Rosie Wings It.

 

I’m going with an American favorite this month – fried chicken.  But not fried breasts or thighs, since because of their size, they can be difficult to cook evenly.  I’m using the wings.   And I have a double-fry technique that will produce a crisp, crackly exterior and a juicy interior.  Add to this a complex sweet, savory, and spicy sauce that just coats the wings, and you’ve got a perfectly balanced, winning combination.  In addition, I’m offering a tangy slaw that’s a bit off the beaten path from your run-of-the-mill coleslaw.  I think you’ll like this medley of flavors and textures.

 

Before I get into the recipe, let’s talk a bit about frying.  The secret to achieving crisp and non-greasy fried food is found in maintaining the proper temperature of the frying oil.  That said, I have come across one of those spiral bound and heavily stained hometown recipe books usually put out by the blue-haired ladies-of-the-church (and always a veritable treasure trove of Americana) which professes the secret to perfect fried chicken to be “peanut oil and Jesus.”  And I really can’t argue with that.  So, here’s the bottom line:  If your temperature is too high, the surface burns before the food is cooked through.  If the temperature is too low, the crust forms slowly and allows the food to absorb more fat and become oily.  We need a happy medium, which is generally between 350° and 375°.  At this temperature, when the meat makes contact with the hot oil, its surface dehydrates and forms a crust that prevents further oil absorption while still continuing to conduct heat to the interior of the food.  This all leads me to recommend one buy an instant-read laser thermometer– a fairly inexpensive device worth every penny.   It takes the guess work out of frying.

 

Double Fried Chicken Wings

3-4 pounds chicken wings, cut in two at the joints, tips discarded

 Spicy/Sweet Wing Sauce 

1 TB sesame oil

1 garlic clove, minced to paste

1 tsp grated fresh ginger

¼ cup water

3 TB sugar

3 TB gochujang (Korean chile sauce)

1 TB soy sauce

In large bowl (because you’re going to add fried wings to this later), mix sesame oil, garlic, and ginger.  Microwave for about 40 seconds, until ginger and garlic are fragrant but not browned.  Whisk in remaining ingredients until sauce is smooth.

 Heat peanut oil over medium-high heat to 350° in large, heavy pan.  Mine has a 9-inch diameter and is 5 inches deep.  I pour in about 2 ½ - 3 inches of oil. 

 Batter

In a large bowl, whisk until smooth:

1 cup flour

3 TB cornstarch

1 ½ cups water

Place half wings in batter and stir to coat.  Using tongs, pick out wings, one at a time, letting excess batter drip back into bowl, and add to hot oil, turning heat up to maintain temperature.   I fry 6 at a time, so the temperature doesn’t drop drastically.  Fry about 7 minutes, until coating is light golden and beginning to crisp.  Transfer wings to rack.  Return oil to 350° and continue frying remaining wings in batches, removing to rack.

Increase heat to 375°.  Add fried wings in batches of 6-8 and fry until deep golden brown and very crispy – about 5-6 minutes.  Transfer to rack and let sit 2-3 minutes.  Transfer wings to sauce and toss until coated.

 Now, about that double-frying:  Double-fried wings are crisper and crunchier, even with the sauce, than single-fried wings.  The meat is also juicier.  Chicken skin contains a lot of moisture, so to produce a crisp crust, you need to remove as much moisture from the skin as possible before the meat overcooks.  By single-frying, the meat would be over-cooked before the moisture is driven out of the skin and the remaining moisture makes its way to the crust and turns it soggy.  Double-frying avoids this.  Interrupting the cooking and having a brief cool-down period slows the cooking of the meat itself so you can increase the overall cooking time and expel excess moisture from the skin, resulting in juicy meat and crisp skin.

  Now, for the step-by-steps.

First the sauce:

soy sauce

gochujang

sesame oil

water

sugar

ginger

garlic

 

I ran the garlic and ginger through a press and scraped it into a bowl.

Add in the sesame oil and stir.

 

Nuke until fragrant.

Add in water.

Stir in sugar.

Whisk in gochujang.

And the soy.

Whisky!  Whisky!

And sauce is ready.

 

 

 Now a simple batter:

Flour

Cornstarch

Water 

Whisk until smooth. 

Get you one of those

big packs of chicken wings.

3-4 pounds

Cut off the tips and discard.

Cut at the joint.

Wings go into batter.
Shake off excess batter.

Place wings in hot oil,

one at a time.

Don't overcrowd the pan.

Maybe 6-8 at a time.

