Glorious One-Pot Meals (3 page)

Start by following a few recipes closely before branching out to create your own. This will help you to get the feel for the pot and the cooking method and enable you to apply the layering precepts to other ingredients. Remember that the key is the layering. The more recipes you prepare, the more you’ll understand which ingredients to use, how they should be cut, and in what order they should be added to your Dutch oven.

The
only
elements in a Glorious One-Pot Meal recipe that require exact measurements are the ratios between dry grains and the liquid needed to hydrate them. Be sure to use the appropriate measuring cups for dry and wet ingredients. (See “Common Measurements,” pages 8 and 9.)

Adding more liquid produces a poached effect, which is delicious but not always desired. The correct proportion of liquid to ingredients keeps the cooking process inside the food, infusing it with flavors

throughout the pot. (Refer to the “Common Measurements” chart, pages 8 and 9, when in doubt as to grain-to-liquid ratios.) To stretch a meal to feed more people, prepare grains or pasta separately in a traditional manner and fill the Dutch oven to the brim with more vegetables and/or meat.

Preheat your oven to 450°F as you prepare the ingredients (450°F is equivalent to 230°C or Mark 8 in Europe). By the time your Glorious One-Pot Meal is ready to bake, the oven will be hot.

Use a stand-alone oven thermometer to validate the oven temperature, as temperatures off by even ten degrees will affect the results of your meal.

Place the rack in the center of the oven. Don’t allow the knob on the lid of the Dutch oven to touch the heating element on the ceiling of the oven.

There is no benefit to using a convection oven as a convection oven speeds cooking of
uncovered
foods and Glorious One-Pot Meals
remain covered
the entire
time they bake. Plus, cooking time and temperature are the same for a conventional oven as for a convection oven for these meals, so you may as well save energy by using a conventional oven if you have the choice.

The infusion cooking process clearly enhances the original characteristics of a meat or vegetable, so start with good-quality ingredients.

Use a sturdy vegetable scrubber and clean vegetables well. No peeling is necessary, but it’s important that all produce is clean and that bruises, eyes, and other blemishes are removed. Even if you’re using organic vegetables, it’s still a good idea to use a fruit and vegetable wash of citrus and baking soda to remove any residue of wax or grime. For conventionally grown vegetables, a wash is essential to remove the coating of chemicals.

Rinse pieces of meat and poultry and trim off the fat. Fat won’t melt off a piece of meat or poultry in the Dutch oven the way it can when grilling or frying. Removing the skin from poultry makes for a lower-fat meal.

Keep some frozen vegetables around to add on a whim to any Glorious One-Pot Meal; no need to defrost. Canned tomatoes and jars of prepared tomato sauce are also recommended staples. See “The Stocked Pantry” (page 18) for more ideas on what to keep around.

Wrap and freeze cleaned and trimmed meat, poultry, and fish in individual servings. It’s always easier to reach into the freezer than to run to the grocery store at dinnertime, and individual serving sizes allow you to customize the meal. Also, meat will cook better if the pieces are not frozen together.

Whole, peeled garlic cloves add a light garlicky flavor to meat while mellowing into a tasty, nutty treat. The more garlic is cut and the cellular walls are injured, the more intense the flavor. Adjust garlic intensity by mincing, chopping, slicing, or by simply leaving the peeled cloves intact. You may find you use more garlic with infusion cooking than you do in other cooking methods.

Instant brown rice has been parboiled,
precooked, and then dried and packaged. It looks just like regular rice, except it is a whole grain rather than a refined one, with nothing artificial added. Substitute equally for white rice in any recipe. Fluff all grains with a fork when serving.

At times you might run out of room and still have cut vegetables left over. Seal and refrigerate extra pieces for use in the next Glorious One-Pot Meal, or chop vegetables into smaller pieces and repack the pot. My husband insists that sometimes the key is in the packing; changing the size or organization of the ingredients can affect how compactly the pot is packed. We try to pack our Dutch oven to the brim with vegetables every time.

To improve the nutritional profile of a recipe, use low-sodium options for ingredients such as broth and canned tomatoes, as well as for seasonings such as soy sauce. Consider choosing no-sugar-added ketchup and peanut butter as well.

Each recipe in
Glorious One-Pot Meals
is intended to be prepared in a 2-quart Dutch oven and will feed two people, with possibly a little left over, depending upon the enthusiasm of the diners. Once you increase the size of the Dutch oven, follow the one-quart-per-person rule minus a half-quart. So, for dinner for four, I find the 3 ½-quart pot holds plenty of food. See the table below to determine the right pot for your needs.

Dutch-oven manufacturers often offer either whole-quart or half-quart sizes. When considering a half-quart size, I assume it will hold enough food if I decrease the one-quart-per-person rule by a half-quart.

Certainly it is fine to cook a smaller amount, say for two people, in a larger Dutch oven, say a 5-quart size. Just be aware that the amount of time needed to cook may or may not change (use your nose to know for sure when dinner is ready). Some recipes may dry out a little, and you may fall victim to what I like to call “overenthusiastic vegetable preparation.” Overenthusiastic vegetable preparation means that, because your pot is so large, it is hard to know when you’ve put in enough food, and it’s easy to overdo the proportion of vegetables to meat and carbs. All this means is that if you use a pot size larger than needed, follow your nose rather than a timer and be prepared to have a lot of veggie leftovers.

