Friday 5 April 2013

Cooking: Japanese Tuyu (Absolutely Velvety) Chicken Wings

Japanese Tuyu Chicken Wings
Image from Locky's English Playground
Another stay-at-home activity day and this time it is chicken wings!

Surely there are many recipes out there, such as Cola wings, Swiss wings and Honey wings are Hongkongers' favourite, mostly because they are easy to make. Well this time I want to share with you all a chicken wing dish which I have created, hereby I call it "Japanese Tuyu Chicken Wings" (at home, I call it Absolutely Velvety Chicken Wings instead).

It is very simple to prepare this dish.

Step 1: Buy some chicken wings.
Step 2: Defrost the wings.
Image from Locky's English Playground

Step 3: Lay them on a chopping board and poke the wings with something sharp. This is to allow the sauce to be soaked up by the wings easier and faster.
Image from Locky's English Playground

Step 4: Add about 80ml of Tuyu -- the kind of sauce used for soba noodles and it is usually concentrated when you buy them.
Tuyu
Image from Locky's English Playground

Step 5: Add about 80ml of mirin, a type of rice wine which is low in alcohol but high in sugar content. This is  to actually replace plain sugar and add a little wine taste to the wings.
Mirin
Image from Locky's English Playground

Alternatively, you can also use Chinese Shaoxing rice wine to remove the frosty smell from the frozen chicken.
Image from Locky's English Playground

Step 6: Add about 2 teaspoons of sesame oil. I find this Topvalu brand the best, feel free to use other brands as well.
Image from Locky's English Playground

Step 7: Stir the mixture and immerse all the wings into the sauce.
Image from Locky's English Playground

Step 8: Leave it to marinate for about 1 hour, flip or poke the wings a few times to maximise the effect of marination.
Image from Locky's English Playground
Step 9: Roast the chicken wings at 250°C in an oven, 10 mins per side of the wings.

Step 10: Apply honey or golden syrup on the wings and then return them to the oven for another 2 minutes for caramelisation -- the browning of sugar.

Image from Tumblr
Step 11: Enjoy the taste of the fabulous Japanese Tuyu Chicken Wings!
Japanese Tuyu Chicken Wings
Image from Locky's English Playground

Give it a go and feel free to leave a comment after you have tried!



Vocabulary:
velvety -- (adj) (also velvet) literary describes something that has a beautiful soft, smooth quality or appearance, usually something dark or deep:
defrost -- (vb)[I or T] to (cause to) become free of ice, or to (cause to) become no longer frozen:
frosty -- (adj) very cold, with a thin layer of white ice covering everything:
marinate -- (vb) [T] to pour a mixture, usually containing oil, wine, or vinegar and herbs and spices, that you pour over fish or meat before it is cooked, in order to add flavour to it or make it tender:
caramelisation -- (n)[U]  is the browning of sugar, a process used extensively in cooking for the resulting nutty flavor and brown color. As the process occurs,volatile chemicals are released, producing the characteristic caramel flavor.


Resources:
つゆ @ Wikipedia
http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%81%A4%E3%82%86

Mirin @ Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mirin

Caramelisation @ Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caramelization

http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/british/velvet_3?q=Velvety+
http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/british/defrost?q=defrost
http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/british/frosty?q=frosty
http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/british/marinade?q=marinate+