Toast

The No Control Group

I am taking off for my annual work meeting in State College, PA. I just wanted to let you know that I have begun my entirely unstructured experiment in waffles and the pros and cons of Teflon coated waffle-irons. I made the Marion Cunningham yeast raised waffles recipe that has been variously praised and questioned, using the teflon coated version of two otherwise identical, shiny, penguin-like waffle irons.

I have no point of comparison at the moment- and have not made waffles for years in any form. I will just say that these waffles were fantastic...incredibly crisp. light and flavorful- particularly when served and eaten immediately after being forked off the waffle iron. Okay, I will also say that though my memory is imperfect, I did feel, at the time, that these were the very best waffles I've ever had. There was also some buckwheat honey involved. I suspect that the non-Belgian nature of these waffles was a major contributing crispness enhancer.

I did exercise enough personal control to take this photo of one before gobbling it up. I froze some, too-to see how they do with reheating (and anyway, there is, surprisingly, actually a limit to how many waffles one person can eat.) There will be more waffling after I return late Thursday. We plan to stop at Clem's for barbecue on the way home. It is our custom.

More Waffling, and a Note of Caution

After I posted about my new/vintage waffle iron, I had a little email exchange with Michael Sheafe, he who is Toaster Central. Turns out (he deduced this, not I) that they sent me, mistakenly, the teflon-coated version of my waffle iron. He suggested that they send me the non-teflon version, and that I conduct comparative waffling experiments. The idea is that I am going to try several recipes on both of these otherwise identical models, see which I prefer, and report on the results here. (I then return the less favored waffle iron.) This struck me as an excellent and entertaining plan. So, we're on.

The second waffle iron arrived today, and I am all ready to go-except that I am loaded up with less festive duties in the near future. (In fact, I have not yet had time to open the parcel. Yet, I find time to visit you here. See how I tend to you?) So, it will be a little while. But I think we're gonna have some fun. By the way, I understand from M.S. that it has been discovered that teflon is seriously Bad For Birds. So, if you have a pet bird, you need to ditch those nonstick pans. I'm just sayin'.

Photo of Monte Python's "This parrot is no more...", courtesy of Wikipedia

Waffling

I am pleased as Punch with my new purchase, which is fairly the height of extravagance..a single-use electric kitchen appliance. Not only is it uni-purpose, but it is so adorable that I feel compelled to find some way to leave it out, permanently displayed, though of course, there is absolutely no room to do so. Frivolity is my middle name these days. I happened upon this little darling while browsing among the delightful restored vintage toasters at Toaster Central.

I often visit these excellent toasters, and have felt for some time that I should really buy one. After all, I am so fond of toast that I named my blog in its honor. I have tried to choose a toaster from the many, as a sort of mascot ...I thought a picture of my chosen toaster would be nice as a permanent fixture here... maybe in the upper left hand corner of the front page? My problem with this is two-fold (it's really unifold, I guess, as on second thought the 2 problems are the pretty much same)- namely, 1) I can't decide, because there are so many great toasters and 2) the ones I want the most are really too expensive for me.

Recently, while checking out the toasters, after a bit of inconclusive internet waffle iron shopping, I found I had an easier time settling on a reasonably affordable vintage waffle iron of great beauty, in mint condition. (Julie praised the vintage waffle-makers in a comment on the Wednesday Chef- it hadn't occurred to me to check them out before.) Is it not the cutest thing? It is a Dominion brand iron from the fifties or early sixties, with a deco-y look and a perfect mirror chrome finish. The latter, sadly, is probably destined to be ruined in use. The shape of the bakelite handles (note the tilt) earned this model the nickname of "the penguin".

This purchase does not solve my toaster problem, but makes me very happy-except for the time I continue to spend sighing over the restored toasters, of course. (If only everyone had only problems of this sort.) The waffle iron came with instructions for curing the plates before using, and a myriad of recipes- many of the sort that the original manufacturers furnished with a purchase. After reading of Luisa's problems
with the acclaimed Marion Cunningham recipe, I am conflicted about which to try first.

Russ Parsons, of the LA Times, par-bakes his waffles and finishes them off in the oven, for crispness. His article has the Cunningham yeast-raised waffle recipe, and one for cake-like waffles, made with sour cream.

From Toaster Central comes this recipe, from a Toastmaster manual of the 50s--cut by one egg:

1 3/4 Cups flour 2 egg yolks, beaten
2 tsp. baking powder 1/3 Cup oil
3 tsp. sugar 1 1/2 Cups milk
1/2 tsp. salt 2 egg whites, stiffened
Combine the dry ingredients. Stir in the milk, egg yolks, and oil. Gently fold in the stiffened whites. Pour approx. 2/3 cup batter onto the oiled and pre-heated grid. Close and bake.

I am tempted to try it, possibly adding the third egg back in, as it is of the approximate vintage of my waffle-iron. Dunno. As you can see, digression is really still my middle name. I guess I have two middle names. And one day, there will be a toaster.

