Taiwainese Salt n' Pepper Baked Chicken Wings

Don't we all have a busy schedule! Like everyone else, I come home exhausted during weekdays and the last thing I want to do is.... cook dinner.  I dread prepping for dinner and next day's lunchbox.  So during the week, I try my very best to come up with yummy, fast and healthy dishes.  One of the easiest thing is baked chicken wings.  Chicken wings is soooo versatile.  You can put anything you desire to flavour the wings.  Literally!  Open your cupboard and fridge and go wild!  splash of lime, garlic powder, paprika, chili powder, thyme, oregana....soya sauce, sesame oil....... really! I mean it when I say, anything goes, anything goes!  

Because baked chicken wings is sooo easy to prepare, we are bound to have this once a week so it is very important to switch up the flavours.   We buy chicken wings in bulk so I have to divide proper portions in ziplock bags to freeze in the freezer.  This way, the night before chicken wings night, all I have to do is pull out a bag of wings to defrost overnight.  

This recipe is super simple but super tasty.  :)  The key to this recipe is this tiny bottle of salt n' pepper spice mix produced in Taiwan.  You can get this at any Asian grocer in the spice aisle. 

I also use a tiny tiny bit of "Chinese Five Spice Powder" for added dimension of flavour.  Again, you can find this in any Asian grocer in the spice aisle. 

Taiwanese Salt n' Pepper Baked Chicken Wings 

Ingredients:

1 pound of chicken wings

Salt n' Pepper spice 

Chinese Five Spice powder 

1 and a bit tbsp Chinese cooking wine 

1tbsp Soya Sauce

1/4 tsp Sesame oil

2tsp Cornstarch 

Directions:

1.  Thoroughly rinse defrosted wngs.  If you want, you can also add a splash of salt onto to the wings to rinse.  

2.  Once rinsed, pat dry with paper towels and place dry wings into a medium size bowl.

3.  In the bowl, add 5-6 shakes of the Salt n' Pepper spice, 1 small shake of the 5 spice powder, soya sauce, sesame oil, cooking wine and cornstarch.  Mix and allow to sit for 10-15mins to marinade.

4.  While waiting for the wings to marinade, pre-heat your oven to 415 F. 

5.  Line your baking pan with foil or whatever lining you wish and arrange the wings making sure there is at least 1/2 of space in between.

6.  Bake one side for 9 mins.  Flip the wings. Bake for another 8mins then switch oven settings to BROIL and broil for 4 - 5 mins.

7.  Enjoy!

Wings prior to baking 

yummy favorable wings 

 

Thai Basil Shrimp in 10minutes.....ok fine... 15mins TOPS!

This is a super duper simple dish that will get you lick'in your fingers by the time you are done eating it. In order to prove a point, I'll keep this post short and simple. (It's almost past my bed time too. :P)

Ingredients:
Big handful of defrosted shrimps.  Run frozen shrimps in cold water, let it sit for 2mins to defrost.  Presto! Works every time! Rinse thoroughly and pat dry with paper towel.
Chinese cooking wine
Soya sauce
Salt & Pepper
Paprika
Olive oil
Thai basil
1 lime
1 dry whole chili pepper
Diced red onion
Minced garlic

Directions:
1.  Marinate shrimp with a small splash of cooking wine, soya sauce, salt & pepper, dash of paprika  and olive oil.  Set aside.
2.  Bring your pan on high heat, add a splash of olive oil and dry chili pepper.
3.  Once oil is hot, toss in 1 tsp of minced garlic and a small palm full of diced red onion.  Cook for 30 secs.
4.  Throw in your marinated shrimps.  Cook for less than 2mins on one side.  Turn shrimps over to cook the other side for another less than 2mins.  Toss in a handful of chopped thai basil right after you flip shrimps.
5.  Drizzle 3/4 of one lime over shrimp while cooking. Careful of the splashes!
6.  Toss pan to evenly coat shrimps for another 1min and TADUMM!

