Mala BBQ Wings

Mala sauce originates in China's Sichuan province,which is known for its spicy cuisine. The name, mala, means numbing and spicy; and, in the context of this sauce, it refers to the use of chiles and Sichuan peppercorns. The sauce is typically prepared by combining those ingredients, along with tobanjiang, ginger, garlic, shallots, sesame oil, and other spices.  Once completed, mala is typically served alongside other dishes, as a condiment or dipping sauce. 

This rather unique sauce inspired me, as part of my Wings Around the World project, to create a mala wing sauce. This required more research, because the typical sauce would not work very well. It is more of a brothy type of sauce, which would have a hard time holding itself to the chicken wings. Moreover, some versions use oil, which, in my humble opinion, would not provide a very pleasant wing-eating experience. I am not a big fan of wing dripping in oil, even if that oil is so spicy that I would not know it because the Sichuan peppercorns had numbed my tongue. 

I eventually found a recipe for a mala barbecue sauce, which was served in connection with pork spare ribs (mala paigu). Obviously, barbecue sauces have the great texture for wings. Most restaurants that serve wings usually offer a barbecue sauce option. Yet, unlike a standard barbecue sauce, this mala barbecue sauce balances the five elements: salty (or han in the Sichuan dialect), sweet (tian), sour (suan), hot or pungent (la) and bitter (ku). (For more about the balance of flavors, check out my Laozi Iniative, which is part of The Mindfulness Foodways.) The sweet comes from the sugar and sweet wheat paste, the bitter comes from the black vinegar, while the hot or pungent comes  and Sichuan peppercorns and the doubanjiang, and the salt comes from the hoisin sauce and a little from the Shaoxing wine. 

I prepared the sauce (a picture of it is to the right). I placed the wings in a ziploc bag, added about 2/3 of the sauce and mixed the wings to ensure that they were covered. I allowed the wings to marinate for about 15 minutes or so (you can obviously go longer if you would like, but put the wings in the refrigerator if you do so). I then broiled/roasted the wings in the oven for about 30 minutes. Once they were done, I moved the wings to the bowl and tossed them with the remaining 1/3 of the mala sauce. 

In the end, I have to say that this sauce was not as spicy or as numbing as I had expected after reading many articles about Mala sauce. That is probably a good thing for everyone else, given my love for really spicy foods means that, if I found it spicy, it would probably be too hot for everyone else. It could also be the result of the balance of flavors that I mentioned above. This allowed the sweet and bitter, to shine as much as the spicy/numbing. These wings were very good. I count them as a success in my efforts to globalize buffalo wings. Until next time ....

MALA BBQ WINGS

Recipe from The Mala Market

Serves 3-4

Ingredients:

• 12 chicken wings (drummettes and flats)
• Kosher salt
• Freshly ground black pepper
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 2 tablespoons doubanjiang (chile bean paste)
• 2 tablespoons tianmianjiang (sweet wheat paste)
• 2 tablespoons Chinese dark soy sauce
• 2 tablespoons Shaoxing wine
• 2 tablespoons Zhenjiang black vinegar
• 2 teaspoons hoisin sauce
• 2 teaspoons Chinese roasted sesame oil
• 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground Sichuan pepper
• 2 tablespoons honey

Directions:

1. Prepare the sauce. Place the chile bean paste on a cutting board and mince it with a knife to break down any whole beans. Add it to a small bowl with the sweet wheat paste, vinegar, dark soy sauce, Shaoxing wine, hoisin, sesame oil and ground Sichuan pepper and stir to combine. You could add all of the ingredients in a blender and blend until smooth as an alternative. 

2. Prepare the wings. Place the wings in a ziplock bag. Add about 2/3 of the sauce to the bag and mix so that the wings are covered with the sauce. Allow the wings to rest for about 15 minutes, if you want to marinate them longer, place them in the refrigerator for a couple of hours. 

3. Cook the chicken wings. Heat a grill on medium high heat or the broiler of an oven. Rinse the chicken wings and pat them dry. Season with salt and pepper. Oil the grates of the grill (if using) and place the chicken wings on the grill.  Grill or roast for about seven minutes and then flip the wings, grilling them for about seven minutes more. 

4. Finish the dish. Once the wings reach an internal temperature of 165 degrees Fahrenheit, remove them from the grill. Add the wings to a large bowl and pour the rest of the sauce over the wings. Toss the wings to ensure that the sauce covers all of the wings. 

PEACE.

Steamed Broccoli with Sesame Soy Dressing

My intense dislike of broccoli is not a secret. I have previously blogged about it. To quote myself: "I hate broccoli. I really hate broccoli." Yet, for some reason, I keep finding myself buying broccoli at the grocery store and searching the Internet for some way to make the green vegetable appealing to my palate.

Despite my feelings about broccoli, I know deep down that I need to eat more vegetables. According to the National Center for Biotechnology Information, broccoli contains antioxidants (like Vitamins A, C and K) and glucosinolates, which a body can convert into substances that fight cancer. Broccoli also contains compounds such as indol-3-carbinol and diindolylmethane, both of which help to regulate the immune response and reduce excessive inflammation. 

Recently, I just grabbed a few ingredients from the pantry and my steam basket. I decided that I would steam the vegetable and then toss it in a dressing made from soy sauce, mirin, black vinegar, and sesame oil. I then would garnish the broccoli with a mixture of toasted sesame seeds, toasted black sesame seeds and salt. The end result was decent, but not enough to change my position with respect to broccoli.

I guess some more purchases and surfing for recipes will be required. 

