Chicken Wings with a Sweet-and-Spicy Pomelo Sauce

I heart chicken wings, especially the crispy, caramelized edges of fried or baked wings. I like to marinate the wing mid sections and drummettes in a combination of soy sauce, scallions, garlic, ginger and honey. The cooked wings can be eaten with or without a sauce. In the preparation in the photo above, I made a marmalade-like pomelo sauce. I happened to have one pomelo leftover from Lunar New Year that I needed to use, so I segmented the fruit and cooked it down with some sugar, garlic and hot sauce.

A note about cooking: I was gifted a T-fal ActiFry, which is a so-called low-fat alternative to deep fryers. It's not an appliance that I would have purchased, but since I have one, I use it for "frying" chicken wings. It does a great job of crisping the skin. It takes about 20-25 minutes for about 2 pounds of chicken wings. For the recipe below, I give directions for baking. If you have a deep fryer, feel free to fry the wings.

CRISPY CHICKEN WINGS

1/2 cup soy sauce

1/4 cup water

3 stalks scallions, trimmed and finely chopped

1 tablespoon minced fresh ginger

3 cloves garlic, minced or crushed wit a garlic press

1 tablespoon honey

2 to 2.5 pounds chicken wing segments

Optional garnish: chopped scallions and/or cilantro

Combine the soy sauce, water, scallions, garlic, ginger and honey in a bowl or dish large enough to accommodate the chicken wings. Stir well to incorporate the honey. Add the chicken wings and coat well with marinade. Alternatively, you can seal the chicken wings in a large zipper storage bag with the marinade. Let marinate for at least 30 minutes or up to overnight.

To bake chicken wings: Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Spread chicken wings on two parchment- or foil-lined baking sheets. Bake for about 20-25 minutes. Check the wings about half way through and turn them. At 20 minutes, check one of the larger wings for doneness. Bake a few minutes longer, if needed. Toss in Sweet-and-Spicy Pomelo Sauce, if using, and serve right away. The sauce also can be served on the side. Garnish with chopped scallions or cilantro, if desired.

SWEET-AND-SPICY POMELO SAUCE

1 pomelo, peeled and segmented (how to segment citrus), see Note

1 tablespoon pomelo zest

1 cup sugar

2 tablespoons water

1-2 cloves garlic, minced or crushed with a garlic press

Sriracha or your favorite Asian hot sauce to taste

Combine pomelo pulp, zest, sugar and water in a small pot over medium heat. Stir to help dissolve the sugar. Add the garlic and hot sauce to taste. Adjust heat and let sauce simmer, stirring occasionally, until it's syrupy, about 5-10 minutes. Turn off heat and set aside. When the wings are ready, toss in sauce and serve.

Note: If you pomelo is out of season, you can use grapefruit or orange. A shortcut version would be to mix your favorite store-bought marmalade with hot sauce, and warm on the stove or in a microwave just enough to loosen the consistency and make it easier to dip.

Chinese Spaghetti

We call it "Chinese spaghetti" because the transliteration of the Chinese name is hard to pronounce for some. But in principle, zha jian mian resembles spaghetti and meat sauce. Literally, it means "fried sauce noodles." There are many versions of the recipe, but the one I grew up eating includes ground pork, sweet bean sauce, soy sauce, peas and carrots, and wheat noodles.

This is the "no-brainer" recipe. I'd like to play around with it and see how I might tweak it a little to enrich the flavor. I'll keep you posted on the experiements. In the meantime:

ZHA JIANG MIAN

MAKES ENOUGH FOR 4-6 PORTIONS

2 tablespoons vegetable oil

1 pound ground pork

1 cup diced tomatoes

1/4 cup soy sauce

3 tablespoons sweet bean sauce

1 cup frozen peas and carrots

Heat 2 tablespoons vegetable oil over medium-high heat in the wok. When the oil just begins to smoke, turn down the heat to medium. Add the ground pork and cook, breaking up the pieces as you go. Once browned, add the tomatoes. Turn the heat up a little, if it seems like it's cooking too slowly. Stir-fry the tomatoes with the pork until the tomatoes cook down and render the juice.

Add the soy sauce and sweet bean sauce. Stir to combine. Then stir in the peas and carrots. Let simmer for 2-3 minutes. If the sauce seems too thick, add 1 cup of water to loosen it up. Taste. If it's too salty, add a touch more water. (The sauce should be a little salty because the noodles will balance out the flavor.)

Serve the sauce on boiled Chinese wheat noodles. Spaghetti noodles work in a pinch.