super crunchy roast chicken wings

As I said in a previous post, I always buy a whole chicken and cut it myself. Which means I tend to cook my favourite parts and end up with lots of chicken wings in my freezer. I've tried loads of different ways of preparing it but the reception was always lukewarm. Until I decided to roast them as I describe below, which hit a spot here in my house. Ever since then, we look forward to have enough chicken wings to prepare this.

At least 8 chicken wings
soy sauce
1 lime or lemon (I prefer lime)
rock salt

This is as easy as it gets:

Defrost the chicken wings over night and before preparation (while you get the other things in the cupboards), spray them with a lime (or half a lemon). This is to dehidrate the skin and make it crunchier. Put them on a roasting tray and put some soy sauce on them. The sauce is NOT for flavour but to give them a brown irresistible look when roasted. I use one drop on each wing and spread it on the top surface.
Sprinkle them with rock salt.
Roast for 45 min in 180C.

That's it. It should be so crunchy that you can actually eat the tips of the wings, the bones just fall apart.

It's finger food and kids love it (and it's healthier than the fried version). I generally serve it with coleslaw, salad, bread... things like that

Creamy ladyfingers pudding or "triffle", brazilian style

My mother makes a perfect one and I've been craving this for some time now. Like all puddings in Brazil, it's very sweet and british palates might not like it (although my family loved it)

For this one you'll need

custard:
1 can of condensed milk (save the can, you'll need it to measure other ingredients)
2 cans of milk
3 yolks
1 tbspoon of corn flour

Filling:
1 or 2 packs of ladyfingers (the crunchy ones)
1 can of milk
2-3 tbspoons of cocoa (depends on how much you like chocolate)
1 tspoon of corn flour

Cover:
3 egg whites,
1 can of double cream

How to prepare:

Custard:
Mix the cornflour with a bit of milk and put it aside. In a pan, mix the yolks, the milk with the corn flour, the rest of the milk and the condensed milk. Let it boil and thicken. You want sort of a runny custard, not too thick but not too runny either. A thick cream when cold is what you are aiming for.
Put it in a lasagna dish sort of tray (we use one that is square, about 15cm each side) and let it cool down.

Once it has cooled down a bit, prepare the filling:
mix the milk with the cocoa and dunk each ladyfinger on it, let it soak a bit and then put it on top of the custard. Cover the custard with cocoa drenched ladyfingers. When you are done, add the cornflour to the cocoa and let it thicken a bit on a hob (again, aiming for a thick cream) and let it cool down. To speed up things I put the pan in a bit of water. When it's about skin temperature it's good enough and just throw the cream on top of the ladyfingers that have been lined on the custard. Let it cool down while you prepare the cover.

Whisk the egg whites and until they are firm (you turn the bowl upside down and they do not fall). To help, always add a small pich of salt to the egg whites before you start whisking them, for it makes it fluffier. Continue whisking and slowly add the can of double cream and 1 tbspoon of sugar. Try it and check if you think it needs a bit more sugar (remembering that the custard and the ladyfingers layer are already very sweet). If you want more sugar, add only 1 more tbspoon and that's it.

Spread this home made "squirty cream" on top of the ladyfingers layer and put the tray in the fridge. It is better when it spends the night there, to make it firm and keep it there until serving time.

This recipe goes a long way and it's easy to make. You can decorate it (if you want) with chocolate or cinamon on top, but we just serve it simpler, like I described.

If you think it may be too sweet (although children will love it to bits), you can make your own custard without the condensed milk.

Chocolate Lady Finger Cake

Starch (to starch clothes)

I have a thing for cute embroidered table cloths, tea towels, tray covers, etc... Besides cooking I also love cross stitch (I'll probably post some of my craftwork here one day). And nothing better to conserve my beautifully stitched table cloths than starching them. Not only they look better on the table, starching also prevents wine and sauce stains, making it easier to clean.

Here's a recipe, just like grandma used to make it.

For general starch:
1 tbspoon of corn flour
1 tspoon of salt (to prevent bugs getting to fond of chewing your beautiful things)
1 littre of water

Mix it all in a pan, stirring constantly let it boil (it will become more transparent). Mix it up with the rinsing water....
Here's a problem: in Brazil we normally use washing machines that are vertical, allowing us to open the lid and mix it with the rinsing water. In England however, they all have little circular side doors... And there's no way I can open them.

Brazil

England

What I do is, wash it all normally, prepare the starch, put a bit of water in the bath tub (enough to soak everything I need to starch in) and mix a bit of fabric softener and starch on it. It is much more trouble, I agree, so I tend to let all my "to starch" pile accumulate a bit and do it all at once.

For strong starching (when you really want them stiff): instead of 1 tbspoon of corn flour, use 2.

Also, if you want it a bit starched (like men's shirts) but not too stiff, you can prepare the mix, let it cool off and put it into a spray bottle, spraying the shirt or whatever you want while ironing.