STEAMED BROCCOLI WITH SESAME SOY DRESSING

A Chef Bolek Original

Serves 4

Ingredients:

• 1 large broccoli crown, florets trimmed and large ones halved
• 2 tablespoons Tamari soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon Mirin
• 1 tablespoon black vinegar
• 1/4 teaspoon sesame oil
• 2 tablespoons toasted sesame seeds
• 2 tablespoons toasted black sesame seeds
• 1 teaspoon Kosher salt

Directions:

1. Prepare the dressing and the sesame seeds. Combine the sesame seeds and salt in a small bowl. Combine the soy sauce, mirin, black vinegar and sesame oil another bowl.

2. Steam the broccoli. Add water to a steam pot with a plate and bring the water to a boil and steam. Add the broccoli and steam until cooked, about five minutes. Remove from heat and remove broccoli to a bowl. Add the dressing and toss. Sprinkle with the sesame seeds. 

PEACE.

Chengdu Chicken with Black Beans, Chiles, and Peanuts

There are only a small number of chefs that I follow on social media or the Internet; and, I follow them for very specific reasons. For example, I follow chef Sean Sherman, who is reviving Native American foodways through education and, more recently, through practice with his restaurant, Owamni. I also follow chef Michael Symon because, at first, he is a home-town chef, but, in recent years, he has been doing great work in promoting anti-inflammatory recipes and cooking. And then there is chef Andrew Zimmern, whose work on television and in the kitchen helped to expand my thinking about exploring new cuisines. These opportunities led to my desire to also learn more about the cultures in which those cuisines arise. And, for the few who follow this blog, it may explain much of what I post and why.

So when I get recipes from Andrew Zimmern, especially those involving dishes from around the world, I take notice. One particular recipe caught my eye: Chengdu Chicken with Black Beans, Chiles and Peanuts.  I got that recipe from Zimmern's weekly newsletter back on October 16, 2018. I bookmarked it with every intention of making that dish. However, for a variety of reasons, it took me more than two and one-half years to actually make the dish. The wait was entirely worth it.

The new ingredients: toban djan and
douchi (fermented black beans)

One reason why it took me a while to make this dish is that the recipe called for the use of ingredients that I had not used in the past. There is toban djan (or doubanjiang), which is a fermented chile bean paste. The paste is made from fermented broad beans, chiles, soybeans, salt and flour. Toban djan has been called the "soul of Sichuan cuisine," because it figures prominently in many well known provincial dishes. There is also douchi or fermented black beans. And, as I discovered, they are not just any fermented black beans. Douchi have been found in sealed in a Chinese tomb that dates back to 165 B.C.E., which makes it the oldest, known soy product out there.  Of these two new ingredients, I was able to find toban djan fairly easily in my local Asian grocery store. It took a little more work to track down the douchi. 

However, once I had all of the ingredients, I set out to make this dish. Not only was this recipe easy to make, the dish itself was incredible. It got me to thinking about all of the bad food that I have ever eaten from local Chinese restaurants and why I don't just invest the time into making, not just great Chinese food, but great regional dishes. Sichuan cuisine always intrigued be because of its extensive use of chiles and garlic in the recipes. This Chengdu Chicken recipe (Chengdu is the capital of the Sichuan province) confirmed everything that I love about the regional cuisine. For that reason, I made the dish a second time and enjoyed a little bit of this dish every day for lunch over the course of a couple of weeks. 

In the end, this is the best recipe that I have made in quite a while (and, in my humble opinion, that is saying something because I think that I have made some very delicious dishes in recent weeks and months). I will make sure that I have all the ingredients on hand so that I can make this dish in the future.

CHENGDU CHICKEN WITH BLACK BEANS, CHILES AND PEANUTS

Recipe from Andrew Zimmern

Serves 4

Ingredients:

20 to 24 ounces of boneless, skinless chicken breast 

     and dark meat, diced

3 tablespoons rice wine or sake

2 tablespoons corn starch

2 tablespoons toban dijan (fermented chile bean paste)

1/3 cup shelled peanuts, toasted

1/2 teaspoon ground white pepper

2 tablespoons sugar

2 tablespoons Szechuan peppercorns, crushed

12 dried whole Chinese chiles (tsin-tsin or Mexican arbols work well)

1 tablespoon ginger, sliced

1 tablespoon garlic, sliced

4 tablespoons peanut oil

4 tablespoons whole fermented Chinese black beans (douchi)

1 tablespoon brown sugar

2 tablespoons black vinegar

2 tablespoons dark soy sauce

1 cup scallions, chopped

Cooked rice, for serving

Directions:

1. Marinate the chicken.  Combine the chicken, rice wine, cornstarch and 1 tablespoon of the toban djan and mix well in a large Ziploc bag or bowl.  Cover or seal and place in the refrigerator to marinate for 4 to 24 hours.  Drain chicken and discard any remaining marinade.

2.  Prepare the wok.  Preheat a wok over high heat for several minutes.  Combine the peanuts, white pepper, white sugar, Szechuan peppercorns, dried chiles, ginger and garlic in a bowl.  When the wok is very hot, add the peanut oil and swirl.  It should smoke and ripple immediately.  Add the bowl of mixed seasonings.  Swirl in the wok - they will scorch quickly. 

3.  Cook the chicken.  Next, add the chicken and 2/3 of the scallions.  Wok toss until cooked through, about 3 minutes.  Use wok tools so you don't break the chiles and can scrape across the sides and bottom of the wok safely.  Add the fermented black beans, brown sugar, black vinegar, soy sauce, and remaining toban dijan.  Toss and cook for another 2 minutes.  The sauce should reduce and tighten to a glaze. 

4.  Finish the dish.  Toss in the remaining scallions and immediately spill contents out on a platter.  Serve with white rice. 

ENJOY!