dutch oven tuesdays
i absolutely love my dutch oven. initially i thought i would become annoyed with the care of cast iron, but through some trial and error i've come to discover that you don't have to be as careful as you might think. for instance, it won't rust over if you let it sit out moist for a few hours...or even a few days. i even use it like a wok and stir fry my heart out. in short, he's a cool cat and definitely on my list for the best purchases i have ever made. (other items making the list are a neti pot, vitamin e oil, and sunglasses that go over my regular glasses; a post for another time.)
lately i've been trying to cook and eat less meat. a standard i go by is that each meal should only have 4 oz of meat, which is really tiny! what actually makes it difficult is that i often depend on meat to fill out the meal and make us feel full. you have to eat a lot of vegetables to hit that same level of satiation! beans and things like that help, but it's kind of not the same. featured in a video we watched in the seventh grade was an old man who ate tons of vegetables. sitting in front of a huge bowl of salad, he happily exclaimed, "i get to eat all this food, but if you were to eat the same amount of calories of meat, it would be much less!" and then they placed a piece of steak in front of him. i was not convinced.
unforch, dutch ovens really shine the most when slow cooking meats. if you look on the food network website, the exciting recipes are for short ribs or pot roasts and the like, which is awesome, but not that helpful when you're trying to cut down on the meat. today i found a beautiful recipe for mushroom bourguignon, which is a twist on the classic beef version, but using the beefiness of mushrooms to give the dish its depth of flavor. it was very good, but echoing a comment already made on the recipe, i kept on thinking that it would've been better had a few chunks of beef been in there. nevertheless, i appreciate that it doesn't need a big slab of beef or pork to support the dish, and even though it is vegetarian, it doesn't really feel like it and is delicious as a vegetarian or regular dish.
try it!
this was taken when it wasn't quite done, so that's why it looks watery and a little sad. but rest assured, i added flour and butter, two good friends who make everything better!
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