A touch of butter on a properly seasoned cast iron griddle… medium heat… eggs…. firm up… flip over and press down… finish up to perfect doneness.
Served with pan fried bacon and toasted english muffins.
The dogs chewed my toaster cord in half so until it is repaired, I’ve been toasting on a flat cast iron griddle. I actually like it a lot better.
Golden potatoes, black pepper bacon, onions, green peppers, garlic, salt, pepper, and adobo — topped with cast iron fried eggs. A most excellent breakfast.
Being in the possession of some freshly smoked chicken breast (Thanks Ezra!), I made a smoked chicken and cheese wrap. Chunks of smoked chicken and chunks of Boar’s Head Munster cheese into a cast iron skillet until sizzling. Flour tortilla into another skillet with a dollop of butter until browned on both sides. A little bit of mustard and mayonnaise wrapped up with the sizzling chicken and cheese mix…. it was divine.
This is our second go at beef and broccoli (with peppers, sugar snap peas, and carrots).
For the first try see: https://blog.gahooa.com/2018/03/12/beef-and-broccoli-recipe/
Also first try at fried rice. I thought for sure I ruined it but it turned out okay. Looking forward to doing this again.
So the other day we cooked up a couple of pounds of macaroni, strained it, and added a little bit of butter to keep it from sticking together. Then into a pot with milk, several bags of shredded cheese, some bbq seasoning, salt, pepper, and a can of cream of celery soup. Then it got baked for about an hour with cheese and breadcrumbs sprinkled on top.
It was pretty good. Not bad at all, but not amazing.
Leftovers went in fridge. A couple of days later, I needed a quick dinner for some of the kids, so I threw some of the leftovers in a well seasoned cast iron skillet and heated it up on high heat until it was nicely sizzled.
Best.Mac.And.Cheese.Ever.Period
In my whole life I never had better mac ‘n cheese. I’m not sure exactly what made it the best, but here is a picture, and we’re going to have to try this again sometime.
This is my first go at Beef and Broccoli. While it’s not quite as “pretty” as the chicken dishes, it’s flavor and texture was outstanding.
I like doing this at home, from scratch, because it is a challenge, and lets me cook quite healthy food that tastes amazing.
Put 1-2 cups of rice in your largest pot full of boiling water. Keep on high. After 13 minutes, dump in strainer and rinse with warm water to stop it from cooking. Remove to bowl and wash your strainer :)
Trim meat down into consistently sized pieces. Most of what I had was about 1/2″ wide by 1/4″ to 3/8″ thick.
Place in large bowl along with 4 cups warm water and 4 tbsp baking soda. Agitate every couple of minutes to keep the baking soda from settling out. After 10-12 minutes, place in strainer and rinse with cool/warm water, then after done dripping, move to a bowl and wash your strainer :)
Note: do not leave it in solution too long or it will start to gain a weird texture that is not appetizing. If left in just the right amount of time it will have a soft texture like from a restaurant.
Once in the bowl, crush 5-10 cloves of garlic on the meat. Sprinkle a generous amount of ginger on it as well (1 tsp). Put 5-10 shakes of sesame oil on it as well (1 tsp).
While meat is soaking, chop up pepper, carrots, brocolli into bite sized pieces. Place in large bowl.
Get a large pot full of boiling water and dump the vegetables in. Keep on high heat. It only takes 3-5 minutes, you’ll know they are done by sampling them to see when they are soft but still crispy. Without delay, dump into strainer to stop them from cooking in the hot water. Remove to bowl and wash your strainer :)
In your largest skillet, hopefully cast iron, and on super high heat (I use 2 burners with a 17″ skillet), get the skillet smoking hot. Then add about 4 tbsp of peanut oil. Promptly dump in the meat and then start and keep moving it around. You want the skillet to stay hot hot hot. When you think it is about done, snip a thick piece in half to see if it is cooked through. Try not to over cook as this only takes about 3-5 minutes.
Once done keep heat on medium high and:
Dump in veggies. All of the veggies. Dump in half a jar of hoisin sauce (about 4-5 oz). Add a generous amount (1-2 tbsp) of soy sauce. All this time you should be stirring so as to sizzle the veggies, but not too long, maybe 45 seconds or so.
Turn off heat. Make sure it is all stirred together and if needed add a little more soy sauce, ginger, sesame oil, salt, or hoisin sauce – all to taste.
Compared to many restaurant versions that are heavy on the sauce, this is a “light dish”,. It only has about 5 tbsp of oil covering 10 generous servings. And the fact that 1 lb of meat is spread across 10 servings means it is mostly veggies.
We put down about 1/2 rice and cover it with about 1/2 beef and broccoli.
Note: this is a “draft recipe” from memory based on my first experience with cooking this dish. But it did turn out well I thought I’d write it down. I did not base this on another recipe, but rather from some techniques I’ve been practicing.
Continuing to learn more techniques for cooking this style of food. It was light yet filling, tasty yet fresh.
The Gahooa Perspective 