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My Sad Le Creuset Pots

Would I be a loser if I admitted that it is 10:45 am and I am laying — not in, but on top of — my bed, messing around on my computer? First of all, it is a Saturday, my day of rest. Second, I am nursing an illness. A cold. A manly/sexy low voice. Before the phlem, but after the aches. And I believe laying on my bed will improve my chances at a speedy recovery. Am I still a loser?

Dave says yes.

No worries. I have the self-esteem to weather that particular storm.

So, I’m writing. I love to write. I just don’t usually have the time… Oh boy… you’re in for a treat today!

Actually, I do worry how often clients end up on this particular site and wonder how it is that I manage to post ‘Meatless Monday X’ when they are still waiting for their project to be delivered. It’s a valid concern because it happens a lot. It’s psychology for another post; my need to procrastinate work until the last possible moment…

Anyway, enough of that depressing topic. I’ve been on a bread baking flurry. I used to only make it once a week, but I now seem to be on at least a 2x-a-week schedule. Plus, the first week of every month through June, I am committed to delivering an additional 12 loaves to two silent auction winners that bid on and won 8 months of bread deliveries. I just completed my fifth month and it has really made me feel the need to expand my repertoire. I tend to stick to my favored techniques and recipes, up on YouTube, that I can do it in my sleep. And yet…

I want and need more.

Not just because I worry about the bread auction recipient’s satisfaction, but because every once in a while, I come across a baguette that speaks to me. Unfortunately, I can’t exactly put my finger on what it is that is so different from my own bread. I’m not that skilled, I guess. So, I’ve spent the last hour on the internet reading about bread and looking at a couple newer books. Good Lord in Heaven. No wonder people are afraid of making bread. If you get caught up in the BS, it’s enough to make anyone cower: Hydration, crumb, retardation…

Now there’s a word that I can understand: retardation.

Oh forget it. I’ll just get in trouble.

What is the name of this post again?

I’ll try to bring it back around. Because of all the bread I’m baking, I had to re-visit Jim Lahey and Mark Bittman’s No-Knead Bread recipe in order to bring enough variety of loaves to the auction winners without spending an insane amount of time on new recipes. I tried the recipe when it first came out three years ago and thought it was sort of a pain in the ass, what with the pre-heating of the pan, the spastic flopping of the dough into the pan, etc. At the time, I had no knead of it. (ha ha. couldn’t resist).

When I started making the No Knead Bread again though, it brought up this long-standing issue I’ve had with my Le Creuset Pans. And that is: why do mine always look like crap on the inside?

Back when I started making the No Knead recipe, I researched the equipment. Everywhere I’d read said that the method was safe for Le Creuset, the exception being the black plastic knob on the lid, and even that was probably OK…

I was stupid enough to believe this back then.

I’ll tell you what to expect if you decide to bake bread inside your precious Le Creuset: discolored areas, finger marks baked on to the exterior. The interior dark and frightening.

Here’s some practical advice: Don’t do it. I wouldn’t go so far to say that it will wreck your pan but it definitely is not worth it. Save yourself the angst and use plain cast iron. I eventually replaced the Le Creuset that I baked the bread in. I gave it to a friend who still uses it. The interior is mostly black from all the scrubbing — I guess you could say she went after the discoloration with a gusto, but it still functions well.

And I got a new one. 🙂

Which quickly lost its gloss and gives me heart palpitations, despite my best attempts and doing everything “right.”

Every maddening cooking blog or TV show with Le Creuset shows these sparkling, gleaming pans. I’m willing to believe television cooks get new pans for their shows, but bloggers? How can it be that bloggers, who presumably cook a lot, can have perfectly new and shiny Le Creuset pans? It’s a very emotional topic for me. They are like my babies and I have failed them somehow.

upper left shows pan from 1990 and scratches from metal utensils. Remaining pics are from recently replaced pans that have lost their gloss, most likely due to over-zealous scrubbing when I could not get cooking stains out.

I have used every trick in the book, on the internet and at the store. The only thing that can even come close to restoring my pan to a usable state after a particularly frisky pan-sear or long oven braise is Bar Keepers Friend.