Thai Basil Shrimp

Tip: Be sure to prep all your ingredients prior to heating the pan.  This dish cooks in less than 5mins. :D  So if you dont' want tough chewy shrimps, prep first!

Chayote Stir Fry

Top: Chayote, Bottom: Inside of chayote

Chayote - pronounced as "sai-yo-te" commonly know as a fruit, belonging to the squash family.  High in vitamin C & amino acid.

I recently learnt the versatility of this delicious fruit.  But first, let's get the technicality out of the way.  I know chayote is a fruit but I seriously consider this as a vegetable!  Every time chayote is used in my kitchen, it is used as the vegetable component of a dish.  Rarely to never, do I ever have cooked "fruit" with meat as a dish at dinner table.  So I shall deem chayote as a vegetable :)

Mild & fresh in flavour, it makes a great vegetable component to the soup I make every now and then called "Dinola" = a popular filippino chicken & ginger soup.  But this was the ONLY way I knew how to cook with chayote.  It was like a foreign vegetable just waiting for me to explore its potential.

Luckily, Benya who you would have read about in my "Benya's Bola Bola" post is well known in mr's family for her chayote dish.   This dish would be the ONLY vegetable mr would eat growing up  So of course, this dish was requested upon our recent vacation in Manila.  See the healthy looking pale green dish below? The flavour of this vegetable was so fresh and delicious.  Her version is stir fried with a little bit of minced pork and tomatoes.  Super simple and versatile to replicate back home.

Benya's chayote 

The great thing about chayote is that it absorb flavours very well.  Kinda like a sponge! :) You can mix chayote with just about anything you want to suit your palette.  Mushrooms + beef broth.  Shitake mushrooms + Tofu.  Shrimp with a splash of lemon.  Chinese black fungus + beef broth.  You are the chef here!

Thank you Benya.  English may not be your mother tongue language but you sure have taught me lots through the universal language of food. :)

My version of this dish? Minced Pork + Bell Pepper :)

my version

Ingredients:
2 chayote - peeled, there is no need to pit the center as it is edible. Sliced into sticks 1/2 cm thick
2 tbsp of marinated minced pork (from my Bola Bola recipe)
1/2 sweet bell pepper
1 1/2 tsp minced garlic
splash of chicken broth
salt & pepper

Directions:
1.  Bring a pan to medium high heat with a splash of olive oil
2.  Once oil is hot, throw in minced garlic, toss for a few seconds to releash its aromatics
3.  Next throw in minced pork.  Separate pork into tiny pieces in the hot pan and cook through
4.  Toss in sliced chayote and pepper and add salt & pepper at this point. Coat with the juices in the pan.
5.  Add a splash of chicken broth and cover the pan and allow to cook on same heat for 5-8 minutes.  If you want a bit of crispyness, cook for 5mins, less crispy = 8mins.

Enjoy!

Arugula, Avocado & Papaya salad

Its great how everything just falls in place without any thought.  Since I came back from my 2 and a bit week long vacation, I experienced grocery shopping amnesia.  I had trouble gathering ingredients together to make proper meals.  I forgot the ability to meal plan for the week.  So for the first week, I went to my local grocer every single day! One day I needed broccoli, the day after, I needed red pepper.  It was quite an experience.  Getting back to my day job was an easier task than making meals! So the fact I was able to magically come up with this dish ....was.....magically.

The papaya I had brought on sale was ready to be cut open, my avocado I had brought a week ago had ripen.  So as I was cutting the huge papaya to pieces, I thought..... why don't I include the avocado and other ingredients together to make a salad? (I had originally wanted to eat the papaya with a sprinkle of lime. try it. It's refreshing.)  And presto!!

I also had a box of arugula in the fridge so I thought, why not! So I assembled this salad together and boy was I right.  If you have arugula on its own, its quite pungent in taste, but if you had eat it with other ingredients, it changes to a sweet & aromatic flavour.  Try having arugula and avocado together, it makes a GRRRREAT combo.  Go ahead and make your own! Change up the ingredients to suit your own flavour!

