Cast iron casserole

I finally bought my cast iron casserole from Le Creuset. Costs $289 for a 27 cm oval casserole instead of the original $590, because of a 50% discount from Takashimaya. Picked up a stoneware baking dish as well, in the signature orange red that you can spot from miles away in the kitchen of any serious chefs. Anna Olson has at least 8 types sitting in her kitchen in all sorts of colours. Envious!

I was actually toying between a black cast iron casserole, instead of the enameled version. It looks so rustic, the way it should be when soldiers, farmers, wandering gypsies, priests traversed across Europe in the 1500s armed with nothing much except their cast iron pot that pretty much cooks everything,  in every way. Fried, stewed, boiled, braised etc. Completely black and with much larger iron pores that will turn into a coat of sheen with heavy usage and over time. The biggest downside is that it will rust easily. So a lot of care is needed. Well, for a busy person like me, that didn't sound right... So I ended up with the nice and pretty enameled version.

Ok I always manage to learn something with every culinary adventure. I didn't know the black phenolic knob at the top of the lid has a temperature limit of 190 degrees celsius. I was wondering why and was getting fairly alarmed, since I only discovered this when I reach home! In my mind, I often imagined a cast iron casserole allows one to cook in the oven for a long period in high temperature. Long period = 8 hrs. Ah yes and no! Yes it allows you to stew or braise for that long, but the magic of a cast iron casserole is that it retains heat and evenly, without raising the temperature of your cooking. It is not designed to cook long over high heat. Rather, its over low and medium heat. I further validated by double checking Julia Child's recipe for beouf bouguignon - 375 degrees farenheit indeed. Phew!

The next step is to read that recipe in detail and assemble my ingredients for a first culinary foray into classic French cooking! I did ask myself, why am I starting with something far more advance. Eh....I guess I wanted to prove to myself that I can do this even though I am still an amateur? Or maybe we are all serious meat lovers?

Haha.