Super Bowl, Smuper Bowl...I Love Me Some Wings.

I'm a fan of sports, usually enjoy a good baseball game, and really did enjoy the World Cup while we were in Paris two years ago.

What I realize I love the the most about sporting events (and everything else) are the snacks and foods that go along with these events. My very favorite sports snack is the almighty chicken wing.

I embarked on my research about a week ago. In the past, I had thought you either fried the wings or boiled and then baked the wings. Many recipes online required flouring the wings, which I wasn't going to do due to the gluten-freeness of my diet. I decided to do what cooks used to do in the olden-times: I asked the butcher his advice.

There happens to be a very nice butcher shop in my neighborhood. I saw the wings in the butcher case but they didn't look like the kind I've gotten in restaurants.

So I asked the butcher two things:

  1. Are the wings/drumsticks usually split in two before cooking?
  2. Don't I need to boil the wings before I bake them?

And the butcher responded:

  1. Yes, he said, and I can cut them into two for you.
  2. No, don't even think of that! Just bake them in a hot oven and then roll them in the sauce.

After a bit more instruction from my butcher-best-friend, I was ready to tackle the sauce.

I wanted to make something the kids could eat, too, but after some consideration, decided that just this once I'd go for it and make a sauce the adults could love, and the kids could eat theirs plain. I remembered Gran-Fran making some awesome BBQ sauce back in the day, and based on this recollection, I knew I needed ketchup as my base. And something spicy, then something sweet. I added butter, too, which I can't recall if Gran-Fran would be thrilled by this or mortified that I used butter in something involving meat. (I'm sure we'll be getting a comment sometime soon from her weighing in on the matter.)

Then, I started thinking about a recipe I had seen on the craftzine website that served chicken wings on top of cupcakes. At first I thought it sounded not so good. But then, it got in my head, and I figured that maybe if I were to make a savory cornbread to put under the wings, it would offset the spicy sauce nicely. I used a gluten-free mix, with almond milk and added some chipotle powder, too.

And so, here it is, plain and simple, my first try at at making my very own chicken wings. They are really, really good, and worth the effort.

Chicken Wings with Hot Sauce

Ingredients

For the Chicken Wings

  • 2 lbs Chicken Wings, cut into wings and drumsticks
  • Olive Oil for roasting

For the Sauce:

  • 1/2 cup Hot sauce of your choice
  • 1 cup of Ketchup
  • 1/2 of a Lemon, jucied
  • 3 Tbsps Butter, softened
  • 4 cloves Garlic, chopped coarsely
  • 1/2 Tsp Sesame Oil
  • 1 Tbsp Honey
  • Salt and Pepper to Taste

For the Cornbread:

  • 1 box Gluten Free Pantry Yankee Cornbread mix (or any kind of cornbread mix you prefer)
  • 1/4 cup Sugar
  • 1-1/3 cups Almond Milk
  • 1 Egg lightly beaten
  • 6 Tbsps melted butter

And: 2 stalks of Green Onion, sliced thinly

Roast The Chicken

  • Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
  • Place the chicken in a roasting pan in one layer.
  • Sprinkle with salt and a olive oil.
  • Roast for 40 minutes or until the skin is browned.

Make The Sauce

  • While the chicken is roasting, put all of the sauce ingredients in a pan and heat over low on the stove.
  • You'll know when it's done when it sticks to the back of a wooden spoon and it has thickened.
  • Remove the chicken from the oven and take it out of the pan.

Make The Cornbread

  • Mix all the dry ingredients in a bowl.
  • Add in the eggs, almond milk and butter.
  • Mix until all the dry ingredients are fully incorporated.
  • Spread the mixture evenly in a baking pan.
  • Bake for 20 minutes. (It cooks in a 425 degree oven, just like the chicken.)
  • Remove, cool and cut up into serving sized pieces each large enough to hold a wing.

Time To Serve It Up

  • Working in small batches, put a wing or two in the sauce, rolling them around to coat them thoroughly.
  • Place a wing on top of a piece of the cornbread.
  • Spoon a bit of sauce over the top of each wing and add some green onions.

Enjoy!

Don't Eat The Unopened Clams!

I'm on some kind of a fish kick right now. It probably has to do with the amount of meat I consumed over the holidays. I've been craving fish and salads, so I'm going with it.

Just after my salade nicoise evening, I decided to make some clams served over a saffron rice. Just before I began to cook, I realized there was no saffron in the house. Gran Fran is always very innovative when it comes to missing ingredients. I thought for a minute, went through my spice cabinet and pulled out the smoky Spanish paprika I love.

Gran Fran uses anisette or vermouth in her saffron rice preparation, but again, I came up empty. A bottle of nice white wine with lots of fennel seed added to the pot, along with some clam juice and lemon juice, saved the day. My McGyver-type survival skills will do Gran Fran proud.

