Get Yourself a GreenPan!

picture courtesy of HSN.com

Ok, I’m embarrassed to admit this, but a few weeks ago while sleeplessly flipping channels late at night, I came across a special on the Home Shopping Network that I couldn’t turn away from. While I readily accept that I am a food tv-aholic, I have a hard time admitting that I purposefully watched a channel that sells useless trinkets and gimmicky makeup 99% of the time. However, when I saw Todd English, famed executive chef and restaurateur, selling GreenPans, I abandoned my usual assumptions about the HSN and set the remote down. I was sucked in, eyes wide, jaw on the floor, as Chef English and his team demonstrated the pan’s mind-blowing properties: 100% non-stick, non-toxic, and oven-ready, up to 900 degrees. No other piece of kitchen equipment can boast this trifecta.

I say mind-blowing with full confidence. Have you ever cracked an egg into a un-greased nonstick pan thinking that the pan, new or old, might actually live up to its name, and yield you a neat, whole, over-easy, only to find yourself making “i-meant-to-do-this” checkerboard scrambled eggs a minute later? Yeah, you know what botched eggs I’m talking about. Sure, they still taste good, but you’re not giving that to a guest. For the seasoned cook, this mishap will mean nothing, just a re-do, with some oil in the pan next time. For the beginner cook, this could mean discouragement and possibly less interest in cooking (clearly not a good thing!). So, when I saw Todd English and his team cooking with these pans, using no oil or fat to “saute” fish, make pancakes, and flip crepes, I knew these pans would be the perfect tool for a beginner cook in my life: my boyfriend. Since it seems to be the trend in blogs to not use real names, we’ll call him D.

D starting cooking in earnest about 6 months ago and has successfully ventured into the worlds of paninis, pastas, and omelets. In an effort to encourage him to continue cooking, I bought him a GreenPan and he’s never been happier or more confident in the kitchen! Not only is the GreenPan insanely non-stick, it can also withstand temperatures up to 900 degrees! Even with the gas flame maxed out, your stovetop doesn’t get hotter than that, and your oven and broiler can’t get close to 700 degrees, let alone 900. Unlike other non-stick pans that are coated in teflon (toxic at anything above a medium-low flame!), GreenPans are “Thermolon-based” and release no toxins into the atmosphere if overheated, thereby reducing our contribution to greenhouse gas emissions. If you’re skeptical about the harmful effects of teflon, check out this article, or google “harmful teflon” and see what pops up. I assure you, you’ll never spend $35 more wisely.

So of course, even though it’s D’s pan, I was dying to test it out for myself! When I made brunch last weekend I gave it the ultimate test: sunny-side up eggs, with no oil/fat in the pan to lubricate them. When making sunny-side up eggs, its only the egg white, pure protein, that touches the pan, so if these didn’t stick, nothing could. The result? Perfect, intact eggs. In fact, foods are downright slippery on this pan’s surface, even with no fat present! No makeshift scrambles in sight.

Corn fritters shallow-frying in the GreenPan (I did use oil for these)

*No recipe this week, but here’s a pic of the resulting brunch dish I made from the sunny-side up eggs: Corn fritters (yup, same recipe as my earlier post) topped with guacamole, crispy applewood-smoked bacon, sunny-side up eggs and slices of raw milk cheddar.

Sunny-side up eggs on corn fritters for breakfast, yum!

Oh yeah, did I mention the health benefits of not needing fat to cook in this pan? No? Well, D and I figure, if we’re not using fat to cook our eggs, we might as well enjoy them with some bacon ; )

-M : )