The McNamara Cooking Dialogue

It really does. Alton Brown covered making popcorn without a special popcorn maker  or a microwave on Good Eats using this recipe. Inspired, I bought some white and yellow popcorn from the bulk food aisle at Whole Foods and tried this over the weekend. "Real" popcorn truly is better than microwave popcorn. Even without a topping, the popcorn I made came out at least as good as the best movie theatre popcorn I've had. Adding just a touch of real melted butter really completed the "dish."

This was really easy and took no more than five minutes. I was surprised, because it normally seems harder to make the TV recipes in real life. In this case, it seemed easier than it had looked on TV. Next time I'll have to try some sort of topping.

Popcorn keeps. This was just as good the next day.

Use medium heat -- the first time I tried this I used high heat and the popcorn looked fine but didn't taste as good as it did made over medium heat.

The different popcorns really do taste different. I liked the yellow quite a bit more than the white, even though the yellow was slightly less expensive. I'm going to try ordering some of the more interesting varieties from Wisconsin Gold. They have red, blue, and various heirloom popcorns for sale. A sampler pack (a half pound of each type) from them seems like it should be fun to try. Searching the web for folks selling heirloom or specialty popcorn returned only references to Wisconsin Gold -- if someone knows of another source, please let me know.

Note: This was also posted to my blog. If my brothers don't start posting here soon I'm going to start only putting these entries up there.

I've been meaning to post a couple of related things, so this is going to be a combined post. First, chocolate waffles, then the various toppings I tried. Making a compote turned out to be surprisingly easy, and really worth the effort. Warm berry compote is a really healthy alternative to maple syrup. I think. I don't really know what's healthy.

Start by making the waffles. This is similar to normal waffles, but the dry stuff is:

3 cups all-purpose flour
6 tablespoons sugar
1 cup ounces cocoa powder, natural sweetened
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 cups chocolate chips

And the wet stuff is:

6 whole eggs, beaten
8 ounces unsalted butter, melted and slightly cooled
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1 pints buttermilk, room temperature

This makes a double batch. Once again, I made these waffles and then froze most of them.

Next time I want to try using a few more chips. At the end of the batch I threw the rest of the chips we had into the batter. The waffles with the extra chips were still quite cookable (perhaps crisper than the ones with fewer chips). Jen and I both thought that the "right" amount of chocolate chips would probably be somewhere between the original recipe and the super-chocolate version.

The chocolate waffles weren't as crisp as the normal ones right out of the oven. Toasting them after cooking but before eating fixes this problem.

The first night I served the waffles with a simple topping of fresh raspberries and powdered sugar (see picture, above). I used a tea ball to spread the sugar on top of the waffle and berries.

About a week later we bought a bunch of berries at a fruit stand in Carneros and decided to try making a fruit compote. In this case I simply combined the following over medium heat in a sauce pan:

3-4 cups of raspberries and blueberries
half a lemon, juiced
3 tablespoons of sugar

I cooked this for a few minutes, stirring occasionally. The raspberries quickly fell apart, and the blueberries got soft and mushy. After a while the sauce was still not sweet enough or thick enough, so I added some more sugar and then added a small amount (tbsp) of cornstarch already combined with a small amount (1.5 tbsp) of Chambord. This thickened the sauce up quickly.

If I'd had more patience I could have simply waited -- the compote would have gotten both thicker and sweeter as the water evaporated. Would the blueberries have gotten too mushy, though?

Next time I want to use less lemon juice. This was just a little too bitter for everyone but Jimmy.

The compote ended up on top of waffles and served with sausage for breakfast (see picture).

Sunday morning I made waffles for breakfast. Not that exciting, I know, but I made them from scratch, and I made piles of them.

The Good Eats! episode on waffles pointed out that if you have extra waffles you can freeze them and then just pop them in the toaster some other day and you have a nice, quick breakfast. I tried this not long ago and found that frozen homemade waffles are way better than the frozen Eggos you pick up at the grocery store. Since we're normally in a rush to get out of the apartment in the morning, I decided to make a whole pile of waffles and freeze them.

Waffles take a little while, but they're pretty easy. In a large mixing bowl I whisked together all this dry stuff:

2 cups all-purpose flour
2 cups whole-wheat flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 teaspoons salt
6 tablespoons sugar

Then I mixed together all this wet stuff:

6 whole eggs, beaten
8 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
1 quart buttermilk, room temperature

Once those things were all well combined (it's okay if the wet stuff gets a little clumpy) I poured the wet stuff into the dry stuff and mixed until just combined then I walked away. Alton Brown made it clear that you shouldn't over mix waffle batter. Just wait until it's combined completely but still clumpy and walk away for five minutes. Once five minutes has passed you can start making waffles.

I set my waffle iron all the way to high and made piles and piles of waffles. I let the waffles Jen and I weren't eating on Sunday sit for about an hour to cool completely, then I bagged them and put them all in the freezer.

Jen and I stopped at the "The Cheese Steak Shop" in San Francisco:

Cheese Steak Shop Inc

(415) 346-3712 1716 Divisadero St San Francisco, CA 94115

MAP HERE

The neighborhood where this place is located isn't the best, but going there was well worth it. As soon as you step inside it's clear that these guys are trying to create a small shrine to Philly in San Francisco. All the pictures are of Philadelphia, one wall is covered with PA license plates, and everything on the menu is classic Philly.

Jen and I ordered a 15" long cheesesteak with fried onions and an order of cheese fries. The cheesesteak was very authentic. The style was similar to Jim's or Billybob's, with the only real problem being the fact that there wasn't enough meat. The Cheese Steak Shop uses only white american cheese, and Jen was a little disappointed by the lack of Cheese Whiz as an option. The white american turned out to be just fine.

