I’m feeling a little under the weather this weekend which is a real bummer because I had some nice plans with friends that I had really been looking forward to. But I’ve learned that you need to listen to your body and stop when it’s begging you for a break.
So not wanting to waste down time I have been pouring through cookbooks and on-line blogs looking for recipes and techniques that I can experiment with over the fire pit once the weather warms up. It has been a long, cruel winter. But I am really excited about getting out on my patio and putting all this new found knowledge to use.
I have also been thinking about re-designing my fire pit to make it more functional for cooking. My plan is expand the fire pit area into two separate areas: one for cooking over a direct flame and the other area for indirect cooking. In this way I could have a main fire in the larger area and once the coals are just right, pull them into the smaller area to do the majority of cooking. The shape would resemble a keyhole. I would also like to incorporate a stone ‘shelf’ for warming. March has not been cooperating though as there is still a foot of icy snow covering my fire pit and most of the Twilight Lounge.
So I continue to do my homework, eager to start cooking real meals over an open flame. My vision is to create refined meals, fire pit cuisine, that when I have guests over we can visit on the patio while I cook. And of course it has to be ‘easy’ and yummy. We’ll see how this goes.
Now it just so happens that my mother recently gave me a cast iron dutch oven that she had found tucked away. Our family home was built in 1795 and five generations have been raised there. I’m proud of my heritage and there is some very cool stuff in that house and I love it when mom passes down a piece of our history.
I love the thought that I am going to start cooking with my great, possibly great, great grandmothers cast iron. When I pick the pot up and hold it, I can’t help but wonder about all the different meals that were cooked in it. Was it used for a specific task or was everything cooked in it? Makes me think about trips to Old Sturbridge Village and stepping back a hundred years as you cross the threshold into a colonial home where the women are busy working in their kitchens. All, against the backdrop of a huge beehive oven. And you will always spy a dutch oven hanging from a hook inside the brick oven.
Unfortunately, my parents had used the dutch oven for years as a ‘humidifier’; filling it with water and setting it on the wood stove. A big no-no for cast iron!
Needless to say, after years of steaming over the wood stove any hint of seasoning that my ancestors left on the dutch oven has been replaced with a layer, or two, of rust. So, my knowledge base will need expand to not only the care and use of cast iron but also the restoration of it. And I have been reading up on that too.
I have a set of cast iron frying pans that I have been using more in the last few years. There is an art to cooking with cast iron. I came of age in a home where ‘Teflon’ revolutionized cooking and my mother fully embraced the non-stick wave. As a kid I was a bit of a hold out and continued to cook with cast iron because that is what my grandmother Pearl used. I have great memories of getting up early on summer mornings, walking down to the Dam with my fishing pole, catching trout, bringing them home, filleting them and frying the fish in a cast iron pan. When I got a little older and graduated to Crepes, I too found that a Teflon surface made me a better cook. Or so I thought. I have now come full circle.
A few weeks ago I made a pork dish for company which I cooked in a cast iron pan. One of my friends ‘helped’ me clean up by washing the dishes. I came out into the kitchen to see the cast iron pan drip-drying on the dish rack, less a few layers of hard earned seasoning. I remained calm. I thought this might be a good opportunity to introduce my friend to the beauty of cast iron and how a nicely seasoned pan can take a dish to the next level.
As I explained how a pan is seasoned and cleaned a look of horror came over her face. She was adamant that all dishes had to be washed with soap and water. I tried to go into a little more detail but my enthusiasm was falling on deaf ears. She mumbled something about not eating at my house anymore. Cast iron may not be for everyone but I believe more people would love it if they gave it a chance.
Now, back to the books.