Pics http://happyhomemaker88.files.wordpress.com/2007/11/washing-machine.jpg
http://user.img.todaoferta.uol.com.br/R/Q/EM/PY3WI5/1244433346169_bigPhoto_0.jpg

Rice noodles with chicken and veggetables tempura

500g of chicken breast
2 cups of flour
1 can of lager (beer)
garlic, crushed or chopped finnely
2 carrots
4 little caulyflowers
1 onion (chopped lenghtwise, about 0.5 -1 cm wide)
any other veggetable you want to use, like pepper, pumpking, etc...
oil (enough to fry)
cold water
1/2 cup of soy sauce
1 tspoon of mustard (or wasabi - Japanese horseradish)
1 tspoon of grated radish (optional)
1 pack of rice noodles (I buy mine fresh from Tescos)

Wash the chicken breast under tap water and with a bit of lime or vinegar. Cut it in cubes (not too small, around 1-2cm). Season it with the garlic.
 
In a deep bowl, add the flour and the beer, little by litthe, mixing it with a fork. You want to obtain a thick cream that will cover the chicken easily. You'll probably use about 80% of the beer can in this. It is important to keep this dough very cold, so if you want you can do it inside a tray with ice.
Dunk every piece of chicken in it, making sure there is a generous cover in each. Fry until golden and put it aside, on top of some 4 layers of paper kitchen towel, to absorb the excess of oil. Keep it warm

Peel the carrots and cut them lenghtwise. Cut all your veggetables. Boil them slightely (2 min). Using the same dough as before, cover them all and fry them for 2-3 min. I prefer to put a big chunk of mixed veggetables in the frying pan, so they fry together and make a little "disk" of fryied veggies. Remove the excess of oil on the kitchen towel.
For the sauce, just mix it all together (the mustard, the soy sauce and the radish)

I serve them like this: on a bowl, I put the rice noodles (about 1-2 handfulls) and heat it on the microwave or the hob. I like to add a little boiling water to them after they are hot, and I add about less than 1/4 cup of boiling water - not enough to cover it, just enough to keep it moist and a bit wet. On top of it I put the chicken, on top of the chicken the veggetables tempura and them the sauce.

Serve it hot and it's far easier to eat with chopsticks.

Frango Xadrez (Chinese chicken)

Time of preparation: 45 min

2tbspoons of olive oil
2 onions, chopped in cubes
2 crushed garlics
500g of chicken breast, chopped in cubes
salt
1 green pepper in cubes
1 red pepper in cubes
1 yellow pepper in cubes
1 cup of canned mushroons, halved
1/4 cup of soy sauce
1 tbspoon of corn flour
1/2 cup of water
2 tbspoon of roast peanuts

1. On a big frying pan or wok, add 1tbspoon olive oil, onion and garlic and fry until golden
2. Put it on a plate and put it aside
3. Add 1 tbspoon of olive oil to the same pan and fry the peppers and mushroons for 5 min
4 Put it aside
5. Same pan again, fry the chicken until golden
6. Put all the ingredients back on the pan and mix them constantly with a wooden spoon for 3 minutes
7. Mix the soy sauce, the corn flour and water, stirring it well
8. Add to the chicken mix and stirr it until you get a thick sauce
9. Put it on a serving dish and sprinkle with the peanuts
10. Serve it hot

Pic: http://www.plansol.com.br/vilhena/images/receitas/frango_xadrez.jpg

Chicken, spinach and yellow pepper rice

I was expecting some guests this weekend and I set up my mind to prepare them stuffed orange peppers (at my husband's request). Unfortunatelly they couldn't make it and I'm stuck with a lot of orange peppers in the fridge. Googling around to found a recipe that uses the peppers, I came accross this one. Just cooked it for dinner and it's absolutely delicious. Very subtil in the flavours, so we grated some parmesan on top to give it a bit more body, just before serving.

Ingredients


1 tbsp Olive oil
1 yellow pepper, deseeded and chopped
300 g plump short or medium-grained white rice
150ml white wine or verjus
1-1.2 litres chicken or vegetable stock
125g chicken, cooked
40g spinach leaves
black pepper

Method

1. Place the stock in a small saucepan and bring to simmering point.

2. Meanwhile, heat the olive oil in a large saucepan. Add the yellow pepper and fry, stirring often, until the pepper has softened but not browned. Add the rice and continue cooking and stirring for 1-2 minutes, until the rice is translucent and shiny.

3. Pour the wine or verjus into the pan of rice and simmer until it has almost evaporated. Add a ladle of the hot stock to the rice and cook, stirring constantly, over a low heat until the liquid has been absorbed. Continue adding the stock to the rice a little at a time and stirring until the liquid has been absorbed, for about 17 minutes.

4. When the rice is almost done, add the chicken and the spinach leaves and stir to mix evenly. Allow to heat through for 2-3 minutes, then adjust the seasoning to taste with salt and pepper and serve hot.