[Update: Le Creuset makes a cleaner for their pans that I finally knuckled under and purchased. It isn’t cheap. I think I paid about $20 for a smallish bottle. It does seem to do a great job. I would definitely consider buying some, especially if you have a new pan. ]

But Bar Keepers Friend  is not even a sanctioned cleaner because of its slight abrasives (I do not recommend using it unless you are at your wits end as you will no doubt lose the glossy finish). So, I give up. My pans are hopeless. They definitely have that “well-loved patina.” So, now I just live with them like this, since the ‘new’ ones look very similar to the old ones I replaced, minus the scratch marks on the bottom from my over-vigorous husband before I replaced all our metal utensils. They are still excellent pans that I use almost every single day. Patina or no patina, I love them.

So anyway, no new pans for me. Well. No new Le Creuset Pans for me.

Instead, before I settled on just using plain cast iron, and in order to be able to peacefully make the No-Knead pot bread method without angst over ruining my bazillion-dollar pans, I decided to pick up an old enameled cast iron pan from an antique store. Problem was, I couldn’t find any around here. So I called my trusty parents in Hayward and had them go back to the place I got all my latest ones. They, too, were out! …the heck? On their second stop, they found a bountiful selection. After a tense phone call, fraught with impatience on my part — no, I don’t remember why; I’m always impatient — they selected a light blue one that I love. It’s slightly smaller than the 5-quart size recommended by Lahey for his bread. I like the smaller size because I find the bread rises up more than out. The interior is crazed/crackled, but it really doesn’t matter. I cleaned it all up nice. I just love it.

[Update: that crackled finish eventually gave up and started populating my food with porcelain-crown breaking enamel chips and has since been retired. I’m cool with it. I hated baking bread inside of pans anyway. If I get the urge, I use my old lodge campfire dutch oven, even though it’s a tad large]

But just to illustrate what happens to me, when I cook the bread, this is what it looks like when it comes out of the oven:

I have to wonder who else suffers this pan-wrecking affliction?

I also have to wonder how other food bloggers keep their pans looking so perfect?

Baking soda, salt and vinegar?

Isn’t that the recipe for those exploding volcanos?

I’ll stick to Bar Keepers Friend Le Creuset’s Cleaner.

Spring?

Yes: when the mud starts flowing, it’s Spring.

It’s about time for a gardening post, don’cha think? Even though I’m getting my annual end-of-the-winter cold and feel pretty crappy, I was still chomping at the bit to go up to the barn and clean out the greenhouse yesterday. For crying out loud, the thermomulator said 40 degrees!

I didn’t get to it until early evening, right after I walked The Sociopath and before I started dinner. Given that my greenhouse is single-paned glass, I finally gave up heating it in the winter. Oh, I tried everything: bubble wrap insulation, Refletex (or whatever that silver bubble stuff is called), shrink wrapped film, plastic, passive heat (water filled 40 gallon drums painted black). You know I gave it my obsessive all.

And I also gave it most of my money.

Even with all my tricks, it still cost a lot to heat it, so I gave up.

Now, my program is to keep whatever I am trying to overwinter in the greenhouse until the sub-zero temps hit. Then I move everything into the garage, where it sits until the sub-zero temps are over —  without light or water, at about 33-45 degrees.

I always screw it up.

This year, I failed to get the plants out of the greenhouse when the temps dipped into the -20 range. Amazingly, I only lost two plants, albeit two of my favorites — the two 5-foot tall upright rosemary plants. Boo. There is still a chance that they will come back, but as of yesterday, they were looking pretty crispy.

I’m sure I will continue to battle low temps as we wade our way through March. Why, just this morning it was only 7 degrees! I do have a small heater in there, but the energy miser is resistant to turning it up much above freezing.

[The energy miser is me. Just ask anyone who comes to my house during daylight hours during the winter.]

Anyway, I swept the greenhouse out, being that it is pretty much a giant home for the fat cats all winter long. They while the days away in the sun with my giant garden toad,

making a mess, whittling away the legs of the benches.

…Eventually these redwood posts will simply collapse. But that is probably better than scratching the other stuff in the barn, right?

It was fun to drag all the plants back into the sunshine and water them. Just look at the rosemary plants — all ready to bloom!

It amazes me that they make it through the dark winter in the barn. No light, no water. Even the transplants from last fall look pretty good. Nice and green.

Soon I’ll be filling the spaces with little pots of seedlings.

So that I can forget to water them and throw them away.

Nice to know that there is someone out there more disorganized than you, isn’t it?

