By Aby Rinella
There is nothing better than cooking with cast iron. The ease of taking your food from stovetop to oven, knowing you will end up with a dish cooked to perfection makes this a must-have kitchen staple. Along with the ease of being non-stick and the comfort of knowing this investment will last a lifetime, it brings nostalgia, comfort, and old-time feeling into the preparation of a meal. Bonus points if it is your grandma’s skillet. Here are two favorite recipes that use the cast iron skillet to make a meal that will not soon be forgotten.
Blue Cheese and Mushroom Stuffed Wild Game Tenderloin Using a cast-iron skillet for this tenderloin produces a crisp, browned outside and a tender, cooked-to-perfection inside.
Ingredients: 1 (10-12 inch) tenderloin (elk, deer, or whatever game you have on hand)
1 cup crumbled blue cheese
8-10 strips of bacon
2 cups fresh spinach
1 onion, diced
1 ½ cups mushrooms, sliced
Salt
Pepper
Thyme
Rosemary
Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
2. Cook bacon on cookie sheet in oven at 350 degrees until done, crumble, and set aside.
3. Heat cast-iron skillet, coat bottom with olive oil.
4. Sauté diced onion and mushrooms until tender.
5. Toss spinach in with onion and mushrooms; cook until just wilted, remove veggies from pan, set aside.
6. Add olive oil to pan and allow to heat.
7. Butterfly tenderloin and season with salt, pepper, rosemary, and thyme.
8. Spread veggie mixture on half of tenderloin, top with bacon and blue cheese.
9. Roll top half of tenderloin over and secure with kitchen twine.
10. Drizzle olive oil over roast. Season with salt, pepper or garlic salt.
11. Sear both sides of tenderloin in cast iron until brown.
12. Place into oven, uncovered for 30 minutes or until desired doneness.
13. Remove from oven, cover with foil and let rest for 15 minutes before serving.
14. Serve with Easy No-Knead Skillet Bread (below), a salad and roasted baby potatoes for a sure-to-please meal.
Easy No-Knead Rosemary Olive Oil Skillet Bread Cooking this olive-rosemary bread in a cast-iron skillet creates a crisp outside and soft inside, the perfect complement to any meal!
Ingredients:
* 1 package active dry yeast (2 ¼ tsp if measuring from bulk)
* 4 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
* 2 cups lukewarm water
* ½ tbsp salt
* Olive Oil
* Rosemary
* Coarse Salt
Instructions:
1. Combine yeast and warm water in a large bowl or pitcher.
2. Using a wooden spoon, add in 1 cup of the flour and then the salt and mix until combined. Stir in the rest of the flour, one cup at a time until completely incorporated.
3. Cover with plastic wrap. Allow to rise for 1 hour.
4. Do not punch down the dough. Lightly oil the bottom of a cast-iron skillet (a 10” or 12” skillet works best). Sprinkle a good amount of flour on top of dough and then cover hands with flour. Take all the dough and shape into a disk (it will be sticky).
5. Place in the skillet, cover loosely with a towel and allow to rise for another 30 minutes.
6. Heat oven to 400 degrees.
7. Drizzle top of bread with olive oil.
8. Slice dough with X.
9. Sprinkle with coarse salt and rosemary.
10. Bake for 35-40 minutes until top is deep brown. *This same recipe can be used to make a sweet bread: replace olive oil with butter and rosemary and salt with sweetener, cinnamon or fruit.