After about 7 minutes, remove from oil and place on rack.

Let oil come back up to temperature and continue frying the wings.

Here's my frying station.

Wings

Batter

Hot oil

This is the first frying.

350°  6-7 minutes

Now, the second fry,

375° for about 5-6 minutes.

Single fried on the left.

Double fried on the right.

Continue frying

and let wings rest on rack.

Then add wings to bowl of sauce and toss to coat.

Perfectly fried wings.

Crisp and crackling on the outside.

Moist, juicy, and tender on the inside.

And, oh!

That sauce.

As for a side dish to fried chicken, you can’t go wrong with slaw.  I know everybody’s got a recipe for coleslaw, however, this cabbage salad is just a tad different.  It’s bright, tangy, nutty, appley, and cheesy.  And it will complement those wings perfectly.

 

Red Cabbage Salad

1 small red cabbage, sliced

First, marinate the cabbage.  

In a small saucepan, combine: 

½ cup apple cider vinegar 

1 minced garlic clove 

4-5 sprigs fresh thyme leaves 

Pinch Kosher salt

Bring to a simmer, then pour over the sliced cabbage. Toss to combine. Let sit at least an hour. I let mine sit for several hours and it gets to a lovely and wonderful color.

 

Simmer the 

marinade.

 

 Pour marinade over sliced cabbage.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Let the cabbage marinate for a few hours. Come in every now and then and toss.

Then drain. 

 

 

 Prepare dressing:

¼ cup cider vinegar

¼ cup Dijon mustard 

⅔ cup neutral-flavored oil  (I used grapeseed oil because I had it.  Otherwise, my go-to oil is Bertolli extra light olive oil.)

Pinch kosher salt

Few grinds of pepper 

Whisk vinegar and mustard until well-combined,  Very slowly, drizzle in the oil, whisking constantly to incorporate and make a perfectly smooth emulsion.  Add salt and pepper to taste.

Whisk vinegar

 and mustard.

Slowly whisk in oil.

Season to taste.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Drain marinade from cabbage and add additional ingredients:

1 cup chopped walnuts, toasted (to intensify the flavor)

1 or 2 Granny Smith apples, cored, peeled, and cut into matchsticks

Gruyère cheese, cut into matchsticks (about ½ - 1 cup)

Endive leaves, sliced into strips (about 1 cup)

Combine all ingredients, then pour dressing over top and toss.

 

 

 Enjoy!

Rosie Makes 3-Banana Bread.

I don't know what it is about bananas.  I can buy 4 or 5 of them and my family will eat them all in a day.  Or I can buy 3 of them and they'll sit on the counter forever.  They laze around until the peel turns black and alcoholic fumes emanate from them and waft about in the air.  And I just can't bring myself to throw them out.  I must use them.    So today I'm making a 3-banana bread with a streusel topping. And those bananas, just so you know, would be entirely black.

3-Banana Bread

3 very dead bananas, the deader the better

1 egg

1/2 stick unsalted butter, melted

1 cup sugar

1 1/2 cups flour

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

 

Combine bananas, egg, butter, and sugar in medium bowl and beat on medium speed until combined.  

Mix flour, soda, and salt and stir into batter until just combined.

Pour into buttered 9 x 5-inch loaf pan.

 

Sprinkle streusel mixture evenly over top. 

 

Streusel mixture: 

(I didn't measure anything really.  Just eyeball it.)

3-4 TB unsalted butter, softened

1/4 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup flour

1 tsp cinnamon

1/4 cup coarsely chopped pecans

Mix all with fingers and sprinkle evenly over top of batter.

 

Bake in 325° oven about 1 hour, rotating pan at 30 minutes.

 
 

 

  

 Here's the batter in the loaf buttered loaf pan.

 

 

 I mix the streusel topping by hand.

 

  

 

 

 

 

 

Let the bread stay in the loaf pan about 15 minutes or so, then run a knife around the edges and invert onto a cooling rack.
 

 

I love this buttered and toasted for a breakfast treat.

Nice texture and crumb.

Never throw out black bananas.

  You can always make a loaf of bread or muffins.

1 Banana. 

2 Bananas.

Enjoy!

Rosie Makes Pie For Pi Day.

 

I never need a reason to make dessert, but since it’s March and I’m in an irrational mathematical mood and pi is a favorite irrational number, I feel obliged to make a pie to celebrate National Pi Day on 3/14.  My pie for Pi Day has a versatile cocoa crust, a coffee cream center with hints of cinnamon and orange, and a whipped cream topping.  The optional caramel/chocolate sauce and candied orange peels put this frozen confection just slightly over the top.

