Thinkery

Lately, Friday nights mean homemade chicken wings and boxed mac and cheese. (I am not responsible for the latter, but neither do I entirely object to it.) When we came to the end of the bottles of Frank’s and Anchor Bar buffalo sauce, I switched to this recipe for Sticky Sesame Chicken Wings from Gourmet. I cut the recipe so that it is appropriate for two and next time, I’ll probably add a bit of Rooster sauce to the mix, but they’re very good as-is.

Sticky Sesame Chicken Wings
1 large garlic clove
3/4 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons soy sauce
2 tablespoons hoisin sauce
2 tablespoons mild honey
1 teaspoon Asian sesame oil
Pinch of cayenne
3 lb chicken wings
1 1/2 tablespoons sesame seeds, lightly toasted
1 scallion (green part only), finely chopped

Put oven rack in upper third of oven and preheat oven to 425°F. Line a large shallow baking pan (17 by 12 inches) with foil and lightly oil foil.
Mince garlic and mash to a paste with salt using a large heavy knife. Transfer garlic paste to a large bowl and stir in soy sauce, hoisin, honey, oil, and cayenne. Add wings to sauce, stirring to coat.
Arrange wings in 1 layer in baking pan and roast, turning over once, until cooked through, about 35 minutes. Transfer wings to a large serving bowl and toss with sesame seeds and scallion.

Chew Molasses-Spice Cookies:
One night we wanted another sort of simple cookie. Didn’t have the right thing for snickerdoodles, so I came up with this molasses-spice cookie that is wonderful and has the advantage of using up some of the molasses that’s hanging around from the holiday baking. The formed, raw cookies can be stored in layers of wax paper inside sealed tupperware, which means you can bake up just a few at a time. I’m sure they could also be frozen.

2 cup(s) all-purpose flour (spooned and leveled)
1 1/2 teaspoon(s) baking soda
1 teaspoon(s) ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon(s) ground nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon(s) salt
1 1/2 cup(s) sugar
3/4 cup(s) (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
1 large egg
1/4 cup(s) molasses

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt. In a shallow bowl, place 1/2 cup sugar; set aside.

With an electric mixer, beat butter and remaining cup of sugar until combined. Beat in egg and then molasses until combined. Reduce speed to low; gradually mix in dry ingredients, just until a dough forms.
Pinch off and roll dough into balls, each equal to 1 tablespoon. Roll balls in reserved sugar to coat.

Arrange balls on baking sheets, about 3 inches apart. Bake, one sheet at a time, until edges of cookies are just firm, 10 to 15 minutes (cookies can be baked two sheets at a time, but they will not crackle uniformly). Cool 1 minute on baking sheets; transfer to racks to cool completely. Store in an airtight container up to 4 days.

Back in early July, I rewarded myself for some finished project with a copy of Paletas and a set of Tovolo Ice Pop Molds. The planned Festival of Popsicles didn’t quite happen, but I did regularly make these two paletas and dream of many, many other recipes in the book. In fact, it occurs to me that there’s nothing stopping me from making them right now in the dead of winter, given the various fruits that are down in the cellar freezer. Gerson is an impeccable writer, and this book is an excellent way to move through the seasons and through a freezer.

These preps also served to break in a surprising development in my kitchen: a food processor. I have not heretofore believed in food processors, but that’s changed. Due to a double-points offer on my Amazon credit card and the general high expense of attending CCCC, a free KitchenAid 12-Cup Food Processor arrived on the doorstep early in the summer. These paletas were among the first things I made with it.

Paletas de Fresa
4 cups fresh strawberries, preferably wild, hulled and cut into quarters
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup water
2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice

Combine the strawberries and sugar in a bowl. Let sit until the strawberries start releasing their natural juices, 20-30 minutes. Place in a saucepan with the water over medium heat. Simmer until they are slightly softened, about 5 minutes. Let cool to room temperature.

Transfer the mixture to a blender or food processor, add the lemon juice, and puree until smooth; alternatively, you could leave some chunks in if you like.

If using conventional molds, divide the mixture among the molds, snap on the lid, and freeze until solid, about 5 hours. If using glasses or other unconventional molds, freeze until the pops are beginning to set (1.5 – 2 hours), then insert the sticks and freeze until solid, 4-5 hours. If using an instant ice pop maker, follow the manufacturer’s instructions.

Paletas de Piña con Chile
1 cup water
1/2 cup sugar
1 small serrano or jalepeño pepper, split lengthwise
1 ripe pineapple, peeled
2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lime juice
1-2 teaspoons ground chiles (piquin, guajillo, or arbol)
1/2 teaspoon salt

Combine the water and sugar in a small saucepan. Cook over medium-high heat, stirring, until the mixture comes to a boil and the sugar has dissolved. Add the serrano, lower the heat, and simmer for 5 minutes. Let cool to room temperature. Strain through a fine-mesh sieve.

Finely dice 1.5 cups of the pineapple and coarsely chop the rest. Mix the diced pineapple with the chile and salt and set aside. Put the coarsely chopped pineapple in a blender or food processor, pour in the syrup, add lime juice, and blend until smooth.

Divide the blended mixture among the molds, leaving enough room for the diced pineapple. If using conventional molds, don’t snap on the lids yet. Freeze until the mixture has a slushy consistency, about 30 minutes. (This will prevent the diced pineapple from sinking to the bottom when added.)

