Posted on Leave a comment

Re-Seasoning Skillets

Many of us keep our cast iron for a long time or inherit it from someone else. It’s basically indestructible and amazing, so it makes sense, right? It’s a good idea to re-season a skillet when it has been stored away and unused for a long time or if you notice that it needs extra cleaning and love and want to support better seasoning. Check out a simple way to do it here:

Recently, in our Facebook Group, Cast Iron Journey 2021, we saw a video of a lady using onions to season her cast iron. She had a few extra steps that were really interesting to watch. What are some interesting ways you have seen people season their cast iron?

Next week, I’ll get back into into sharing a recipe. I changed from cooking with gas to electric and I’m learning how to manage my cast iron on my stovetop. I’ve always favored gas, but my new electric is pretty nice. Can’t wait to share something I make on it next week!

Until then, keep on cooking with cast iron <3 Kate

For some Kitchen Tallow…

Posted on Leave a comment

Salvadoran Pupusas

Happy Recipe Wednesday! Last week we went on a family trip to see my cousin get married and I took a cast iron break, but I was so happy to be reunited to our cast iron when we got back! I always miss cooking with it when we are away.

El Salvador has a national dish called the Salvadoran Pupusa. It’s easy to make with masa harina and water to form the dough, and you can find different recipes to add more to your fillings…. (I’ll feature some of the them in the next few weeks).

A simple pupusa with cheese

Cheese, refried beans, pork, the possibilities are endless, and I definitely recommend you checking them out. I found this really simple and wonderful recipe- explaining the basics of the method. We’ve tried it with different kind of cheese fillings, enjoying it on the side with some taco salad one night.

Check out our Kitchen Tallow for your Cast Iron maintenance here:

Want to find some more ideas and recipes this year? Join our Facebook group: Cast Iron Journey 2021

Until next time, Happy Cast Iron Cooking! #castiron2021#castironcommunity

<3 Kate

Posted on 1 Comment

Potjie Spirit Week!

What is it?

Something that I just made up…. haha, but I wanted to invite you all to learn a little more about the traditional South African potjie. Pronounced “Poi-kee”

Potjiekos is literally translated “small-pot food” from Afrikaans and is a traditional way of cooking outdoors for Afrikaners. The potjie is a descendant of the Dutch oven which traveled from the Netherlands to South Africa in the 17th century. Now it is found throughout much of Southern Africa, in the hearths of all its diverse people groups.

The other day we were treated to food from a potjie that was seasoned with Oarsman Marine Kitchen Tallow the day before and the potjiekos was delicious! It was a lamb and vegetable small-pot food! Find more about our Kitchen Tallow.

Why is it Potjie Spirit Week in my mind? Because this week we are going camping and bringing along our Potjie. We are going to enjoy some potjiekos around our campfire and we can’t wait. I’ll be posting more of our cooking adventures from camping soon so stay tuned!

Until then, enjoy your cast iron! <3 Kate

Posted on Leave a comment

Skillet Salmon

To me, salmon is the best when fried in a skillet. I added a little bit of olive oil into my cast iron and put my salmon, seasoned with salt, pepper, and paprika, into the pan to cook. It is such a simple pleasure to eat a good piece of salmon with some salad and vegetables as a weeknight dinner!

How do you like salmon?

Until next week, keep cooking in cast iron! <3 Kate

Posted on Leave a comment

Cast Iron Progress

It’s been more than 6 months since I started using our Kitchen Tallow on my Cast Iron. I wanted to show you the progress from what it was, pictured above…

To what it is now:

The skillet on the right hand side is the same skillet that was in such poor condition last year. The difference has been amazing.

Let me give you three reasons why I love our tallow and use it everyday:

  1. It’s simple to use and easy to apply. I simply scrape off the food and clean the skillet, dry it over heat on the stovetop, and then apply some tallow with a cotton towel.
  2. It’s not an oily or greasy mess in between cooking. Because tallow solidifies as it cools in temperature, it forms a nice layer to protect your cast iron between uses that doesn’t rub off onto everything it touches. I LOVE that aspect of it. I used to hate the way vegetable oils got everywhere.
  3. It only adds flavor to my recipes and complements everything that I cook with my cast iron- savory or sweet.

Check it out today in our shop, you won’t be disappointed! Happy Cooking <3 Kate

Posted on Leave a comment

Skillet Salsa

Sometimes you just have a craving and then an idea. I haven’t made a lot of different types of salsa. Mine usually involve adding the ingredients to a food processor. This time I decided to do something a little different and make a simple skillet salsa with the things that I had on hand. The flavors come together a bit differently when you sautĂŠs the ingredients compared to having raw ingredients, but I really liked it. Find the ingredients below after my method!

