Events and dedication

With the book release coming up quickly, there are a lot of things being planned, including some demonstrations, book signings and Q&A sessions. I'll be honest: It would be pretty great to see you there. We can get together, waffle some foodstuffs, talk about the book, etc. 

There's an events page on this site dedicated to this sort of thing. It's updated as new information becomes available.

But what if you never checked that page? Maybe you wouldn't know! What if you found out the day after I was somewhere? (Well, I'm always somewhere — I mean the same somewhere that you were.) It's all almost too bleak to contemplate. So let's avoid that. Here's where I'll be.

Let's make plans to be the same somewhere together:

Aug. 31: Decatur, Ga. — AJC Decatur Book Festival 

Sept. 13: Chicago — The Chopping Block

Sept. 15: Milwaukee — Boswell Book Company

Sept. 16: Corte Madera, Calif. — Book Passage

Sept. 17: Seattle — Book Larder

Sept. 19: Phoenix  — Changing Hands Bookstore at First Draft Book Bar

Nov. 1: Baton Rouge — Louisiana Book Festival

The list isn't necessarily finished. To see if more are added, keep an eye on the events page, the Facebook page or the Twitter account. 

---

My mom was in the front passenger seat. I was in the back. A few minutes earlier, she had seen the book for the first time. You can imagine: She was excited.

It was hard to know what to think, let alone what to say.

Then she spoke up: "I can't believe the dedication!"

I paused for a few seconds, thinking about the two years that I — and others whose names are not on the front cover — had invested in making the book a reality. I think that was a good way of summing it up. Hard work. Perseverance. In essence, yes, dedication.

Then it dawned on me.

She didn't mean that dedication.

She meant this one: 

To my mom, to whom I owe my first waffle iron and everything else

See, now I've gone and spoiled the first page of the book for you. I hope you'll still consider getting one.

Green salad with waffled chicken

Have an appetite for more waffling? Preorder the cookbook "Will it Waffle?" on Amazon, Barnes & Noble or Indiebound. And keep up on all the waffling via Twitter and Facebook. (And, no, this recipe is not in the book. So the book is 53 more recipes.)

Every week or two, we end up having salad for dinner. It's not noble. It's not particularly health-minded. It's usually because I'm feeling lazy and don't know quite what to eat. If I don't know what I want to eat and I end up eating junk, it tends to sit in my stomach and remind me of my bad decision. If, on the other hand, I'm indecisive and end up eating salad, my feelings are usually along the lines of: "Hey, I'm incapable of deciding what to eat for dinner, but at least I ate salad!"

What goes into the salad depends on what's on hand. Lettuce, usually. Tomatoes. Cucumber. Those are the basics. If I have some beans hanging around, I’ll throw those in there. Chicken is good. Chunks of cheese are nice. Bacon is always welcome. Hard-boiled eggs work too.

As you might imagine, my fridge can become an eclectic repository of waffling projects, which is how this salad came to be. The waffled chicken breast was waiting to be used up.

Pounding the chicken breast to a uniform thickness means it cooks quickly and evenly. The recipe below calls for just salt and pepper, but you could add some cumin or some paprika to change things up if you'd like.   

The dressing comes together in no time flat. It's bright and tangy with a nice creaminess from the tahini. 

I find it's best to dress the whole salad at once and then dole out the portions, but if you know you're going to have leftovers, just dress what you're going to eat. Leaving the dressing to sit on the salad for a day or two in the refrigerator doesn't do the greens any favors. 

Now whatever else you tell yourself, you can say: "At least I ate salad."

---

Time: 20 minutes
Yield: Serves 2

Ingredients:

Salad:

• 1 boneless, skinless chicken breast (about 8 ounces)
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 1 small head of lettuce, torn into bite-size pieces and thoroughly washed and dried
• 4 ounces cherry tomatoes
• 1 small cucumber

Lemon-tahini dressing:

• 4 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• 1 tablespoon tahini
• Dash of salt

Directions:

1. Preheat the waffle iron on medium.
2. Place the chicken in a zip-top bag, set it on a flat surface, and press down on the chicken with a cutting board or heavy frying pan. Pound the chicken to a thickness of about 1/2 inch.
3. Remove the chicken from the bag and season it with the salt and pepper.
4. Place the chicken into the waffle iron, close the lid, and cook or about 4 minutes, or until cooked through. (The chicken should reach 165 degrees as measured with an instant-read thermometer. Or, cut into it and be sure no pink remains in the center.)
5. Remove the chicken from the waffle iron and place it on a cutting board to cool slightly.
6. While the chicken cools, prepare the rest of the ingredients: Chop the cucumber into bite-sized pieces and cut the cherry tomatoes in halves. In a large bowl, toss the cucumber, tomato and lettuce.
7. Cut the chicken into pieces and toss into the salad. 
8. In a mason jar with a lid or a small bowl with a whisk, combine the dressing ingredients until thoroughly blended.
9. Add the dressing and toss the salad to coat the components thoroughly.

