Calling all chefs

Posted:
in AppleOutsider edited January 2014
So I just got my first enamelled cast iron piece of cookware from Le Creuset made in the northern French town of Fresnoy-Le-Grand. It is their signature "flame" color and I love it. A 4.5 qt round "french oven" or dutch oven as others call them.



So here is the deal, I need your recipes that pertain to braised meals cooked in "french ovens".



I have already braised a 2.5 lb cut of brisket in it with cabernet sauvighon, beef broth, yellow onions sliced thinly after cooking the onions for 10 mins in olive oil left from searing the beef before cooking it for 3 hours at 325 degrees f the first hour 300 degrees f the last two hours and adding carrots, celery and potatoes in the last hour of cooking. The results were perfect.









Some of the things one can cook in this french oven:



http://bostonchef.blogspot.com/2007/...with-root.html



http://www.elise.com/recipes/archive...7pot_roast.php







And a great book for those who love to braise:



http://www.amazon.com/All-About-Brai.../dp/0393052303







Please add your recipes and share your cooking ideas.



Fellows
«134

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 63
    Oh My! You are a Texan. You are not French. We smoke meet on slow burning fires. We don't braise it in French ovens.
  • Reply 2 of 63
    mydomydo Posts: 1,888member
    I don't have a recipe but my wife makes cassoulet in hers from time to time.
  • Reply 3 of 63
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by southside grabowski View Post


    Oh My! You are a Texan. You are not French. We smoke meet on slow burning fires. We don't braise it in French ovens.



    One can only eat so much cancer causing smoked foods. One group of carcinogenic substances in smoked and burnt foods, known as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), are produced when organic materials such as food or wood are strongly heated. When wood is burnt, the resulting smoke may contain varying amounts of PAHs. If the smoke is used to preserve or flavour food, some of the PAHs can be absorbed by the food.



    PAHs can also be formed when meat is charred during grilling or barbecuing.



    Not only that but I am more French than Texan at heart.



    Fellows
  • Reply 4 of 63
    I don't know many French, so I can't comment on that last bit, but I will comment on the concept of buying an $180 pot: American.



    I also know that the French get their carcinogens through cigarettes, although I'm told that the French government has been taxing them hard lately to try to ween off the populace.
  • Reply 5 of 63
    dmzdmz Posts: 5,775member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Splinemodel View Post


    I don't know many French, so I can't comment on that last bit, but I will comment on the concept of buying an $180 pot: American.



    I'm going to have to side with Splinemodel, Fellowship -- sometimes the lure isn't meant to catch the fish, but the fisherman. You could have cooked the same meal in a $30 cast iron dutch oven.



    Also, you could have saved a TON of energy by using a pressure cooker to produce essentially the same results. (Pépin covers that in his Fast Food My Way series.)



    A pressure cooker will also help to keep the kitchen temperature below 90º.
  • Reply 6 of 63
    brussellbrussell Posts: 9,812member
    I thought Dutch Oven was something else.
  • Reply 7 of 63
    Oh yes. As did every other major European imperialist power...
  • Reply 8 of 63
    You guys are something... You moan about that I could have had a $30 version of what I have. I suppose I could use a cheap PC to browse the net also but I love apple better for many reasons. You moan about that I could use less energy with a pressure cooker...



    I know I can save energy with a pressure cooker. I have a great pressure cooker that I use for many meals. BUT I have never had the same result with brisket out of a pressure cooker. I use this pot for more of a weekend meal and what is more is that it provides for wonderful leftovers which taste better than the first day in some cases.



    You guys are miserable little people.. To mention that the "French" smoke what does that have to do with anything this thread is about. I simply said that Texas style smoked foods are a little less than healthy and I stand by that. I do eat them from time to time but I also eat much healthier foods most of the time.



    Here is a group of people that know how to reply to this subject at hand...



