From Gastrolab with Love: Jamaican Jerk Chicken Wings (meatatarian)

Gastrolab brought you Jamaican peas and rice last time.  Those with keen eyes would notice that I made a giant pot of peas and rice (either via the photo, or the recipe itself).  As much as the peas and rice can be consumed as a meal by itself, I would like to have some more protein in the diet.  I found some chicken wings in the freezer and decided to continue the Jamaican theme.  Hence, the Jamaican jerk chicken wings are born in the lab.  I have attempted jerking in the past (and some would argue that I am still "jerking" as we speak.  To those I got one gesture for you, and you can guess which one...  in all seriousness...).  I have always thought that I won't be able to jerk it up at my house because I do not have the proper herbs and spices (notably, the scotch bonnet pepper) for the job, so I ended up buying store-bought jerk seasoning.  Because I was able to source the scotch bonnet pepper, I figured I would give the homemade jerk a shot.  To the research lab!  

Wiki has a decent entry on the origin of jerk.  The seasonings are spelled out as well.  The soul of jerk are in the allspice berries and scotch bonnet pepper.  Recipe searches comes up with this, this, this, and this at the very least.  Most of these recipes call for some amount of acidic component (in the form of vinegar and/or lime juice) and sweet component (in the form of brown sugar, orange juice, sugar, and combination thereof) in addition the gamut  of woody spices (allspice, thyme, nutmeg, cinnamon, cloves, etc.) and aromatics (onion, scallion/green onion, garlic, ginger, etc).  After raiding my pantry and adjusting to scale and personal preference, below is the ingredient list:  

Woody spices team:  

1/2 - 1 teaspoon cinnamon

5 Cloves

1 teaspoon dried thyme

20 - 21 Allspice berries (about 1 teaspoon)

1/2 teaspoon black pepper 

Aromatic team:

1 1/4" - 1/2" piece ginger

1 clove garlic 

2 green scallion

Liquid team: 

1/4 Cup Lime Juice

1/4 Cup Pineapple Juice 

1 - 2 tablespoon soy sauce

(I would change the ratio of the fruit juices for my next batch.  See explanation below)

Other:  

1 Scotch bonnet pepper 

1 - 2 tablespoon brown sugar (that's the brick on top of the lime juice)


The team leader:  5 - 6 center cut chicken wings

Mise en place.  Chicken wing, soy sauce is excluded.  

I chose lime juice over vinegar for the dish because I think the sour from vinegar is too harsh.  Most jerk chicken around Philly actually do not contain a high level of sour.  This is a personal preference.  Also, I don't have orange juice at my house so pineapple would have to do.  It's still a fruit juice!  

The woody spices team minus the thyme

I threw all the whole spices into the mortar and pestle along with the dried thyme leaves...

After some anger management treatment, this has turned into a powder.  

Scallion is chopped up.  The ginger and garlic would probably disintegrate inside the blender on its own.  You can chop them up slightly just to be safe.  I cut the scotch bonnet in half and took the seeds out.  WARNING:  the scotch bonnet pepper can cause serious burns when touched, especially when it's cut open.  DO NOT touch mucous membrane and sensitive areas (or anywhere that you care to save for future *maybe procreation* purposes) without proper decontamination after handling the pepper!  Don't say I did not warn you!  Twice!  If you have read my previous post!  

I then throw everything into the blender.  

Now the ground herbs, nutmeg brown sugar and the liquids:  Pineapple juice, lime juice, and soy sauce. 

Top view:  Same stuff, different angle.

Now we liquify inside the blender.  I'm very surprised that the original marinade is green given that most of the times the jerk seasoning I bought from the store was brown.

I got 5 wings here.  The marinate is no more than a cup so make sure each wing get a little bit of love.  Why 5?  That's how they came in when I bought them.  The marinade could have taken 6 wings without problem.  

Pour marinate in wing and swish around inside the plastic bag.  This is the top view.  I pushed a majority of the air out then tied a knot on the bag to seal. I set this in the sink with a bowl (in case the plastic bag leaks) for 1.5 hours.  Other recipes call for a longer time, but their item also have a smaller surface area to volume ratio (read:  larger pieces) so they would need to sit for longer for everything to get soaked up.  