Chinese New Year in Hayward Wisconsin!

I sincerely wish I had been chronicling all of my family’s New Years Eve celebrations in Hayward. The fact that I have not, however, isn’t surprising. It’s a madhouse.

We’ve been going up to my parent’s place on Round Lake in Hayward between Christmas and New Year’s as long as they have been up there — probably 15 years now. It has become a tradition for everyone to make a main course for a big meal on New Year’s Eve, eventually narrowing further to always, always be an Asian meal.

So no, it isn’t really the Chinese New Year (which happens in early spring), but a New Year celebrated with Chinese food. We’ve tried other ethnicities, but always come back to Asian.

Now that the kids are getting older, they are also insinuating their preferences. My daughter, for example, insists on making cream cheese puffs. She makes an insane amount — this year it was 60 — assuring me that they are for “leftovers,” and proceeds to eat about 20 herself.

We have never had leftover cream cheese puffs except for the year my dad insisted on adding the fishy crab leftover from Christmas. He was not Morgan’s favorite person that year.

And Jay, in the photo next to her? Well he helped, too. But in this blurry photo, if my champagne-addled mind remembers correctly, he was faking it mostly as an attempt to protest the fact that I was taking pictures of everyone.

Everyone helped. I made my niece actually — eww — touch the chicken that would eventually become her dish of Sesame Chicken. It was epic.

Charlie chopped water chestnuts for P.F. Chang’s Lettuce wraps.

And whilst (sorry, have always wanted to use ‘whilst’) I wish the dishes would be more adventurous, I have to admit: Sesame Chicken is damn good.

…And so is Tempura Shrimp and Vegetables… And so is Mandarin Beef.

(I also have to admit that I’m glad it is not my kitchen that we are deep frying non-stop for two hours straight in.)

Anyway, the recipe that I think was the biggest surprise winner was the Coconut Lime Halibut with Basil (of course it was my dish! This is, after all my blog). It isn’t a very photogenic dish, but I can assure you that even my mom, who is not a professed fish lover, declared it her favorite out of all the other delicious dishes.

The recipe is at the bottom of the post.

After dinner,

which we push off until around 9:30 or 10 pm because, 1) we are sick to our stomaches from various overdoses of appetizers (Morgan); and 2) we think it gives us a better chance of making it to midnight (Dave, Sharon, Mom), we do various things to keep us occupied.

We play dominos, have Wii tournaments, play Shuffleboard, etc. We used to play Taboo, but that game was banned about 10 years ago after a particularly ugly fight between two parties that shall remain nameless.

–Have you played that game? It seems to me that it should say on the box “encourages healthy family discussion” and “Warning: some family members may not appreciate ‘healthy family discussion’.” Anyway. That was YEARS ago. I’m beyond it.

It should be noted that we are long past the years of covertly turning all the clocks ahead by one hour to fool the kids into thinking it was midnight so that we, as exhausted parents, could go to bed earlier –though I suspect the kids might start doing it to us at some point not too far in the future.

..And as much as I want to end this post with the picture that I took of my mom at 11:30pm in the chair, holding her crossword with Pippi/Poopy on her lap sound asleep with her mouth open… well, I’m just not that dumb.

So here’s the recipe.

Coconut Lime Halibut with Basil
(adapted from the Big Bowl Cookbook)

  • 1 can coconut milk (light is fine)
  • 3 T grated fresh ginger
  • 1 T chopped lemongrass (or, if you live in the sticks, grated lemon zest
  • 1 lb fresh halibut fillet, no skin (add more or less as you need. Sauce is flexible and adequate
  • 1 T sesame oil
  • 1 t kosher salt
  • 1 c chicken broth
  • 2 T fish sauce
  • 1 1/2 t sugar
  • 2 T peanut or vegetable oil
  • 1/2 c diced red onion (or thinly sliced if you don’t have kids that are onion detectives)
  • 2 -4 T diced hot pepper (or to taste)
  • Juice of 1 lime
  • 1/3 cup thinly sliced fresh basil leaves
  • 2 -4 T chopped cilantro (personal preference depending on level of cilantro addiction)
  • crushed and toasted peanuts (optional)

In a small saucepan, cook the coconut milk over medium low heat until it is reduced in half. You should have 1/2 – 3/4 cup. In the last few minutes, add the ginger and lemongrass or zest. Set aside.

