Classic Chicken wing stew

Stews make easy meals as well...I can chop veggies during Baby's early afternoon nap and then during the early evening nap I put everything into a pot/slow cooker/thermal cooker and let it simmer for a couple hours until Hubby's home and it's all ready to eat. And if the stew is chocked full of veggies then I don't have to prepare that either. Just make rice and enjoy!

Here I actually pan seared the wings first, added the veggies, a bit of stock (not too much because the veggies let out a fair bit of water too) and seasoning and then covered for 45min on low heat. Chicken wings cook pretty fast...especially if seared already. 

Chicken Wings

Various veggies you can find: Carrots and Green & Yellow zucchinis were in my fridge this time

Soy sauce (dark and light)

Sugar

Cornstarch (to dust the chicken wings in before searing)

Cooking wine

Sesame Oil

Enjoy!

Beef stew

 

Another stew...cuz it's still cold out. =)

I used veal brisket as stewing meat...and these ingredients:

 

Tomatoes
Onions
Caraway seeds
Paprika
Cumin
Ketchup
Srirracha   

Rice wine

S&P to taste

Onions were softened first with the herbs. Then the brisket pieces were browned with the onions. Then a dash of rice wine (I didn't have red wine in the house.) The tomatoes went in after that along with ketchup (I didn't have tomato paste in the house) and srirracha. Heat was turned low for a nice simmer. And the consistency turned out just fine with the tomatoes releasing the water it had. I didn't have to add any more liquid surprisingly.

The only down side was that I only had about 40 minutes to stew the meat before it was served. While it was cooked through, it remained on the chewy side. It tasted great though.

My husband made a variation of this recently but it got to sit in a thermal cooker overnight. OMG. The brisket was melt in your mouth. I just need to plan a little further in advance....like I would need to for the ox tail stew. =)

Lamb Shank

I've always wanted to try cooking lamb shank...so when I saw it go on sale at T&T I picked up a package of three shanks. When I opened the package, I found the shanks were covered in silverskin. From watching cooking shows, I remember chefs always had to cut this chewy stuff off before cooking it...so I proceeded to wrestle with cutting/shaving/ripping/tearing the skins off. I got the shanks about 85% clean before giving up....I needed to get these cooking else we wouldn't have dinner on time.

Lamb shanks
Onion, Shallots
Garlic
Carrots
Tomatoes
Potato
Cumin
Rosemary
Thyme
Basil
Chicken Stock
Rice Wine

I rubbed cornstarch on the shanks and then started to sear them in a big pot with onions. Once browned, I deglazed with rice wine, threw everything else in, added chicken stock and covered the pot for a good simmer. Once the carrots were soft, I moved the shanks to one side, stuck in my immersion blender and pureed some of the veggies to make a thicker sauce.

 

 

It was only cooking for about 50 min before we had to eat....so though it was cooked...and tasty...it was not fall-off-the-bone soft. Resimmering the leftover shank for an hour the next day did the trick however. Will definitely be making something like this again!

Soy Sauce Wings

My favorite kind of chicken growing up was soy sauce chicken. I could eat a couple bowls of rice with it. So why not make it for my favorite part of a chicken only: the wings!

Marinade:
Light soy sauce (for the saltiness)
Dark soy sauce (for the dark golden color)
Brown sugar
Rice Wine
Cinnamon
Pepper
Ginger
Garlic

I didn't have these on hand, but would be great to add into the marinade as well:
Star anise
Green onion
Chinese five spice powder

Key is to cook it on medium low heat (30 min to cook)...never past a simmer or the wings dry out. You can use the same marinade on a whole chicken, just be sure to flip the chicken every 15 minutes (~1.25 hrs total). The delicious marinade doesn't have to go to waste either...you can strain it and freeze the liquid for use the next time...just re-add the ginger, garlic, star anise, etc. The flavors just get richer with time. YUM.

Adhoc Korean Shortrib Marinade

This happens more often than not...I look up a recipe for inspiration and find that I'm missing an ingredient or two...or five. Unless it's the main ingredient, I consider myself too lazy practical to make a trip out to the grocery store to get it. No time and not worth the gas. I always look for what's "close enough" and already in my cupboards or fridge. That was the case for the Korean shortribs, or Galbi, I wanted to marinade. But I made do with this:

Soy sauce
Rice wine
Brown sugar or Honey
Garlic
Ginger
Lime juice
Black Pepper
Sesame Oil

What I was missing or had substituted from the real recipe (taken from Maangchi.com):

Cooking wine
Korean pear or Bosc pear
Onion

But you know, my adhoc one was still really really tasty. =)