    They are more mature and less of a miserable lot of cry babies.



    http://www.donrockwell.com/index.php...opic=1720&st=0



    The right wingers here at AI are too damn "American centric" and hate others.



    The left wingers here at AI seem to want to tell you how to use your energy and how to cook and with what cheap piece of cookware.



    I fit neither of the two lame "boxes"



    We need in the worst of ways many more moderates here who are level headed.



    You all could benefit from not being such negative miserable souls.



    Fellows
  • Reply 9 of 63
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by segovius View Post


    You should still get a tajine though.



    There are many amazing dishes you can't cook in anything else....



    Btw, I have some great soup recipes if you like soup - would work well in your Creuset



    Sorry for my little rant but sometimes I wonder what has happened to people at AI.



    I think the tajines would be an interesting way to cook with. But if you have any dishes you can share for either method I would be thankful. That was the purpose of this thread which has gone all over the place.



    Thanks segovius,



    Fellows
  • Reply 10 of 63
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Splinemodel View Post


    I don't know many French, so I can't comment on that last bit, but I will comment on the concept of buying an $180 pot: American.



    What I mean is that I appreciate classic traditional French foods and the French do from my experience have a high set of standards in how they prepare a meal and with what ingredients they use. Now I like many types of food including indian, chinese, japanese, italian, french, New England foods, southern comfort foods, mexican, southwestern foods, and the list goes on.



    Being that I don't just eat peanut butter sandwhiches I sometimes purchase a new item for the kitchen from time to time and when I do I usually get a quality piece and do it right the first time. You have to realize I am a trader and invester and I look at things through investment eyes. I bought this item as I knew it would be used by me and my family for decades and I appreciate the piece more than some $30 alternative or I would not have bought it thank you very much. I have other nice tools in the kitchen like for example a KitchenAid stand mixer and it is used often by me and my family to make homemade items as opossed to store bought junk with additives and cottenseed oils etc. So I really don't see the need for you to take on the role of being my nanny and telling me what I should and should not do with my earnings.



    Retail price was around $180 as you love to make note of. But I never pay retail for anything and that included this purchase. Thank you for your concern....



    Fellows
  • Reply 11 of 63
    dmzdmz Posts: 5,775member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by segovius View Post


    Cheers



    The great thing about a tajine is the conical dome and the terracotta - it absorbs the steam (and the spices) which gather at the top of the dome until they drop back down over the dish. Over a few hours on a very low flame this can impart an amazing flavour.



    Once I had a lemon chicken in the Middle East that was cooked in a tajine that was buried in the desert sand for 24 hours! Was amazing! i have a recipe for this for normal cooking...not as good but still mindblowing...



    Maybe you do need terracotta for this though - perhaps your Crueset is more suitable for slow dishes like coq au vin etc.



    If you like chicken I have a recipe we eat a lot here in Barcelona: Pollo al Ajillo (Chicken with garlic). It's not quite slow cooking but tastes amazing.



    Ingredients



    1 Organic chicken - jointed into 8 pieces, leave skin on.

    Arbequina olive oil

    2 garlic BULBS

    6 fresh bay leaves

    200ml dry white wine or Fino sherry

    100ml water

    sea salt



    Method



    The secret of this dish is to get the chicken juices to emulsify with the garlic/oil.



    Season chicken with sea salt and pepper.

    Heat the oil in the pan and when hot throw in all the garlic cloves in their skins - fry until golden.

    Remove with spoon and add chicken pieces in batches...fry for 3 mins either side until golden brown.

    Put the garlic back in and add bay leaves and wine. Here you should shake the pan so the juices emulsify with the oil.

    Simmer (lid off) for 2 mins to evaporate some alcohol and turn chicken as you do so.

    Then stir in water and cover with lid - 4 mins.

    Take out breast meat and set aside ...leave the rest in.

    Simmer for 10 mins more with lid on.

    Add breast meet back for a min or so and add water if too dry..season if you like...



    Serve immediately!



