Poached Wings

Today I decided to get raw wings and poach them so I could toss them in my own hot sauce. It turned out to be $1.34 each piece (tax and free delivery and tips included). Ordering wings cooked (fried) would cost me about $1.90 each (tax and free delivery and service fees and tips). I save almost $6. Gas is included in my apartment, so at least I’m not having to spend money to cook them. I suppose $6 is a cup of coffee, but I get free coffee from the coffee bar in my building, so I never pay for coffee or tea (sometimes, fruit, too, when in the mood), anyway. Seriously, sometimes ordering doesn’t cost me more than cooking, considering I don’t even do fast food.

This is not meant to be a dish but a canvas. I don’t really like frying, but I do like wings, and I’ve found poaching the wings gives me a lot of freedom to experiment with tossing them in different sauces. These wings can be shallowed fried, grilled, or reheated in the microwave and then tossed in a variety of sauces or tossed in sauce and baked.

I prefer wingettes, but they’re hard to find. I do like the wings cut rather than whole.

• 2.5 lbs wing pieces
• 1/4 cup coarse salt
• 1 cup ice
• 1/4 cup vegetable oil

1. Fill a large pot 3/4 full with cold water and add the salt. Bring to a boil. Add the wings. Just before the water boils, cover and turn off the heat. Let sit for 1/2 hour. Remove the wings and rinse under running cold water. 
2. In the meantime, heat the liquid until boiling and put the wings in again. As before, just before the water boils, cover and turn off the heat. Let sit for 1/2 hour.
3. Meanwhile, prepare an ice bath. In a large bowl, add the ice and fill the bowl with cold water.
4. Remove the wings from the pot and dunk them in the ice bath. Drain and return to the bowl. Add the vegetable oil and toss. Keep in the refrigerator. The wings are now ready for sauces.

1.  No hot sauce, mainly dry ingredients, mix everything except toasted sesame seeds with hot water to ensure no lumps, toss the wings in the mixture then sprinkle toasted sesame seeds over the wings: The ghost pepper flakes provide the (necessary) heat!

2.  Instead of mixing the ingredients in a bowl first and then pouring over the wings, I poured about 1/4” of vegetable oil in a plastic container that has a lid, added everything, closed the lid to shake until all the wings were coated, then let sit for half an hour.

3.  I mixed everything and made a gravy with a chicken broth (from poaching the wings) cornstarch slurry and poured it over the wings.

4.  The wings were submerged in chicken broth mixed with what was photographed plus sugar and two Earl Grey teabags and left in the fridge overnight. They were then drained and drizzled with a homemade chili oil (it looks darker/redder in the jar) and toasted sesame seeds sprinkled on top.

5.  Put wings in a container with a lid, pour equal amounts of the three hot sauces and a few dashes of liquid smoke. Close the lid and shake to coat. Let sit in the fridge for at least an hour. Heat butter on medium heat until melted. Turn the heat to low and quickly toss the wings in the butter to heat. Pour over any remaining sauce and mix through. I’d sprinkled chopped scallion on top if I had any.

5.  When wings beckoned …

Marinade ingredients (not pictured are vegetable oil, hot sauce left over from a delivery order, and sugar to counter the Marmite) and finished dish

 

HOT WINGS

 

The Chinese restaurant near me does pretty good wings, but their sauces are a bit odd; they’re basically whatever sauces they already use for their other dishes:

1. Plain
2. Hawaiian Sauce (Sweet and Sour)
3. Orange Sauce (Sweet and Hot)
4. Garlic Sauce (Hot)
5. BBQ Sauce (Hickory)
6. Louisiana Sauce (Hot)
7. Mongolian Sauce (Sweet)
8. General Sauce (Sweet and Hot)
9. Indian Sauce (Curry Hot)

This was their Hawaiian sauce. As you can tell, it’s just sauce they’d use for Sweet and Sour. It’s rather boring. 

I’ve tried their Garlic Sauce, Louisiana Sauce, and Indian Sauce. They’re fine, but they’re nothing spectacular. 

I figured I’d just order their wings plain or with sauce on the side, use the sauce for something else, and toss the wings in my own hot sauce mixture. 

Four of the hot sauces in my collection are from restaurants:

• Nando’s XX Hot (from Nando’s Peri-Peri: one of my very rare chain restaurant exceptions that I actually like; not really that hot)
• One Finger (from Nola Pub House: a bit thin and not really that hot, but quite tasty)
• Jups Hot Sauce (from Ina Mae Package Goods: it’s a bit thin and vinegary)
• Diablo (from Fat Rice: their current iteration, Noodlebird, doesn’t sell it, but they sell other hot sauces)

So, here are my evil creations. 

