Waffling

First of all, let me just say, I’m sorry I keep jumping around all over the internet. I know I’ve been through a lot of different blogs and URLs over the past few years. I’ve been in heavy transition in so many ways. But the fact is, a writer needs a permanent internet home base. It’s taken me some time, but I’ve finally settled on a design, a URL, a theme (kind of) and a hosting situation that I think will suit me for the foreseeable future. I promise this will be the last time I move for a while. I hope to get everything integrated here eventually, and stop squatting halfheartedly all over the web.

I wish I could say I got up early this morning to make waffles, but I didn’t. I was up early this morning, but from the wrong end. I’m what you might call a “delicate flower” in terms of my sleep schedule — I suffered pretty intense insomnia all through university and after, when it was impossible to get myself regulated, but the issue completely disappeared once I moved to Korea and started working regular hours. Now, when the deadline period rolls around and I’m not getting home until eleven or twelve at night, I get all screwy again. But the important thing is that waffles were made, I guess.

I don’t do brunch in Korea. I’m sorry. I know the internet is full of rave reviews for all kinds of brunch places, but I have yet to find a single place that makes food good enough to justify the prices, when I can make often better and cheaper food in the comfort of my own home, un-showered and in sweatpants.

Waffles are by far my favorite breakfast food, but I don’t make them very often because they’re fiddly. The stove-top griddle I have requires just the right amount of oiling, batter and cooking time for the whole thing not to become a gurgling, sticky, burnt mess. But Mama B recently sent us 복분자 효소 (literally, black raspberry enzymes, but think of it as a kind of preserves), which are really expensive and don’t last too long. They’re great with yogurt, but that gets old after a while.

So waffles it was.

Now. I’m trying to get my photography together a little bit, because, due to other writing projects and my erratic work schedule, I can’t offer much in the way of regular posting or text for this blog. I also need to get it together in general, because most US publications are not going to send a photographer out to handle my business for me for freelance work and besides, I haven’t seen much in the way of really good food photography with English-language text in Korea. But I’m gonna need y’all not to laugh too hard while I’m working it out. I’m currently attending Google University in the subject, because I also don’t have the kind of predictability of schedule that would allow me to take a proper class, but I hope I can offer something nice, as time goes on.

So, waffles. What I’ll say about waffles is, no matter what kind of griddle you’re using, make sure it’s greased all to hell. That means making sure the top and sides of the raised bits are greased, as well. And always make more batter than you think you will need, because you may end up with some rejects. I got my griddle years ago at Homeplus, but you can find them on Gmarket if you search for 와플팬.

Here’s the recipe for the ones I made this morning. (Am I going to start doing proper recipes? I don’t know. Let’s try it and see how it goes.) I’ll give the Korean words for some of the harder-to-find ingredients, for easy internet searching.

• 1 cup white flour
• 1 cup whole wheat flour (통밀가루)
• 3 teaspoons baking powder
• 4 tablespoons sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg (너트맥, 육두구)
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/2 cup oil
• 2 cups milk
• 2 eggs

Mix dry with dry, wet with wet. Then mix dry and wet together. Don’t over mix it. Grease the waffle griddle and preheat it on the stove over medium low heat. When the griddle is hot, ladle in just enough batter to cover the top of the squares. Close the griddle and wait. I don’t quite know why, but I’ve found that letting the waffles cook for only a couple of minutes on one side before flipping to let them completely cook on the other (6-7 min) and then flipping them back to let them finish helps with sticking.

You may have some batter come gushing out the side. If that happens, don’t panic. Just reposition the griddle so no batter is getting into your oven eye and leave it be. Open the griddle very, very slowly and use a chopstick to loosen the waffles.

For the eggs, I used my cast iron skillet greased with butter and tossed in a little Parmesan, basil and garlic (a little bit of garlic goes a long way in eggs, so careful there).

And a long, sweaty hour later, B and I sat down to a lovely waffle lunch.