    That problem with that, segovius, is if Fellowship gets caught with a canoun (or couscous for that matter) in Texas, he's looking at doing hard time.
  • Reply 12 of 63
    Thanks segovious, Sounds great.



    Fellows
  • Reply 13 of 63
    dmzdmz Posts: 5,775member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by segovius View Post


    One other thing: I think that a brilliant (and cheap) French wine for cooking chicken in is Corbieres.....



    Just bung a chicken in the pot with garlic, shallots and bay and pour in a whole bottle. Can't go wrong!



    Let's not forget the yams and mushrooms.



    Also, where are you finding halal Chorizo?
  • Reply 14 of 63
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by segovius View Post


    Okay, sorry, I'm on a roll. here's a great soup for when it gets colder.




    Don't be sorry,



    The more you post the more notes I am taking.



    Fellows
  • Reply 15 of 63
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by segovius View Post


    Cheers, let me know if you attempt any!



    I guess you need to love garlic for that chicken one....



    You can count on me trying them and I do like garlic quite well.



    Fellows
  • Reply 16 of 63
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by segovius View Post


    Well, someone once told me to never peel garlic ever - always fry in the skin. It really enfuses the oil and prevents burning...the garlic tastes sweeter too that way.



    You need the right garlic though...many in the markets here are quite mild now. I think they have done something to them.



    Take a look at this seg,



    http://www.chef2chef.net/news/club/v...vice-daily.htm



    Fellows
  • Reply 17 of 63
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by segovius View Post


    Ah, ok! I never knew that! They are milder if you leave them whole....



    It's amazing the subtleties that we just gloss over in cooking these days isn't it?



    I was speaking to a brilliant Indian chef once about the dish called Do-Piazza (ie 2 onions) and why it is called that....he said that you fry half the onions in the oil and cook all the other ingredients but you add the other half of the onions 40 minutes into the cooking.



    The point is that people in India have a palette that can discern the tastes of the two differently cooked onions!



    Sometimes I think it is very sad the way we regard food and tastes in the West - often we do not even know what we have lost in terms of these skills and tastes.....



    Indeed, It is harder to be a food connessiur in an ocean of uninterested masses who settle for what ever instead of having a passion like us foodies.



    Fellows
  • Reply 19 of 63
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Fellowship View Post


    You guys are something... You moan about that I could have had a $30 version of what I have. I suppose I could use a cheap PC to browse the net also but I love apple better for many reasons. You moan about that I could use less energy with a pressure cooker...



    I know I can save energy with a pressure cooker. I have a great pressure cooker that I use for many meals. BUT I have never had the same result with brisket out of a pressure cooker. I use this pot for more of a weekend meal and what is more is that it provides for wonderful leftovers which taste better than the first day in some cases.



    You guys are miserable little people.. To mention that the "French" smoke what does that have to do with anything this thread is about. I simply said that Texas style smoked foods are a little less than healthy and I stand by that. I do eat them from time to time but I also eat much healthier foods most of the time.



    Here is a group of people that know how to reply to this subject at hand...



    They are more mature and less of a miserable lot of cry babies.



    http://www.donrockwell.com/index.php...opic=1720&st=0



    The right wingers here at AI are too damn "American centric" and hate others.



    The left wingers here at AI seem to want to tell you how to use your energy and how to cook and with what cheap piece of cookware.



    I fit neither of the two lame "boxes"



    We need in the worst of ways many more moderates here who are level headed.



    You all could benefit from not being such negative miserable souls.



    Fellows











    Don't take it so seriously Fellows, we dont.
  • Reply 20 of 63
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by southside grabowski View Post


    Don't take it so seriously Fellows, we dont.



    LOL You are a hoot !



    I do enjoy a good post!



    I owe you actually for the little bits of laughter I get out of your posts from time to time. I am still trying to grasp more knowledge around the methods of your complex humor.



    But what do I know



    Fellows
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