1.  The first time I decided to mix my own hot sauce mixture: It turned out really well.

2.  This was my second attempt: Four of the hot sauces have Ghost Pepper, and one even has Reaper! I forgot to take a picture of the final mixture or the wings. It was HOT, but in a good way!

3.  I hadn’t used these hot sauces in a while (recommended by a friend, but none really my favorite), so why not? The final result was quite good!

4.  The experimentation continues (my XX Peri-Peri is finished now; too bad they don’t sell their XXX, which is quite good and which I always add when I’m at Nando’s): It had a really good kick!

4.  I decided to do something different and make a chunkier sauce with extra seasoning: four hot sauces, crushed chipotle, Venom (sea salt and Trinidad Scorpion Pepper), and an extra hot salsa (7 pot Brain Strain Pepper,, Trinidad Scorpion, Carolina Reaper, Ghost Pepper). Good flavor combination, not as crazy hot as I thought it would be, but the heat did linger a bit. Another successful experiment!

5.  Late night munchies means wings: the Smoky Ghost is done, the Diablo is almost gone, and the Ghost Peri-Peri is going fast!

Thanksgiving Dinner with a Shakespearean Twist

It’s Thanksgiving, so turkey is obligatory (I don’t eat turkey, otherwise). Of course I wasn’t going to do anything predictable. 

I have a cookbook based on food mentioned in Shakespeare’s plays. Yes, someone actually went through Shakespeare’s plays and compiled recipes! Thanksgiving obviously didn’t exist back then, but there is a St. Crispin’s Day menu from Henry V that has turkey (Henry V was written in 1599-1600 and the first Thanksgiving was celebrated in 1621)! There is no dessert, because one, I don’t really eat dessert, and two, the original menu doesn’t have dessert. 

Anyway, apparently in Shakespeare's time, turkeys took off in popularity thanks to their similarity to a banquet bird of an earlier era: the peacock (according to Folger Shakespeare Library).

So here’s my adaptation!

Bison Puff

Venison pasty is in the original menu, but I couldn’t find venison, and I didn’t feel like making the pastry myself.

• 8 oz crescent dough sheet
• 1 lb ground bison
• 1 egg
• salt and pepper to taste

1. Heat oven to 375°F.
2. Unroll croissant dough and cut into 6 rectangles (cut in half lengthwise and thirds crosswise). Place on ungreased large cookie sheet. Press each into 5x5-inch square.
3. Mix the rest of the ingredients together.
4. Place 1/6 of the meat mixture in the center of each dough square. Spread to within ½ inch of three corners. Bring unfilled corner up over filling. Press edges with fork to seal. Pierce top of each pocket with sharp knife.
5. Bake for about 30 minutes or until golden brown. Immediately remove from cookie sheet. Keep warm until ready to serve.

Asparagus

Asparagus is asparagus. There’s nothing really special here.

1. Bend the asparagus until they break. Discard the tough bottoms.
2. Blanch them for about 3-4 minutes.
3. Drizzle olive oil over them and season with salt and pepper to taste.

Roast Turkey Breast with Sausage-Rice Stuffing

I like to brine my turkey before roasting, and I usually put the stuffing between the skin and the meat. Unfortunately, the turkey breast I got had very little skin, so I spread the stuffing on the meat and rolled it up instead.

Brining the Turkey Breast

1. Add 1 cup salt and ½ cup sugar to 4 cups of water in a medium saucepan and bring to a simmer over high heat, stirring occasionally until the salt and sugar dissolve.
2. Remove from heat and add 4 cups of ice cubes to the solution to cool the liquid to room temperature.
3. Transfer the solution to a large pot. Add 4 cups of cold water and 3-4 bay leaves.
4. Submerge the turkey breast in the brine, making sure it’s covered with liquid.
5. Cover the pot and place in the refrigerator.
6. Brine for 24 hours.

Sausage-Rice Stuffing

The original recipe calls for veal for the stuffing, but I like Italian sausage for stuffing, and I substituted rice for croutons.

• ½ cup long grain rice
• 2 tblsp salted butter or 2 tblsp unsalted butter and 1 tsp salt
• 10 oz uncased Italian sausage (I like hot)

1. Simmer the rice in 1 cup water with butter (and salt) for 15 minutes.
2. Turn off the heat and let stand covered for 15 minutes.
3. Fluff and cool to room temperature.
4. Mix rice with Italian sausage.

Preparing the Turkey Breast

Remove the turkey breast from the brine and pat dry. Lay it flat skin side down and spread the stuffing evenly over the turkey breast. Roll it up and secure with kitchen twine. Drizzle olive oil over it.

