Seafood Skillets

The following recipe is from "A Skillet Full", a cookbook from the Lodge cast iron company.

I almost never follow recipes to the letter; This one I only slightly modified.

The recipe calls for four, 5 inch wonder skillets.

I only have two of those, so I also used baking dishes. A 6 inch round skillet would have worked just as well.

You could possibly use Lodge tableware, or a 5 inch round skillet, or a 4 inch square. But in that case, you'll have to cut down the fish fillets, so they'll fit.

Mix the following in a bowl: 1 beaten egg, 1/2 cup plain bread crumbs, a dash of tabasco sauce, 1 tsp lemon juice, 1/2 cup cream.*

*I actually used half and half, to make it a little less bad for me.

Heat olive oil in a cast iron skillet* and cook down finely chopped onions and finely chopped celery.

*You could do this in each individual skillet, or one big skillet and divide them into the little skillets afterward.

In the skillets, first add the cooked down onions and celery, then a fish fillet*, then a few pieces of shrimp**, then the mixed ingredients from the bowl.

*Any type of white fish will do. I used tilapia.

**The original recipe also calls for scallops, but I omitted them to save money.

Crush some crackers and sprinkle on top; Add a 1/2 tsp of butter.

Bake 30 minutes, then brown under the broiler for about 5 minutes.

I found they needed a little "kick," so I added some old bay seasoning after they were done.

Can you use two wonder skillets as a pie iron?

This is a pie iron.

They come in different shapes, and are used for making sandwiches and all kinds of cool stuff.

I pondered for two years, whether or not you can use two wonder skillets on the stovetop as a pie iron.

You know, heat both of them on the stove, then put one on top of the other and cook?

But until now, I never had two wonder skillets to check if that was possible.

My conclusion was, sort of, but not really.

Since this was an experiment, and since I've never actually used a pie iron before, I decided to go with the most simple pie iron recipe: a grilled cheese sandwich.

Until I realized that I didn't have any cheese, so I went with grilled peanut butter and jelly.

Just butter two slices of bread (for the outside), and then put peanut butter and jelly on it.

I heated both wonder skillets on the stove, then put the sandwich in one of them.

I quickly found out that the other skillet will not fit on top of the first one, if the handles are on the same side. The handles have to be on different sides, as shown above.

Needless to say, that makes it very awkward to flip, especially when it's hot, over a flaming gas burner.

The sandwich turned out fine, but if you want to do real "pie iron cooking", then use the right tool for the job, which is a real pie iron.

This isn't the first time I've tried to rig up things.

I have other wonder skillet articles here, here, and here.

Two eggs in a wonder skillet? Seriously?

This is a wonder skillet. It's a newer version of the original egg skillet.

Someone suggested to me that she loves to make two eggs in her wonder skillet.

I was like, seriously? You can fit two eggs in a wonder skillet? No way! I thought it was for ONE egg!

So I decided to try it. Indeed, it can fit two eggs!

Because the wonder skillet is not my designated egg pan, there was no way I could flip them in this skillet without breaking the yolk.

So I scrambled them.

So there you go! If you want an egg sandwich with 2 eggs instead of just one, then you can do it in this skillet.

Perhaps the four inch skillet was meant for one egg, while the five inch could fit two. I don't know.

The Lodge FOUR inch wonder skillet

This is the Lodge four inch wonder skillet. It's no longer made.

It's not to be confused with the 5 inch wonder skillet, which is commonly sold today.

The 5 inch skillet can be used to make a grilled cheese sandwich, but the 4 inch cannot; It's too small.

So, I really did "wonder" what I would ever do with it.

Sure it can cook one egg for an egg sandwich, but, anything else?

Someone suggested that perhaps it was used to cook lunch meat to put on a sandwich.

I finally found a use for it the other day: I needed to reheat a half of a hamburger. There you go; this skillet was perfect for that.

My favorite use for the wonder skillet is to heat up cheese dip on the stove and then take it directly to the table.

My favorite is white american cheese, grated into the skillet and add a little milk if needed.

Velveeta also works, or monterey jack, or queso fresca, or any mexican white cheese.

Add dried cilantro if you like.

I never could figure out what exactly was the purpose of having a four inch skillet and a five inch skillet, and addressed that in a previous article.

I later learned that you can cook two eggs in a 5 inch. So maybe the four inch was for one egg?

the Griswold square egg skillet

This was the Griswold square egg skillet.

At 4 5/8 inches, it was meant for cooking one egg.

The egg would shape itself perfectly to fit on a piece of toast.

It's too expensive; The Lodge "wonder skillet" serves the same purpose, for less money.

I can't find any information on why it's called a "wonder skillet."

My best guess is, it can cook a grilled cheese sandwich made with Wonder bread.

But I "wondered" (no pun intended) how that was possible. Wouldn't the sandwich be awkward to flip, since the skillet is so small?

So I decided to find out this morning. I used a serving spatula, and it was no trouble at all.

You could make an "egg in a basket" with this skillet, which I have never made. You know, a piece of bread with a hole in the middle, with an egg cracked in it and fried?

In the cookbook "a skillet full", there's a recipe for "seafood skillets" which calls for 4 wonder skillets.

But, I'm sure small skillets or griddles of any shape will work.

They used to make a 4 inch "small wonder skillet", but it was discontinued.

It's too small to fit a piece of bread. I guess you could cook one egg, or meat to go on a sandwich.

Then again, you could do that on a 5 inch skillet too. I'm not surprised it was discontinued.

I "wondered" what I'd ever use these for

Pictured above are 3 tiny cast iron skillets: The 5 inch square "wonder skillet", the 5 inch round skillet with lid, and the 6 inch skillet. Personally, I "wondered" what I'd ever do with skillets that small!

Note that these are not the Lodge miniature skillet, which is smaller and meant for decoration.

Not pictured is the four inch wonder skillet, which I obtained later.

The truth is, they ARE small, and you won't be able to cook a full meal in them. But that doesn't mean they aren't useful, and that's where using your imagination kicks in. You can toast spices, heat up dip on the stove, make individual hot desserts, melt butter, roast peanuts or pumpkin seeds.

With the 5 inch round skillet, the lid is key for making a perfectly shaped egg for a breakfast sandwich, as well as roasting garlic cloves in olive oil on very low heat.

The wonder skillet makes your egg a perfect square shape, to fit regular bread for sandwiches.

What do you do, when a recipe calls for 1/2 an egg? Cook up the other half in one of these skillets, as a treat for the dog!

What do you do, when you have more batter than your cake or muffin pan will hold? Bake it in one of these skillets.

I also found the square skillet to be great for keeping individual servings of french fries hot.

The wonder skillet is marketed as a skillet for grilled cheese sandwiches today, but was once called an "egg skillet."

A consumer reported using the round ones for burgers. I'd rather cook those on a grill pan, since the grease drips off and there's enough room to flip.