Last night's supper and today's lunch were a giant veggie pancake, consisting of freezer scallions, green beans and zucchini slices, sauteed very well, then pancake batter poured over, made into a very sturdy pancake on top of the stove. In the cast iron pan. Of course. It was very good but not photogenic, so no pix.
Then I thought, ah, clafouti! great old Julia Child recipe I made many times in the distant past. Usually this is done in cherry season in France, early June, because of a large quantity of cherries to deal with, but you can use any fruit, really.
I hauled out my early sixties' copy of JC, complete with inscription from Handsome Partner which I won't quote because it was an in-joke, mainly to find out the oven temp needed. Which turned out to be 350F.
Seemed like a good time, too, to test the cast iron pan's utility as a cake pan. You scarcely need a recipe for this. Make a skim of the batter on the bottom of the pan, let it cook a minute or two (this is to keep the fruit from sticking to the pan) and while that's happening, thaw and drain about half a cup of berries, put them in the pan, then pour the rest of the pancake batter over and bake.
I did this at 350F for a bit over half an hour, since it was a small one, a bigger one should probably go longer. You can see how it's starting to release from the edge of the pan, showing a browned underside. This tells you it's about done.Nice warm dessert for these cold winter days.
You sprinkle a bit of sugar over after it's baked, looks nice, and I served it with a couple of scoops of plain nonfat yogurt. If your household goes for icecream, this would be great, the hot dessert and a scoop of good vanilla, yes I can see that.
and the pan released the clafouti very nicely.
At this rate I may freecycle all my other pans! so far every experiment I've made with the cast iron has worked out.
Gosh this looks simply sinful! Yummy!
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