Crescent City Skillet

  Crisp mornings, replete with dew and a touch of frost, tree boughs heavy with apples....this is my time of year.  I love autumn in the way I wish I could love spring.  Alas, that's what happens when you live in the worst areas in the United States for allergies.  Naturally, as the seasons go, one may start getting cravings for heartier fare.  Being a good southern girl, I say bring on the cornbread.  If you have been reading this for awhile, you know I've got a fancy for Lodge cast iron and the National Cornbread Festival.  While I've not been to one yet, the recipes coming out of those prize-winnin' skillets make me feel like I was there.  Recently, the first prize winner from 2004 graced our dinner table, the Crescent City Skillet from Valerie Watts Holt.  Being a hectic weeknight, I didn't bother with the garnishes, but boy howdy, the regular dish was something else.

The Crescent City Skillet
Serves 4-6

Ingredients
1 teaspoon vegetable oil
1/2 pound hot bulk sausage
1 cup diced sweet onion
1/2 cup chicken stock
1 cup whipping cream
1/2 teaspoon minced garlic
2/3 cup shredded Monterey Jack cheese
1/4 cup shredded Parmesan cheese
15 medium uncooked shrimp, shelled, deveined, and tails removed
1 (6.5 oz) package Martha White Buttermilk Cornbread Mix
2/3 cup milk
Possible garnishes - sour cream, chopped and seeded plum tomatoes, or fresh parsley

  Preheat the oven to 425°F.   Place a 10 inch cast iron skillet on medium heat and add the oil, sausage, and onion.  Cook until the sausage is no longer pink, breaking up the sausage as it browns.  Drain the meat and onion mixture onto a paper towel, and return it to the skillet.  But do not wipe the skillet clean - you need that residual fat.  Add in the chicken stock, cream, garlic and both cheeses.  Drop the heat to medium low, and make sure the mixture doesn't boil.  Stir until the cheese has completely melted.  Move the skillet to a cool stove eye and add shrimp all around the pan, nice and even.

  Stir together the cornbread mix and milk in a small mixing bowl until smooth.  Pour the cornbread mixture evenly over the goodness in the pan.  Don't worry; when it bakes, the cornbread will rise and make a delicious topping.  Bake for 18 to 20 minutes, until the cornbread is light golden brown.  Remove from the oven and serve with any garnishes, or just tuck in.

Note - I used 8 ounces of shrimp since the smaller ones were on sale.  It worked out perfectly.

Chicken and Dressing Skillet Bake

This one's a winner, folks.  No, really!  When Sue Gulledge entered this recipe in the 1997 National Cornbread Festival, she took home first prize for the year.  And I can see why - the taste of good ol' fashioned cornbread dressing, but some of the work has been cut out for you.  Granted, it's not quite the same texture as that famed dish, but it certainly hits the spot.

Chicken and Dressing Skillet Bake

Yields 6 servings

Ingredients
1 cup chopped celery
1 cup chopped onion
4 tablespoons butter
1 tablespoon oil (I used canola)
2 cups buttermilk
2 eggs, beaten
1 (8.5 oz) can cream-style corn (I couldn't find one this small, so I used 2/3 of a regular can)
2 cups self-rising corn meal mix
2 teaspoons poultry seasoning
3 cups chopped cooked chicken, seasoned with salt and pepper (or shred a rotisserie chicken like I did)

  Start off by preheating your oven to 450°F.  On the stove, put a 10 1/4 inch cast iron pan on medium heat.  Melt the butter in the pan, and cook the celery and onion for about 10 minutes, or until they are tender.  Pour the cooked vegetables and butter drippings into a large mixing bowl and set the bowl aside.  Pour the oil into the skillet and put it into the oven to heat up - 5 minutes.

