Mark Hansen - Dutch Oven Favorites: More of the Best from the Black Pot

2016 Mark Hansen

All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced in any form whatsoever, whether by graphic, visual, electronic, film, microfilm, tape recording, or any other means, without prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief passages embodied in critical reviews and articles.

The opinions and views expressed herein belong solely to the author and do not necessarily represent the opinions or views of Cedar Fort, Inc. Permission for the use of sources, graphics, and photos is also solely the responsibility of the author.

ISBN 13: 978-1-4621-2679-8

Published by Hobble Creek Press, an imprint of Cedar Fort, Inc.

2373 W. 700 S., Springville, UT 84663

Distributed by Cedar Fort, Inc., www.cedarfort.com

Cover design by M. Shaun McMurdie

Cover design 2016 Cedar Fort, Inc.

COntEnts

My Dutch OvEn StOry

MY JOURNEY INTO THE WORLD OF DUTCH OVENING, and even into cooking and cookbook writing, began as a surprise.

My dear wife surprised me with a gift of a 12-inch Lodge dutch oven for Fathers Day in 2006.

Before that time, I barely knew how to cook indoors, much less face the challenges of outdoor cooking. Honestly, I wasnt particularly interested in learning either.

But this was a new challenge that gave me the chance to learn something cool, and I got excited. So, I accepted the challenge and researched recipes online. I also learned how to season my dutch oven. The first thing I tried was pizza, because I remembered doing pizza in a dutch oven as a Boy Scout, but I didnt remember how it was done.

The first time I used my dutch oven, the recipe consisted of a box mix for the crust, and pizza sauce from a jar, both of which I would never do now! Nonetheless, it was a success! My kids loved it, my wife was impressed, and I was on my way.

I decided then to begin cooking all of our familys Sunday dinners out on the back porch. Id look up recipes online, try them out, and use my family as my tasting lab. As I started to get the hang of it after a few tries, I started to get that false beginners confidence, and I tried more complex things, like breads and pies. I quickly learned that there was much for me to learn!

But I always retained my desire to explore and cook things that were not commonly done in an outdoor dutch oven. That fed my drive for learning, and I really grew as a cook.

Soon after that, a friend suggested that I blog my recipes. I had already been running a few blogs, so I thought, I need another blog like I need another hole in my head! It wasnt long before I was blogging about dutch ovens at marksblackpot.com. It is now the oldest continuously running dutch oven blog on the Internet.

After a few years of what I thought was simple fun on my back porch and in the blog, my publisher invited me to consider authoring a cookbook. I dont claim to be an expert, and Im not trained in classical culinary techniques. However, Ive learned a lot from my newfound love of dutch oven cooking, and Im excited to share what Ive learned. I hope youll join me for the ride.

How to Use This BOok

FAIR WARNING: The recipes in this book are all about using a cast iron, camp-style dutch oven that uses charcoal for a heat source. You can use a cast iron dutch oven in your in-home stove or oven. Just be aware that you will need to adjust the temperatures and the cook times accordingly, but thats not what this book is intended for. You could also use an aluminum dutch oven instead of a cast iron one. If you do, youll want to adjust the number of coals and turn your dutch ovens more often to prevent hot spots. Again, this book is not designed for these alternatives.

This book is really an extension of my first cookbook, Best of the Black Pot, which largely consists of recipes from my blog, marksblackpot.com. Its really just a good, all-around collection of some of my favorite dutch oven dishes that Ive done over the years.

A lot of basic information is found in this book that many reading it might already be aware of, especially if youve read any of my previous cookbooks or my blog. This includes things like how to buy a good dutch oven, how to season or reseason it, how to count out and use the coals, what other kinds of equipment to buy, and other basic information. This is important stuff, but many will want to jump right to the recipes. For that reason, Ive added all of these things into the final chapter, simply labeled General Dutch Oven and Cooking Info.

A note on pictures. I love to have pictures in my cookbooks. I love to see what the final dish might look like. Unfortunately, having beautiful, full-color pictures throughout the pages can exponentially increase the price of the book. So, to keep it more affordable for you, weve decided to use tech as a compromise. At the beginning of many of the recipes, you will find a funny looking box. This is called a QR code. Your smart phone or tablet might have a scanner app, and if it does, just open that the app and point the camera at the QR code box. It will scan the box and open a picture of that recipe.

To get the most from this book, browse the recipes and see what interests you. Then give some of them a try. When you do, visit marksblackpot.com and leave a comment. Tell us how they turned out!

CHAPTER 1

Easy Dutch OvEn REcipEs

Keep it Simple!

A LONG TIME AGO, a friend of mine and I were talking, and he asked me to give him some good, simple recipes. His church group was having a dutch oven event, and he wanted to get in on it. He wanted something that was delicious and fancy-tasting, but not difficult to pull off or overwhelming for a novice chef.

That got me thinking. I know a lot of really good, simple recipes, and I ought to put together a series of blog posts on them. Its also good for a first chapter in a recipe book. Its wise to start out with the easy ones and then move on to more complex, difficult recipes in other chapters.

I did some digging and came up with some recipes in three categories.

• One-pot, one-step meals: These are dishes that are full and hearty and simple to do. You assemble the ingredients right in the dutch oven, put it on the coals, and cook your food. Simple, clean, easy.
• Two-step meals: These are dishes that have an extra preparatory step. You might have to brown the meat before adding all the other ingredients, for example. You might have to cook something in one pot and then add more to it for the final cooking.
• Easy breads: Breads have lots of steps and are tricky to cook, so I made a separate category for them.

Even though Im trying to keep things simple, Im also trying to make them from scratch as much as possible. Its easy to pour ingredients from cans and heat them up, but I find it much more satisfying to go deep and make things as much on my own as possible.