Awaze Wings

Ethiopia is well known for its spice blends, most notably berbere, a very spicy mix consisting of ground chiles, cardamom, fenugreek, ginger and other ingredients. The country is also known for its sauces, such as awaze.  It is this sauce that served as an inspiration for this post. 

I came across a recipe for an awaze sauce that could be used for barbecue ribs. The recipe was fairly simple, clarified butter, berbere spice mix, rosemary and ground cardamom. I decided to take this recipe, adapt it a little, and use it for a buffalo wing sauce. 

The first modification to the recipe was the berbere spice mix. You can probably find pre-made berbere in an Ethiopian market or at Penzey's. Alternatively, you can do what I do and make your own spice mix. I prepared my own berbere, using a recipe from Huntler, Angler, Gardener, Cook, which is a great resource from author Hank Shaw. 

True awaze uses clarified butter, which I have in my refrigerator; however, my second modification was to go a slightly different route. I decided to stick with Hank Shaw's recipe, which uses water or oil to create a berbere paste. I used oil and, given that choice, I decided to forego the clarified butter. I have enough "fat" being used in the wings with the oil, which I added a little more to make the paste into a rough marinade sauce.

Finally, I decided that I would grill the wings. This decision is based upon my growing preference for grilled wings, especially over fried ones and even roasted wings.  

Overall, these are perhaps the spiciest wings that I have prepared as part of my Wings Around the World project. I recognize that the preparation is not a true Ethiopian awaze, but I will make up for it in the future with a traditional awaze recipe, such as tibs. Until then ...

AWAZE WINGS

Recipe adapted from The Food Network; Berbere Recipe from Hunter Angler Gardener Cook

Serves 3-4

Ingredients:

• 12 chicken wings (drummettes and flats)
• Kosher salt
• Freshly ground black pepper
• 1 teaspoon whole black peppercorns
• 12 cardamom pods
• 2 large shallots minced
• 6 cloves garlic, minced
• 3 tablespoons vegetable oil or peanut oil
• 2 tablespoons grated fresh ginger
• 1 tablespoon salt
• 2 tablespoons paprika
• 3 tablespoons cayenne
• 1 teaspoon turmeric
• 1 teaspoon fenugreek
• Water

Directions:

1. Prepare the rub. Toast all of the whole spices in a dry pan over medium heat until they are fragrant. Set aside. In the same pan, heat the oil and sweat the shallots and garlic over medium heat. Do not let them turn color. Turn off the heat and set aside. Grind the whole spices in a spice grinder and then mix with the powdered spices. Add the shallots and garlic to a food processor, then add the spices and drizzle in water or oil as you buzz it on low. 

2. Cook the chicken wings. Heat a grill on medium high heat. Rinse the chicken wings and pat them dry. Season with salt and pepper. Spread the paste on the wings so that they covered all over. Oil the grates of the grill and place the chicken wings on the grill. Grill for about seven minutes and then flip the wings, grilling them for about seven minutes more. Watch to make sure the rub does not burn, if it starts to blacken, move the wings to a cooler part of the grill and extend the cooking time. 

3. Finish the dish. Once the wings reach an internal temperature of 165 degrees Fahrenheit, remove them from the grill.  

PEACE.

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.

Vindaloo Wings

If one was to look for a dry rub recipe for buffalo wings, they would most likely find a lot of commonality in the recipes. That commonality draws inspiration from Mexico (such as the use of ancho chile powder) or barbecue (with the use of smoked paprika, brown sugar and other ingredients). Those recipes may produce some very tasty wings,  but I want to go down a different path with dry rub wings. 

That is when I got to thinking of creating a dry rub that draws its inspiration from curries. More specifically, curries from India. Even more particularly, a particular curry that is symbolic of Goa. That curry is the fiery vindaloo. 

Typically, vindaloo is a sauce-based curry, with strong vinegar notes and a very spicy kick. There are a lot of recipes for a vindaloo paste, which could work well with buffalo wings. (I have used the paste in the past.) But, I wanted an even simpler preparation: just a spice mix.  

I found a basic spice mix that incorporates many of the spices that find their way into a vindaloo. These spices include chiles (of course), along with cardamom, cumin, coriander, cloves, and cardamom. The one spice that was missing, but which could usually be found in a vindaloo recipe, is turmeric. I could live without the use of the golden spice on this one occasion. 

One last note about this recipe, the chiles used in the spice mix are Kashmiri chiles. Those chiles are not as piquant as the chiles that would typically be used in a vindaloo. Goan dishes are well known for their use of the peri-peri chile, a very spicy chile introduced by Portuguese explorers and colonialists to the subcontinent. Kashmiri chiles have their own kick, which will probably be more appealing to people who do not ordinarily eat very spicy wings. 

