Products I love: Cast Iron

Hands down, dollar for dollar there is no better deal for cookware than cast iron. People can say what they want about any other cookware and short of some specialties like a carbon steel wok, some bakeware or the odd stainless saucepan I'm going for cast iron. Aluminum? No way, I'm not touching it, I've heard all I want to about aluminum. Teflon impregnated pans? Sorry, a long time ago I worked with Teflon and the warnings on the barrels were enough to never permit me to let food touch it. Fancy copper-clad stuff? Right, for the cost of one saucepan I could outfit an entire kitchen in cast iron and never miss the copper.

I'm opinionated when it comes to cast iron. I'm religious when it comes to cast iron. I come from a long line of down-home, swamp-yankee, cast-iron-cooking-and-loving people. Chances are if I'm cooking in it tonight, it is cast iron.

Cast iron, like wood, cotton and leather has stood the test of time. There's a weird purity and soul in that stuff you know? Cast iron is still out there and available. There's a reason for that. It is because it is SIMPLE and it WORKS. In fact it works well.

As I sit here typing this entry I am surrounded by my cast iron cookware. It inhabits every burner on my stove and there are seven pieces hanging on one wall alone! All manner of frying pans, friers, cauldrons, dutch ovens, griddles, comals and combos.

I love cast iron!

I LOVE cast iron!

I LOVE CAST IRON!

There's no excuse not to use it. It holds heat, it's non-stick, it's inexpensive, and now it come pre-seasoned. Plus it's nearly indestructible! Sure, restaurants need stainless and aluminum because they need heat fast and they need it to cool fast. However, in your home kitchen, where food better than ANY restaurant can be cooked at your will, you want cast iron.

Hey single guys, do you want to buy one pan that you can cook everything in? Then grab a decent-sized cast iron dutch oven guys. You can fry, braise, boil, roast, stew, soup, sauce, sauté and almost every-other-dang-cooking-thing in it. Plus, you'll still be cooking in it when you're a grandfather!

In the old days like the 1980's you had a choice between a few well-known manufacturers. There was Wagner and Lodge. Today, in my opinion there is one choice: Lodge. Sure there's the fancy French stuff and one pan can set you back a couple of hundred dollars, but that same pan produced by Lodge can be had for about fifty bucks at your local Hellmart or other outlet.

Sincerely and honest-to-God, I only recommend what I believe in on this blog and I'm giving you my number one, hands down, first choice for a product I love. Buy cast iron folks! Buy it new, by it antique or ask your old aunts and grandmothers for the stuff they don't use. You will not be disappointed.

Oh, and if its rusted? If it looks funky? It can be refreshed, do not throw it away! Scrub it, sandblast it, do anything but throw it away! The stuff has soul people, It absorbs those who use it into it. It becomes part of your family. It deserves to.
Products I love: Cast Iron

Recipe: Bolos Levedos Acorianos (Portuguese Sweet Muffins or Portuguese Pancakes)

Okay, allow me to let you in on a little secret. Big, snazzy New York City burger joints are scoring high praise and big dollars with their burgers that are gently nestled in Portuguese rolls that are shipped in from my hometown of Fall River, Massachusetts. Of course they're using good beef, but what is really setting these burgers apart are the Portuguese sweet muffins. I blogged about it a little while back, you can find that post here.

The people from the South Coast towns of Massachusetts and Rhode Island have always enjoyed these rolls and they're available in most markets. We call them Portuguese sweet muffins or Portuguese pancakes, but their real name is "bolos levedos" (sounds like "bhoulzsh levezsh"). Of the varieties you get in the market, some are good and some could be better. The best ones I ever had is when I visited the town of Furnas on Saint Michael in the Azores. Now those bolos levedos are something. Larger and more tender than the American variety and just a little more special. It could of course be the locale, but I'm also betting on the Portuguese butter and a few other things.

We always have a supply in my house. We use them for breakfast sandwiches, hamburgers, fish sandwiches or just toasted with some butter or guava jelly. Recently, I decided I wanted to make them for myself and set out to do so. I wanted something closer to what I got in Saint Michael and I'm certain I was able to do that. I found the recipe I based mine on on a Portuguese cooking website. With the help of a good friend and her mom whom are both fluent in Portuguese I was able to translate the instructions and recipe amounts. I made some pretty big adjustments and got exactly what I was looking for. So now I can make my own bolos levedos Acorianos and anyone out there who really wants them can have the best hamburger buns in the world. These things are addictive, you've been warned.

Bolos Levedos Acorianos

1/2 cup whole milk (70-80°F)
1/2 cup + 1 TBS sugar
2-1/2 tsp instant yeast
4-1/3 cups unbleached bread flour
2 eggs (beaten)
9 TBS sweet butter (softened)
1/2 tsp zest of lemon (grated then minced fine)
2 TBS vodka (if you can get Portuguese moonshine use that, but I imagine everyone can't get it like we can!)
1/8 tsp salt
A little water as necessary.

Mix the instant yeast into the warm milk and set aside.

Sift the flour and sugar into a large bowl.

Form a well in the middle of the flour/sugar combination add the milk/yeast combination and mix it in a little. Add the eggs, butter, lemon zest, vodka and salt. Mix together until it forms a rough dough ball. If you need to add a few drops of water to make it gather into a ball, do so in small increments. Once the ball forms, cover the bowl and let the dough rest for 15 minutes. This allows the dough to hydrate evenly.

Turn the dough ball out on to a floured surface and knead for 12 minutes. If you need instruction on kneading refer to the instructions on kneading in the homemade naan recipe here.

After kneading cover the dough with plastic film and allow it to rest for 10 minutes.

Gently form the dough into a ball and place in a lightly oiled container that will allow it to increase to twice its size. Press the dough down gently and then cover with the container cover or plastic wrap. Mark the container with tape where the dough is and allow it to rise to twice its size (30 minutes to 4 hours).

Turn the dough back out onto your floured surface and divide in to 9 equal sized pieces. Gently form each piece into a smooth ball and cover with plastic wrap and let rest 15 minutes.

Pat each ball into flat patty. Let rest 15 minutes covered with plastic wrap.

Place a comal or flat griddle over medium-low flame and allow it to heat up.

Flatten and expand each piece of dough again. Let rest 15 minutes or more covered with plastic wrap. You want it to rise a little bit again.

When they are ready, place a patty on the heated comal or griddle. Cook it SLOWLY on medium-low heat, or the outside will burn before the inside is cooked properly. Turn over when nicely browned, remove when evenly browned on both sides and cooked through. It'll take a little testing at first but is easy once you sort it out. Eventually, if your comal or griddle are large enough you can cook four at a time.

You now make the best hamburger or fish sandwich buns in the world. You can also use them for breakfast by splitting them, buttering them and toasting them on a comal or griddle. Add your favorite jelly. My wife toasts them this way and then makes a sandwich of fried egg whites, cheese and split sausages. Those things are great!

Bolos Levedoes are very versatile and can be used a number of ways!

Recipe: Bolos Levedos Acorianos from Chop Onions, Boil Water by Henry Krauzyk