Cast Iron Skillet

Every summer when my husband, David, and I visit his parents, we arrive at their house to a feast of peel-and-eat shrimp, Jean’s crab salad, and of course enough “softies” to feed the entire neighborhood. On the Eastern Shore of Maryland, soft-shell crabs (blue crabs that have molted their shells) are a grand tradition. The season starts in late spring and continues through the summer. Crabbers must be vigilant: there is only a 4- to 5-hour window during which molting blue crabs are in the “soft-shell” stage, after which their new shells harden if they are not removed from the water. David keeps his Maryland pride alive while living on the West Coast. Every year when crab season starts, his father ships us a few flats of live crabs, and we throw a decadent soft-shell party. We decided that if our humble castle had a coat of arms, it would be two crossed strips of bacon with a soft-shell crab in the center

References to quince pie date as far back as the 1400s; the dessert later garnered a mention in Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. Quinces look and taste like a cross between an apple and a pear; in fact, they are usually paired with one or the other, as in this recipe. Here, peeled, halved quinces are first poached in dessert wine with the reserved peels (for their signature rosy color) and a split vanilla bean (for flavor). Baking the pie in a cast-iron skillet helps the crust turn a deep golden brown and gives the pie a truly home-style appeal. You may substitute four additional Granny Smith apples for the poached quinces; soak the raisins in one-third cup of warm Calvados in place of the poaching liquid.

If you were wonderin’ what to do with all that leftover pulled pork or brisket you smoked, or if you have some nice roast turkey hangin’ around, give this a try. It’s our only breakfast item and it goes great with a couple of eggs on the side.

It doesn’t get much easier than this—or tastier. That wonderful Zatarain’s Creole Mustard (see Resources, page 175) is hard at work for you, makin’ an easy sweet and savory sauce that brings out the best in pork.

Don’t get me wrong from the title—I treat these tender babies right. First you blacken ‘em in a smoking skillet and then finish ‘em off with a blue cheese-studded BBQ sauce. If that’s not respect, I don’t know what is.

I first came across these tasty Colombian fried corn cakes stuffed with oozin’, stringy cheese at a Miami street festival. Back home, I messed around with the recipe and added whole corn kernels to the dough to make ‘em more interesting. In the restaurant we serve arepas with a pile of pulled pork in the center for a real Memphis-meets-Miami dish. But if you don’t have the pork on hand, they’re just as good served with some Fire-Roasted Garlic Salsa.

Who ever heard of baking a dessert in a cast-iron skillet? You have now! The heavy pan ensures that the shortbread cooks evenly to a beautiful pale color top and bottom.

This is great bread for any meal, but one of my favorite ways to eat it is crumbled up in a big bowl with really cold milk. Mmmm! Beth likes it cold with buttermilk. Now that’s just wrong!

When we first started cooking, beef was like tuna is today: incorrect to buy and incorrect to sell. But over the last couple of years, beef is finding its place again, especially with the burger courant sweeping the continent. We’ve used sirloins from large companies, but doing so feels a bit like cheating on my wife with a lady boy: part guilty, part disgusting, and yet I still buy it. Since we began purchasing more carefully aged and selected strip loins, this is now one of our favorite cuts. It is tasty, the perfect size, monolithic. The method here is specific to this strip loin, cooked medium-rare. Check the temperature chart (see page 242) for different levels of doneness. Remember that dry-aged meat tends to cook much faster because of its lower moisture content, so act accordingly. And when it comes to cooking, the weight of the steak does not matter as much as the thickness (our steaks each weigh about 21 to 22 ounces/610 to 640 grams), which is why you see only the thickness here. Also, the middle of the steak is where you can see doneness, not on the tip, so insert an instant-read thermometer through the side to the center to verify it is ready. If you must, you can also cut the steak in two to check doneness. Remember, though, you can always cook longer, but not “de-cook.”

When we started Joe Beef, the town was suffering from a weird vibe, a kind of up-the-ante feeling with regard to food: people went out to eat like college kids drink beer. If someone was doing testicles, you could count on someone else to pair them with pizza. Feet were kept on chickens, and heads and eyeballs were served as sides. There was no end in sight, much less vegetables. To put a damper on the frenzied quest for more, we thought that maybe the next ingredient should be inedible: not gold shavings, but what about an old radio? Doesn’t “oysters on the radio” sound good? When we ran out of radios, we used bags of sugar, erotic novels, or old album covers. The oysters themselves are simple: plump specimens topped with crisp bacon, chives, potatoes, eggs, cream, and some bread crumbs. Serve yours on any inedible ingredient of choice.

Arnold's chef Kahlil Arnold brines catfish before dredging it in seasoned cornmeal to keep it super moist.

Consider making a double batch of Ed Lee's orange-honey butter to serve the next morning with toast or warm biscuits.

To easily roll out chilled store-bought dough, soften it first on a baking sheet set over a bowl of hot water.

Transform sweet potatoes into caramelized beauties by cooking them with rice wine and honey. Serve them alongside roast duck or pork chops.

Pimientos de Padrón are little peppers that hail from Spain, where they’re simply prepared and served as a tapa or snack. You can eat these tender peppers whole, and they go perfectly with a glass of crisp dry sherry. This preparation hardly requires a recipe, but it’s so good that it deserves the formal attention of one. If you can’t find Pimientos de Padrón, look for Italian friarielli or Japanese shishitsu peppers (often stocked at Japanese grocers). In their absence, fresh okra spears make an excellent substitute—they just take a little longer to cook. You may also want to add a sprinkle of chile flakes to replicate the occasional heat of the Padróns.

Celery complements blue cheese, and blue cheese complements steak, so Brian put the three ingredients together. The salad includes celery leaves, which contribute a refreshing herbaceousness. Spooned over the steaks like a salsa or relish, it helps cut their richness. Serve with Potato and Celery Root Gratin (page 165) or wilted spinach.

The quince trees at our River Ranch property are just delivering their first harvest at the time of the Workshop. Many chefs are captivated with these uncommon autumn fruits, which are rockhard and astringent when raw and must be cooked to release their floral perfume. Chef David Everett made a memorable quince chutney for duck breasts when he attended the Workshop in 1994. Brian likes to serve the same chutney with brined pork chops. Cooking the pork on the bone enhances flavor and seals in the succulence imparted by the brine. Accompany the pork with braised escarole or Tuscan kale, or with Brussels sprouts and chestnuts. Any leftover chutney will keep for at least a week in the refrigerator and would be delicious with blue cheese. Note that the chops need to rest in the brine overnight.

Also known as sablefish, black cod thrives in the cold waters off the Pacific Coast, from California to Alaska. The fishery is managed sustainably, so many chefs have turned to black cod as a replacement for the more threatened Chilean sea bass. If you have ever had smoked sablefish in a New York delicatessen, you have eaten black cod. It is an oily fish, rich in heart-healthy omega-3 fatty acids. Chef Bruce Hill, who attended the 1998 Workshop, makes it the centerpiece of this inspired East-West seafood stew, which relies on fregola—a toasty, couscous-like Sardinian pasta—for texture and Japanese miso for flavor depth. Dashi is Japanese stock.

A cast-iron skillet is a rustic oven-to-table option, but you can also bake the buckle in a nine-inch square cake pan or in a two-quart shallow baking dish.