Crab Wings

I'm making my "soon-to-be-famous Crab Wings" for a pot luck dinner tonight. Yesterday I put two big packs of wings in two zip top bags to marinade in some vegetable oil, apple cider vinegar, Old Bay Seasoning, parsley flakes and black pepper.

This morning I made the CrabWing Sauce. Two sticks of butter, two bottles of Frank's Hot Sauce, a dash of apple cider vinegar, and a good healthy dose of Old Bay in a pot on the stove. Put in the Old Bay to taste. I go by color! When the sauce is "almost brown" that's usually enough Old Bay...but sample it often to check. Use crackers, tortilla chips, anything, to sample the sauce.

When it's time to make the wings, I use my Showtime Jr. Rotisserie. (Remember "Just set it...and forget it!"? I tell you, I love this thing! I even made our Thanksgiving turkey in it.) I put the wings in the rotisserie basket and let it spin for about 45 minutes. The really cool thing is...I use the whole wings, tips and all, so when they get brown and are kinda sticking out of the basket...they look a little bit like crab claws. :-)

When they're done, I toss them with the wing sauce and serve with more sauce on the side and some celery sticks and ranch dressing.

Mmmmmmm....Crab Wings....

Enjoy!
-J

All Greek to me

I love Greek food. I especially love pita bread and tziziki sauce. And rotisserie chicken. And roasted veggies...and potatoes...

I found a great recipe for pita bread and tried it for the first time a few months ago. That time, they came out good, but not knowing what I was doing, I over baked them a little bit. Not so this time...they came out perfect!

I made the dough by hand by hand mixing 1 1/2 c. whole wheat flour with 1 1/2 c. unbleached all purpose flour, 1 pkt. rapid rise yeast, 1 T. honey, 1 1/2 tsp salt, 2T olive oil and about 1 1/4 c. lukewarm water. Mixed that by hand until it came together, then kneaded it by hand for 10 minutes. It's possible to do this in a stand mixer, but I did it by hand. After 10 minutes, it was nice and smooth, and I put it in an oiled bowl, covered it with a towel and let it rise for 90 minutes.

After it was nicely risen, I took it out, and cut it in 8 equal portions. Next I rolled these into little balls by sort of cupping my hands over them and rolling them lightly on the board. These got covered with a towel and allowed to rest for 20 minutes. You can see how much they rose in just 20 mintues!

While they were resting I put a cooking sheet upside down on the middle rack of the oven and  heated the oven to 400 degrees. Then the pitas were rolled out to about 1/8 in. thick. When they were all rolled out it was time to bake them. I did them two at a time right on the inverted cookie sheet. About 30 seconds before I put each pair in to bake, I spritzed the oven and the sheet with a few sprays of water. Not exactly sure why, but the recipe said to do it, so I did. I put two of them on the inverted cookie sheet and baked them for 3 minutes.

It amazes me how much they puff up in only 3 minutes! If you want them crispy you can flip them over and let them bake another 2 or 3 minutes. As I said, I did that last time, and they were good, but I like a soft pita so I prefer to take them out after 3 minutes.

These got served with rotisserie chicken, homemade tziziki sauce, roasted fingerling potatoes and veggies, and homemade herb butter.

Mmmmmm.....enjoy!
-J

Chicken stock

If it's Sunday, and I don't have a million other things to do or places to go, and we happen to be out of stock, I love making stock! We've used up all the chicken stock we had in the freezer, and it's a beautiful fall day in central Florida (highs in the low-mid 80s), and I don't have to be anywhere at all, so there is stock on the stove. It makes my little 2nd day gourmetish heart smile to use this stuff up!

OK,  I admit. We use a LOT of stock. I make chicken, vegetable and beef stock. We use it in gravies, sauces, casseroles, rice, prima vera, even egg drop soup! In fact, we're out of veggie stock too, so I'll be making more of that fairly soon too.

Whenever we have chicken, whether it's fried, wings, rotisserie, whatever, I always throw the bones and the "extra bits" in a freezer bag and put them in the freezer. When we're out of frozen stock or I have 1 or 2 full bags of bits, it's time to make more.

