A Singular Cast Iron Cookware Dish That You Will Want To Enjoy In The Plural

Posted by Doyle Bailey for Cast Iron Cookware Shop

One day over lunch I asked a trivia question of a small group of friends: “Do you know what the singular of ‘tamales’ is?” I was quickly informed by one of the group that he really did not care. He stated the reason as being “I never eat anything in the singular”.

He was right. There are some things which you cannot eat just one of:

• one peanut
• one grit What is a “grit” anyway?
  
• one kernel of popcorn
• one “s’more” Where do you think they got the name?
• one chip
• one “tamal”  This is the answer to my question. It is the singular of tamales.

Here is a tasty dish you can make in your cast iron casserole or dutch oven.

Easy Tamale Pie Recipe

I love one-dish meals and especially casseroles.  This is a good one with spicy beef, sweet corn, and cheese sandwiched between layers of your corn bread. This tamale pie is easy to make, and uses Jiffy corn muffin mix if you want to speed things up.

Of course, this will also work perfectly with your favorite homemade cornbread recipe baked in a cast iron corn bread pan or cast iron skillet.

Tamale Pie/ Photo John Mitzewich

Lodge 10 1/4 Inch Skillet

Ingredients:

• 2 lbs ground beef (lean if you want to cook a healthful dish)
• 2 cups diced peppers
• 1 16-oz jar roasted tomato salsa
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp chipotle pepper
• 1/2 tsp dried oregano
• 2 boxes Jiffy corn muffin/bread mix. Enough for your cast iron dutch oven or castiron casserole pan.
• 2 eggs
• 2/3 cup milk
• 4 oz cheddar cheese, divided
• 4 oz pepper jack cheese, divided
• 8 oz frozen corn, thawed

Preparation:

Lodge Cast Iron Dutch Oven

Kinetic Enameled Casserole with Grill Pan Lid

Rome Popcorn Popper

Rome Firepit Cookout Set with S'more Maker

Cook In Cast Iron for Health, Flavor, Comfort and Convenience

The ABCs of Natchitoches, Louisiana Cooking in Cast Iron Cookware

Posted by Doyle Bailey for Cast Iron Cookware Shop

Not everybody in Louisiana cooks with cast iron cookware, just those Louisiana cooks who want their food to taste great and their cookware to last for generations.

Visitors to Louisiana may feel as if they are in another country. You do not have to have a visa or show a passport to enjoy our food but maybe an ABCs of Louisiana cooking will help:

Andouille: is a Cajun smoked sausage, used in gumbos, jambalayas and other dishes and gives the food a special flavor. Be on the lookout for it and you will be rewarded.

Bisquits: are popular for breakfast throughout the state and are frequently eaten with jellies, jams, syrup or honey. They are also a favorite with fried chicken.

Bread Pudding: is a dessert made with stale bread (do not let this bother you) in a sweetened custard, often served with a whiskey or rum sauce. It is particularly popular in South Louisiana.

Catfish: is a great favorite and is eagerly eaten with great gusto throughout Louisiana. Many restaurants offer you the choice of baked, broiled, fried or blackened catfish, either whole or in fillets.

Cornbread: what can I say about this “bread of life”? There are many versions available, some even slightly sweetened.  It goes great with red beans, rice and sausage or just about anything else.

This is your invitation to visit Natchitoches, Louisiana, the oldest City (1714) in the Louisiana Purchase Territory. It will be our pleasure to arrange a tour of this enchanting French Colonial City and tours of French Creole Plantations, walking/driving tours in the historic downtown, shopping and all the Louisiana foods posted here plus many more in wonderful restaurants. Natchititoches has exceptional Bed and Breakfast Inns. Go here for more information.

Want to cook like a Louisiana cook in cast iron cookware?

You can make great gumbo, jambalaya, and red beans in a cast iron dutch oven. It travels well and you can take it camping with you or get a cast iron camping dutch oven with feet to set right on a bed of coals.

Lodge Cast Iron Dutch Oven

Lodge 6 Quart Camp Dutch Oven

A castiron skillet or fry pan work wonders to prepare your cat fish or even to make cornbread. If you want more crunchy crust, use a cornbread wedge pan or a corn stick cornbread pan.

For making biscuits, you can bake them in your camping dutch oven with its special lid that allows you to place coals on the top hence getting the oven effect for baking. Or you can use a drop biscuit pan to bake your biscuits.

Lodge Logic Drop Biscuit Pan

A Definition of Good Taste in Natchitoches, Louisiana

Posted by Doyle Bailey for Cast Iron Cookware Shop

Cook In Cast Iron for Health, Flavor, Comfort and Convenience

When you visit Louisiana, especially Natchitoches, Louisiana, where Barbara and I live, we do not want you to experience culture shock and feel you are in a foreign country. When you look at a menu, hopefully this will help.

Here is an A,B,C for you.

Andouille: is a Cajun smoked sausage we use in gumbos, jambalaya. and other dishes.

Gumbo with Rice

Beignets: are deep-fried do-nuts, puffy and heavily coated with powdered sugar and are a New Orleans specialty. They are usually consumed with mugs of cafe au lait (coffee with milk).

Biscuits: are a popular breakfast bread all over Louisiana. They are eaten with jam, jelly, honey or syrup. They are especially popular with fried chicken. In North Louisiana they are often eaten with white gravy.