Sprinkle fish with sesame oil and salt. Set aside.

Mix chicken broth with fish sauce and sugar. Set aside. And claim ignorance to the sudden exclamations around you of: “Ahhh. Ohhh…What STINKS?!”

When ready to eat, heat a wok or skillet to hot, add oil and then the fish, searing briefly over high heat. Add the onion and hot peppers, stir fry a minute or two. Add broth mixture, bring to a boil and cover. Cook about 4 minutes until fish is just barely no longer translucent in the middle. Remove fish to serving platter, leaving sauce in pan. Add the coconut milk to the sauce in the pan and cook until hot. Add the fresh lime juice. Then promptly remove from heat and pour over the fish. Top with basil, cilantro, ground black pepper and toasted peanuts. Serve over hot rice.

$20 Kitchen Makeover

(And a lesson on oiling new, cheap cutting boards)

I’m not complaining. I have a great kitchen, and I love it. But there is always room for improvement.

For example. My desire was to have countertops with wood or butcherblock. However, my germ-o-phobe husband could think of absolutely nothing worse. His skin crawled at the very idea. It was non-negotiable. So we compromised with shiny, black, impossible-to-look-perfect-granite. Hard, cold, everything-breaks-granite. (But beautiful when clean and streak free.)

I’d bought a few cutting boards over the years with the idea of leaving them permanently on the counter, but it never really worked the way I thought it would. However, a few months ago, on my first real outing to Ikea, next to the Mall of America (inward shudder), I found a cutting board that hooked over the edge of the counter. And the best part? It was only $9.99! I had seen this style of cutting board elsewhere for around $100! $9.99?

Even if it was a piece of crap, I’d at least see if it worked the way I wanted it to and consider making a larger investment on a better one if it fell apart, right?

So I bought it, and put it in place. I did give it a quick and brief coverage with oil over the next couple weeks, because the enclosed insert said to, but I didn’t pay too much attention because nothing really bad ever happened to any other cutting board I owned from lack of oil.

But here’s the thing: all cutting boards need oil to keep them from absorbing moisture, odors, etc. Moisture is the biggest problem because it causes them to warp or crack — both of which seemed to be happening to my new, awesomely inexpensive cutting board. Such a bummer!

I probably have never had problems with other cutting boards for a couple reasons. I suspect the more expensive ones come pre-oiled to some extent. Also, the sides of the Ikea boards are thick, open grained, unfinished wood which are veritable sponges for any moisture. I’ve noticed other cutting boards have a type of boarder of finished wood around them — probably to prevent warping. All I know for sure is that the Ikea one was warping and — very slightly — starting to crack within a week of purchase. I also found that I did, indeed, love the cutting board. I loved it so much that I bought a brand new one to flank the other side of the stove on my very next trip to Ikea months later.

I can’t believe how great it is…

Because now, it’s almost as if I have a butcher block island!

And Dave is totally OK with it because it isn’t permanent!

This time though, I decided to do some research on oils and preservation techniques. It seems that there is a lot of controversy over what type of oil to use. (Small wonder). I happened to use some ancient Lemon Oil I found in my broom closet, circa… I have no idea. I’m going to guess circa 1980, but that’s a total guess. It could be older. Anyway, I couldn’t find any negative info on lemon oil — which is good, because I already used it — but do your own research, as I refuse to become an expert on the subject. Here is a really informative post on the subject.

So basically, you add oil on a regular basis until the board stops absorbing it.

My question is: What if it never stops absorbing it?

Seriously. This Ikea board has absorbed over 12 ounces of lemon oil and shows no signs of ceasing. I should note that I have also been oiling the older board, and while it hasn’t absorbed as much, it is still drinking it up. Interestingly, there are certain individual boards that soak it up much faster than others, as shown here:

These photos show me oiling the ends of the board, as that seems to be the area that it absorbs the most moisture. My first board began to warp shortly after I began using it. I would flip it over and pour water on the underside to counteract the warp (Brilliant, no? No. Not brilliant). It worked, but I’ve been doing this dance since the first week, no doubt making the problem ten times worse. Since I began the oil diet however, the warping has slowly begun to go away on its own. I predict that the massive amount of oil is going to both stop the small crack AND stop the warping.