Roasting the Turkey Breast

Roast the turkey breast at 450°F for 20 minutes, then lower the heat to 375°F. Roast for 30-40 more minutes, or until the internal temperature taken reaches 165°F.

Turkey Sauce

I used the sauce packet from the turkey breast and added plenty of freshly ground black pepper.

Pottage of Leeks and Milk

• 2 leeks, whites only
• 8 oz cubed ham
• 1 cup whole milk
• salt and pepper to taste
• slices of crusty bread

1. Slice the leek in half lengthwise, then thinly slice crosswise.
2. Put the leeks and ham in a saucepan and add enough water to cover.
3. Bring to a boil. Lower the heat, cover and let simmer for 20 minutes.
4. Add the milk and salt and pepper and simmer for 5 minutes.
5. Serve with crusty bread.

Ale

Ale is very English!

 

Laverbread Cakes and Bacon

 

More Welsh food! I had leftover laverbread, cockles, and bacon from Swansea Breakfast, so why not? I don’t have oatmeal, so I substituted with panko. Toast would go well, but I don’t have bread and I really don’t eat bread that much, anyway. I don’t eat bacon much, either, and I don’t like crispy bacon, so it’s golden brown for me.

• 4 oz laverbread
• 4 oz cooked cockles, shelled
• 1/4 cup panko
• 1 tsp lemon juice
• salt and black pepper to taste
• 2 tsp vegetable oil
• 4 slices bacon

1. Mix all ingredients except oil and bacon. Leave for 5 minutes.
2. Heat oil in a pan and fry the bacon until golden brown. Remove and keep warm.
3. Drop spoonfuls of the laverbread mixture into the hot pan, flattening them gently with the back of a spoon. Cook over median heat for 1-2 minutes on each side until crisp and golden brown. Serve with bacon.

Swansea Breakfast

Why can’t I cook normal stuff like everyone else? 

Sigh.

So, three main ingredients, from three different places. Bacon was the easy one (I got Pat LaFrieda bacon via Amazon Fresh). I had to get fresh cockles from HMart (it’s the only place I’ve found that carries cockles!), and canned cockles (for extra cockle meat) and dried laver (it’s seaweed that will need to be rehydrated and then cooked into a pulp) via Amazon.

Yeah, it’s a Welsh dish and none of the ingredients are from Wales. There are NO Welsh restaurants in Chicago, so if I want Welsh food, I’ll have to make it myself. 

I probably didn’t need the canned cockles, since they were so small you could hardly see them. I would like to think they added more flavor. I probably could have used less laverbread so the dish was not as green, but I like laverbread.

Is it authentic? Not entirely, but it’s as close as I can get given the ingredients I was able to get. Oh, well.

• juice from one large lemon
• 1 3-oz pack dried laver, rehydrated
• 3 tblsp olive oil
• salt and pepper, to taste
• 12 fresh cockles
• 1 tblsp vegetable oil
• 1 large onion, finely chopped
• 4 slices back bacon, chopped
• 1 4-oz can cooked cockle meat, drained
• black pepper

1. Prepare the laverbread. Simmer the rehydrated laver over low heat for 6 hours until it turns into a dark pulp. Combine the laverbread, olive oil, 2 tsp lemon juice and salt and pepper to taste and stir through. Set half aside and keep the other half for another recipe (see Laverbread Cakes and Bacon).
2. Rinse the cockles to wash away any sand or dirt. Bring a cup of water to the boil in a large pan and add a splash of lemon juice. Place the cockles in the pan, and cover. It will only take a couple of minutes for them to cook, and then shells to spring open. Drain and set aside.
3. Heat a large frying pan. Add the vegetable oil and cook the onion for 3-4 minutes. Add the bacon and cook until crisp. Mix in the laverbread and drained canned cockle meat. Heat thoroughly and season with black pepper and lemon juice to taste. Garnish with the fresh cockles.  

Chapaguri

 

I’ve read so much about this I decided to try it myself. To be honest, I didn’t really like it. There’s some strange metallic taste to it. Maybe it’s the seaweed, even though seaweed (or anything with a lot of iron) is usually not a problem for me?

1 pack Chapaghetti (Korean instant black noodles)
1 pack Neoguri (Korean instant spicy seafood udon noodles)
4 cups of water

1. Boil the water in a pot on medium high heat.
2. Once the water is boiling, add the Chapaghetti noodles, Neoguri noodles, and dried vegetable flakes from both packets in the pot.
3. Boil until the noodles are cooked, about 2-3 mins, stirring to prevent sticking.
4. Drain the water but leave about 6 tblsp worth of water. Then add the whole packet of Chapaghetti powder soup sauce, 1/3 packet of Neoguri powder soup sauce, and olive oil from the Chapaghetti sauce. Mix them well.