Things that have changed the way I cook (part 1 of many, I'm sure)

Photo by Nalin Bhutt

Cast iron. We have two cast iron cooking pots/pans, and I can't imagine my life without them. One (a small/medium size stew pot) we bought at a Crate & Barrel outlet. The other (a flat pan) at a Mexican grocery store in Pilsen. I never thought I'd be able to make good eggs in anything but those non-stick skillets. Boy was I wrong. Okay, so you may have to use a tad bit more olive oil in the cast iron, so that the eggs don't stick. But that just makes the eggs oh so much better. We calculated the other day that we probably go through about two dozen eggs a week in our household. My youngest son Nooa could eat two-to-three eggs with runny yolks dripping down his face in one go. He is crazy for them. I have to give credit to two people who opened my eyes to cooking eggs in cast iron: the first being my sister-in-law, Madhvi, an amazing cook, who used our cast iron to cook eggs for her kids when she was visiting, and Reenu, our dear friend from Palo Alto, who did the exact same thing when she was in town. Of course, we do use this flat cast iron pan for more than just eggs. We heat up our chapattis or tortillas (the reason we bought the pan in the first place), make pancakes, and sear meat or fish. This is such a cheap item available in so many groceries or home stores.

Two winters ago, when we got our first cast iron pot, Nalin started making wonderful Japanese stews almost once a week. Sometimes he'd make it with chicken, other times with fish or beef (first browned in the pot before the other ingredients were added). He would always put in onions or shallots, carrots, potatoes, and often mushrooms. The seasoning would be simple with soy sauce, mirin, and saké. As it cooks, the darkness of the pot seems to seep into the food, creating a caramelized hue. The result would be the most lovely comfort food. He would give Ettu and I bowls filled with sticky rice and side plates with nori (thin, dried seaweed), and we would then use the nori to pick up the stew and rice (at that time, we would often have to feed Ettu from our hands, but he loved it all; to this day he eats at least a dozen nori in one sitting (the small sheets, but still!). Nooa is now trying to keep up with his big brother. This simple stew is one of the most enjoyable parts of winter, and something I always look forward to when the weather starts to chill.

Today I use that pot for just about everything: soups, dals, stews, curries, meats, veggies. Next to our Le Creuset (which I'm sure I will blog about later in this ongoing segment), it is just about the most important thing in our kitchen. You could almost say it has cast a spell on me.