Anyway, I think I have gotten away from the main idea of this writing, and that is: I feel like I have a whole new kitchen! I love how it looks, the functionality, all of it. I know there are people who turn their noses up at Ikea but you gotta admit, they’ve got some great stuff.

I got a whole new kitchen! For twenty bucks!

Well, and the cost of a bottle of antique lemon oil.

I Had Many Visitors in the Shower Today!

Shower HeadTo clarify:

When we did the addition last year, I insisted on an outdoor shower. “Nothing fancy.” (Because I always have to reiterate that over and over with Dave. Someday, I will tell you the story about the pool.)

This is the outdoor shower. It is the BEST! You have to pull the chain (or the pink jumprope if you are lazy) for the water to come out. It is even hooked up to the water heater, though sometimes in the summer I wish it wasn’t.

When I told my friends that I hadn’t used our indoor shower in weeks, they thought it meant I hadn’t actually showered. And if you know me, then you know there might be a remote possibility of that being true. HOWEVER. It is not true. I meant that I use the outdoor shower exclusively.

And while I was in the shower last night after sweating away in the garden for an hour, I had all these visitors. First, Caveman Dave popped in for a visit:

CavemanDave

Then Ollie, referred to by some as “the black cat,” lest we get too attached. She was very starved for attention, being that we had just returned home from Hayward. She didn’t even mind the water spraying on her:

the black cat

Then this three legged green bug!

green bug!

I felt so sorry for its only having three legs. It really bummed me out. I wonder if that’s what the dark brown speck is on his body… So do you just squash it and put it out of its misery? Sorry, I can never do that. Instead, I put some drops of water on the fence for it to drink, just in case it was thirsty. And it did!!

bug drinking!

Earth Week? Why Not Try Cast Iron Pans?

cast-ironNo, I’m not some psycho chick who believes everything I read. But I do believe this: The FDA doesn’t take a stand on something unless they know it’s REALLY bad and even then, they downplay it. I mean, come on, how long did it take them to go public with the hazards of cigarettes? …Which leads me to the latest brouhaha over non-stick (teflon) pans. The idea is simple: they are “safe” if not “overheated” and as long as they are “intact” and “not peeling.”

Hmmm. How many of you are able to keep your teflon pans intact and not peeling? It’s so hard for me to keep them that way that I have come to think of them as disposable — only I’m too cheap to actually toss my old ones in the garbage! Instead, I give them to unsuspecting friends I want to kill!

So, rather than wipe out a portion of the population that actually likes me, I finally decided to rid our house entirely of non-stick so I wouldn’t be tempted to keep using them after their prime. The only acceptable non-stick alternative was the one that has been around for ages: cast iron. I know all the lazy-asses will whine, “They’re too heavy!” Or, “They rust.” And, “Everything sticks!” Yes, yes, and sometimes.

As usual, I thoroughly researched the best cast iron pans. (Everyone is reviewing them since they are back in vogue, so it was easy.) Most seemed to love the pre-seasoned Lodge brand. I bought a preseasoned Lodge griddle a few years ago and wasn’t all that impressed. It was almost rough to the touch. It has over time smoothed out, but it took longer than I expected. The very best cast iron pan I own was one I bought at an antique store ten+ years ago for something like $10. Expecting the price to have increased dramatically like everything else at antique stores during the past ten years,  I slyly asked my parents for these pans for my last birthday. And, off to the antique store we went .

…It was the cheapest they have ever gotten off. I got all three in the picture above for less than $25. To tell you the truth, I couldn’t believe my parents didn’t supplement my gift with something else, like a Wacom Cintiq or something reasonable. Twenty five dollars? For your favorite child? Perhaps this year they are keeping tabs on my desire for a new DSLR and have big plans to surprise me with one to make up for such a lame gift last year. Yes. That must be the plan.

Once again, I digress; After I got them home, I cleaned the pans and re-seasoned them by heating them to oblivion and then wiping liberally with peanut oil a couple times. To clean, I use hot water as soon as I’m done cooking, maybe a quick once-over with a nylon scrubber, then whip it back on the burner to dry. I keep a paper towel that I use over and over that has olive oil on it in the drawer where I store them and just run it over the inside of the pan. When it’s cool I put it away. They are a worthy substitute for teflon, I swear.

So if that sounds like a giant pain in the ass to you, then go ahead and use teflon. They don’t call it natural selection for nothin’.