Nothing is more satisfying in cooking than implementing a tweak and to see it work, and following a recipe to have it turn out exactly as the recipe intended it to be.
Pizza-Hut styled spicy chicken wings
Chicken wings are my go to every weekend and I’ve done them hundreds of ways in every flavour imaginable, but my standard (or preference) is still the way fast-food establishments- specifically Pizza Hut- does them, which is wings that obviously have a starchy coating, but cooked in a steamed environment that melds that coating with the chicken skin and meat. And to savour that melded sumptuousness, you need to clamp on the wing on one end with your teeth, and pull it out on the other- a clean stripping that leaves you with clean bones you can stack nicely on your plate.
I remembered that I had done this before- coating my wings with flour- but did not do the steaming part; so this time, after dredging the wings in a plain flour and cornstarch mixture, stacking them on an oven tray, I covered and sealed the whole thing in foil. Into the oven it went at 180 degrees for about 40 minutes. Took them out, removed the excess liquid some of which I mixed with the buffalo sauce (butter and sriracha), coated them in the sauce and put them back in.
Now, this would’ve been a near-perfect turn-out save for one tiny thing- I should’ve covered the wings wth the foil and steam-baked it about 20 minutes more (after which you can take off the foil and change the oven setting to grill).
But it was damn near perfect so not complaining.
Butterscotch brownies
I’m always shocked at the amount of sugar that goes into baking cakes, pastries and desserts. But when I cut the amount down, I’m disappointed at the taste; I can immediately tell it’s really not the same.
So this time, following this recipe by Melissa Clarke, I decided to be faithful to the ingredient amounts to achieve what Melissa describes as brownies as sweet as candy and almost (with) enough dark brown sugar to make your teeth ache. But not quite.
Brownies are probably one of the 1st things I’ve ever attempted cooking as a child and I can remember the results of those attempts which clearly showed that the outcome always depends on your ingredients- we never really had quality flour back then and as for the butter, it was such a luxury that we made ours last. To use 225 grams in one go back then would’ve meant a walloping from my mother.
But in this recipe, it’s all in-two sticks of butter, chocolate, organic pecans and 2 1/4 cups of brown sugar, packed in.
The result is exactly what Melissa described; chewy, candy-like with more of that molasses kind of sweetness, and decadently oily from all that butter.
(photos taken by the Lumix G9, with a Lumix G 25mm F1.7 lens)
