BROWN SUGAR KITCHEN’S CORNMEAL WAFFLES WITH APPLE CIDER SYRUP

BROWN SUGAR KITCHEN’S CORNMEAL WAFFLES WITH APPLE CIDER SYRUP
From Jonathan Gold, Los Angeles Times
http://www.latimes.com/food/recipes/la-fo-sos-waffles-brown-sugar-kitchen-20170719-story.html

The best waffles commercially available, I am prepared to state, come from Brown Sugar Kitchen, a small, fragrant breakfast diner on Mandela Parkway in West Oakland.

The waffles, Tanya Holland’s cornmeal-enhanced riff on Marion Cunningham’s famous yeasted waffles, are crisp, light and so violently leavened that they threaten to leap from the waffle iron in which they are cooked. If you drive up from Los Angeles about 6 a.m., you can be at Brown Sugar Kitchen by noon. The hour you spend in line on a weekend morning will be the longest hour of your life.

Holland includes a splendid recipe for these waffles in her book “Brown Sugar Kitchen,”and it works as well in my battered old waffle iron as it does at the restaurant. You mix the batter the night before, chill it in your refrigerator while you sleep, and stir in a bit of baking soda just before you pour it into your hot iron. (Remember to grease the iron well, or your first waffle will tear into delicious waffly shards when you attempt to lever it out onto a plate.) At the restaurant, Holland serves it with a sticky syrup made from boiled-down cider, but I always end up using good maple syrup instead, because I am lazy and I am a barbarian. They are the best waffles you will ever taste.

I still wouldn’t rule out an early morning drive to Oakland, though. Holland tends to pair the waffles with insanely delicious herbed fried chicken, and you also get a shot at her shrimp ’n’ grits.

The cookbook "Brown Sugar Kitchen" is available on iBooks, and from Amazon in hardcover and via Kindle.

Apple cider syrup is poured onto a cornmeal waffle. (Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)

Recipe in our California Cookbook »

1 hour, 15 minutes, plus proofing time. Serves 12

APPLE CIDER SYRUP

1 ½ cups firmly packed brown sugar

1 ½ teaspoons apple cider vinegar

1 quart apple cider

2 cinnamon sticks

½ cup (1 stick) butter

In a large pot, combine the brown sugar, vinegar, cider, cinnamon and butter. Bring to a boil, then reduce the mixture to a simmer, and cook, stirring occasionally, until reduced to 1 ½ cups, about 45 minutes. Discard the cinnamon. The syrup can be made up to 1 month in advance; cover tightly and refrigerate until needed, then warm and stir well before serving.

WAFFLES

2 teaspoons active-dry yeast

¾ cup warm water

3 eggs

3 cups milk

1 cup cornmeal

2 cups plus 2 heaping tablespoons (9 ounces) flour

1 ½ teaspoons kosher salt

1 ½ teaspoons sugar

¾ cup (1 ½ sticks) butter, melted

Vegetable oil for the waffle iron

½ teaspoon baking soda

1. In a small bowl, combine the yeast and warm water. Set aside until foamy, about 10 minutes.

2. In a large bowl, whisk together the eggs and milk. In another large bowl, whisk together the cornmeal, flour, salt and sugar. Add the yeast mixture to the eggs and milk, then whisk in the flour mixture until thoroughly combined. Whisk in the melted butter until just combined. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 4 hours, up to overnight.

3. Heat the oven to 250 degrees. Heat the waffle iron and grease lightly with oil. Set a wire rack over a baking sheet.

4. Remove the batter from the refrigerator and whisk in the baking soda. Ladle some batter into the waffle iron, close the lid, and cook until the waffles are golden and cooked through, about 3 minutes or according to the manufacturer’s instructions. This makes about a dozen waffles, depending on the size of your waffle iron.

5. Transfer the waffle to the rack to keep warm in the oven. Repeat with the remaining batter, placing the cooked waffles in a single layer on the rack.

6. Serve the waffles warm with warm apple cider syrup.

Each of 12 servings: Calories 498; protein 7 grams; carbohydrates 67 grams; fiber 1 gram; fat 23 grams; saturated fat 14 grams; cholesterol 103 mg; sugar 39 grams; sodium 252 mg

Note: Adapted from a recipe in “Brown Sugar Kitchen: New-Style, Down-Home Recipes From Sweet West Oakland” by Tanya Holland.

