It seems that nowadays, every cooking forum has people extolling the virtues of cast iron pans. People dwell on their longevity, their hardiness, their second-to-none ability to hold heat and give a good sear. And I gotta tell ya, I’m pretty impressed with my cast iron pans. They are pretty great. 

So what if my wee 6.5-inch pan couldn’t fit a steak? And does it really matter, given that cast iron is more high-maintenance, that I still reach for my stainless steel as a default? There are more important considerations for purchasing a cast iron pan: for example, how it makes the food you cook looks good. And that’s where a cast iron pan truly shines.  

My current obsession is Banana Foster. It’s a dressed-up banana split: a pan filled with tender bananas macerating in warm caramel sauce, which is topped with scoops of ice cream and served straight from the stove. It’s easy as ABC to put together and tastes like a treat. 

My folks are firmly in the Alice Waters camp that when a fruit ripens to the point when it's good to eat on its own, it is best enjoyed by itself, and shouldn't be cooked with. And, with them not being fans of overly-sweet desserts, they gave me the stink eye when I added perfectly-ripened bananas to a simmering pan of caramel. But my counter argument was infallible: unlike other fruits, bananas are guaranteed to be sweet when ripened. I don’t think I have ever had a bad banana. Most varieties of bananas taste a little starchy, and cooking them down tenderises them and removes their starchy texture*.

Banana Foster 

INGREDIENTS

30g unsalted butter

60g dark brown sugar 

1/4 tsp cinnamon

3 bananas, sliced lengthwise  

Ice cream, pre-scooped 

40ml rum (optional)

Pecan, whole or halved (optional)

STEPS

1. Place butter, dark brown sugar and cinnamon in a small skillet. Set it over low heat and let the butter gently melt, stirring occasionally to combine the melted butter with the brown sugar. If the melted butter is not mixing well with the dry ingredients, you can add 1-2 more dark brown sugar to help bring everything together. It should look like a thick slurry at this stage. 

2. Add sliced bananas and gently spoon the warm caramel sauce over them, making sure each piece gets equal time macerating in the sauce. They should begin to soften in 1-2 minutes. At this stage, the brown sugar melts fully, and the sauce should thin out. When the banana is soft and pliable, turn off the heat and remove the pan from stove.  

SERVING
Reserve couple of tablespoons of the caramel sauce. Add the scoops of ice cream over the top, drizzle over with caramel sauce and top with pecan. Serve immediately.   

TIPS

Flambéed banana foster: Prior to serving, heat up rum in a small saucepan set over low heat, until the rum begins to simmer at the edges. Remove from heat, and using either a kitchen torch or a long matchstick, ignite the fumes near the surface of the rum. Pour over the banana foster. As the flames die down, stir, add ice cream and pecans. Serve immediately. (If you have young nieces and nephews, as I do, you can bedazzle and befuddle them with this flambéed version. Just as befuddled would be their parents, to whom I might have expressively told that I had made desserts for their kids, before rum had been added. But that's okay.  

Since a recent visit to an Argentinian restaurant where we scooped up melted provoleta with fugazetta (Argentinian stuffed pizza), I've been low-key obsessed with recreating the dish at home. It was a real-life enactment of every pizza commercial: warm molten cheese stretching from the tabletop to the height of your arm span as you dip crisp toasted bread into the cheese and devour it whole. 

Months later, I finally bit the bullet and bought myself a couple of Lodge cast-iron skillets. For a couple of heavy cookware that were made half the world away, they are surprisingly affordable! I got a 6.5-inch and a 10.25-inch pan which was just about $60 total. 

Cast iron pans have a cult following for many reasons: their durability and longevity, an ability to hold heat and deliver a great sear, the ease of use for both stovetops and oven, and an eventual non-stick surface. But I'm keeping it real: I bought a wee 6.5 inch pan just so I can indulge my desire to eat melted cheese in the comforts of my home. #nightcheesehabit

My decision composition for buying a cast iron: 30% for durability, 10% for its good sear and 90% because they look just fabulous. Is that how percentages work?

Also, should I really be standing over the pan taking pictures for the ‘gram as the oil smokes during the seasoning process? A question for another day.

I bought a set of cork-based place mats to use with my cast-iron pans, and let's just say, I'm glad I didn't go for plastic or silicone.

Provoleta is a traditional cheese made in Argentina, and can be tricky to find in other countries. Luckily, provolone, their Italian cousin, more widely available and makes a decent substitute. The ones I see in well-stocked grocery stores are sold in thick slabs or in 500g blocks. While melted provoleta is traditionally served as an appetiser for a meat-forward meal, I actually really like cooking and serving this for breakfast. There, I said it. Fight me. 

It's the ideal Breakfast Food; it's faster than making an omelette, and with even less effort. The cheese melts in just a matter of minutes over a fire or in the oven, which is the right amount of time needed to fix myself a cuppa. It's perfect with toasted bread, like the world's fanciest Nutella. And unlike eggs, which messes with your perception of how coffee tastes, provolone cheese has no such problems.   

At this point, you may be wondering, this have all been quite a lot of words and paragraphs, and where is the picture of my provolone cheese in my incredibly-photogenic cast iron pan? Well done. That is a very good catch and you’ll go far in life. Well, I've decided that tinkling around with a recipe while taking pictures is quite daunting, actually. Especially when I have got to schedule my workflow around mealtimes and natural lighting. So I’ve decided to take a step back, do what I can and then take my photos at a later date, when the opportunity presents itself. In other news, I’ve come to terms with the fact that I’m incredibly lazy. Cheers. 

Melted Provolone

If you like, you may simply melt the cheese with sprinkles of herbs and chili flakes, have it for breakfast and call it a day. As I often do. But this is the Internet, where everybody presents a stylised version of their lives. So let's put in a bit more effort in our recipes, for the three of you who are actually reading this site, and for the one person who Googled 'hot chicks' and found his way here. And by more effort, I mean plagarise the Argentinian restaurant I went to and add in some sliced shallots.      

INGREDIENTS
A clove of garlic
100-150g provolone cheese
A big pinch red chili flakes
A big pinch of oregano (Or thyme. Or, y'know those bottled mix generically labelled ‘Italian Herbs’? Yeah. Use those. It'll be fine.)
2 shallots, sliced into thin strips

STEPS
1) In your beloved 6.5 inch Lodge cast-iron skillet* (Oh, you don't have one? Shame.), rub a clove of garlic over the interior. Stow the rest of the garlic away for other dishes; adding a whole garlic would overwhelm the rest of the dish. 

2) Add the provolone and let the cheese melt gently over medium heat. Add sliced shallot, chili flakes and the rest of the herbs.

3) When the cheese is fully melted, remove the skillet from the stove and serve immediately with thickly sliced bread (about an inch per slice). 

*A heat proof cookware, like a baking dish or a shallow ramekin, may be used. 

Tips 
There aren’t many things that don’t go well with melted cheese. You can use dukkah instead of Italian herbs.  You can serve it alongside traditional chimichurri, or with a heap of browned onions. Sliced crusty bread is a natural accompaniment to cheese, but you can also use firm biscuits or even boiled skin-on potatoes, à la raclette. But let’s keep it simple for breakfast, shall we?  

Using an Oven: set a tray in the upper third rack of your oven, and preheat your oven to the highest temperature. Assemble the ingredients in the skillet as described above, and then place the skillet in the oven for about 5-10 minutes, until the cheese is melted. 

29th April 2022: Okay, so I have finally gotten around to taking some pictures.