Drop Biscuits

Lodge Logic Drop Biscuit Pan

Cornbread: made throughout Louisiana and very popular with fried chicken. Many versions include a little sugar but if the cornbread is sweet it is not Louisiana cornbread. I use a self-rising cornmeal mix.

Delicious Cornbread!

Lodge Cornbread Wedge Pan

When you visit Natchitoches, Louisiana and we will see to it that you not only visit French Creole Plantations, the filming sites of “Steel Magnolias” (movie filmed here in 1988), take a Walking/Driving Tour of this French Colonial City founded in 1714 and the oldest in the Louisiana Purchase Territory but introduce you to the best in Cajun and Creole cuisine like gumbo, jambalaya, shrimp and oyster po-boys and most of all, Natchitoches meat pies.

Natchitoches Meat Pies

Visit us in Louisiana and you will get a Taste of Louisiana’s Unique History, Natchitoches’ charming culture and heritage and the best in local food.

Visit us on the Web and invest in castiron cookware or add to your collection and cook like a Louisiana cook. Visit other posts on this blog site and click on recipes for ideas.

THE FRENCH CAME TO NATCHITOCHES IN 1714. NOW IT’S YOUR TURN

My Grandma Did Not Cook With Cast Iron Cookware. She Could Not Cook

Everybody in the family knew it but no one would say it. Both my parents worked and I was the original “latch key kid” left with Grandma. When it came to meals we had two options. Eat it or leave it. More often than not I left it for it was awful. I got very skinny in those days. Where is Grandma when I need her now?

Am I saying that she would have been a better cook with cast iron cookware? Who knows? It certainly could not have hurt anything and would likely have helped. Those of you who use cast iron cookware are likely to say you are better cooks because of it. For one thing cast iron cookware allow you “to taste the food and not the cookware“.

The pre-seasoned 8 wedge cornbread skillet is my favorite. It makes wonderfully browned corn bread. I use it often and find that the bread falls right out of the skillet and it cleans up easily with a little hot water and a plastic scrubbie. I most definitely am a better cook with cast iron and use it almost daily. For me it is really the true non-stick cookware and you will not see unidentifiable things flaking off into your pan and food.

My Favorite Pan and Bread

Some may prefer to cook their cornbread in sticks and have more golden crust. This 7-Stick Cornbread Pan by Universal is the ticket. Each stick has its own delicious crispy crust. Cornbread is not cornbread if it’s not made in Cast Iron. This Cornbread Pan cooks evenly and can be used for other cast Iron bread baking as well.

Cornstick Pan

You Get the Picture

Let Us Bake Bread Together with Cast Iron Cookware

Old Mountain Cast Iron Loaf Pan

Posted by Doyle Bailey for the Cast Iron Cookware Shop

Bread machines are great. We have one and use it often. However, there is nothing like bread baked in a cast iron pan. It is a wonderful thing to do together. Teach your children or grandchildren how to bake homemade bread. You may have to teach yourself first but that is not difficult.This Old Mountain cast iron loaf pan is pre seasoned and ready to use. It measures 11 3/4″ x 5 3/4″ x 3″ and has attached loop handles for safe and easy use. Cast iron cookware heats evenly and leaves your bread loaf moist inside with browned just right crust. It is great as a loaf cake pan as well.

Have you ever taken a good look at the word “pan”? It can mean many types of container but usually is is broad, shallow, without a cover. To wash gravel in a pan was “panning for gold”. “Pan” is also the word for bread in Latin. Notice it nestled in the following words? “Com-pan-ion” Someone with whom we eat bread. “Com-pan-y”. People who come to see us. Look and you will find many others like “pan-cake”, “panini”.

Banana Bread

Banana Bread

Should you get a real craving for a warm slice of banana bread, here is what to do. Head for your local produce store and find a shelf of overripe fruits and vegetables at discount prices. You can usually find a bag of about 8-10 brown spotted bananas for about a dollar a bag. You can’t beat that for a deal! This recipe is packed with flavor.

* 3 ripe bananas
* 1/2 cup soft butter
* 1/2 cup white sugar
* 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
* 4 eggs
* 1/2 cup buttermilk
* 1 tsp vanilla
* 2 cups all-purpose flour
* 1 teaspoon salt
* 2 teaspoons baking power
* 2 teaspoons baking soda
* 2 teaspoons cinnamon
* 1/2 cup chopped walnuts

Topping:

* 1 sliced banana
* 1/4 cup chopped walnuts

In a large bowl peel the bananas and cut them into small pieces. A potato masher works well to mash the bananas. Set aside. In a separate bowl cream the soft butter, white sugar and brown sugar all together with a wooden spoon. Add the beaten eggs and mix until smooth. Add in the buttermilk and vanilla. Mix together until well blended. Add the mashed bananas, and mix. In a separate bowl combine the flour, salt baking powder, baking soda and cinnamon. Use a wire whisk and mix together. Pour the flour mixture into the liquid. Mix together till just combined. Fold in the chopped walnuts. Pour batter into a well greased 9x 5 loaf pan. Peel a banana and slice into pieces. Place the banana slice down the middle of the loaf. Top the banana slices with chopped walnuts. Bake in a 350 degree oven for 55 – 60 minutes. If you place a thermometer into the center of the loaf it should register between 180 to 185 degrees or until a skewer inserted into center of the loaf comes out clean. Allow the banana bread to sit for 10 minutes before removing from the pan. Cool on a wire rack.