Buy the size of Dutch oven appropriate for the number of people you feed on a daily basis. It’s just easier to use the right size pot. After that, if you decide to make

Glorious One-Pot Meals when you entertain guests, you may want to get a second, larger pot. By this point, you won’t have any doubt as to how valuable this piece of cookware is because you will have experienced the amazing benefits of infusion cooking.

Cast-iron Dutch ovens are an investment and require special care. When using un-coated cast-iron pots, follow the rules of caring for all uncoated cast-iron cookware:

1. Season before use by bonding a thin layer of grease onto the cooking surface. To season a new pot, heat the oven to 250°–300°F. Coat the pot with lard and place it in the oven for fifteen minutes. Remove the pot and pour out any excess grease. Put it back in the oven and bake for about two hours.
   

2. Rinse the pot with hot water to clean it;
   never
   use soap.
   

3. Dry the pot completely and store coated with a thin layer of cooking oil to prevent rust.
   

While some enamel-coated cast-iron Dutch ovens can go directly from freezer to oven to table to dishwasher with no problem, there are a few guidelines to follow in caring for these as well:

1. Use wooden or plastic utensils. Metal utensils can scratch the enamel coating.
   

2. Cool a cast-iron Dutch oven before immersing it in water. Hot cast iron can crack when it comes into contact with water or something very cold. It should be cool to the touch before washing.
   

3. Clean enamel-coated cast iron with a soft sponge and liquid dish detergent. Abrasive cleaners or steel wool pads can seriously damage the pot. Fill the pot with hot soapy water and let sit for fifteen minutes or so before cleaning for best results.
   

Many enamel-coated cast-iron Dutch ovens are not intended to go into a 450°F oven because of the plastic knob on the lid. But over the decade that I have been using my collection of ovens for this technique and preparing hundreds, if not thousands, of Glorious One-Pot Meals, my knobs have remained pristine. Of the tens of thousands

of early adapters of this cooking method, only one has ever reported a faulty knob (the company replaced it). And I have been assured by one major manufacturer that the intention was to deter cooks from using a superhot oven for a long period of time, significantly longer than one hour.

The fundamental tools for creating Glorious One-Pot Meals include the following kitchen basics:

CAST-IRON DUTCH OVEN,
preferably enamel-coated cast iron. (See “Recipe Adjustment Chart,” page 12, to determine the appropriate size for you.)

PLASTIC OR WOODEN SERVING SPOON.
Avoid metal utensils as they may scratch the enamel coating or seasoning of the Dutch oven.

SHARP KNIFE.
A dull knife can double the labor of chopping vegetables and increase the risk of injury because of the extra force needed to cut. A happy chef has a good-quality knife.

PLASTIC CUTTING BOARD.
Meat, poultry, and fish should never be placed on a wooden cutting board because wood can trap bacteria.
Plastic cutting boards can be washed clean and are dishwasher-safe for added health security.

PLASTIC OR WOODEN CUTTING BOARD.
Keep your vegetable cutting board free from contact with meat.

RUBBER SCRUBBIE SPONGE.
Avoid steel wool or other abrasive cleaners on an enamel-coated Dutch oven. I find a “safe for all surfaces” sponge with a gentle plastic mesh on one side is perfect for many uses.

VEGETABLE SCRUBBER.
A soft vegetable brush helps remove dirt from tubers and other root vegetables and can eliminate the need to peel the item before cooking it.

MESH STRAINER.
Useful for rinsing everything from fresh herbs and string beans to dry rice. Be sure the strainer is fine enough that rice grains won’t slip through the weave.

TWO POT HOLDERS.
A heavy Dutch oven plus a very hot oven can be a recipe for burns, so always take care when moving the pot. Don’t forget that the knob on the lid will also be 450°F. Take precautions not to burn yourself.

TRIVET.
For obvious reasons, don’t set a hot Dutch oven directly on a surface that isn’t heat-resistant.

When designing Glorious One-Pot Meals, I consider many factors: type and intensity of flavors, authenticity of the ingredients to the specific culinary tradition, and the nutritional benefits of all the components. Since each color family of vegetables offers different nutritional benefits, I aim to include several colors of veggies in each recipe.

If you think of the meal as a canvas and bring color into the pot by including a variety of green, yellow, red, and orange vegetables, not only will your taste buds be stimulated, but your body will receive a broad selection of vitamins, minerals, and nutrients every time you dine.

The chart on page 16 gives a quick glance at what color means in a vegetable.

Experiment and have fun with your food. Push aside the iceberg lettuce (almost devoid of nutrients) and use sweet potatoes, leeks, broccoli, asparagus, eggplant— whatever is in season or strikes your fancy. Glorious One-Pot Meals are designed to be complete dinners; there’s no need to serve a side salad because multiple vegetables are included in every meal. And don’t forget that variety is essential to receive the broadest range of nutrients your body needs.