Method:

Thinly slice mini bell peppers and celery, and dice some red onion and garlic to prep your veggies. Add a bit of olive oil to your skillet. I used my tiniest one- a number 3! SautĂŠs onions, celery, and bell peppers together until fragrant and soft. Then add garlic, salt, and pepper. Once you smell the garlic cooking add a can of Rotel tomatoes with diced green chilis. Let it simmer together for a few minutes for the flavors to come together and enjoy!

We ate ours with some Skillet Baja Fish tacos and tortilla chips and it was a hit!

Ingredients:

  • 1 Tbsp olive oil
  • Half a stalk of celery, thinly sliced
  • 3 mini bell peppers, thinly sliced
  • 1/4 red onion, diced
  • 2 cloves garlic, minced
  • Salt and pepper to taste
  • 1 can Rotel tomatoes with diced green chilis

(Based on the size of my number 3 skillet, double or triple for a bigger skillet and get creative with more yummy flavors!)

For more Cast Iron fun and inspiration, follow us or join our Facebook group- Cast Iron Journey 2021

Check out our Kitchen Tallow, the perfect addition to your kitchen to season and maintain your cast iron!

Posted on Leave a comment

Week 2 Round-Up

What did we do last week? We had some good discussion and shared some great recipes and good ideas for cast-iron cooking! If you’re new to our Cast Iron Journey 2021: How to Join In

Here is last week’s round-up:

Our discussion kicked off with the question “What type and brand of Cast-iron do you have?” If you haven’t seen the question and answered, check it out. We know some people are “I got my Lodge at Target.” Some people are actually collectors and some people have cast-iron passed down from their family, like an heirloom. We are interested to know what kind of cast-iron you have! Personally, my first skillet was given to me by my father. He had it for a few years and then brought it with him in his suitcase when he came to visit us in Dubai! I have recently purchased two new cast-iron pieces- a large 16” and a 5 qt. Dutch Oven which I am excited about. Last week, my father also sent me a vintage skillet- a #5 Griswold to strip and re-season. What about you? Check out and answer here:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/227225078908512/permalink/234051611559192/

Our sharing on Instagram with #castiron2021 brought us some gems!

A quick meal idea that looked delicious and was super easy to make:

Cheesy cauliflower from Aldi- I have to check this out!

Weekends are the perfect time to make pancakes on our Cast-iron and these look so yummy!

5-Ingredient Semi-Instant Pancake Mix!

Recipe here: https://altonbrown.com/recipes/semi-instant-pancake-mix/

And the yummiest looking frittata made from things leftover in the fridge, such an awesome way to use what we have and get the yummiest meal out of it:

Our Facebook group, Cast Iron Journey 2021, posted a lot of great ideas last week:

You can check out our recipe contribution and video here:

As promised, we also posted a video on how to season or re-season your cast-iron. The baking soda you see at the beginning is for re-seasoning my skillet. There was rust and gunk that needed to really be worked on. I used baking-soda and mild soap a few times to take care of that before seasoning it in the oven. Also, we recommend doing this process a few times to get some good seasoning on your cast-iron. Seasoning video found here:

This week we’ll post a video of how to maintain your cast-iron with our Kitchen Tallow and if you need some, you can find it here: www.etsy.com/shop/ConnorsRdCollective

Happy Cooking everybody! We have folks all over the world joining us this year, so please check it out and join us. Even if it means to get your first cast-iron skillet to do it!

Posted on Leave a comment

Seasoning Cast-iron

What is seasoning?

When it refers to cast-iron cookware, seasoning is the layer of good stuff between your cast-iron and the food you’re cooking. Lodge Cast Iron has a good article on the science of cast-iron seasoning here:

https://www.lodgecastiron.com/cleaning-and-care/cast-iron/science-cast-iron-seasoning

As they mention, “When oils or fats are heated in cast iron at a high enough temperature, they change from a wet liquid into a slick, hardened surface through a process called polymerization.” Seasoning helps create a natural, non-stick surface. When there isn’t a good layer of seasoning on our cast-iron, it corrodes and rusts. My cast-iron skillet spent 6 months residing in a shipping container from Dubai to Chicago and it ended up looking like this:

Ahhhhhh!!!!

Who knows how many different changes in climate it went through on the journey and in storage. But all was not lost, because cast-iron can be re-seasoned to bring it back to life. Because I needed to re-season my pan, I first washed it very well using a mild detergent and baking soda in order to take care of the grime and rust. If you are seasoning a pan for the first time, you don’t need to use baking soda like I did.

