pan is cheap and omnipotent. For those of you who are old hands in the kitchen, your food will taste better in this pan that is the original non-stick skillet.

Use Gourmet Cookware As Plateware

We saw a clever idea for a dinner party in the latest issue of Wine Enthusiast magazine. Use your special gourmet cookware or some other non-traditional item as a serving platter or as plateware.

For example, you could use a picture frame with an appropriate photo as a serving platter, e.g. Sushi served on a frame with a photo of a beach or the sea.

Or if you have similar Le Creuset pans, use them as plates for a hot entrée.

One we've seen in restaurants lately is the small-single serving of dessert in a shot glass for those who don't want to overindulge in sweets.

Favorite Kitchen Utensils: Another Small Whisk

We've written about our beloved mini-whisk, which we use almost every day. A few years ago you could walk into any dollar store and find one, but they seem to have disappeared—at least, we haven't seen them for a long time. As our present whisk is beginning to show its years of service, we've been worried about replacing it.

But the other day, browsing in the implements section of Crate & Barrel, we found this long-handled cocktail whisk: It's only slightly bigger than our present whisk, so it will do a good job of mixing salad dressings, egg yolks, dry baking ingredients, and everything else a mini-whisk can do. The long handle makes it even easier to use. Best of all, it was only five dollars! (Unfortunately, it's not on the Crate & Barrel website, but we see that Amazon sells them for half of what we paid.)

Relieved that we've found a replacement for our old little utensil, we can now look forward to years of happy whisking.

Retro Aprons Will Put You in the Mood to Cook

We're not very big on oversized and overequipped kitchens, having sadly observed over the years that there is too often an inverse relationship between décor and deliciousness. Give us some sharp knives, some good pans, some reliable heat, and a little bit of counter space, and we're generally pretty happy. But every so often we see something we covet, because we know it will make cooking more fun.

Case in point: Becky McFarlan Schreiner's wonderful retro aprons, which are available online and can be viewed on Facebook. For their anniversary this year, Tim gave Ruth an old-fashioned number with big red buttons, polka dots, and blenders (yes, blenders) on it, and she feels like Lucy Ricardo every time she puts it on. The apron is a daily reminder that cooking should be fun, and that even the occasional kitchen disaster can still be good for a laugh.

Favorite Things: Food Processor

We're still on the road, and won't be back in the kitchen until Thursday. But we've been meaning to write an ode to our beloved Cuisinart, and today Mark Bittman beat us to it. His column has a lot of tips for making the best use of this device, which we still find miraculous after 30 years of several-times-weekly use.

A lot of people own food processors but let them gather dust in cupboards because they're a pain to drag out and (people think) a pain to clean. Maybe today's Bittman column will liberate some of those forgotten pieces of equipment so they can do the jobs they were meant to do.

Favorite Kitchen Utensils: Rotary Cheese Grater

We love parmesan cheese, but we do not love scraping our knuckles as we try to get every fragment off the rind. But Parmigiano-Reggiano is expensive, even at Costco, and we don't like to waste any of it. 


Although microplanes work well on larger pieces of cheese, they can wreak havoc on your hands when you get down to the rind—one slip of the wrist, and you're running for the Band-Aid box.  


Fortunately, we invested years ago in a rotary cheese grinder, which with a few turns produces mounds of snowy grated cheese. Even though it's made of plastic, it's endured heavy use for at least a decade now and withstood many trips through the dishwasher.


(For some reason, we can't delete the Amazon link to the left, but it does provide a good view of this marvelous invention.) 


Now we can scrape every parmesan rind down to the very bottom before we toss it into the freezer for future batches of soup. 

Favorite Cookbooks: Fast, Fresh & Green

We've been excitedly waiting for Susie Middleton's vegetable cookbook, Fast, Fresh & Green, ever since we heard that she was writing it. Susie, a former chief editor of Fine Cooking magazine, is a great cook not only because of her formidable grasp of technique but because of the sheer excitement she feels for cooking and the pleasure she takes from it. She appreciates simple ingredients and unfussy preparations. And she's a really good writer.