VINDALOO DRY RUB WINGS

Spice mix recipe from Ministry of Curry

Serves 3-4

Ingredients:

• 1 pound chicken wings, drumettes and flats
• 1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
• 2 teaspoons cumin seeds
• 2 teaspoons coriander seeds
• 20 black peppercorns
• 4 green cardamom seeds
• 4 cloves
• 1 inch cinnamon stick
• 8 dried Kashmiri chiles

Directions:

1.    Prepare the dry rub. Add all the spices to a dry frying pan and lightly toast until aromatic, about 2-3 minutes. Transfer the spices to a plate to cool completely. Grind the spices in a spice grinder to make a fine powder.

2.    Prepare the wings. Add the wings to a bowl and add the apple cider vinegar. Toss the wings in the vinegar until they are coated. Then add the dry rub and toss until all the wings are well coated with the spice mixgture. 

3.    Cook the wings. Heat an oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit. Lay out the wings on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Place the wings in the oven and cook for about 25 minutes or until the wings reach an internal temperature of 165 degrees Fahrenheit. Remove from the oven, allow the wings to cool for about 5 minutes and then serve immediately. 

ENJOY!

Roasted Curry Wings

In all of my years of cooking, including the more than ten years that I have been experimenting with various curries, I had never heard of roasted curry powder. Sure, I have seen and heard of a variety of curry powders. Those powders were just that - curry powders. The notion of a roasted curry powder seemed strange to me.

Yet, roasted curry powders play a feature role in Sri Lankan cuisine. It often serves as a fundamental component of a Sri Lankan curry. That is saying something for a cuisine that is known for currying anything and everything. Indeed, "rice and curry" is often known not just as the national dish of Sri Lanka, but it is also a phrase that could describe most of the dishes prepared in that country. 

This is why I love Sri Lankan cuisine. I am even preparing a personal culinary challenge to prepare a Sri Lankan dinner as part of my Around the World in 80 Dishes personal culinary challenge. It has taken a lot of time to prepare, partly because I am taking a substantial amount of effort to research the dishes; and, partly because I am a little intimidated. I have a lot of high expectations for a cuisine that I find truly fascinating and I want the end result to be as good as my expectations. (Any shortcoming will be due to my lack of experience as opposed to the cuisine itself.)

In any event, some very good friends and neighbors (one of whom is from Sri Lanka) know about my desire to prepare a dinner from the Pearl of the Indian Ocean (as the country is sometimes called). They provided me with a birthday gift consisting of a big bag of roasted curry powder. I have been working to incorporate that powder into my personal culinary challenge. However, in the meantime, I wanted to put it to a more immediate use. Nothing is more immediate for me than a chicken wing recipe.

I tried to find some history about how roasted curry powder came to be, but, any history of the powder seems difficult to find. Most leads simply led me to recipes using the powder (much like this one will become, see below). 

In any event, roasted curry powders are used in Sri Lankan cuisine to prepare darker curries. (If one was looking to prepare a lighter curry, one could simply use a regular curry powder.) I used it to prepare a dry rub for chicken wings. I decided to add some other dry ingredients, which together effectively make a regular curry powder. While those additional ingredients boosted the dry rub, the roasted elements of the roasted curry powder were still very present in both the aroma and taste of these wings. I can't wait to explore the use of roasted curry powder more when I finally complete my Sri Lankan challenge as part of the Around the World in 80 Dishes challenge. 

ROASTED CURRY WINGS

A Chef Bolek Original Recipe

Serves 2

Ingredients:

• 1 pound chicken wings
• 1 tablespoon roasted curry powder
• 1 tablespoon onion powder
• 1 tablespoon garlic powder
• 1 teaspoon ginger powder
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves powder
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon powder
• 1/4 teaspoon ground ginger powder
• 1/4 teaspoon ground fenugreek powder
• 1 can of coconut milk
• 1 lemon juiced

Directions:

1. Prepare the marinade. Combine all of the powders in a small mixing bowl. Stir well until all powders are thoroughly mixed. Pour the coconut milk and lemon juice into a larger bowl. Stir the spice mix into the coconut milk mixture. Add the chicken wings and toss to coat. Let the wings marinate for at least an hour.

2. Grill the wings. Heat a gas grill or charcoal grill over medium high heat. Oil the grate. Add the wings and grill the wings for about 5 to 7 minutes before turning them. Grill for another 7 minutes or until the wings reach an internal temperature of 165 degrees Fahrenheit.

ENJOY!

Ping Gai Wings

"Don't be surprised if you see a Ping Gai buffalo wing post in the near future."

- Me

And here is that post. For the few ardent followers of my Chef Bolek blog, you may remember my post about Ping Gai or Laotian Grilled Chicken.  I loved that recipe, which was one of the best (and still remains one of the best) chicken recipes that I have ever made and tasted. 

