According to our teacher, Chief Jessie, the main goal of the first class is for her to understand the skill level of each student. Each of the ten students there that night gave an introduction, including a skill level and why they were there. After slicing a carrot to show Chief Jessie our knife skills, we paired into teams of two to make a dish each. My team made Chicken Wing Appetizers. At the end of the night, we all sat down to enjoy everyone’s dishes.
Ten of eleven students were in class. The skill level and experience ranged from almost none (wife’s dishwasher) to some (10 good recipes) to more (here because I love cooking). I would say that half the class has good, solid cooking experience, though some would not give themselves credit for it. That said, several people in the class had not cooked before. This was looking to be a fun class!
As I said, we each cut up a carrot to show Chief Jessie our skill level. All in all, the class did well. Chief Jessie did remind people to keep their fingers curved inward to protect them. We also went through knife sharpening, which I will post more details on at a later date. After the basics were taken care of, we paired off in teams. One team made Gruyere Her Puffs, two teams made Sausage-Stuffed Mushrooms, and two teams, including mine, made Chicken Wing Appetizers.
I would like to take a moment to thank Chief Jessie for her awareness of food allergies. She asked early on in the class if there were any food allergies, and was sure to give the two people with food concerns recipes they could eat. That is a nice touch, if you ask me!
My partner for the night, Tomoki, comes from Japan. Having never really cooked, he has decided to learn cooking. Tomoki had questions about different types of food, and did his best to not only follow what we did, but also what everyone else did as well. He learned how to cut through a chicken joint, and best of all, he was more than happy to help clean up. I felt our chicken wings turned out very well. The recipe was credited to the The Good Housekeeping Illustrated Cookbook
Tomoki,
Thank you for an enjoyable night cooking and learning. Yes, I know the recipe does not exactly match what was written down, but we did adapt it some, so this captures how we adapted it.
Claire
Chicken Wing Appetizer
| 3lbs | chicken wings | 1.35 kilograms |
| 2 tablespoons | cooking oil | 30 milliliters |
| 3 | green onions | 3 |
| 1/2 cup | soy sauce | 120 milliliters |
| 1/2 cup | sherry | 120 milliliters |
| 1/4 cup | ketchup | 60 milliliters |
| 2 tablespoons | sugar | 25 grams |
| 1/4 teaspoon | ground ginger | 1 gram |
| 2 | cloves garlic | 2 |
1) Cut the green onions into 3-inch pieces.
2) Chop the garlic.
3) Cut wing tips off at the joint, reserve for soup. Cut each wing in half at the joint.
4) In a 5 quart pan, cook oil, wings, and two thirds green onion pieces over high heat, stirring constantly, for about 7 minutes.
5) Reduce heat to medium. Add all remaining ingredients except for reserved onions and stir well.
6) Cover and cook about 25 minutes, stirring occasionally.
7) Uncover and cook until sauce thickens and chicken is tender.
8) Plate chicken wings, and pour remaining sauce over top, removing as much fat as possible.
9) Serve hot, garnish with reserved green onions.
Notes:
- The original recipe did not include the garlic. You can leave this out if you would like.
- Using fresh ginger instead of dried would be wonderful in this dish!
- You may let the wings cool, and serve them a bed of green lettuce.
* Metric measurements are based off of All Recipe’s Site. I want to get a scale, at which time I will be able to better capture and assure good metric ingredients. Until then, let me know if I get any of them wrong.
Looks yummy!