Whenever we see a Susie-Middleton-bylined article in Fine Cooking, we dive in, knowing we'll read something good.

Our copy of Fast, Fresh & Green arrived just after we'd bought a big bag of asparagus at Costco. Normally, when we have an asparagus windfall, we roast it for an easy side dish or stir-fry it as part of an Asian main course. But this time we were interested in what Susie would do.

So we split our big batch of asparagus between two of her recipes: Brown-Butter Asparagus with Pine Nuts and Speedy Stir-Fried Asparagus with Toasted Garlic. Each recipe featured just a few ingredients beyond its vegetable star—a little butter or oil, a little lemon juice or garlic—and took just a few minutes to make. The result: amazing flavor. We still don't understand the alchemy, but we'll keep making these for a long time.

A couple of days later, we tried Susie's Sweet Potato "Mini-Fries" with Limey Dipping Sauce. Once again, she used just a few ingredients—oven-baked sweet potatoes that tasted for all the world like their fried cousins, and mayonnaise spiked with lime zest and juice—and came up with something extraordinary. (Tim used the rest of the lime mayo on his fish, with fine results.)

Some people might hear "vegetable cookbook" and think "Huh? I already know how to cook vegetables." But Susie's recipes take basic produce to a much higher level.

You won't be sorry if you buy this book.

Update: A Thumbs-Up on Wine Aerators

A while back, we questioned whether it was worth investing in wine-aerating devices such as the Rabbit Pourer. Yesterday Tim's brother Ron gave a rave review of the Vinturi:

I poured Gloria a glass [of Côtes du Rhône Mon Coeur], from which she took a drink and expressed little enthusiasm. But wait! I had forgotten to use our new gadget that introduces oxygen as you pour. I poured from her glass to another through the bubbler, and the change in her expression was instantaneous. I learned my lesson, and poured mine similarly, and we both agreed that the wine was the best of those you sent that we have tried to date.

Ron and Gloria are experienced wine tasters, and we trust their judgment. Consider the wine aerator vindicated!

Favorite Cookbooks: How to Eat

Sometimes we wish we could dislike Nigella Lawson, simply for what she has wrought: all those TV cooking shows featuring women in tight sweaters who lick their spoons, toss their lustrous hair, moan about how A-MAZ-ING their food smells, and never give you any helpful information. But unlike these lame pretenders, Nigella is the real deal—an excellent, practical cook and a witty writer who is always fun to read.

Our favorite book of hers is How to Eat, because although it contains many great recipes, it's more than that. As the title says, it tells you how to eat. How to shop, how to stock a pantry, how to save time, how to plan menus for everything from a one-person meal to a full-scale dinner party.

This excerpt from How to Eat sums up the attitude we find so appealing:

. . . you don't have to go through the ridiculous pantomime of pretending everything is homespun. If you're still getting your shopping out and unwrapping your packages when everyone arrives, who cares? Your kitchen doesn't have to look like a set from a 1950s sitcom. It is curiously relaxing to be slowly creating the canvas—arranging the table, putting flowers in a vase, chopping up herbs, and putting water on for potatoes—while talking and drinking unhurriedly with friends.

Not sold yet? These two recipes will convert you.

Favorite Kitchen Utensils: Orka Mitts

We'll admit it—the first time we donned our Orka oven mitts, we found them stiff and unwieldy. And the first time we used them to reach into a 450-degree oven, we flinched, wondering if the thin silicone really would protect us.

Years later, we're hooked. Our trusty Orkas have shielded us from spattering ovens, boiling water, and red-hot barbecue grills. You can't pick up a needle with these gloves, but you never have to worry about getting burned from wet or worn-out fabric.

After years of use, they show no signs of wearing out. Best of all, they're washable. Those embarrassingly brown, greasy, smelly cloth oven mitts we used to own—and hide from guests—are only a dim memory at this point.

At $30 a pair, these aren't the cheapest oven mitts you'll ever buy, but they'll be the last oven mitts you buy.