Clearly, my lab does not have the state-of-the-art ventilation and the lack of regulation required for a true jerk chicken experience (read:  55 gal drum retrofitted for smoking and grilling chicken, wood chips that generate enough smoke to take out 3 smoke detectors, and an open fire that would guarantee to get a nod from the insurance company...), so I settled for pan searing in a heavy cast iron skillet with very minimal oil.  

During the entire cooking duration, I would bast the wings with the remaining marinate to keep it moist and full of flavors whenever I flip the wings.  This would generate a lot of char on the pan so be mindful of that.  

After a couple rounds of flipping and basting, the wings are done!  As I mentioned before, the pan would have a lot of gunk on it.  These are generated from the marinade.  Note also that the marinade has now turn brown-- just like the stuff they sell at the store.  After retrieving the wings, I toss in the remaining marinade and a little bit of water while the pan is hot and scrape everything off the pan with a whisk.  Part of this is cleaning the pan, the other part is that the brown bits are very delicious.  By partially converting it into pan drippings, we can get more flavors out of them.  I think the French calls this "faun", but I'm not sure.  The gritty dripping looks very much like the sauce I get from the store... 

Total time elapsed:  2 hours 20 minutes

The final product:  Wings with a bit of green scallion for decoration, and on the bottom is the gritty pan drippings I saved for dipping wings.  That dripping is very spicy, but it's full of flavors.  It goes great with steamed vegetable (I had microwave-steamed napa cabbage with the drippings and it brought new life to them) and obviously the peas and rice.  The wings has a good jerk flavorings, along with some fairly pronounced lime juice taste and a bit of acid associated with the lime juice.  I have had jerk chicken that have high amount of vinegar-type acid in it, and I have to say the lime juice is a lot smoother than vinegar.  If my choice is between vinegar sour and lime juice sour, my choice would be the lime juice.  Personally I like my jerk with less sour in it, so my next batch (whenever that may be) would have a higher ratio of the sweet fruit juice in it.  That's more of a personal preference.  


Bon apetit!


Note: 


In my opinion, you can say Hail Mary nine ways til Sunday, and still be abominated for converting this into a vegetarian dish.  Tofu just does not lend itself to this kind of cooking method.  It's fragile, and the flavors would not permeate into the tofu at all-- the chunks and liquid that deliver the flavors are too big and too viscous to enter the sol-gel matrix that of tofu.  


With that said, if you're hell bent (heh... pun intended) on turning this into vegetarian, here's several options:  


1.  Use mushrooms instead of tofu.  You can still bast the mushroom with the seasoning while it's grilling and use that pan dripping sauce as a dipping sauce at the end.  I recommend the portobello mushrooms for this job because it's big and beefy (heh, beefy in vegetarian food....)-- it's almost like meat!


2.  If you really want to use tofu, choose fried tofu (you can purchase this at your local Asian market, and no, not the fried tofu puffs, please.  Its texture is not beefy enough.).  They tend to be sturdier.  You can punch holes in the sol-gel matrix by placing the tofu in the freezer for at least overnight and then defrosting it.  Placing the resulting (freeze-thaw) product in the marinade would improve flavor absorption inside the tofu.  


These options has not been road-tested so your mileage may vary.  Option 2 carries a much higher risk than Option 1, so tread carefully.  With that said, if you ended up trying these options, please report how well it works in the comments.  I would love to hear from you!

From GastroLab with Love: GastroLab gives you wings!

The last GastroLab post seems to be very popular.  Another one will be posted in short order.  What is it about?  I'll give you a hint:  this gives you wings, 'mon!  Stay tuned.  

From GastroLab with Love: Jamaican peas and rice (quasi-vegetarian)

Sometimes the dreary weather makes you wish you are somewhere else. While a plane ticket at the splurge of the moment is off-limits for the 99%, a meal in a far-flung land can transport you there-- until you realize that it was still freezing outside and your heating bill is going to double this month because you want to feel like Jamaica in your house, 'mon. When it comes to making food from far-flung lands, I usually scour around the Internet for recipes. However, I do not just use one recipe. Most of the times, I would read multiple recipes, identify the common theme (or formula, per say), and reinterpret them to make it my own.  For the Jamaican peas and rice, I use recipes from here, here, here, and wikipedia as references.  


