Southern-Fried Curry Wings: The Journey Is the Destination 2

[Consul]

Maybe I can make a regular essay series out of this.

The few of you that might remember me, know that I am total wing nut. After having a wide variety of wings from some pretty good places, I have set out on a mission to create for myself the ultimate hot wing. As of right now, I'm not even close.

In the course of this, I learned that it is the journey that is perhaps the most fun aspect of creating the ultimate hot wings. So, in that vein, and armed with a gigantic bag of frozen separated wings and what little ingenuity I may possess, I present today's experiment.

Southern-Fried Curry Wings (Rating: 5 out of 10)

Create a dredge with one egg and an equal amount of milk in one bowl, and some flour and the curry powder of your choice in the other. (Note: Curry powder is not a spice itself, but a spice mixture, and one which everyone makes up differently. Look around for one that you like.) The secret here is that you want the curry powder to get browned, which is exactly what's going to happen.

Prepare a good, heavy pan (I used a cast iron skillet) with about 1/4" worth of oil. Used oil is just fine. I set mine over medium heat (electric stove), which seemed to work well.

Wash and dry off the wings. Dredge them first in egg then in the flour-curry mixture. Let them rest for a few while the oil heats up.

Then fry them fried chicken style in the pan. The secret here is to cook the drums in one batch and the flappers in a separate batche, so you can adjust cooking times accordingly. You see, I did mixed batches, and found several drums were underdone. This is not good, but fortunately, I didn't get sick.

After they get nice and golden on the bottom, flip them over. Part of what's happening here is that the curry powder is browning, and we want that. Make sure you use plenty of the powder. I didn't use as much as I should have, and although I could taste it, what I was getting were hints of something I wanted more of.

The sauce I then made by boiling down some Frank's Red Hot with some butter and molasses, and a little salt. A decent sauce, but not my best. I have something somewhat outrageous to try next as far as sauces go.

So, after the wings cook, drop them into a bowl, sauce, toss, and eat.

They were average at best, but I present it here for anyone who might want to experiment, or for who might have some good ideas to toss in.

Stay tunes for the third installment, which just may involve making a hollandaise variant...

[buckytom]

consul, have you posted other reviews yet? i'd love to read them, being a wing nut myself. i actually skiied with another nut once that brought his own bleu cheese dressing and celery sticks. after skiing a day at killington, we would always stop by casey's caboose for the free wings during happy hour. unfortunately, they only give free wings; no dressing or celery. so my buddy carried a bottle of bleu cheese dressing and a bag of celery sticks all day inside his coat to eat apres ski.
it was kinda gross. everything was warmed by body heat. but we still were the only ones in the bar with free wings AND dressing/celery, albeit at 98.6 degrees...

[Consul]

Well, I posted another experiment I did with wings in this particular forum somewhere. It had a similar name, I think. These aren't really reviews. I actually make my own various wings, and then rate them to see how well I think I did. Often, that's not very well.

I lack a deep fryer, which I think is actually holding me back a good bit. I have yet to try slow-smoking or charcoal grilling, which I hope to try this summer. What I'm discovering is that the cooking method is important, and the sauce doubly so. For example, I don't like the texture of wings that have been broiled in an oven broiler, so I don't do that anymore.

One time, I put some wings in a 9x9" glass pan, and poured Dr. Pepper over them, along with some soy sauce, cut-up garlic cloves, and I think some white peppercorns, then baked them until most of the liquid was gone. Those wings came out fall-off-the-bone tender, and nicely sweet, but with no tang to them at all. I intend to experiment further with the method.

In my sights next are charcoal grilling, and a spicy-hot barbecue sauce. I also want to try a hollandaise type of sauce. I like playing with my emulsions.

I need a blog.