Favorite Kitchen Utensils: Mesh Strainer

Our plastic mesh strainer, bought years ago in a dollar store, gets used almost every day. It hangs on the wall in our kitchen so that it's always close at hand. We most often use it to sift flour, or wash rice and other bulk grains. We just measure a cup of rice into the strainer and run it under cold water for a minute or two. This washing not only cleans the grain, but also helps with digestion, believe it or not. The strainer makes it easy: pour, rinse, and drain.

Strainers are also great for incorporating a paste into a larger pot of liquid such as soup, sauce, or gravy.

Tonight when we were making Tom Yum Gai, a spicy Thai soup that calls for a couple of tablespoons of hot and sour paste, we heated four cups of stock (veggie or chicken). Then we added some tofu (you can also use shrimp or chicken, or omit the protein altogether), mushrooms, and mung bean sprouts. When those ingredients had softened, we added scallions and then used the strainer, dipping it almost fully into the liquid, to incorporate two tablespoons of the hot and sour paste.

The strainer keeps the paste from getting lost as a blob in the bottom of the pan. You know whether it has been incorporated, because you can see it in the strainer.

Finally, sprinkle chopped cilantro on the top of the soup and serve.

This is not only a wonderful quick dinner but also a good tonic when you feel yourself coming down with a cold.

A Salad Spinner That Takes No Cupboard Space

Our friend Krysta Doerfler sent us an idea for people who either don't have the space to add a salad spinner to their limited cabinet space or else don't want to spend money on yet another kitchen gadget they'll only use occasionally.

She simply uses one of those strong netting bags that oranges come in at the grocery store. She puts the lettuce inside, washes it under running water, and then walks outside and gives it a whirl.

"It takes up less space than those big plastic spinners, and it's durable. It may be tough if you are making a big salad, but it's perfect for dinner for one or two," she says.

Favorite Things: Soda Maker

For years and years, we drank Pellegrino. Our Costco membership allowed us to get cases of the mineral water at a good price, and we drank about one big bottle a day.

But those big glass bottles were a problem. They needed to be recycled, and they rapidly piled up. We'd put bags of them in the trunk of the car, planning on taking them to the glass-crushing recycling machine at the store, then we'd get too busy to do that and drive around for a week (or two) listening to the maddening clank of rolling bottles. 

And even though we were recycling the bottles, the waste bothered us.

Then we discovered the soda maker, an updated version of the old seltzer bottle that uses cartridges of CO2 to make cheap, fizzy sparkling water. One cartridge makes about 100 liters.

No more lugging heavy cases of Pellegrino home; no more listening to clanking empties in the trunk.

Just like that, life got a little bit easier.

Favorite Kitchen Utensils: Wine Vacuum

Sometimes you just can’t finish a bottle of wine. Maybe it’s late, maybe you have to work in the morning, or maybe you just want to avoid the spirit-crushing malady known as “wine head.” 

Whites will keep fine if you cork them and put them in the fridge, but reds demand a little more care—even an overnight stay on the kitchen counter will change the flavor of an opened bottle for the worse.

Fortunately, there are devices you can buy to vacuum out the air in the bottle and preserve the leftover wine for another day or two. There are many different models; we’ve used the VacuVin’s rubber stoppers for years with good results.

Depending on where you buy it—many liquor stores carry it—a VacuVin set usually costs between $10 and $15. 

Favorite Kitchen Utensils: Mini-Whisk

Not to get all consumerist and Oprah, but a few tools make cooking much, much easier:

We first got one of these mini-whisks as a gift, and it sat ignored in the drawer for a long time. It seemed like a twerpy little instrument, and we weren’t sure what to use it for—wouldn’t a fork work just as well? Then one night we whipped up some salad dressing with the baby whisk and found that it worked incredibly well, blending faster than a fork and putting less strain on the wrist than our big whisk. Now we use it almost every day, for everything from sauces to mixing the dry ingredients that go into a batch of cornbread. Though that first whisk is long gone, we found a replacement at the dollar store that’s just as good.