Tuesday, November 21, 2006

I got books in the mail to review. I will review them. But it is Thanksgiving week, so I am thinking about cooking and food, not poetry.

Actually, I am thinking about poetry, just not blogging about it.

I wore my koala apron from Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary to cook dinner this evening. Who knew that broccoli stalks could taste so good. They can actually be caramelized if sliced thin and sauted in olive oil. It's all very exciting. No more buying broccoli caps for me.

I am planning to cook many things this weekend, but I don't know what to cook when. For whom.

I'd really like to attempt making Pommes Anna again. It always tastes fabulous. Pommes Anna is basically a big "cake" make out of layered potato slices and lots of butter that's very crisp on the outside but meltingly tender inside. (Obviously, it's not really a good idea to eat this dish very often given all the butter in it and never never use russet potatoes because they are too mushy).

However, whenever I make it, some potatoes always stick to the bottom cast iron pan. Given that part of the point of this dish is how fabulous it looks, I find this rather distressing. Parchment paper on the bottom, maybe?

3 comments:

DUSIE said...

do you oil the pan after every cleaning? i would think wax paper might take away from the element of using the iron pan. eiither way, looks delicious! do you do the whole turkey feast as well? i haven't done a thanksgiving or even attended one since DC...a surreal life I say. I tried to email you abourt the freelancing questions, alas the anomaly addy bounced...could you send that info to me, wie bitte?

kevin.thurston said...

if you use parchement paper you'll lose out on all the carmelization--well, not all, but you'll have less. use more butter. seriously.

K. Lorraine Graham said...

Right, parchment paper would prevent it from sticking, but detract from the whole point of using cast iron which conducts heat so evenly and carmelizes everything so perfectly.

I do oil the pan after I use it, but the pan is old and I think it could do with being scrubbed down with steel wool and reseasoned. But that's not going to happen until after Thanksgiving, so I suppose I'll just use more butter!

Mark and I are having Thanksgiving at a friend's house, so I'm not making an entire meal--although I have in the past.

Susana--I'll drop you an email this weekend!