Waffled macaroni and cheese

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Really, this isn't so much a post about how to make macaroni and cheese as it is a post about what to do with leftover macaroni and cheese. So I will let you find your own path to macaroni and cheese. If you make the macaroni and cheese specifically for this purpose, that's fine too, of course. But you're going to have to let it cool in the refrigerator for a while. It needs to be easy to handle. Because you're going to abuse it. 

There were a lot of false starts on waffling macaroni and cheese. At first I tried just waffling the cooked and cooled chunks, but after a few minutes in the waffle iron, the cheese had melted away and the macaroni stubbornly refused to conform to the grid of the waffle iron. It had all of the easily imaginable drawbacks of waffled macaroni and cheese — cheese melts easily, after all — and none of the advantages (i.e., no discernible waffle form). 

Then I decided to get clever which, as you may suspect before you even move beyond this clause, didn't lead to anything good. If the noodles were refusing to bend to the will and the weight of the waffle iron, maybe I could cut them down to size. 

So I dumped a batch of cold macaroni and cheese into the food processor and gave it a whirl. I envisioned the resulting pellet-sized bits of macaroni and cheese conforming easily to the grids of the waffle iron, fusing together into one magnificent macaroni and cheese waffle. 

Not so much.   

And I made a loaf of macaroni and cheese, which had a slightly different texture to it — one that didn't charm me but which I thought would at least hold up in the waffle iron. I let it cool, cut off a slice, and waffled it.

No.

This was all months ago. Since then, I avoided the topic by waffling abut 20 other things. And that worked well for a while. Until it didn't.

Macaroni and cheese popped up again.

I appealed to Ask.Metafilter for ideas.

Bread it, they said.

That's what worked.

First, I spread the prepared macaroni and cheese into a thin layer on a sheet pan and put it in the refrigerator. (If I had wanted to be more careful about it, I could have rendered it flat on both sides by pressing it between two sheet pans.)

The next day, I took it out and cut a block about the size of a small waffle. 

In three shallow dishes, I set out the following ingredients:

• flour
• an egg, beaten with a bit of salt and pepper
• bread crumbs (I used Japanese-style panko) and grated cheese (I used pecorino romano)

I coated the block of macaroni and cheese first in the flour, then dunked it in the egg, and then coated it with the bread crumbs. It held together, though it certainly benefited from a delicate touch.

Into the greased (Belgian) waffle iron it went for about three minutes.

The extraction process was a bit tricky, but with a silicone spatula and some patience it was possible to get the waffled mac-and-cheese out in one piece — OK, two pieces.

The bread-crumb coating and the heat from the waffle iron may tend to make it a bit dry. Melting a little cheese on top of it, drizzling some cheese sauce over it, or sprinkling some olive oil on it can help with this.

Really, if you can nail it, the presentation is pretty much unbeatable, even if it does come out in pieces.

* * * 

This is answer No. 29 to the question "Will it waffle?".

I picked macaroni and cheese from a short list of ideas with the help of a poll — a poll that really went off the rails when some people frantically and comically stuffed the ballot box. (Who knew the stakes were so high?) 

As in a lot of editing, in the process of winnowing the blog to 30 entries, some good ideas got swept aside, chief among them perhaps bacon (though Alton Brown certainly has that covered), gnocchi (which, fortunately, we do not have to wonder about; it can be done) and pierogi (which have been done at least a couple of times — with enough people it's even a party). 

I'm certain there are more that I'm missing, some that were part of the poll but didn't finish first and some that didn't make that short list to begin with. If an idea that you were pulling for didn't make it onto the blog, I'm sorry. I try not to disappoint people but sometimes it happens anyway.

I can only say that there is one more post after this one. Maybe it will be the one you were hoping to see on this blog.

Though I rather doubt it.

* * * 

With the blog heading off into the sunset, I answered a few questions for Michael Gebert over on Grub Street.

Recipe: Waffled cornbread

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A photo posted by Will It Waffle? (@will_it_waffle) on Jul 14, 2016 at 4:14pm PDT

Recipe: Waffled squid salad

Will this leave your waffle iron a mess? Probably. Probably an unholy mess. When I finished, the grids were coated in a thin film of squid — my waffle iron's very own marine layer. I did what I always do: patiently scraped up the biggest offending chunks with a silicone spatula, and then made a batch of waffles (out of waffle batter — and you have to love that I need to specify that) to lift out the rest of the nasty bits. The waffles were nothing you'd want to eat, but by the time they were done cooking they had absorbed every bit of squid that was clinging to my waffle iron.

And that is a hell of an introduction to this recipe.

The recipe comes from David Thompson's tremendous cookbook, Thai Food. The inspiration comes from a reader who wrote in after the waffled quesadillas. (Thanks, Elena.) "Why not try cephalopods — maybe squid?" she asked.

