Anyone who reads the comments section knows I've been having a culinary love affair with Liz for the last year.  Not only is she a real professional, she kindles the same passion for garam masala, and other uncommon ingredients, but most importantly garam masala, at least today (but only with many less commas).

Since we've both been back-logged with blogging, we exchanged a few e-mails the other week to discuss some more applications of garam masala, which if you recall, is a just a blend of relatively more familiar words, much like a curry is.  The end result is this garam masala combo post.  Check out her site for an even better application of the spice blend.

I made a garam masala waffle with cardamom cream and honey crisp apples.  Well, I tried to at least.  I generally use Aretha's recipe for Waffles of Insane Greatness, which is still a humble name for how good they are, and this time, will modify it as I see fit.  In this case, that involves removing vanilla and adding garam masala.

Never open early, and always lubricate. I don't care what other people say.I didn't spray my waffle iron, which was once my mom's, in college, and a mess occurred.  Since this mess took an hour to clean, I didn't make waffles at all.  If I was really hell bent on System D, I'd have taken the large mass of waffle crumbs and made a pudding out of them.  We all know bread pudding, there's also croissant and donut pudding that came after, Uncommon Ground [sometimes] serves a chocolate cake pudding made in the same manner, so why not salvage my waffle in the same way?  Could still use the honey crisp apples and would just need to make a cardamom ice cream instead of whipped cream.

But I wasn't in the mood for all that hassle, especially after a torturous clean-up.  So I went hungry and thought about what to do for dinner.  Which brings me to another battle in the great savory pumpkin war.

I'm roasting a dissected pumpkin in the oven uncovered-- it's wild and dangerous, I know.  Having just dined at Publican for the James Beard Foundation, I have the recent memory of a salad atop roasted delicata squash.  So I figure I could do something similar, but with pumpkin, and when I say salad, I mean braised chicken leg mixture, garnished with toasted pepitas.  Speaking of Publican, why didn't I try making their amazing waffle [recipe here]? 

Back to focusing on creating an edible meal-- I brown a pound chicken legs to braise with half a white onion, a handful of serrano chiles, marjoram, salt, pepper, turbinado, and several cloves of garlic.  After an hourish in the oven at 325, I put the braising pot on a very very low burner, crank the heat up to 375, and put my pumpkin slices in the oven with oil, salt, and pepper for 30 minutes.  This turns out to be enough time to gain decent color.

I placed the pumpkin, right out of the oven onto a serving plate, covered with the braised chicken 'salad,' then finished with roasted pepitas.  There should be magical pumpkin flavor; soft, moist chicken; and crunchy pepitas, for texture and even more pumpkin flavor.

It ends up being a step up from the pumpkin soup.  More pumpkin flavor, but still a bit subtle.  The dish would probably work a lot better replacing pumpkin with delicata, and garnishing with cojita cheese, especially since I ended up throwing some pickled red onions and hot sauce on the side.  Is there anything those don't fix? 

I may have taken a big step backward, and a small one forward for [still] a net loss, but we'll see what life hands out next.  Maybe pumpkin is just for pies, lattes, and raviolis.  But maybe, waffle pudding is going to be the next big hit.  Maybe.