Cooking & Baking
Related: About this forumSubbing cast iron skillet for oven
So....my oven has been out for a couple of weeks. The element actually caught fire one evening when I turned it on! My landlord is waiting for a new part to arrive (and is a little slow at repairs, too). And so I have been adapting dishes to stovetop with my trusty cast iron skillet.
Tonight I put together mac and cheese as I usually do, making the bechamel in a saute pan and adding cheese. Then I stirred in the cooked macaroni and then turned it all into my hot buttered cast iron skillet. Covered with some sliced Vermont cheddar and put on a lid. The hope was that the mac-cheese would brown a little bit on the bottom. And it did. Butter-fried mac and cheese. Slightly crispy on the bottom.
Last week I made eggplant parm by crisping up eggplant slices in the cast iron skillet and then putting a couple of slices on each plate, topping with tomato sauce laced with basil, then with mozzarella, and then with a gremolata that I had browned off in the skillet. Put it in the microwave to melt the cheese. Gremolata = stale sourdough or Italian bread crumbs whirled with chopped parsley, garlic, herbs, EVOO. Makes a very tasty savory crumb topping and is very adjustable. Umami.
PoindexterOglethorpe
(25,684 posts)Some years back when the element in my oven went out (didn't catch fire luckily) I spent the summer only fixing food I could make on the stove top anyway, or on the backyard grill. I was not as creative as you are.
I finally got the element replaced (home owner, no landlord to deal with) when I missed my chocolate chip cookies.
Kali
(54,990 posts)a camp stove plus the microwave and an electric skillet - the husband figured out how to make "fried" peanut butter cookies! they came out pretty good,
PoindexterOglethorpe
(25,684 posts)Kali
(54,990 posts)in the electric skillet kind of like pancakes.
they were good enough we joke about making them that way on purpose sometimes.
Grasswire2
(13,564 posts)It is Gravenstein apple season here, and pies are in high demand in my family.
I was trying to devise a way to line the warm skillet with pie dough and then filling and cook it off. But I just suspect it will not work.
oh....I could make turnovers, though! Probably.
BlueHusker
(4 posts)Especially reheating leftover pizza,.
Major Nikon
(36,814 posts)My big oven went on the fritz and I was really in not that much hurry to replace it.
Even larger things like whole turkeys get done in my electric smoker, so the big oven gets used a few times per year and that's about it.
The Polack MSgt
(13,141 posts)"Butter-fried mac and cheese."
I would marry you if you worked that phrase into the proposal
Grasswire2
(13,564 posts)Heck. Men usually want me for my pie.
The Polack MSgt
(13,141 posts)... and I think you do