The twisty fries were excellent, with the cheese in a separate container so you could dip. The dipping cheese seemed quite a bit like cheese whiz. The normal fries are large steak fries, but we didn't try those.

Next time I'd try to get them to put double meat or extra meat on my cheesesteak. Otherwise I'd order the same thing again. Being able to get a real cheesesteak in San Francisco was awesome.

I purchased a frozen pack of four fairly thin buffalo patties from Whole Foods and tried making buffalo burgers.

The first thing I did was fry some onions in olive oil. Near the end I added salt and pepper and transferred the onions to the oven, setting it to warm.

Next I added smooshed garlic to the pan, fried that for a while, and then threw in two buffalo patties. To properly cook the meat it took four minutes on each side. At three minutes for the second side I put a slice of cheddar and a slice of provolone on each of the patties and put a top on the pan.

Once the patties were finished I places each between two pieces of toasted bread. I used garlic aioli on the bread and added onions, tomato , and lettuce. With the second two pieces I tried making a double cheeseburger, but the bread wasn't right. I used crumpets, which tasted great but weren't big enough to accommodate a double cheeseburger.

Next time I want to do everything the same except I'll cook all four patties at once on the large griddle pan, and buy real buns large enough to accommodate double buffalo burgers. We'll see how that goes.

So, after Sunday I still had quite a bit of sweet crepe batter left to use. Jen and I ended up with sweet crepes for dessert on Monday and Tuesday night. I didn't want to make exactly the same thing both nights, so I tried a couple of different options.

Monday night I substituted stawberries for banana, but otherwise left everything the same. The stawberries were thinly sliced, and I ate the ends and used mostly the "meat" in the crepes. As expected, this classic turned out quite well. Once again, the hardest part was spreading the Loacker (or Nutella) on the crepe while it was still cooking.

Tuesday night we were in the mood for something a little lighter, so I made sweet crepes with lemon curd. A while back I tried experimenting with lemon and sugar crepes and found that lemon and lemon curd was the best option. We didn't have any lemon, so I just used the lemon curd on the crepes.

I did experiment a little with when I put the lemon curd on the crepes. First I tried cooking the crepe and spreading the curd on it as it cooled on a plate. Then I tried spreading the curd on the crepe while the second side was cooking and then folding and serving. Lastly, I tried cooking it the last way and then folding the crepe and cooking it a little more on both sides. I found the last approach to be best -- the crepe was warmest and crispest, and the lemon curd caramelized a little bit.

The crepes were good, but a little too sweet. They would have been better if we had a little lemon juice to drizzle over the lemon curd.

On Saturday Jimmy found lime curd at Oakville Grocer. I'll have to try that the next time I make sweet crepes.

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Tonight, I took another crack at making sweet crepes with Nutella and banana. I started with Alton Brown's recipe from the Food Network and modified it as follows:

2 large eggs
3/4 cup milk
1/2 cup water
1 cup flour
3 tablespoons melted butter
2 1/2 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 tablespoons Chambord

In a blender, combine all of the ingredients and pulse for 10 seconds. Place the crepe batter in the refrigerator for 1 hour. This allows the bubbles to subside so the crepes will be less likely to tear during cooking. The batter will keep for up to 48 hours.

Heat a small (I used a normal/large) non-stick pan. Add butter to coat. Pour 1 ounce (I used 1/4 cup) of batter into the center of the pan and swirl to spread evenly. Cook for 30 seconds (in my case 2 minutes was correct) and flip. Cook for another 10 seconds (minute and a half) .

I actually only used about a third of the batter tonight -- the rest is in the 'fridge and will be used over the next few days.

I hate reading recipes where certain details are assumed, so whenever I post I'm going to list out all the detail that I think is missing from the above. To begin with, when blending the ingredients I found that after ten seconds of pulsing I needed to scrape some of the flower from the sides of the blender and then blend again to get it all mixed together.

On my current electric stove, I cooked all of the above at a "7," and it was important that I got the pan good and hot between each crepe.

Just after flipping the crepes, while the other side was cooking, I'd spread a thin layer of Nutella on the entire crepe. I'd then take thinly sliced pieces of banana and place them over half the crepe just before folding it in half, pushing down on the half crepe, and removing from the pan.

Interestingly, I didn't use Nutella, but instead used Loacker, which appears to be the organic equivalent. They don't sell Nutella at Whole Foods, but they do have this stuff. If anything, it was a better Nutella, but I wouldn't say the difference is worth going out of your way to find it. The other difference between Nutella and Loacker is in thickness -- Loacker is noticeably thicker.

The crepes came out really well -- very similar to what I've eaten at the French crepe places that serve this classic sweet crepe. Jen and I enjoyed these with some 2004 Dashe Late Harvest Zinfandel that paired quite well with the chocolate flavor that dominated the dessert.

Have you ever had peanut butter and eggs on toast before? I was really skeptical the first time Jen and I made this -- peanut butter on eggs? It seemed crazy. Jen swore it was really good, and it is. Trust me.

Scramble some eggs and toast some bread. Spread peanut butter on the toast, and then spread the scrambled eggs over the top of the peanut butter and eat. It couldn't be any simpler or faster to prepare.

I would avoid putting salt or pepper in the eggs as you scramble them. The peanut butter has enough salt, and pepper just tastes odd with peanut butter. I've found that the slower I cook scrambled eggs, the better they turn out. Further, I like this dish best with eggs that are more on the undercooked side.

Jen and I enjoyed this for breakfast just yesterday morning.