Waffles

I know there are a lot of recipes out there for waffles, and there is that Waffles of Insane Deliciousness recipe you find left, right, and center on the web these days. This is the recipe I have used for many years now which gives me waffles that are crispy on the outside, tender in the middle, and absolutely delicious.

Ingredients
3/4 cup bleached all purpose flour
1/4 cup cornstarch
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
3/4 cup buttermilk
1/4 cup milk
6 Tbsp butter
1 large egg
1 Tbsp sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Melt the butter over a low heat until just melted then set aside- you want it completely liquid without being hot.

Combine the flour, corn starch, salt, baking powder, baking soda in a large bowl. No need to sift, but go ahead if you feel like you have to.

Separate the egg yolk from the egg white. Combine the egg yolk, milk, and butter milk. Whip the egg white until soft peaks have formed, then add the sugar and vanilla and continue to whip until stiffened.

Add the butter to the dry ingredients, then add the milk mixture to the dry ingredients. Rapidly mix with a whisk until it is just homogenous. It doesn't have to be absolutely lump-free, but should be close. Make sure you do this in a large bowl because you want to do it rapidly. The longer you whisk, the tougher the resultant waffles will be.

A dollop at a time, fold the egg white into the batter using a soft rubber spatula. Again, don't worry about lumps too much, but you don't want giant chunks. Use a soft spatula- I have found it is less likely to destroy the egg white.

If you want to make a batch and serve all at once, have an oven pre-heated to 200 and lay the waffles inside in a single layer and they'll be crispy and warm for service.

If you want a slightly different taste, use almond extract instead of vanilla- you get more of a nutty taste which compliments the browning flavor of the waffle.

I don't bother to grease the waffle iron because there is a fair amount of butter in the recipe.  Your waffle iron may vary.

Beef Jerky

~1/2 cup Kikomon Low sodium soy sauce
1 tsp dijon
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 tsp horseradish
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp sriracha

Look, here's the thing with home made beef jerky. No matter what you do, it's going to taste delicious. So if you look at my ingredients and think something sounds terrible, then swap it for something else. Try using a teriyaki sauce or a barbeque sauce. Maybe you like a hotter jerky or a sweeter jerky, so add more hot peppers or some honey. You really can't go wrong with the ingredients.

Where you do go wrong is with the meat itself. You want a very lean cut of meat- london broil, top round, something like that. Buy whichever is on sale. Now trim off all of the fat.

Normally when eating meat, you want to cut against the grain. You get a more tender bite of meat when you do so. For my jerky, I prefer to cut with the grain. Cutting against the grain gives a more crumbly jerky, while cutting with the grain gives a harder, chewier jerky. There is no right answer here, it's really a question of whether you prefer more tender jerky, or a jerky that gives your jaw a workout.