Waffled pizza redux (and a cookbook giveaway)

This is not a blog for purists — not waffle purists (we already know waffle batter will waffle), not pizza purists (red sauce and mozzarella work; we got it. Oh, and you can make it in the waffle iron.)

So you are already somewhat prepared for "Revolutionary Pizza: Bold Pies that Will Change Your Life ... and Dinner," a cookbook available July 1 via Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Indiebound, among other outlets. I saw an early version a few months ago and have already placed my order. You should check it out. 

I'm a big fan of pizzas that don't rely on tomato sauce. Don't get me wrong: I'm also a big fan of pizzas that do. But there's a whole world of pizza toppings out there and it seems wrong to limit yourself. "Revolutionary Pizza" definitely does not limit itself. Of special interest to readers of this blog: the Chicken 'N' Waffles pizza.

There's a waffling blog connection here, too: Dimitri, the force behind the cookbook, invited me into his restaurant when I first did waffled pizza and — being either a glutton for punishment, waffling or pizza — invited me back when I was working on my book.

On that second visit I paid to Dimo's, we made the Chicken 'N' Waffles pizza (chicken, waffles, mozzarella, a little crème fraîche, syrup), a Thanksgiving homage pizza (mashed potatoes, turkey, stuffing and gravy), and a crab rangoon pizza (crab, cream cheese, cheese, sweet and sour sauce). Naturally, all of these things went in the waffle iron. 

Win a copy of 'Revolutionary Pizza'

You can win a copy of "Revolutionary Pizza." Here's how:

1. Live in the United States or Canada.
2. Leave a comment on this post with your favorite offbeat pizza topping by 11:59 p.m. EDT, July 1 . 
3. When commenting, use an email address or Twitter account that you check somewhat regularly. (This is so I can contact you if you win; it is not so I can spam you with waffles. Or waffle you with spam.)
4. That's it. A commenter will be chosen at random to receive the book.

What follows is a recipe taken from the book: The Elotes, a pizza take on Mexican roasted corn.

I made this last night on the grill. (Grilled pizza: Not within the scope of this blog, but highly recommended nonetheless.) The tangy lime-sour cream sauce sets up a nice contrast to the sweetness of the roasted corn. Corn season is coming up soon for a broad swath of the country, so put this on your to-make list in August.

You can find your own path to pizza dough (my recipe is here). Once that's squared away, you're ready to go. 

---

The Elotes

from Revolutionary Pizza

This is a summer street food staple. We’ve taken this popular grilled and slathered snack and transferred it from the cob to a crust. Either way, it’s quick and easy — both to make and to eat. Watch this pie disappear in front of a hungry group of friends in record time.

Ingredients:

• Enough dough for one 12-inch pizza, stretched and shaped
• 4–5 ears sweet corn in husks
• ½ cup/60 mL Mexican cream (or sour cream)
• 2 tbsp/30 mL lime juice 
• 1 bunch cilantro
• 1 tsp chili salt
• ¼ cup/30 g shredded mozzarella cheese
• 3 tbsp/45 mL melted butter
• ¾ cup/90 g cotija cheese 
• Chili salt

Directions:

Grill corn on the cob in husks until they blister, about 10–15 minutes. Let cool and cut corn off the cob.

Mix together the Mexican cream, lime juice, cilantro and 1 teaspoon chill salt for cilantro lime sauce.

Working with the shaped and stretched pizza dough, add shredded mozzarella and apply rings of cilantro lime sauce, starting at the outside closest to the crust and working toward the center. Distribute grilled corn. Bake in preheated oven at 500°F/260°C for 10–12 minutes until crust is golden brown. Top with a drizzle of melted butter, cotija cheese and a sprinkle of chili salt. Add more cilantro lime sauce as desired. Slice and serve.

Waffled steak tacos with freshly waffled tortillas

There is so very much more waffling to be had: Preorder the cookbook "Will it Waffle?" on Amazon, Barnes & Noble or Indiebound. And keep up on all the waffling via Twitter and Facebook.

Great news: You can make tacos — tortillas, meat, vegetables and all — in your waffle iron.

Better news: It's not hard and the results are, quite frankly, fairly awesome. 

I started with the tortillas.

If you have a tortilla press, you're ahead of me. I had a rolling pin and it was going to have to work. Fortunately, forming the tortilla dough into balls and rolling them flat between sheets of lightly floured plastic wrap got the tortillas thin enough. And you do want them to be thin.

