Cantonese Chicken Wings

Justin doesn't like it if we use chicken wings for dinner. He thinks that there isn't a lot of meat to it, and so he won't be able to finish his rice. Well, yes, that's true. Chicken wings *are* quite small, compared to thighs, which we use more often. But I think that there's a surprising amount of flesh on wings! More than you think. And come on... who can resist chicken wings? Juicy and oh-so-fatty...

I once saw a picture of me when I was small, with a chicken wing in my mouth. How I wish I still had it.... :P But anyway, here you go!

What you need:
3 tbsp hoisin sauce
2 tbsp dark soy sauce
1 tbsp sesame oil
1 garlic clove, peeled and crushed
2.5 cm piece fresh root ginger, peeled and grated
2 tsp chilli bean sauce
2 tbsp soft light brown sugar
500g large chicken wings

What you do:

1. Preheat the oven to 220 C, 15 minutes before cooking. Place the hoisin sauce, soy sauce, sesame oil, garlic, ginger, rice wine, chilli bean sauce, vinegar and sugar in a small saucepan with 6 tablespoons of water. Bring to the boil, stirring occasionally, then simmer for about 30 seconds. Remove the glaze from the heat.
2. Place the chicken wings in a roasting tin in a single layer. Pour over the glaze and stir until the wings are coated thoroughly.
3. Cover the tin loosely with tinfoil, place in the preheated oven and roast for 25 minutes. Remove the tinfoil, baste the wings and cook for a further 5 minutes.
4. Reduce the oven temperature to 190 C. Turn the wings over and sprinkle with the spring onions. Return to the oven and cook for 5 minutes or until the glaze is sticky and the wings are tender.
5. Remove from the oven and leave to stand for 5 minutes before arranging on a warmed platter. Serve immediately with finger bowls and plently of napkins.

I actually thought I won't like this. It has everything that I'm not too fond of: hoisin sauce, dark soy sauce (I prefer light :P), sesame oil, sugar... and I'm not even sure what chilli bean sauce is! o.0 But somehow or other, the ingredients all blend together, forming something... WOW!

Well, ok, maybe WOW is an exaggeration. Just wow would do :P The dish is aptly named - I can taste its Chinese roots all the way down to the last drop of sauce. I thought hoisin sauce would overpower everything else, but it seems like chilli bean sauce wins the fight! Even with a measly 2 teaspoons, it managed to balance out the hoisin flavour! Something I never would have believed possible. Seriously. Hoisin sauce is strong. But it looks like chilli bean sauce is stronger :P

Needless to say, this is a very strongly flavoured dish, with bold tastes :P When I asked Hadi how it was, his reply was "Its flavour is so strong!" ... Big silence. Is that bad, I asked him? "Nope! Not at all!" Ceh, got me worried already. I thought he was complaining :P But then, Hadi has always liked strongly flavoured stuff. Which is why he's a big fan of hoisin sauce. Justin also seemed to like it. He says it was different (which, in my mind, does NOT equate to good, most of the time) but he did say it was tasty. Perhaps he's unused to having variety for dinner, looking at what he comes up with? :P Although I am using pretty much the same ingredients he did....

As for me, I liked it as well. This was a very simple dish - so easy to prepare, so simple to cook. I was quite surprised to find out just how good it was! :D It (also surprisingly) also gave a good amount of gravy. VERY good gravy! :D I like... hehe.

Quote of the day: Some people say the glass is half empty, other people say the glass is half full. I say, are you going to drink that?