Pre-Superbowl Snack

We were going to have a Superbowl party, but some of our guests cancelled because D's nephew bought a huge flat screen TV. I could tell that D wanted to go to, so I offered to cancel our shindig and when I did, his eyes lit up like a 7-year old boy looking at a red firetruck under a Christmas tree--in 1950.

That meant our menu went out the window, and we had to decide what to bring. We were going to make chicken wings, chili, edamame, the requisite tortilla chips and salsa, and cookies. We had to compromise....so this is what happened:

I'm 3/4 of the way through with Michael Pollan's Omnivore's Dilemma, and I feel like I want to (have to) commit myself to only buying free-range, grass fed beef and happy, cage-free chickens. This is very expensive. I went to the Farmers' Market at Grand Army Plaza on Saturday morning and bought $20 worth of locally-raised, free-range ground beef (about 2 lbs), a $12 ham hock, and a $12 packet of ground lamb. I fretted for the next few hours about using the expensive beef for a Superbowl chili, so we went to Fairway to see if we could find some cheaper meat. Unfortunately, both the chicken wings (they just had organic, not free range--definitely not the same thing), and the ground beef were expensive, so we compromised: we'd bring just chili to the party, but no free-range beef this time around. (Recipe for the Black Bean chili that we made to come in the next entry).

Now, I spent some serious time in Buffalo watching many a Superbowl, so I insisted that we buy just a few organic chicken wings (6) for a pre-Superbowl party at home.

This is what we did with the chicken wings:

Honey Ginger and BBQ Wings

Ingredients

6 whole chicken wings
honey
a piece of ginger
a few cloves of garlic
olive oil
soy sauce
black pepper
salt
ground coriander
homemade chipotle BBQ sauce

Preparation

Cut the chicken wings into pieces (flats and drums). Toss them in a pot full of boiling water and blanch 'em for about 3 minutes, until they were just almost cooked. Chop the garlic and ginger into small pieces. Whisk together the honey, soy sauce, chopped ginger and garlic, and seasonings (black pepper, salt, and coriander). Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil so that you can cook the gingered wings and the BBQ wings separately. Toss 3 flats and 3 drums in the mixture and place on a baking sheet lined with aluminum foil. Toss 3 flats and 3 drums in the BBQ sauce, lay them on another side of the pan. Cook until crispy at about 450. Serve with celery and bleu cheese dip.

Bleu Cheese dip

Bleu Cheese
Labne cheese
mayonnaise
salt and pepper
squeeze of lemon juice
splash of cream to thin it out
dash of cayenne pepper

Yum!