Why not? Because it's utterly impractical even by the standards of a blog dedicated to the ridiculous. Because my idea for the blog — most aspects of which are overthought to an almost paralyzing degree — was to offer people a mix of dishes that would be practical to make in their kitchens and dishes that would be impractical to make in their kitchens but fun to see made, and I wasn't sure if squid was either of those things. 

No question it was a good idea. And I would like it, yes. But it didn't seem like the kind of thing that people would go for.

Then I thought about it for a couple of weeks. I realized I really had no grasp of what people go for, despite being 90% of the way through this blog.

And I realized that if I was going to worry about playing to the Internet, I could just post pictures of kittens and call it a day.

Which is how I found myself in Chicago's main library, thumbing through the Thai cookbooks to find a squid recipe suitable for waffling.

When I lived in Argentina, people would sometimes ask me what I missed most about the States. Some of them were probably a little taken aback when I answered Thai food. Thai cuisine does one thing better than any that I've ever come across, and that is striking a balance among sweet, sour, spicy and salty notes. This recipe — with its lime juice, sugar, fish sauce and hot peppers — is an excellent example of that.

Squid don't take long to cook, and the high heat of the waffle iron is pretty much perfect for the task. Squid are ranked as a "good alternative" in the Monterey Bay Aquarium's sustainable seafood listings. They're also relatively inexpensive, especially when sold frozen. (The squid that's not sold frozen is usually previously frozen, so if you're able to plan ahead, you can save money by buying from the freezer case.)

The barest and yet still delicious version of this recipe makes use of ingredients you're likely to have on hand — with the possible exception of fish sauce — or at the very least can find substitutes for.

It comes together quickly, looks impressive on the plate and, in a mark of a great recipe, tastes much better than even the sum of its delicious parts. Thompson's version of the recipe does not make note of optional ingredients or include substitutions, but I've written a few notes below. 

Waffled squid salad

Serves 2

Ingredients:

Salad:

• 6 oz. squid [200 grams]
• 3 shallots, finely sliced
• optional: Thai lime leaves, shredded
• optional: lemongrass, finely sliced
• optional: handful of mint or cilantro leaves
• optional: roasted peanuts, crushed

Dressing:

• 2 bird's eye chilies, sliced thin (substitution: red pepper flakes to taste)
• pinch of salt
• 2 tablespoons lime juice
• 2 tablespoons fish sauce
• large pinch sugar

Directions:

1. Combine dressing ingredients and set aside.

2. Waffle the squid until opaque. This should only take about two minutes. When finished, cut into strips. 

3. Allow squid to cool slightly, dress and serve immediately.

Waffled quesadillas with roasted tomato salsa

If waffling doughnuts stirred in me a certain ambivalence — just because you can, does that mean you should? — quesadillas are on firmer footing. 

And we'll get to them in a minute.

As great a success as these quesadillas are, they're tinged by ... well, not failure. Let's call it unsuccess.

I tried to get Rick Bayless to appear on the blog.

Only I didn't talk to him, because I'm not just going to walk up to him and ask. And I didn't even talk to someone on his staff. A friend talked to someone on his staff. And for a while I was sort of optimistic, which I'll grant you might say more about my grasp on reality than my actual chances of success.

At any rate, you know how when you play telephone and the message is relayed from person to person? And when it comes out at the end, you're left with a bassackwards version of what was said at the start? 

I can only imagine what this blog sounds like after it's passed along three or four times.

And then at some point during all of this, Rick Bayless was summoned to the White House to cook for a state dinner. I think that helped me come to terms with my unsuccess. 

So, yeah. I'm sorry. That's rather a long story about something that didn't happen. You can ask my friends; I have a lot of those.

For what it's worth, Rick Bayless is still totally welcome to do the blog. In fact, I would even extend the blog to 31 recipes if Rick Bayless wanted to do the blog. I don't make that statement lightly.

Hmm... Maybe I should write about the quesadillas. 

Quesadillas seemed not only like a beautiful use for the waffle iron, but also a great excuse to make one of my favorite salsas: roasted tomato.

The perfect vessel for leftovers, quesadillas embrace customization, and accommodate whatever you have in your fridge.

I made my quesadillas with queso chihuahua — an excellent Mexican melting cheese — sauteed onions, and refried beans. 

(Although, to be honest, I didn't have one of those things in my fridge. If I had made these with what I had on hand, you'd be reading about vodka and mango quesadillas. Don't ask.)

Assembling the quesadillas is a snap. Between two flour tortillas, spread your ingredients evenly around, leaving an inch or so of border. It's probably easier to place the bottom tortilla on the waffle iron first and assemble the quesadilla in the waffle iron, but take care because, of course, the waffle iron is hot.