The black and white photo is taken from the Toaster Central website. I took some on my own, but had trouble managing the reflections off the polished chrome, and the details didn't show up properly. So.

Skillet Corn Instructions

This is a truly luxurious summer weekend breakfast , and if you serve it to another person, with say, some boiling hot, fragrant coffee, steamed milk, and a large bowl of beautifully firm, sweet dark bing cherries which were on special for $1.99 per pound, and if that person does not love you forever as a result of your kindness in this matter, then you might just think "good riddance", because who needs someone like that around the house? But it won't happen. Because who do you know who doesn't love all these things to bits? A screened porch would be a nice spot for this breakfast, which is best enjoyed in a bathrobe of some kind.

So, the corn thing- you don't even have to make it correctly to win the prize. If it doesn't come out of the pan as a cake, you just scrape it out, mix in the crusty bits, and serve it in a bowl. It was created by Jean Halberstam, wife of writer David, written about some time ago in the NYTimes magazine, and inspired, JH said, by a Lee Bailey recipe. This is a recipe from a woman who deep fries peaches, so you can see it is not simple out of any sort of laziness, but rather because it is best.

This is what you do:
Preheat the oven to 450F. When the oven is hot, pour 2 tbsps of a mild-tasting vegetable oil into a 9" cast iron frying pan, and swish it around so that the sides and bottom are well coated. Put the skillet in the oven for 30 minutes. Set the table, make the coffee, wash your nice cherries, and put them in a bowl.

With a sharp knife, cut the kernels from six ears of corn, catching the kernels and the juices in a bowl. Add one tsp salt, 2 tbsps cream, and 1/4 cup of flour, and mix it up. Pour the contents of the bowl into the scalding hot skillet, flatten it judiously with a spatula, and cook until it is brown around the edges, and a little bit browned on top, too. Meanwhile, drink the coffee and eat the cherries, while this goes on- it takes about 40 minutes. Make another pot of coffee to go with the corn.

Remove the pan from the oven, and let it sit for 5 minutes. Loosen the edges of the contents with a knife, and invert the pan onto a plate. There should be a beautiful, golden corn cake there, on the plate. Cut and share. If it falls to bits, follow procedure suggested above, no problemo. Consume, in that case, with a spoon.

Total cost to feed 4 people in high style, $3.09, not including the coffee and milk.

Batter fried peaches, rolled in cinnamon sugar. Well. Yikes.

Spinach Cheese Souffle, 'Scaped

I am not a huge souffle person in general. It's not much good making them for yourself, and I'm not crazy about twitchy, difficult last-minute food for company.

This souffle, however, was engineered to use a few bits and pieces from the farmbox- notably the spinach left after an excellent lemony spinach salad of Thursday night, and the stray garlic scapes I found with in with the oregano in my crate. I zeroed in on the scapes thanks to a dim memory of the chocolate lady's post (and great photo) on the topic last year, just about this time. Also, there was some leftover goat cheese from the unsuccessful "Everyday Pasta" gnocchi recipe of last week. I adapted a souffle from Deborah Madison's Local Flavors to suit what I had. Hence, the following, which made a fine Saturday brunch, with plenty of hot coffee, and those fine strawberries-thank you Kretschmanns!

Here's how:

Infusion
3 green garlic scapes, minced
1 cup cream
thyme sprig

Souffle
4 Tbsps butter, plus more
1/2 cup freshly grated parm
12-16 oz baby spinach- de stemmed
4 Tbsps flour
1 1/3 cups milk
sea salt and fresh pepper
4 oz goat cheese
4 yolks
6 egg whites

Heat the cream to just shy of boiling. Add scapes and thyme, and let it sit while you do the rest. Preheat oven to 375F. Wilt the spinach in its washing water and chop it up finely, or puree in a processor..

Butter a 2 qt. souffle dish and dust with a bit of the grated cheese. In a heavy pan, heat the butter, whisk in the flour, and whisk smoothly, until the sauce thickens. Turn off the heat, and whisk in the cheeses, salt and pepper. Add the spinach, and finally, whisk in the yolks.

Beat the egg whites until very stiff. Fold into the sauce, and pour the mixture into the prepared pan. Cook about 35-40 minutes. Consume for brunch with hot coffee. Follow with strawberries if you can. This was also very nice reheated gently, as a side with my roasted dinner chicken and salad. So, the souffle didn't look huge,or have a tremendous crown or anything, but it was very light, and pretty tasty. I'm thinking about getting more inventive with some souffles-perhaps I will do them in a broader, flatter gratin-ier baking dish, though- I quite like the crustier parts on the top and sides, and wanted more of that. Also, this would have been extremely nice with a hot cheesy sauce of some sort.

Did I mention that I'm going to try making some cheese-mozzarella, in fact? Stay tuned for developments. And please, if you would: Vote for me in the GrillMe contest. You can vote for yourself, too, and we can go to Napa and get grilled.