hot in the pot

after seeing my friend's very lovely le creuset dutch oven (in the most satisfying purple color, i DIE!) and eating the product of the lovely oven, a really delicious short rib pasta, i began my hunt for a dutch oven.

after some searching and amazon-ing, i finally settled on this:

it got really fantastic reviews on amazon, and seems to do the trick, but at a much lower price point than the le creusets or the staubs. the only sticky point is that since it's straight up cast iron and not covered in enamel, you need to season your pot and be careful about rust. soap is also a big no-no when cleaning. basically, when cleaning your cast iron pieces, after thoroughly washing the item with hot water, you need to dry it completely before coating with a light layer of oil. i admit it's a little tiresome, and we'll see how willing i am to do this whole song and dance after a few more uses, but for now (after i've used it a grand total of ONCE), it's not too bad.

tonight i tried bobby flay's short rib ragu with pappardelle, the inspiring ribs which started it all, recipe here: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/bobby-flay/short-rib-ragu-with-pappardelle-and-pecorino-romano-recipe/index.html. i was really happy with how well the dutch oven performed. after doing battle with my peeling non-stick wok and stainless steel frying pan, it was pure JOY to brown the sides of the ribs with no protest and stickiness. the heat dispersion and retention on these things are also incredible; normally i've found that my pans will have "hot spots" where some parts are hotter than others, and i usually have to blast the gas at high for things to happen. here, i was able to turn it to medium, where the heat was even across the surface, and the heat was retained so that i could turn it down to low and it was still hot enough to sear the ribs! also, to further validate my fangirl status, i hear that it has really great convection oven properties as made possible by its tight fitting lid.

on top of that, i was able to throw the whole thing in the oven, where hours later, it emerged like a wakened beast:

i imagine this is what esau's stew looked like

all in all, i'm super excited about our new pot and would highly recommend it to friends, and even people who aren't my friends!