I've often watched her make clams, but I rarely do so myself. If memory serves, Gran Fran would flip out if more than just one or two of the clams she had steamed didn't open up when cooked. Her take on this, I think, was that all of the clams were tainted and maybe we shouldn't eat them because who knows what kind of disease one might get? Botulism? Salmonella? I'd like to point out right here and now that we all made it through, just by avoiding those unopened clams along the way.

But, her fears did come bubbling up within me when I prepared to cook these clams last night. What if I didn't cook them long enough? What about those diseases, or worse yet some unknown hazard came up? I tried to channel the other side of Gran Fran in the kitchen: the devil-may-care cook who throws ingredients in a pan with reckless abandon and comes up with wonderfully delicious dishes in the end.

It worked. The clams turned out great, it was fast and simple and the broth was really interesting with the extra hit of paprika in the end. The rice turned out well, too, though different in flavor than my beloved saffron rice, it was a hit. No one got sick, and the food was delicious.

Steamed Clams with Fennel and Red Rice

serves 4

Ingredients:

  • 1 pound clams, cleaned and soaked in cold water
  • 1 cup white wine
  • 1/2 cup clam juice
  • 2 tbsps lemon juice
  • 1 tbsp dried fennel seeds
  • 1 bay leaf
  • 1/4 cup olive oil
  • 2 cloves garlic chopped roughly

Method:

  • Put everything in a large pan and cover with a lid.
  • Bring the mixture to a boil.
  • Cook for 10 minutes.
  • Lift the lid and check to see if all (or almost all) of the clams have opened up.
  • If not, cover and cook for another two minutes.
  • Serve over rice (see below).

Steamed Red Rice

Ingredients:

  • 1 cup white Basmati Rice
  • 1 cup Water
  • 1/3 cup Clam Juice
  • 3 Tbsps Lemon Juice
  • 3 Tbsps Butter
  • 2 tsps Smoked Spanish Paprika
  • 3 cloves Garlic chopped
  • 2 tsps Fennel Seeds
  • 1 Bay Leaf
  • Salt and Pepper to Taste

Method:

  • Put all ingredients except for the rice in a large pot that has a lid.
  • Boil the mixture,then lower it to a simmer for 10 minutes.
  • Add the rice.
  • Return the pot to the boil.
  • Stir once.
  • Reduce the heat to low.
  • Cover the pan and cook for 12 minutes.
  • Turn off the heat and allow to stand for 6 to 8 more minutes until the rice is cooked through.
  • Serve with the clams, using some of the broth the further flavor the rice.

Salade Nicoise: How-To: Another Cooking for One recipe

The salade nicoise has got to be the best salad ever. It involves only a handful of ingredients (two of which I've featured recently as make-ahead basics, here  and here).

When my daughter and I were in Paris, I ordered salade nicoise. What I got was not at all what I was accustomed to from our American version.

For one thing, there was rice in it. Yes, you read that right, rice. For another thing, the tuna tasted and looked odd, and overcooked. Lastly, there was some heavy dressing with a bit of cream in it. I won't judge the entire country on how this one brasserie made their Nicoise. Instead, I guess I'll just have to venture back over to France to find the perfect version.

In the meantime, I decided to try my hand at home making this lovely salad. Usually, there are boiled eggs included, but when I was almost finished making (and photographing) the salad, I realized I had forgotten to make them. To my surprise, I didn't miss the eggs at all.  I actually think I preferred it without the eggs, but you can go ahead and add them back in if you want to.

The key to my success was the freshness of the tuna steak. Of course, if you can't locate a tuna steak, you can use a can of best-quality (that's a Gran-Franism, the best quality thing) solid olive oil packed tuna fish. Drain some of the oil out, so that the flavor of the dressing will shine through.

I really enjoyed making this, especially since it was so simple and tasted so darned good.

Salade Nicoise

serves 1

Ingredients:

  • A large handful of Salad Greens (I didn't measure, just grabbed as much as I thought I'd eat)
  • 1 serving of cooked Green Beans (recipe here)
  • 1 serving of Boiled Potatoes (recipe here)
  • 1/4 pound Tuna Steak
  • 4 Tbsps Olive Oil
  • 2 Tbsps Red Wine Vinegar
  • 1 tsp Mustard
  • Salt and Pepper to taste

Method:

  • Place the salad greens, green beans and potatoes on a plate. Set aside.
  • Heat a heavy-bottomed non-reactive pan over high heat.
  • Salt and pepper the tuna steak.
  • Once the pan is good and hot, add a small amount of olive oil.
  • Add the tuna steak to the super hot pan.
  • Cook on first side for five minutes.
  • Turn over the tuna steak and cook for another 3 minutes.
  • Remove the tuna from the pan and let rest for a few minutes.
  • Mix the olive oil, mustard, vinegar, salt and pepper for the dressing.
  • Slice the tuna and place on top of the salad.
  • Sprinkle the dressing over the top of the salad and enjoy!