Soy Sauce Chicken Wings

Today I planned to get a lot done for my final hand in for university first year, which is in two weeks time. Unfortunately it all required being outside and it started raining the second I set off. I got wet. I'm now tired, and there wasn't much point even going because I didn't get a huge amount done. But I've been looking forward to cooking these chicken wings all day.

Chicken wings are just SO GOOD, and a great choice if you're on a budget. They are very cheap, even if you buy free-range, and (provided you don't deep fry them every single time!) healthy. There are so many variations. You could eat them every night and not repeat a recipe for weeks! Also, they are easy to cook. I don't deep fry mine, mainly because it's fussy and messy and wastes a lot of oil, but also because my behind doesn't need any more encouraging to grow.

Anyway, look at how sticky and good these look. I would actually choose these grilled ones over deep fried every time! I'm definitely making these next weekend when we have friends round. Tonight I served them with a quick shredded cabbage and carrot salad (dress with rice vinegar, sesame oil and a bit of soy sauce) and some rice.

500g chicken wings (wing-tips removed if you want*)
1 birds-eye chilli finely chopped
1 clove garlic mashed
2 tablespoons light soy-sauce
1 tablespoon dark soy-sauce
1 tablespoon honey
1 tablespoon sesame oil
1 lime

*Removing the wing tips and separating the two parts of the wings just gives a cleaner look. Sometimes I do it, sometimes I don't. If you do, save the wing tips and use them to make stock.

Combine the honey, the light and dark soy-sauce, the sesame oil, the chilli and the mashed garlic in a non metallic bowl. Stir. Add the chicken wings. Slice the lime in half and add the juice from one half to the chicken wings marinade. Reserve the other half for serving. Leave to marinade for at least an hour.

Preheat the grill to 200c. Lay the chicken wings on a wire rack above a baking tray lined with foil or parchment and grill until done and nicely brown (around 10 minutes on each side, but keep checking them).

Then serve!

Regional Thai Sausages

Last week, I somehow came to the conclusion that my very purpose in life was to bring the many joys of regional Thai sausages to the people of London. I’m not totally sure how I decided this but I just really love Thai sausages and making foods so it seemed like a relatively good idea. Past-lives may or may not have been mentioned in my many passionate pitches to friends and family on the subject. The main reactions varied between wary, “It’s going to be a lot harder than you think it is” “You can’t just ‘start making your own sausages! It doesn’t work like that” to humorous “You are absolutely mad” and just plain laughing in my face.

Yesterday was spent trying to create 3 master recipes for 3 kinds of Thai sausage. A good portion of it was also spent close to tears and lying on the floor in pain. I don’t know why I was so adamant in thinking I possessed some unused sausage-making gift, able to dismiss anyone’s concerns of how tricky it would be with unashamed confidence and belief. It is really, really tricky to make sausages. It is even more tricky to make sausages with an empty water bottle sawn in half and an upside-down wooden spoon. Pretty much impossible, actually. I made 4 links in an hour and a half and felt like I was about to die. 4 Ibroprufen, 2 Bloody Mary’s and a Kitchen Aid sausage stuffing attachment later, things were sort of looking up. After half of a horribly frustrating hour trying to manually stuff sausages using the Kitchen Aid attachment with the mixer turned OFF I finally realised (was told) that it actually works better if you turn it on. It got a lot easier after that. Although it was still by no means a breeze, and I possess no sausage-making gift whatsoever. I suck. The whole thing (12 sausages) took 5 hours, then a further 2 hours de-porking kitchen, Kitchen Aid and myself.

But my sausages were pretty good! They were far too fat, some split, they were a little dry and I’ve learnt that when you put 15 cloves of garlic in anything you need to cook it really, really well. But they tasted alright! Not 7 hours of slaving in the kitchen fantastic. But pretty good considering some people I spoke to prior to doing it seemed to think stuffing mince meat into intestines and not causing some kind of serious disaster was impossible. I did it! And my first sausages are my babies and I am that irritating parent in the schoolyard going on about how perfect and lovely their genius children are when actually everyone else can see they are horrible, thick, snotty nosed bullies. But they are mine and I love them.

… Although I would happily not see another one for a good few weeks, and I still have 4lb of meat left.