 

 Coffee Cream Pie

For the Cocoa Crust:  

2 ½ oz. graham crackers

2 ½ oz. salted pretzels

¼ cup cocoa powder

¼ cup brown sugar

½ tsp cinnamon

1 tsp vanilla

1 stick unsalted butter, melted

Combine all ingredients in a processor and process away.  Press mixture evenly onto bottom and sides of a greased deep dish 9-inch pie pan.  Bake 7 minutes in a 350° oven and let cool completely before filling.

As I mentioned, this is an adaptable crust and I’ve made it before using different ingredients.  I happen to like the saltiness of the pretzels with the cocoa, but you can use other components for the crumb factor.  For example, you could use a 5-oz. package of graham crackers.  You could use 2 ½ oz. graham crackers and 2 ½ oz. gingersnaps.  Or you can go with ½ gingersnaps and ½ Cinnamon Toast Cۙrunch™ cereal.  (That particular combination was a winner with my children.) There’s a lot of leniency here, so go with what you have and like.

 

For the coffee cream center:

1 8-oz. package cream cheese, softened

1 14-oz. can sweetened condensed milk (See Rosie Note below.)

1 cup strong coffee

Grated zest of one orange (about 1 TB)

½ tsp cinnamon

1 tsp vanilla

Combine all ingredients in a blender or processor and blend or process until smooth.  Pour into cooled crust, cover, and freeze overnight.

Rosie Note:  If you don’t happen to have sweetened condensed milk, but do have evaporated milk on hand, not to worry.  A substitution with adjustments can be made as I found myself having to do one time when making this pie.  Instead of the 14 oz. can of sweetened condensed milk, I combined one 12 oz. can of evaporated milk with one cup sugar in a small saucepan and heated it over medium low heat, stirring, until the sugar completely dissolved. Let it cool, then use it in the recipe.

 

 For the whipped cream topping: 

1 cup heavy cream 

2 TB sugar 

2 tsp vanilla

 Whenever I whip cream, I always chill the bowl and beaters first.  Simply place a medium-sized bowl and the beaters in the freezer for about 20 minutes.  Cream always whips better when everything is cold.

 When the bowl and beaters are chilled, pour the cream in the bowl and beat until soft peaks form.  Keep beating as you add in the sugar.  Stir in the vanilla.  Do not overbeat.  You want slightly stiff peaks.

Spread whipped cream over pie, making pretty swirls.  If you like, grate a good quality dark chocolate over top of the pie.  I recommend Godiva, Lindt, or Ghirardelli.  Return to freezer.

 

 You can serve the pie as is, or you can take it to the next level.  As you know, Rosie’s maxim is, “More is more,”  so I’m going with a decadently rich chocolate caramel sauce along with some candied orange peels which accentuate the slight orange flavor in the cream center.

 

For the Chocolate Caramel sauce: 

1 cup sugar

⅓ cup water

1 tsp vanilla 

¾ cup heavy cream

2 TB unsalted butter

1 10-oz.  package bittersweet chocolate morsels

 Combine sugar, water, and vanilla in medium saucepan.  Slowly cook over medium heat until sugar is dissolved and you have clear bubbles.  Reduce heat to low and cook until amber colored.  You must be vigilant now.  Watch closely because caramel can go south in a heartbeat.  When you get that rich amber color, remove from heat and stir in heavy cream.  Be careful because mixture will spit and steam.  This is normal.  Next, add in butter and chocolate, stirring until melted and smooth.  

 

 For the Candied Orange Peels: 

2 oranges

1 cup water

¾ cup sugar

½ tsp salt

1 tsp vanilla

½  cup sugar

 Trim tops and bottoms of oranges, then peel a continuous strip.  Slice strips into pieces 2-3 inches long and about ¼ inch wide. Combine orange peel segments, water, ¾ cup sugar, and salt in medium saucepan and bring to a simmer over medium heat.  Reduce heat and continue to simmer for about 20 minutes.  Turn off heat, stir in vanilla, and let orange peels steep in sugar syrup for five minutes.

 Use tongs to remove the peels to a cooling rack and let rest another 20 minutes to cool and dry a bit. 

 Pour remaining ½ cup sugar in a small bowl and toss the orange strips in the sugar to coat.  Let peels dry completely.  

 

   To serve:   Using a warm knife, cut pie into slices.  Drizzle with chocolate caramel sauce and place candied orange peels on top.

  Happy Pi Day and enjoy!