CHICKEN POT PIE (and pies in general)

My Mother Edna loved baking cakes and cookies, but the never made pies.   Although I never asked her, I suspect that the art of making pie crust was not her favorite thing to do.  In my own attempts at making crust, I never knew all the little "secrets" so mine were not the best.  Years ago, I started using  "Pet/Ritz" frozen pie crusts, already in an aluminum pan.  They made my annual Sweet Potatoe pies much easier to do.

As part of my "recovery" I realized that I needed to explore making foods that were not familiar so that I could expand my culinary reperatoire and add some adventure to my culinary experience.

I'm sure some of you will laugh, particularly if you've been making home made pies for decades.  I discovered Pillsbury refrigerated pie crusts.  So, with this new knowledge in hand, I've been exploring the ease of basic pie making.

Some generic tips:

0.    No matter what the filling, it must be thickened with either flour, corn starch, tapioca, or some other "starch" that will thicken the juices.  The only exception, "custard" pies where the eggs do the thickening.

0.    Pie filling is a great way to use up left overs and other odds & ends in one's refrigerator.

This is actually the origins of Quiche, which is basically French peasant food.  Thanks to John Beeman for telling me this decades ago in Tampa Florida, Quiche is how the French get rid of leftover cheese, vegetables that are not so fresh but still edible, eggs, milk and cream that are also no longer fresh, eggs ditto.  Just mix it all up, (using eggs to thicken) throw it in a pie shell and it all cooks together and tastes great.

0.   And there are two paradigms for pie making regarding ingredients.  One can either cook them first and then "fill" the pie.  Or one can leave most of the ingredients (except meats) uncooked, or barely cooked and let them cook in the pie.  Quiche is one notable exception, as well as some "fresh fruit" pies that use a "glaze" to hold them together.  (Of course, most "cream" refrigerated and "fresh fruit pies require the "shell" to be pre-cooked before filling)

0.    And lastly, letting the pie cool is essential to not having a runny mess when you try to open it.


So this is what I did for my first home made Chicken Pot Pie.

I pre-cooked the filling on top of the stove.  I added extra flour because I wanted a "stand up" pie, not a runny one.  Specific directions (more or less) and "why" are below.

I put half a stick of butter in a deep skillet.  Once melted and sizzling, I added about a cup of chopped onions, and teaspoon of chopped garlic.

I sautéed this till translucent, then added 2 cups of small cut up chicken (raw), and cooked this until the chicken was almost done.

Then I added 3 cups of thawed frozen vegetables (vegetable mix from a bag).  You can certainly use fresh vegetables too if you prefer.

If you want a lot of "crunch" then don't pre-cook them.  Same if you're using already cooked meat.  You can just make the "gravy" with the spices and then dump in the meat/vegetables and pour it into the pie shell.

I stired this together, then added 1 tablespoon of dry chicken soup mix (I use Knorr).  This substitutes for any salt and adds chicken flavor.  Also, I ground some fresh black pepper, some basil and you can certainly add other seasonings to your taste.  I add the seasonings BEFORE any liquid so that the flavors bond with the food, sort of like "stir fry."

I mixed 2 cups of milk with 3 tablespoons of flour and once dissolved poured this into the chicken vegetable mix.    After it was mixed, I added a cup of plain greek yoghurt.  I also added some white cooking wine.

Once this had cooked enough to thicken, I turned off the heat, and let it sit for a few minutes while I prepared a pan with the pie crusts.  I have developed a fondness for using cake pans so I get the ultimate "deep dish" pie.  I just spray the pan thoroughly with cooking spray so the pie will be easier to take out.

Once I filled and covered the pie, I put it in a 375 F oven (I have a convection oven, otherwise I would do 400 F) for about 45 minutes, or until it turns a golden brown.

Once cooled, I got the pie in the photo above and it was very yummy.

There are many videos on YouTube about making pie crust and Chicken Pot Pie and there are as many variations as their are cooks.

Enjoy !!!