Who doesn't love steak in cast iron?

I'm a bit of a carnivore. OK, maybe that's an understatement. Sometimes when my boyfriend asks me what I'm in the mood for when we're going out to eat with friends, all I can respond with is "Meat!" so it's no surprise that I went to steak as my second dish in my new pan. I shop primarily at Publix, and they have a section in their meat department that is dedicated to ready to cook dishes like this flank steak, stuffed with mozzarella and spinach.

It's handy that they come in their own ready to cook container, but of course this wasn't the flavor I was looking for. I wanted that seared flavor and so I decided I would use my cast iron. Well, I didn't think about how difficult this was going to be to clean up either, because of the melty cheese,but that's a subject I'll come back to. Doesn't this look amazing? I tossed the meat in the hot pan, seared it a little on both sides, then tossed in the bedding spinach and a pack of steamed brussel sprouts that were in a mild butter based sauce.

When I took this picture, I was just about to flip them to see if they were getting too seared in the oven. This is when I realized that using meat that was stuffed with cheese in this pan wasn't the best idea, even though it smelled wonderful. Another few minutes and it was time to see how they turned out.

I'll admit, it's not the best I ever had, and I probably won't try this in this pan again, at least until the seasoning really forms a solid surface, but it was really good. I've bought these before and after trying to cook them this way, I think I'll leave them in the oven-ready pan they come in and save myself the clean up.

Here's the finished plate. Yes, I love the convenience of box mac and cheese, don't judge me! I'll make mac and cheese another time, since it's my favorite, but not in my cast iron!

Now the question is what to try next....

Indian food, an obvious choice?

Tonight I finally got to use my new cast iron pan. As I'm writing this, the pan is in the oven getting a seasoning layer, since I cooked with tomato paste and it was obvious the seasoning layer cooked off. 

One of the reasons I wanted this new pan was so I could try my hand at Indian cooking. It's something we love but there's only one place in town to get it, and I just want to be able to cook anything, if that makes sense. Part of the fun of trying new recipes is the trial and error of getting them just how you want them. Sometimes the first attempt is an utter failure and there's so much to change that it's not worth it, and sometimes you get lucky and there's a home run and the recipe just needs minor tweaking. This recipe I started off with for butter lamb gravy was a home run.

Here in Auburn, our grocery stores don't carry the lamb this recipe calls for, so I opted for chicken instead. It was a good thing I doubled the recipe, because out of four pounds of meat, there's enough leftovers for one plate. This is a dish that even looked delicious when it first started cooking!

OK, so the end result wasn't what I'd call perfect, and there's some things that I'll definitely tweak, because it wasn't too spicy for my son & I, but it was spicy enough for my boyfriend to live with so I will definitely make this again.

What would I change?

I think the gravy needs to be thicker and a bit more creamy. How will I do that? I think that I'm going to try to simmer the dish longer, or possibly I'll add a little corn starch or flour, to thicken it a little. Since the heavy cream goes in last, that's the perfect vehicle for it. The recipe came out great as is, but I think it could be better with this one change that could solve both the issues I had with the recipe.

So why is my pan in the oven being seasoned again after making this? Highly acidic foods eat at the seasoning. Since this recipe has tomato paste in it, it definitely qualifies. If you're using a pan that's had a long history of seasoning, you probably don't need to worry about it. Being that this is a new pan I cooked this recipe in, it hasn't had the chance to get that seasoning build up, so it cooked the seasoning right off it. I'll be hitting it with a couple more layers tomorrow to help for next time.

I'd love to hear other's experience if you try this recipe!