  Return to the mixing bowl with the celery and onions.  Add in the rest of the ingredients.  Stir until everything is well mixed.  Take the skillet from the oven, and carefully pour the cornbread batter into the hot skillet.  Return to the oven and bake for 25-35 minutes, or until the cornbread is golden brown.  Split the cornbread into 6 wedges.  If you want to, you can garnish with fresh sage and top with chicken gravy.  I thought the cornbread was pretty darn good as is, but some people enjoy their gravy, too.  

Buttermilk Drop Biscuits

  This beauty is my biscuit pan - makes drop biscuits look awfully purty.  The recipe I'm sharing today is designed to take advantage of a cast iron pan, whether it's a drop biscuit pan like this, or even a skillet or griddle.  This recipe is from Lodge Cast Iron, and is also featured in Cast-Iron Cooking for Dummies.  The biscuits will come out tender and fluffy like a drop biscuit, but with the taste of a good ol' buttermilk biscuit.  At the end of my post, I'll include variations from both sources.

Buttermilk Drop Biscuits

Makes 7 biscuits

Ingredients

2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup butter or vegetable shortening -- cold
1 1/2 cups buttermilk

  Preheat your oven to 450°F.

  In a mixing bowl, add the flour, baking powder, baking soda, sugar, cream of tartar, and salt. Stir the dry ingredients together.

   Make sure you are using cold butter or shortening, and cut into the dry mixture with a pastry blender, fork or knife method. The mixture will have a coarse crumb consistency when you are ready for the next step.

  Pour in the buttermilk, and stir just until everything is blended. Take care not to overmix.

Drop Biscuit Pan method: If you have a drop biscuit pan, spoon in the dough into each well, filling it pretty full. I used a 7 well cast-iron pan. If you don't have a pan - see the next step.

Skillet or Griddle method: Mound the dough into about 7 biscuits onto your griddle or in your skillet. (Make sure these are oven-proof!).

  Bake for 15-18 minutes or until golden brown.

Variations:

For parsley biscuits, add 2 tablespoons of chopped fresh parsley.

For a garden vegetable biscuit, add 2 tablepoons finely grated carrots, 1 tablespoon of chopped fresh parsley, and 1 tablespoon of finely chopped green onion.

White Chicken Chili with Cheddar Hushpuppy Crust

  Today is the first day in a long stretch the heat has not been unbearable.  There was rain for a good part of the morn, and the skies are still gray, even this close to supper-time.  I've loved every minute of today.  I could finally open the windows and take advantage of a nice breeze.  Electric food steamer did a vinegar water steam to combat the area's hard water build-up, and I have a couple of cast iron pieces in the oven getting an overdue cure.  Needless to say, my kitchen doesn't have the most pleasant smell right now.  But to pay homage to my beloved cast iron, I'm going to share a recipe I made a couple of weeks ago, White Chicken Chili with a Cheddar Hushpuppy Crust.  It's a recipe by Gaynell Lawson, from the National Cornbread Festival.  The festival is held once a year in South Pittsburgh, TN - home to Lodge Cast Iron.

White Chicken Chili with Cheddar Hushpuppy Crust

Serves 6

Ingredients

1 tablespoon olive oil
1 1/4 cup finely chopped onion, divided (I'm fond of yellow onions)
2 cloves of garlic, minced
1 medium green bell pepper, diced
1/2 teaspoon cumin
1 tablespoon chili powder
2 tablespoons fresh lime juice
19 oz cannellini beans (also known as white kidney beans)
2 cups chopped cooked chicken
1 (14 oz) can chicken broth
1 (4 oz) can chopped mild green chiles, drained
1 large egg
1/2 cup milk
3 tablespoons butter, melted
1 (6 oz) package cornbread mix (Gaynell recommends Martha White Buttermilk or Cotton Country)
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese (I use sharp)
Optional for topping - sour cream, salsa, cilantro

  First thing's first.  Preheat your oven to 400°F.

