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Thursday, January 9, 2014

Swiss Wings 瑞士鸡翼 - AFF HK Macau "Gai" #2


Like the previous chicken dish, this is another one commonly mentioned in my Hong Kong culture guru, TVB.

I did wonder did these originate from Switzerland? I found the answer and nope, they did not.
In fact they were first called this way, when a waiter could  pronounce the word 'Sweet' properly. And the customer  liked it so much and came back again asking  for sweet wings by calling them as Swiss Wings, as that's what he thought the name was. And the urban legend lives on. It is said that the best is found at Tai Ping Koon.




There are many ways to cook this, as it is a homey dish as well. Every mother has their own version. Some uses spices, some don't. Some uses store bought bottled sauces, some use luxurious ingredients to form the stock base. The basic rule for this dish is just sweet sticky soy sauce wings. It has to be sweet.

Previously I tried cooking this with another method from another source, the results weren't as good as I hoped. The next time I tried Ah So's method of blanching and dunking into cold water. The texture was indeed so much better, the skin is yumz. The poaching liquid is slightly modified as I prefer the the onion and ginger to be in the liquid. You can play around with some  bay leaf or even star anise and pepper....  as you like, as long as they have the aroma of soy sauce and they taste sweet.

If you are curious whether this dish bears any resemblance to one of my dishes on this blog, Soy Sauce Soaked Chicken,..this dish is less sweet and I didn't  use any spices.


Swiss Wings
Adapted from : Ah So

6pcs chicken middle wings plus wing tips (250-300gm)
1 medium bowl of icy cold water

Poaching liquid
100gm rock sugar
50gm LKK dark soy sauce
30gm LKK light soy sauce
1 tsp Shaoxing wine
1 cup water
1/2 stock cube (omit if using liquid stock)
1 spring onion (white part)
3 slices ginger

1. Bring a saucepan of water to boil, around 3-4  cups of water will be enough.
2. When water has come to a  boil. Put in chicken wings, and let them cook for 1 minute or until the skin firms up and the bones  have set its shape..
3. Remove from the water and dunk them into  ice cold water immediately. Let them sit in the cold water for 5 minutes.
4. Combine the poaching  liquid ingredients together in a saucepan and bring to a boil. Lower to a simmer and let it cook until the rock sugar has all melted. Keep the  pot covered as you simmer.
5. Remove ginger and spring  onion from the liquid and put in chicken wings. Let it gently simmer for 15 minutes(lid off). My poaching liquid was enough to cover my chicken. (no high heat used to bring back to boil)
6. Remove the wings from the poaching liquid and serve.

*LKK = Lee Kum Kee

I am submitting this to Asian Food Fest Hong Kong Macau Month

7 comments:

  1. Wendy, your swiss wings definitely reminded me of those I had in Tai Ping Koon. And they look very succulently delicious!! :) I'm bookmarking this ;)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Loved the beautiful colour, look irresistible. Must be succulent and delicious.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Tried and liked, another favourite of the family added.
    Thanks, thanks and thanks!

    http://jottingsoflife.blogspot.com/2014/02/aff-hong-kong-macau-swiss-wings.html

    ReplyDelete
  4. Hi Wendy,may i know the purpose of transfer thw c.wings to the icy water. Can i omit the method 1 & 2.
    Thks

    ReplyDelete
  5. Doreen,
    I did mention the reasoning behind the technique in the post. It makes the skin taste better.. You can skip it if you want, if you don't mind the skin tasting less 'crunchy'.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Tried this last night. Turned out fabulous! Thank you thank you!

    ReplyDelete

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