Drop the diced pineapple into the ice pops, dividing it evenly among the molds. If it floats, push it down with a small spoon or an ice pop stick (or a chopstick). If using conventional molds, snap on the lid and freeze until solid, about 5 hours. If using other methods, freeze according to directions in previous recipe.

I’ve made boeuf bourguignon many times in the two years since it was recipes #1-3 for the Recipe Project. I’m making it today, in fact, and am surprised that I never learned to make Coq au Vin, which is more or less exactly the same thing but with an old chicken. I’m on a slow big-freezer cleaning binge at the moment, and so I hauled out a whole local chicken that I had bought from a purveyor other than my usual one. It was a little scrawny, a little leathery when thawed, and so I cooked it up on Christmas day in this preparation which was traditionally reserved for older roosters and hens who had reached the very end of their lives. I used the recipe from Mastering the Art of French Cooking and broke up the chicken myself, which is something that I’ve become almost but not quite competent at. Practice makes perfect.

Naked because we are rarely in the mood for frosting and spangles and hoo-ha (although we love it when other people make these things and give them to us, or when we go to bakeries and are in awe of the pastry chef’s skill. Note to locals: visit Patisserie in Skaneateles.) What counts about these cookies is what’s on the inside: good-quality butter and flavorings. I made both of these in half-batches and then refrigerated the dough. This made it easy to bake up a few cookies each night over the course of a week rather than having 50 cookies waiting around for immediate consumption.

Norwegian Butter Cookies from Gourmet circa 1983. These came about in a very low-brow way. As I’ve written about before here, it ain’t all local this and organic that all the time around here. Mr. Husband went questing for a blue tin of Royal Dansk Danish Butter Cookies, which are a bit harder to find here in CNY than they are in any of the places we’ve previously lived. When he came home empty-handed, I made a half-batch from this recipe. It was totally not the same but also quite good.

I also made Smitten Kitchen’s gingersnaps with the addition of the optional fresh-grated ginger. It was okay, but next time I decide to make gingersnaps I’ll be looking for something a bit more stout since that’s just the way our tastes run.

Mr. Husband came home with a club pack of pork loin last week, which meant four small loins packaged up together. The weather has finally (finally!) turned cold this year, and so the conditions are right for roasts and braises. We decided not to freeze any of this, but instead cook and repurpose it across multiple meals. Since they were vacuum sealed in pockets of two loins, I cooked them two ways about five days apart. They’re both wonderful served straight with a vegetable the first night, and then repurposed in various stir-fries, ramens, sandwiches, and noodle preparations until they’re gone. As you can see, we have a very high pork tolerance.

Orange-Ginger Braised Pork Loin
Pork Loin
2 cups orange juice
1/2 cup low-sodium soy sauce
chicken broth
white wine
fresh garlic according to taste
fresh ginger according to taste
fresh or dried chiles (optional)

The first is an incredibly easy preparation I stole from Mr. Husband, who makes oven-ribs this way. First, I pre-heated the oven to 350 and broke out my largest oval french oven to sear the pork in a bit of peanut oil over high heat. While it was browning, I finely diced a whole head of garlic and finely grated a rounded tablespoon or so of ginger. I also diced up two of the tiny but volcanic Thai chiles we keep in a bag in the freezer. Once the pork was browned on all sides, I added another small glug of peanut oil and threw in the ginger and garlic, stirring until they became fragrant.

Then I threw in the diced chile and BLAMMEDY. I had assumed this would be an “avert your face” moment of the sort I’m used to when cooking with hot peppers and strong spices, but these chiles (with their seeds intact) gassed the entire first floor of the house. Since it was impossible to walk away from the pan lest things burn, I soldiered on through tears and sneezes. You, however, should not gas yourself. You can use a couple of dried chiles arbol, red pepper flakes, Rooster chile-garlic sauce, or nothing at all. Me, I’ll probably do exactly the same thing again since it turned out so well, but I’ll open the windows and turn on the range hood first.

After making the aromatics, well, aromatic, deglaze with a good long glug of chicken broth and a glug of whatever white wine is available. Add the orange juice and soy sauce, swirl everything around, and return the pork to the pan. Bring to a simmer, cover, and throw the whole thing in the oven for a couple of hours or until it’s fork-tender.

Barbara Kafka’s Garlic Roast Pork Loin from Roasting: A Simple Art

2 1/2 – 3 1/2 pound boned and rolled pork loin (8-10 inches long)
4 cloves garlic, smashed, peeled, and cut lengthwise into thin slivers
A few sprigs of rosemary, optional
Kosher salt, to taste
Freshly ground black pepper, to taste
1/2 cup wine, for deglazing

Place rack in center of oven. Heat oven to 500F.

With the point of a paring knife, make 1/2 inch slits toward the center all around the roast. Insert the garlic in the slits, accompanied by a needle of rosemary, if using. Rub roast generously with salt and pepper. [I trussed two loins together after rubbing salt, pepper, garlic, and rosemary between them, then proceeded with the directions above.]

Place roast and bones, if available, in a roasting pan just large enough to hold them. Roast for 45 to 50 minutes, or until meat reaches an internal temperature of 140F. The meat might still be slightly pink, but this is fine. Don’t overcook the roast, or it will be dry and unappealing.

Remove roast and bones to a platter. Let meat rest before slicing across, while preparing the sauce. Snip off strings. Juice will collect better in a platter than on a cutting board.

Place the pan on top of the stove over high heat. Add wine and let come to a boil. Scrape pan with wooden spoon to remove glaze that will flavor sauce. Cook until reduced by half. Serve in a sauceboat or bowl along with the roast.