  Take a 10 1/2 inch cast iron skillet, and heat the olive oil in it over medium heat.  Once the oil is heated, add in 1 cup of the onions, the garlic, green pepper, cumin, and chili powder.  Saute until the veggies are tender - plan on 3 to 5 minutes.  Once the vegetables are to your liking, add the lime juice, beans, chicken, broth, and the chiles.  Stir until everything is mixed well.  Remove from the heat while you make the crust.

  To make the crust, start by beating the egg in a medium mixing bowl.  Add in the milk, melted butter, and cornbread mix, and blend well.  At this point, stir in the remaining 1/4 cup of onions and the grated cheese.  Spoon the mixture over the chili in the resting skillet.  Just try to spoon it over the chili evenly as you can, don't worry about spreading it to cover the chili - it'll do that magic in the oven on its own.  Bake for 25-30 minutes, or until you see the crust is golden brown.  Pull it out of the oven and let it cool 5 minutes before serving.  Scoop it out into bowls and top with your desired goodies - check the optionals on the ingredient list.

Notes:  10 1/2 inch is the size of a standard cast iron skillet.  I personally skipped the extra 1/4 cup of onions in the cornbread.  And a dollop of sour cream is divine in a bowl of this stuff - I didn't need anything else.

For the curious, here are the websites for the National Cornbread Festival and Lodge Cast Iron.

www.nationalcornbread.com
www.lodgemfg.com

Kitchen 101: Non-reactive & Reactive

  It's hot outside, it's hot inside (AC isn't working).  So since I don't even want to think about food and potential heat sources, going to switch gears for a second and introduce a new category of posts - Kitchen 101.  Stuff that we should all know or learn to make life easier in the kitchen.  Some of this, I'm learning along with you folks.  The more cookbooks I read, the more new words, ingredients, & techniques I'm introduced to, and sometimes, they're just thrown out there and it's assumed the reader knows what it is.  Thank goodness for the interwebs, right kids?

  Today, let's dish about cookware.  Occasionally you're going to see the words "non-reactive" ____________ (insert skillet, bowl, pan, etc. here) in a recipe.  What does that mean?  Time to take a field trip back to science class - it comes down to chemical reactions.  Don't worry, I'm going to gloss over the technical stuff - but it boils down to mainly acidic foods reacting with certain metals, which will in turn change the taste of your food, and not in the way you want it to.  Non-reactive cookware will not cause that chemical reaction. That doesn't mean you need to root through your cabinets and toss anything considered reactive.  It just means we need to use a little knowledge on when to use them, and when to pull out the non-reactive stuff.   

What's Non-reactive?  What's Not?

  Non-reactive cookware is a pretty broad category that includes non-metallic and metallic materials in it.  Some prime examples of prep and cooking tools that are non-reactive are made of clay, stoneware, silicone, plastics, enamel, glass, and stainless steel.  But stainless steel isn't the best metal for even heating, so sometimes these pieces may have an aluminum or copper bottom bonded to them.  As long as the surface the food touches is stainless steel, it's non-reactive.

  Reactive cookware is primarily made up of copper and aluminum, and includes cast iron.  They are really good at heating up and retaining heat, but they react with acidic foods.  This can give food a metallic taste or discolor it.  That also means you shouldn't be storing your food in containers with these materials.  (If you are stashing your leftovers in your cast iron pans, you need to be fussed at - you're killing your seasoning and promoting rust!)  Copper pots may have a tin coating or lining to keep the cooking surface non-reactive, but as soon as the tin is scratched, your pot now has reactive spots.  Cast iron is reactive, but if you've got a good seasoning on it, you should have no trouble cooking tomato-based and other acidic foods in it, as long as you don't let the food linger around.

When Should I Use What?

Non-reactive - Use it for marinades, vinaigrettes, acidic foods like tomatoes, light colored soups or sauces to avoid discoloration (that means no aluminum whisks for stirring, too).

Reactive - Good for general cooking.   Don't forget about our note on cast iron - tomatoes are okay if you've got a thick seasoning on the pan, and you don't let the food sit around in the pan for a long time.  Just don't get any funny ideas to use it to marinate stuff in it.