Below is my reconstruction of Jamaican peas and rice based on my sources. Originally, this was made to accompany my ultra-spicy lamb vindaloo (yes it's Indian...  they have Indian-influenced food on the island!) take out. Everyone knows curried "goat" and peas and rice goes together like Big Macs and fries (although the curried "goat" and rice both cringes when I say that).


Let's start with the ingredients:

Mise en place.  I excluded water, rice and salt for photo purpose.  

For those who have a hard time with the picture, here's the written form:  

4 - 8 oz dry red kidney beans 

Approx. 1/4" x 1/4" square salt cured pork (salt pork for short.  In theory you can replace this with ham hock, smoked turkey bone, sausages and bacon of different forms, whatever)

1 scotch bonnet pepper (Habanero can be used in a pinch)

5 - 10 whole allspice berries

2 - 3 whole green onion 

2 cloves garlic 

Approx. 1/2 tsp dried thyme

1 - 1.5 cup uncooked rice 

250 - 300 mL coconut milk 

salt to taste 

Water and/or stock (stock is optional)

Your preference matters more than exactness.  For me, the beans and rice ratio is optimal at 35/65, but your mileage may vary.  Obviously, if you don't want to "poison" your vegetarian friend (or in some's mind, show them nirvana, since a life without meat is not worth living), take out the salt pork.  

Brown chopped-up salt cured pork in a dry pot under medium-low heat.  If you are making the vegetarian version, skip this step.  I use a cast iron dutch oven coated with enamel here, but you should be able to use any pot.  The heat distribution, heat retention, and steam sealing capabilities with these kinds of pot are better than your normal run-of-the-mill pot, making them more energy efficient and thus great for items with a long, wet cooking process.  

About 2 minutes later, the salt pork fat is melting and carmelizing.  This gives the rice some meaty flavor.  I throw in the garlic to pick up some char.  If you're making vegetarian version, use a little bit of oil (canola, peanut, corn, vegetable oil are all good... just not extra virgin olive oil) and brown garlic lightly if you prefer.  

Add washed beans.  I did not soak the beans overnight because it takes only a bit longer to cook on the stove directly.  Soaking "saves" cooking time only if you actually remember to soak the beans overnight or longer (clearly, I did not).  If you only have a couple hours, don't waste your time soaking-- direct heat is much faster. 

Throw in some water, salt and allspice berries to cook.  Put in enough water to cover the beans to start and not a drop more (Okay, it can be a drop more, but no more than that!).  Once the water boil, turn the heat down to low to medium heat.  The water would hydrate the beans and whatever is left would be used for cooking the rice.  If you put too much water in this stage, you would have soggy rice.  Remember you still have another 200 - 300 mL of liquid to go, so do be shy here.  Lid up for an hour or so on low heat once it boils.  Check on water level and bean tenderness throughout the hour while stirring occasionally.  If you choose not to use salt pork (which, frankly, you may be missing out on the best animal known to man) or any other cured animal parts, you should use at least part stock here to make up for the flavor.  I would go maybe 30 - 50% stock with the rest being water, erring on the low side on the stock content for if you use stocks make with dead animals.  For vegetarian stock, you should be able to use a higher ratio-- maybe start at 50%.  The final flavor profile should contain more coconut-like taste.  A large stock flavor (especially one made partly out of dead animals) may overwhelm the balance.  It's up to you though.  

50 minutes later, the beans feel al dente, so the thyme and rice can now go into the pot.  Usually the peas in Jamaican peas and rice are whole at the end of the cooking process so keep an eye out on the tenderness.  You don't want the beans to disintegrate when it's done cooking with the rice.  I have some rice still with husks on them so I put it in at this stage with a little bit of water.  If you have regular rice, you do not need to put them in ahead of time:  follow instruction from where the scotch bonnet pepper and green onions are prepared.  However, do note that you would need to cook the beans a little bit longer (maybe add another 10 - 15 minutes) at this stage so that the rice and the beans are done at the same time.  This is in line with my original 1 hour estimate at the last check point. 