Get your biggest pot and a collander. I put the goods in the collander so that when it's time to remove the bits from the stock, it's really easy. No fishing required! Put the collander in your stock pot. Dump most of your chicken bits in the collander. Grab some leftover raw onion and toss that in on top of the chicken. Get those inner stalks of celery you weren't going to use for anything else. Also get the leafy tops or the big tough bottoms you weren't going to use either. Put them in with the chicken and onion. Got baby carrots or regular carrots taking up space in the produce drawer? In they go. Now put in the rest of the chicken bits. Add some salt and pepper.

Pour enough water over the bits and pieces in the collander to come about halfway up the stock pot. You can pick up the collander to see how much water you've got in there. I tend to over fill the pot and then when it comes to a boil it runs over a bit. If that happens to you, no big deal, just wipe it up as best you can and clean it up later.

Turn the burner to high heat until it comes to a boil, then turn it down and simmer for about an hour. I like to stir things around once in a while, turning things up from the bottom just to make sure everybody gets some time in the spa. Enjoy that lovely smell wafting thru the house!!!

We have some great herbs growing in pots out on the patio, so while the stock is cooking, I'm going shopping in our own herb garden! Whoo! I cut some parsley, some thyme, some sage and some rosemary. After giving them a good wash, I tie them together with some kitchen string, making a "bouquet garni" and set them aside. Don't put them in yet!!

After about an hour, remove the collander and place it to drain in a small bowl or pie pan. After it's drained, you can add the stock in the bowl back to the pot. At this point, I like to turn up the heat and vigorously boil the stock for a while to let it cook down and condense some. Use your judgement as to how much you want it to cook down. The longer you let it go, the stronger and richer the flavor but you may need to use some extra water later when you use the stock in your recipes.

When you're satisfied with how condensed your stock is, turn off the heat. Now drop in your bundle of herbs and let the stock sit for a while. You don't want to put the herbs in while you're cooking the stock at high boil or the poor little guys will be destroyed and the flavor won't have a chance to develop. Just let the whole thing cool. The residual heat will be enough for the herbs.

Once it's cool, take out the bouquet garni and set it aside. Strain your stock into a medium sized bowl. Now put your little herb bundle back in and place a paper towel over the top. Put the bowl in the refrigerator for a few hours or overnight to really let everything blend together and devlop flavor. When you're ready to use or freeze the stock, remove the paper towel, which will help you to remove the chicken fat that has risen to the top of the stock.

Use the stock as you'd like, either now or put it in the freezer for later. I like to freeze my stock in plastic ice trays so that they're easy to use later. Ladle the stock into your ice trays and put them in the freezer overnight. Label a freezer bag with Chicken Stock the date,put in the frozen stock cubes and stash in the freezer for another day. In this pic, I'm using 2 cups of the stock in the brown rice we're having for dinner. The rest is freezer-bound.

Enjoy!

-J

Mock Crab Soup

Being from Maryland, blue crabs and crab soup have a special place in my heart, as does Old Bay Seasoning. I've been making "Crab Wings" for years, chicken wings that I season with Old Bay. I also make a wing sauce with lots of Old Bay in it to go with them.

Here's the 2nd Day Gourmet part...

After we're done with the wings, I take any leftover wings and any bones that we have and make a soup, just the same way my mother used to make crab soup after we had steamed crabs. I usually add some chicken thighs to up the meat content a bit, too.

Here's how...

The leftover wings, bones and thighs go in a soup pot with water. I add tomatoes, onions, and whatever fresh or frozen veggies I have on hand, usually peas, corn, carrots, celery, green beans, in any combination I happen to have them. (This time I didn't have any frozen veggies, so it was just tomatoes, onions, peas and carrots, but it was still very tasty! I think it was the best ever this time!)

Then I put some of the leftover wing sauce in there and add Old Bay as needed. Let it go for an hour or so, then remove all the chicken and bones and them them cool. After they've thoroughly cooled, carefully pick all the meat from all the bones and put the meat back in the pot with the soup. Discard the bones, they've served you well at this point!

Enjoy, Hon!