As the name reflects, the recipe comes from the southeastern Asian country of Laos. Whole chickens are halved, marinated and then grilled over charcoal. The grilling is often done low and slow, which a typical way one would prepare barbecue. The dish of Ping Gai has its place in Lao cuisine, especially on the street where one could buy the chicken with a spicy dipping sauce or sides (like sticky rice or papaya). This dish can also be found across the Mekong River in the northeastern Isan region of Thailand, where it is called kai yang or gai yang. 

Fun fact: prior to French colonization of southeast Asia, the Isan region was part of what was then "Laos." Another fun fact: there are more people of Lao identity and heritage in Isan (about 13 million) than in Laos (about 7.5 million).

Turning to the recipe, the key to Ping Gai is the marinade. At its core, the marinade is the umami combination of soy sauce, oyster sauce, and fish sauce, highlighted with fresh cilantro, and underscored with the kick from black pepper and cayenne pepper.  As with any recipe, the marinade used in Ping Gai has its regional, familial and individual variations in how to prepare the marinade. Some of these recipes incorporate ingredients such as coriander, garlic, hoisin sauce, lemongrass and vinegar. 

All of the ingredients in the Ping Gai recipe highlight what separates Lao cuisine from its neighbors, such as Thailand. The recipes in Laos feature herbaceous and bitter flavors, along with the use of dried, ground peppers to give its dishes a spicier kick. Lao dishes rely less on coconut milk (in contrast to Thai cuisine), resulting in somewhat lighter dishes that are not weighed down by thicker sauces. 

Another key aspect of Ping Gai is how it is prepared. As I noted above, the standard method of preparation involves grilling the chicken low and slow over a charcoal fire. Whether over a charcoal fire or a gas grill, I have come to find that grilling is a far better method of preparing buffalo wings than deep frying. The grilled wings have crisp edges and tastier meat (due to the marinade), which cannot be found as much in fried wings. 

In the end, the best chicken recipe (in my humble opinion) produces one of the best buffalo wing recipes that I have made or had in a long time. I think the one change I would make is to take the additional step to prepare the dipping sauce that accompanies Ping Gai. The recipe for the dipping sauce can be found here. 

PING GAI WINGS

Recipe adapted from Allrecipes

Serves several

Ingredients for the wings:

• 1 tablespoon, freshly ground black pepper
• 3 tablespoons oyster sauce
• 2 tablespoons soy sauce
• 2 tablespoons fish sauce
• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 2 pinches cayenne pepper
• Dipping Sauce, optional (recipe can be found here)

Ingredients (for the dipping sauce):

• 2/3 cup seasoned rice vinegar
• 1 lime juiced
• 4 cloves garlic, crushed
• 1 tablespoon sambal oelek
• 1 tablespoon fish sauce
• 1/4 cup freshly chopped cilantro
• 2 tablespoons honey or more to taste

Directions:

1. Prepare the marinade. Combine the black pepper, cayenne pepper, oyster sauce, soy sauce, fish sauce and vegetable oil in a bowl. Mix very well to combine ingredients. Add the wings and toss the wings. Cover the bowl and refrigerate for four hours or overnight.

2. Prepare the dipping sauce. Combine rice vinegar, lime juice, garlic, sambal, fish sauce, cilantro, and honey to make the dipping sauce. Refrigerate until ready to use.

3. Grill the wings. Heat a gas grill over medium high heat or prepare a charcoal fire. Place the wings on an oiled grill grate and grill the wings for about seven minutes on each side or a total of 15 minutes. Once the wings reach an internal temperature of 165 degrees Fahrenheit, remove from the heat.  Serve immediately by themselves or with a side of the dipping sauce.

ENJOY!

Wings Around the World

I am a huge fan of buffalo wings. For the longest time, all I needed were deep fried wings bathed in a bowl of Frank's Red Hot Sauce, spices and melted butter. The traditional buffalo wing recipe, such as the one from the Anchor Bar in Buffalo, is very good. However, I eventually got bored with those wings. 

I needed change. I needed something different. At first, I thought that all I needed I needed were hotter or spicier wings. Frank's Red Hot gave way to Tabasco sauce. A lot of Tabasco. It was not enough. 

I needed true change. Different types of sauces. I searched the menus of different restaurants and chose wings with sauces like Caribbean Jerk or Thai Curry (Buffalo Wild Wings) or Korean Spicy (World of Beer). I came to realize that what I really wanted to do was find wings that incorporate the best flavors from cuisines around the world.

My desire went further than just the flavors. I also wanted to try different techniques. The need to try different cooking methods became apparent when I realized that I loved grilled wings far more than I love traditional, fried wings.

The combination of experimenting with flavors and cooking techniques has led to this new blog post series, Wings Around the World. I will explore aa variety of marinades, rubs, glazes and sauces from, as well as cooking techniques used by, cuisines around the world. My hope is that, with each post, I will have the opportunity to explore aspects of those cuisines as they are reflected in the final dish. I am working on the first couple of blog posts as we speak. Please check back often. Until next time ...

ENJOY!