Arugula, Avocado & Papaya Salad

Ingredients:
1 avocado
small handful of diced papaya
1 lime
salt & pepper
2 tbsp diced red onion

Directions:
1.  Place diced papaya and avocado in a bowl and squeeze out the juice of 1 lime.  Salt & Pepper. Toss
2.  Add diced red onion and toss again
3.  Prepare a plate bedded with arugula leaves.  Spoon the salad over top.  Be sure to enjoy avocado with arugula!  Papaya with arugula is great too but it does not have the same flavour impact experience. :)

Benya's Bola Bola

Meatballs is truly an international dish. Every single country, city, town has its own version.  To point out a few:
"Kofta" - is a meatball from the Middle East made from minced beef or lamb mixed together with spices and onions, rice and vegetables, served with a rich tomato-ey spicy sauce.
"Faggots" is a spicy pork meatball from United Kingdom.  Primary made from pig heart, liver and fatty belly meat mixed with all sorts of herbs and breadcrumbs.  yumms?
"Bakso" is Indonesian meatballs made mainly from ground beef or mixed together with chicken and is usually served with soup or noodles.
I can go on but the star of this post shall be dedicated to "Bola Bola" - a deep fried meatball made with minced pork, minimal ingredients.  Simplicity is key to this dish.

On a personal note, on our most recent trip to Manila, Philippines, mr. had requested "Benya" - the head cook of the compound where him and his family (including his uncles family and cousins) grew up to cook all his favorite dishes.  Bola Bola, beef soup, chicken adobo with eggs, fried fish... the list goes on. :) It had been over 2 decades since mr had Benya's food.  Him and his cousins constantly remenisce about how Benya makes the best fried chicken, the best Bola Bola, the best this and that.  So on the day of this feast, with P500 in hand (equivalent to $12cdn :D) Benya gather all ingredients to make, wait, let's count....1, 2, 3....



Benya's food.  photo is terrible! i was too excited :D

 SEVEN dishes.  Oh what a great feast it was for 3 people :D  Let's just say mr was a VERY happy man. :)



close up of Benya's Bola Bola, again photo is terrible! i just wanted to eat!!

 Since our return from this trip, I was determine to out do Benya's cooking.  (sry mr & mr's cousins!)  We had asked Benya how she made her Bola Bola.  With her indregients in my head and my natural cooking instincts, I had successfully whipped up a batch of "Benya's Bola Bola" :D  Mr was very impressed.  I was impressed.  Let's just say, there weren't any leftovers :D

I had many times previously attempted to make Bola Bola but I here by am scrapping all other recipes and will be locking this one in the vault. :D 



my version:) before hitting the hot oil




tadum!!!


WARNING!: I should probably mention,, I just "eyed" & "felt" my ingredients in order to whip this up.  So
below recipe is only an estimated guess of how much I used for each ingredient.  Use this recipe at your own risk!

Ingredients:
1 1/2 pound minced pork
salt & pepper
1/2 carrot & onion peeled and grated
2 tbsp soya sauce
1 tbsp sugar
1 egg
2 tsp (heaping) cornstarch
2 tbsp (heaping) flour

Directions:
1.  Overnight, marinade pork with salt and pepper, sugar and soya sauce
2.  Prior to making, add grated carrots & onions to marinaded pork and mix
3.  Add 1 egg and mix
4.  Add cornstarch and flour and mix well.  It should come out "paste like"
5.  Heat 1'' vegetable oil to medium heat
6.  While waiting for oil to heat up, set up a plate with a layer of flour, make small size meatballs (size of a quarter) and place on floured plate.  This will help make the Bola Bola extra crispy and adsorb any extra liquid :)
7.  Once oil is hot, slowly place meatballs in, cook until golden brown on all sizes and ENJOY!!