You can make tortillas as thin as any you'd find in a store made by people (or machines) who know what they're doing. We're obviously sacrificing tradition by making these in a waffle iron, but there's no reason quality and taste have to go out the window too. As a bonus, it turns out my circular waffle iron was just about the perfect size for a tortilla. 

With the vegetables, I knew from previous waffling that we weren't going to have a problem there. 

That left the beef. Get ready to roll your eyes. And know that I'm rolling mine with you at myself. I prepared bavette de boeuf using my sous-vide cooker and then finished it off with a quick sear in the waffle iron. 

Two things:

1. Bavette is ubiquitous here in Montreal and is similar if not identical to flank steak. (My butcher has, in the past, shown me where the bavette comes from, but he's shown me on himself by pointing to his midsection, which is fine as far as it goes but still left me with some questions. Like: What would cows look like standing on two feet?)
2. There is no way you need a sous-vide contraption to make these. You know how if all you have is a hammer, everything starts to look like a nail? If you have a sous-vide circulator, every piece of meat starts to look like something that should be cooking for eight hours in a water bath. I can't defend it; I'm just explaining it.

So, yes, this is a waffled meal from start to finish. But there is room for shortcuts.

If you have leftover grilled or roasted vegetables, you can skip that step and just use those (perhaps reheated in the microwave). If you have tortillas on hand, you can skip the tortilla-making step and give them a quick run through the waffle iron to warm them up. And I think it goes without saying that there are other ways to cook beef besides the waffle iron.

So, yes, you can make any or all of these things without the waffle iron. But you can make them all with the waffle iron.

And that is why we're here.

Time: 30 minutes
Yield: Serves 2

Ingredients: 

Beef:

• 8 ounces flank steak
• Juice of one lime
• 1 tablespoon neutral oil, such as canola
• ¼ teaspoon cumin
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• ¼ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Vegetables:

• 1 large bell pepper (or 2 small bell peppers), cut into 1⁄4-inch wide strips
• 1 small onion, cut into 1/4-inch wide strips
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• Nonstick cooking spray

Tortillas:

• 1 cup Maseca (or other instant corn masa flour)
• ¾ cup lukewarm water
• Pinch of salt

Optional:

• Cilantro, washed and dried
• Shredded cheddar, Monterey Jack or Chihuahua cheese
• Salsa or pico de gallo
• Guacamole

Directions:

1. Preheat your waffle iron on medium.
2. In a zip-top plastic bag or bowl, combine the lime juice, oil, cumin, and salt and pepper. Add the flank steak and allow it to marinate while you prepare the rest of the ingredients.
3. In a medium bowl, toss the vegetables with the salt.
4. When the waffle iron has preheated, coat both sides of the grid with nonstick spray, place as many vegetables as will fit in a single layer on the waffle iron and close the lid. Cook the vegetables about 2 minutes, or until they are just starting to soften and display waffle marks.
5. Repeat Step 4 as necessary with remaining vegetables, removing the finished vegetables to a covered bowl to keep them warm.
6. In a medium bowl using your hands, combine the Maseca, water and salt and knead until a soft dough forms. It should be about the consistency of Play-Doh.
7. Divide the dough into six roughly equal pieces and roll those pieces into balls. Place the balls on a towel and cover with a damp towel to keep them from drying out.
8. Press one ball into a disc with your hand. Place the disc on a sheet of plastic wrap covered with Maseca and cover that with another sheet of plastic wrap. Using a rolling pin, roll out the dough into a circle about 6 inches across. 
9. Place the dough into the waffle iron, close the lid, and cook for about 1 minute or until the dough has firmed up to a tortilla consistency and bears light waffle marks. (Don't let the waffle marks get too dark or you'll end up with tortilla chips. Hey, there's an idea...) 
10. While the first tortilla cooks, repeat Step 8 with another ball of dough. Remove the finished tortillas to a tortilla warmer or wrap them in a clean kitchen towel to keep warm.
11. When the last tortilla has finished waffling, place the flank steak in the waffle iron and close the lid. 
12. Cook the steak for about 5 minutes. Thicker cuts may take longer. You want it to reach an internal temperature of about 140 degrees. Use an instant-read thermometer or cut into the steak. You should see some pink — but no red — in the center.
13. Remove the finished steak to a cutting board, turn off the waffle iron, and let the meat rest for a couple of minutes before slicing it thinly against the grain.
14. Assemble the tacos: If the tortillas have cooled too much, place one in the waffle iron for 10 seconds and let the residual heat warm it up. Pile the sliced meat into a waffled tortilla and add waffled vegetables.
15. Top with cilantro, cheese, salsa and/or pico de gallo and serve with guacamole on the side if desired.