Weekend Surfing/Weekend eating -- Waffles! Salted Caramel Ice Cream! BLT's!

Wave management sessions are paying off!  This past Saturday I paddled right out into the line-up with no worries! Okay, it helped that there were tiny waves and the tide was pretty low.  Some other surfer said, "hey, it's pretty glassy, huh?" and I said, "yeah, yeah, right on!"  Honestly, I've heard the term before but I was never quite sure what it meant.  But then I noticed that the surface of the ocean did look almost like glass -- just real smooth, with almost a shine to it. Still, I had fun, and again there were dolphins.  That's always good (that other surfer, btw, was doing yoga on his board in between waves.  How Cali can you get?).

You know what's a nice reward for bravery?  Waffles!

But…wait:  waffles were on the schedule for Sunday breakfast and this was Saturday.  Also, this waffle batter as you will see, needs to rest for twenty-four hours.  So sit tight and we'll get to them! Still, after Saturday's surf, we needed lunch.  Again we had an abundance of tomatoes so it was BLT's.  I don't think anybody needs a recipe for BLT's, right? Just toast some bread, lay down some mayo, then lettuce, tomatoes, bacon and, okay, we added a little cheese.  Don't neglect to salt and pepper the tomatoes, by the way.  It's important to do this.  Also, as always, use the best quality ingredients.  Nueske Bacon, for example, is what we use -- www.nueskes.com. Here's a glimpse of sandwiches being put together, plus the finished product.

Ok, so lunch out of the way, it was on to mixing up the batter for the waffles.  But first, a pop quiz: do you recognize this pretty lady?

Major props if you do!  It's late food writer Marion Cunningham, who lived and worked mostly in the pre-food blog, pre-Top Chef and pre-Food Network world but she was a very important voice in that world. If you have an interest in the history of the food world, google her because she was an interesting character. Apparently, for example, with royalties from her first cookbook she bought a Jaguar and drove it all over the Bay Area in search of the next restaurant or food story. Sweet, huh? Anyway, this is her waffle recipe, which I clipped from the LA Times a few years ago, even before I had a waffle iron, because it sounded like it would make for a great Sunday breakfast.  So here is Marion Cunningham's Raised Yeast Waffle Recipe from the LA Times www.latimes.com (note -- I halved this recipe for 2 people.  And half a package of yeast is 1 1/8 teaspoons, FYI.  Full recipe makes about 18 waffles).

1/2 cup warm water

1 package active dry yeast

2 cups milk

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, melted

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon sugar

2 cups flour

2 eggs

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

1. Place warm water in a large mixing bowl (the batter will double in volume) and sprinkle in the yeast.  When dissolved, stir in milk, butter, salt, sugar, flour and eggs.  Beat until smooth and blended.  Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight.
2. Just before cooking the waffles, beat in the baking soda.  The batter will deflate and become about as thin as soft yogurt.  Cook the waffles according to the manufacturer's instructions for your waffle maker.

Below are ingredients gathered, along with some pics of the process, first the yeast dissolved in the water, then with the rest of the ingredients mixed in, then after it sat overnight.  It took all of about ten minutes to put this batter together.

Here's my little Oster waffle iron, which I've grown quite fond of!

This dude's a workhorse.  Also, it's fun to watch steam puffing out the sides as it cooks the waffles.  Don't know why, but it is.  As you can see from the first picture in this post, the waffles came out really really good. Feel free to throw some blueberries on top, a little bacon on the side, and, of course you'll need syrup -- and not just any syrup, the good stuff you see here:

This was brought to us by an actual Funk, but if you want to get some, here's a link to their site:  www.funkspuremaplesirup.com

So, also when I was pulling out the waffle iron for the weekend, I came across this guy:

Yep, it's an ice cream maker!  You have one too, don't you?  Well, to be honest I sometimes kind of forget I do too.  I mean, here it is August -- the Summer is like half over -- and I have yet to make ice cream.  So we dusted this guy off and I decided to try one of my favorite ice creams, salted caramel.  This recipe comes from now defunct Gourmet magazine (August, 2009 issue).  It's not too complicated but again most ice cream makers require that you stick the bowl part in the freezer for about 24 hours so you may have to plan ahead a bit.  Also, I had always wanted to try making caramel, but I was always a little intimidated.  Don't be.  It's really not that hard.  So here is the recipe, which will yield about a quart of ice cream:

1 1/4 cups sugar, divided
2 1/4 cups heavy cream, divided
1/2 teaspoon flaky sea salt like Maldon (or just kosher salt is fine)
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 cup whole milk
3 large eggs

1. Heat 1 cup sugar in a dry ten inch pot over medium heat, stirring with a fork to heat sugar evenly, until it starts to melt, then stop stirring and cook, swirling pot occasionally so sugar melts evenly, until it is dark amber (note: this took longer than I thought, to get the sugar to start to melt.  So just be patient and keep at it!)
2. Add 1 1/4 cups cream (mixture will spatter -- stand back!) and cook, stirring, until all of the caramel has dissolved (another note:  this stirring also took longer than expected. Again, be patient and take your time).  Transfer to a bowl and stir in sea salt and vanilla.  Cool to room temperature.
3. Meanwhile, bring milk, remaining cup cream and remaining 1/4 cup sugar just to a boil in a small heavy saucepan, stirring occasionally. 
4. Lightly whisk eggs in a medium bowl, then add half of hot milk mixture in a slow stream, whisking constantly.  Pour back into saucepan and cook over medium heat, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon, until custard coats back of spoon and registers 170 degrees Fahrenheit on an instant-read thermometer (do not let boil).  Pour custard through a fine-mesh sieve into a large bowl, then stir in cooled caramel.
5. Chill custard, stirring occasionally, until very cold, 3-6 hours.  Freeze custard in ice cream maker (it will still be quite soft) then transfer to an airtight container and put in freezer to firm up.

Here are some snaps of the process.  Again, ingredients gathered.  Then stirring the sugar in the pan, and after adding the cream to the melted sugar, the caramel bubbling away.

Below is the finished caramel.  You'll want to, but please restrain yourself from sticking your finger in there to take a taste…it's very, very hot! Don't ask how I know this! You can taste when it cools. Be patient!!

Next are a few pics of the custard-making process, along with the ice cream churning away in the Krups (this should take about 20-30 minutes, btw.  It should look like soft-serve ice cream).

And here's the final product, Salted Caramel Ice Cream!

It was pretty delicious.  Okay, yes, it's very rich and decadent.  I mean it's basically cream, milk, sugar and eggs!  But we don't eat it every day, right?  And surfing, like I've said, or any ocean sport really, uses up a lot of calories.  And you have to replace those calories somehow, don't ya?

Moral of the story?  Be brave!  Then eat Waffles.  And Salted Caramel Ice Cream.