15 minutes later, the rice and peas absorb quite a bit of water.  Time to add more ingredients!  

The scotch bonnet pepper and the white/light green part of the green onion, chopped.  WARNING:  the scotch bonnet pepper can cause serious burns when touched, especially when it's cut open.  DO NOT touch mucous membrane and sensitive areas (or anywhere that you care to save for future *maybe procreation* purposes) without proper decontamination after handling the pepper!  Don't say I did not warn you! Cut the scotch bonnet open on the bottom for better flavor (but also extra heat) in your food.  If you don't like spicy food, I would still recommend cutting the pepper, even if it's just a small incision.  The pepper has a lot of fruity flavors that doesn't necessarily come out without some tear on the structure.  

Now the rest of the rice, scotch bonnet pepper, and chopped green onion goes into the pot.  Stir it up for evenness and prevent bottom burn.  

Add in some coconut milk as the final dose of liquid into the pot to just cover the rice.  Remember:  you can always add more, but you can't take it out.  No one likes soupy, soggy rice (unless you're Asian, in which case there's a cauldron of bubbling hell called congee.  If you're not Asian, there's rice pudding...).  Lid up to cook under low to medium heat and stirring occasionally.  Pull the scotch bonnet pepper out early if you do not like spicy food.  

About 20 minutes later, most of the liquid is absorbed by the rice.  Taste test indicates the rice is nice and tender to my liking-- this is done!  If you don't want a super burnt bottom, stir the rice occasionally when it's cooking and make sure the heat is on low.    Fluff the rice before serving.   

Serve with freshly chopped green part of the green onion earlier.  This is optional, but I really like the green onion taste so I add a bunch here.  The color on the rice comes from a combination of the beans and the rice I used-- but mostly from the beans.

Total time elapsed:  1 hour 45 minutes.  

This rice is very coconut-y.  It really gives the cajun version beans and rice a run of its money.  Because of its inherent sweetness and creaminess, it goes great with my ultra-spicy lamb vindaloo (or any other spicy food, for that matter).  By the way, like it's step-cousin milk, coconut milk is also very good at cutting the Scoville scale down a couple notches.  I ended up cutting the lamb vindaloo down with some coconut milk and was partially successful in lowering the heat index.  

Bon appetit!  


Edit to add:  


1.  For the pescetarian, mashed up anchovies (if you're into anchovies) can be an option as a salt pork replacement, but be very sure that you do not use too much of it.  Anchovies are powerful stuff!


2.  For the vegetarians who are still on dairy, butter can be an option in place of the plant-derived oil.  Since butter has a lot of other stuff besides fat in it, it would bring in good flavors. 


These options has not been road-tested so your mileage may vary.  Option 1 carries a much higher risk than Option 2, so tread carefully.  With that said, if you ended up trying these options, please report how well it works in the comments.  I would love to hear from you!

From MTLair's GastroLab with Love

As I have stated at the start of my blog, there will be times where I'll be hiding in my lair concocting and running gastro-experiments.  The idea of the GastroLab is to create conduct experiments that would hopefully results in tasty edibles.  This is the GastroLab's "notebook"-- it documents the procedure to create these tasty edibles.  Other people call it "recipes", but that sounds so... plain.  


I will try to group these scribbles into four categories:  vegetarian, quasi-vegetarian, meatatarian, and pescetarian.  Quasi-vegetarian denotes items that can be made vegetarian without significant loss of product integrity (where the contrabands can be swapped out easily), or it's a western dessert, since most are made with dairy and eggs (this makes them technically not vegetarian).  Obviously, a sweet/dessert would carry a tag of dessert as well in case you would like to steer clear of all savory quasi-vegetarian items.  The other three categories are self-explanatory.  


I hope you enjoy my edible journal.  There'll be a new post from the GastroLab in the very (!) near future.  Stay tuned!