dutch oven bliss

ah, my enameled dutch oven, how do i love thee? let me count the ways... i love thee for keeping my oil temperature stable while i fry things, i love thee for not letting the oil splatter the entire kitchen while i fry things, i love thee for browning meat beautifully then popping right into the oven to finish, i love thee for pot pies and shepard's pie! i could wax eloquent for hours on this subject, i really could. i feel i need to come to the defense of good, old fashioned, sturdy cookware. do i own a non stick skillet? heck yes, i wouldn't live with out it. do i also own, and use, a cast iron skillet? yep. both indispensable for what they are good at. when confronted with the sight of my $50.00 6 quart 15 pound dutch my sister in law, with raised eyebrows, quipped "i hope it's worth it." oh, it is, it is. for one thing there are so many meals that can be made in ONE POT in it, for real. am i the only one that has read those 'one pot' recipes with high hopes only to discover that, well you saute something in a skillet, and you boil something in a pasta pot, and you have to brown meat somehow, but THEN you pile everything in this 'one pot' for long enough to melt some cheese or something, so some how they feel okay about scamming you? ha, i say. pish. get a good dutch oven and your life will be forever changed. on to the finer points, to enamel or not to enamel? well, it depends on how you want to use it. if you intend to take it camping or go all frontier with it and stick it straight into coals to cook with it, i'd say go for un- enameled, and look for a nice long handle. if you intend to use it more in the home, and would like to roast chickens in it get a larger, coated one. it comes down to taste really, but if you go for raw cast iron be prepared to care for it. scrub it with salt, season it with grease and oil, store it correctly, and for pitys sake, don't stick it in the dish washer. be kind to it, and it will pay you back ten fold.

the wok of life

alright, i have the silly pun out of my system now. moving right along, i love my wok. it's easy to use and clean and nothing works better for stir-fry night. we have stir-fry at least once a week, usually of the Chinese influence, and it's the easiest night to cook for by far. a note here on stir-fry: do it yourself. don't buy the pre-mixed frozen bags of stuff, it's not worth it. for one thing it all cooks up mushy because it's been processed and frozen, for another thing all the ingredients taste like each other from being frozen together in one big lump. try this: next time you go to your favorite Asian place, really look at what's on your plate. read the menu, if it says celery and straw mushrooms in oyster sauce, go buy some oyster flavor sauce. i like lee kum kee because it has a nicely balanced flavor and a little goes a long way. get a good, inexpensive wok. you don't need to go non-stick for them to work correctly, actually they season in like cast iron. if you do want non stick though i wont talk you out of it. make sure it has nice high sides though and bear this in mind: the high sides are NOT so you can over load the pan with out spilling. keep your batches small so the pan can really do it's thing. make several different dishes, it's really not much more work and it's fun. heat the wok with plenty of canola oil tipping it so the oil goes up the sides as it heats and make sure the oil is shimmering hot before you put anything in. two chicken breasts is about the most meat i've been able to pull off with out running into crowding issues, but if you make two different dishes that's really plenty. try it out, i bet you'll like it.