Grease the waffle iron well. 

Keep an eye on the quesadillas while they waffle. As the cheese melts, some will inevitably escape. I chose to make the most of this, using a heat-proof spatula to scrape off the crispy cheese from the grid, chopping it up, and sprinkling it onto the sour cream.

The recipe for the salsa is after the jump.

Roasted tomato salsa

Makes about 1 cup [235 ml]

Ingredients:

• 2 tomatoes
• 6 cloves of garlic, with skins
• 1 small onion, cut into three pieces
• Canned chipotles en adobo, to taste
• Salt and pepper, to taste
• Lime, for garnish

Directions:

1. Broil the tomatoes, onion and garlic cloves, turning as necessary to blacken evenly. It should take only a few minutes.

2. When these have blackened, peel the skin from the tomatoes and remove the papery skin from the garlic. 

3. Add the vegetables to the work bowl of a food processor, along with salt, black pepper and the chipotle en adobo. One chipotle pepper makes a mild to medium salsa. Two make a fairly intense medium salsa. The remaining chipotles and sauce can be frozen in a well-labeled bag. ("Caution: This is not pasta sauce" makes a good label.)

4. Pulse in the food processor until liquified. Pour the salsa into a shallow pan and cook on medium heat about five minutes, until most of the water has cooked out.

5. Taste and adjust seasoning as necessary. Serve with lime wedges.

Waffle iron panini, part one

You know how to make a sandwich. You don't need a book to tell you how. Or a blog.

But in researching this post I relied on three books, which I can confidently recommend:

1. Nancy Silverton's Sandwich Book: The Best Sandwiches Ever

2. 'wichcraft: Craft a Sandwich into a Meal — And a Meal into a Sandwich

3. Simple Italian Sandwiches: Recipes from America's Favorite Panini Bar

It's from Nancy Silverton's book that the prospect of a Monte Cristo sprung. 

The recipe calls for a sandwich grill —a panini press, if you will. A waffle iron, if you won't. (Some contraptions manage to combine the functions.)

Silverton's Monte Cristo calls for ham and turkey, but I went with only turkey. I used Gruyere as the cheese and followed the book's suggestion to spread a thin layer of strawberry jam on the sandwich before it went into the waffle iron. Silverton uses sourdough bread, and the tang is important to offset the sweetness of the jam.

Tomato jam works well here, too, but then I have like seven jars of it in my pantry. So I would say that.

I suspect not all waffle irons will work equally well for this. If you have a Belgian-style model, I'd be interested in hearing in the comments whether this worked for you.

One key, I found, was to turn the sandwich midway through the waffling, to allow the waffle iron to press down evenly. If your waffle iron is like mine, the sandwich will settle right back into the grid when you turn it 180 degrees.

It's like it was meant to be.

There is something instantly appealing about panini. Like waffling, pressing a sandwich is transformative. The bread is toasted and warm. The pieces of cheese dribbling over the crust turn crispy from touching the hot grid.

You could stop right here and be a very happy sandwich eater.

But I didn't.

Silverton's recipe calls for deep-frying the Monte Cristo, and this is not the sort of blog where I leave well enough alone. 

So while the sandwich was waffling, I made Silverton's beer batter.

If you're a novice deep-fryer, here is the most important thing: Make sure your oil does not fill your frying vessel more than halfway. When you add the sandwich, the oil will bubble up. You want to leave enough room so that the oil stays in the pot. This is very important.

The second most important thing — really, it's practically the most important thing, but grease fires are no fun so the above tip wins out — is to make sure your oil is at the right temperature. I fried the sandwich at 350 degrees Fahrenheit (about 175 Celsius.)

I cut the sandwich into thirds on a diagonal. The battered sandwich pieces fried for about two minutes on each side.

When they came out, I dusted them with powdered sugar and dabbed some strawberry jam on one corner.

I don't know how to tell you how good they were. They were great. The crackly outer crust from the batter surrounded the waffled slices of bread, between which sat the turkey and the warm cheese.

Later that evening over dinner, I discussed my waffling activities with my friends and frequent conspirators. It emerged from our discussion that you can also make the sandwich french toast-style, by which I mean dipping the bread in an egg-and-milk combination and then waffling.

One egg to about 1/2 cup [120 ml] of milk is about right. This produces fantastic results, as well, though it's no deep-frying — I'll leave it to you to decide whether that's a good or bad thing. It's certainly less work. The egg and milk soften the bread, and make the waffle pattern more evident on the sandwich. That's not a bad thing, either.

Tastewise, I preferred the deep-fried version.

Which makes sense when you think about it. Even just a little.

* * *

There's one more idea for waffle iron panini still to come. Meanwhile, speak up about your favorite sandwich fixings in the comments section.