Here’s the rest of how you can season and re-season your pan:

  1. Heat the oven to 350-450 degrees Fahrenheit. (You’ll find varying temps all over the web when you search. Sometimes the higher temperature comes with directions for a shorter time, so I decided to do the lower temp for longer option)
  2. Coat the inside and handle of the pan with a thin, even layer of tallow.  A soft cotton cloth makes a good applicator.  Turn over and place on a cookie sheet to do the same thing on the bottom of the pan and handle, applying tallow all over. If you have a lid, you can do at the same time.
  3. Place in the oven on the cookie sheet face down and bake for 1 hour.  Remove from the oven and place on a metal cooling rack.  After the pan’s cooled to “warm,” buff the inside with a clean soft cloth.
  4. It’s good to season your pan a few times, even if it come “pre-seasoned”. As Lodge Cast Iron even mentions in the above article, the seasoning fills in the rough surface of your cast-iron making it smoother and more non-stick.

If you are a visual learner- we have a video you can see as a part of our Facebook Group, Cast Iron Journey 2021, here:

https://fb.watch/2ZU9LXA9dH/

Join along and contribute- we would love to hear from you this year about your cast-iron and recipes you love!

And check out our Kitchen Tallow for seasoning your cast-iron in our shop! You’ll like the results:

What It Looked Like, and Now!

Posted on 4 Comments

How to Join In:

  • Follow #castiron2021 on Instagram
  • Post the recipes you love to make in your cast-iron cookware (or the new things you try!!!) on Facebook and Instagram, include the hashtag #castiron2021
  • Tag @connorscollective.etsy on Instagram and share on our ConnorsRdCollective page on Facebook so that we can see your posts and include your posts and recipes on our page, especially if you really loved something you found!
  • Include the disasters, not every journey is smooth so even if a dish turns into a disaster or differently than you expected- let’s share it!
  • Try out some of our Kitchen Tallow to enjoy the experience even more and find out how to properly season and keep your cast-iron in good shape, or teach us how you do it!
Posted on Leave a comment

The Kettle That’s Cooked a Thousand Stews

My children and I read through “Red Sails to Capri” by Ann Weil this past term. We enjoyed it so much. My favorite character in the book is Signora Pagano, who sings to her eggs as she boils them to know when they are done. I was tickled by her love and the way she expresses it. As well as the seriousness she has for her business: cooking for and taking care of her family and the guests in their inn.

At one point in the book, Signora Pagano stops cooking for some guests that are lodging with them, and one of those guests tries to keep the kitchen going and cooks for himself and the others in her absence. He is not a very good cook, or a knowledgeable one, and ends up bringing out a charred kettle to show her, “smoking like a live coal.”

Of course, Signora Pagano is deliriously mad- she calls him a “Thief! Robber!” Being like any good-natured guest that has stepped too far, he offers to buy her a new kettle. He thinks this will solve the problem and is under the presumption that she will be blessed by the replacement. Here is her reply:

“Listen Monsieur Jacques, a new kettle has to learn how to cook, just as a person has to learn how to cook. A new kettle is green, stupid, foolish, unreliable. Things stick to it. It has an odd taste. It cooks too fast or too slowly. It is this way and that way— one can never be sure. It takes a year, sometimes two, to break in a kettle. Let me tell you this, Monsieur Jacques; the second stew cooked in a kettle is better than the first one. The tenth stew is better than the fifth. The two-hundredth stew is better than the hundredth. And when a kettle has cooked a thousand stews— ah! Then it is just getting started. Why? Because a kettle has to learn how to cook. Remember that.”

I love this quote because it captures the joy of cooking with a skillet or pot that is well-seasoned and cared for. This is the joy of cast-iron. It just keeps getting better with time. You don’t have to teach it to cook, it already knows.

All of us are under the assumption, like Monseiur Jacques, that a new kettle or pot would be better. After she told him that a new kettle has to learn how to cook and it was out of the question, he replied that the pot he ruined didn’t have a working handle.. she needed a new one. But she replied, “One does not cook the stew on the handle.”

You can’t really teach new pots how to cook in this day and age because they don’t mature. If anything, cooking with them makes them scratched, worn, and uneven in cooking. I should show you a picture of my most-used “nice pots” and a picture of my cast-iron skillet. The condition of each is opposite of what it should be. My nice newer pot is scratched and worn, while my cast-iron looks great!

I wonder if you cook with cast-iron or if you have ever tried it. If you are like me, something different or new (which is actually very old) is a bit intimidating at first. But I agree with Signora Pagano- I love cooking with something that knows how to cook. That brings out the best flavors, is easy to clean, and a joy to maintain.

If you are looking for something to maintain your cast-iron pots and pans, look no further. We believe that the old way is most often the better way and in our combined years of cooking have realized what a joy simple tallow can be when used to maintain and season cast-iron. I, myself, used to use whatever I had in the kitchen to season my skillet, but when I returned home to the US after years of living away from my parents- I was amazed when I saw the condition of my father’s cast-iron. I was flabbergasted, mine had never looked that good! I switched from using “whatever” to using his Oarsman Marine Kitchen Tallow and I am hooked!

You can find out more here: http://www.etsy.com/shop/ConnorsRdCollective