2012 Cooking Club Week 32: Junk Food

The Sweeper

Junk Food!

People regularly post up that they’re having a few people over and they want to do some party food things, but they’re not sure what to make. This is what we make when we’re catering for anything up to 12 people. Every year I think about posting these recipes, and every year I go with something else, but this is food that I keep coming back to so here it goes:


Hot buffalo wings with celery and blue cheese dip followed by sticky pork spare ribs with egg fried rice.


Basically the wings and the celery and dip come out first, and the ribs and rice are served later on as more of a meal. There’s no plating – the wings come out in a large dish with a bowl for bones and a roll of kitchen towel for messy hands. The rest is served in three large, covered dishes so people can eat as much or as little as they like. We’re not above providing paper plates and plastic forks for this food either, which is handy because there’s nothing to be cut up – ribs you eat with your fingers, rice and greens you shovel with a fork. It all works.


This isn’t difficult food, but it’s extremely tasty (and let’s be honest, it’s not all that good for you so don’t have it three times a week).


The pictures are present but less than stellar because I did what you should do when you're making junk food - I invited mates around, and at some point it was less about cooking and photographing and more about talking rubbish and drinking beer and forgetting to photograph stages!

I’m going to lay this out by posting the ingredients and method under each heading.

Buffalo Wings


Ingredients:

• Chicken wings
• Hot sauce – you can use Franks, or Nandos hot Peri Peri. You want a piquant chilli sauce with a touch of vinegar to it so it’s hot and sharp. With Nandos, don’t buy the marinade, buy the 135g bottle that Tescos sell for about €2.60 – comes in medium, hot and extra hot.
• Butter – you use about 2/3 weight of butter to hot sauce, so if you’re using 135g hot sauce, use about 90 grams of butter.

(NB: you can make a milder sauce, or go for a barbecue sauce instead but the same thing applies – the sauce that the flavour comes from needs to be sharp because basically you melt the butter and mix it with the sauce and then use it to coat the wings.)


Method:

Cut the chicken wings into three pieces. Cut off the wingtip – you can discard these or put them in the freezer to add to a stock. Then section the remainder of the wing through the joint, so you’re left with a wing section and a drumstick piece. Trim any excess fat from edges.
I own a deep fat fryer and this is the only thing I ever cook in it. Buffalo wings just aren’t the same in the oven, but if you’re determined to oven cook them, try tossing them in some oil and then heating the oven to its highest setting and blasting them for 10 minutes.



As it stands I pre-heat the oil to 180 degrees and when it’s hot, lower the wings in a basket and cook for 12 minutes. Stir the wings (carefully) about three minutes in, otherwise they’ll stick to each other. Also, don’t put too many wings in at once, because the oil loses heat and the wings end up not as crispy on the outside. You’re better to cook in batches and keep the drained wings hot on a plate in the hot-but-off oven along with the ribs (see ribs recipe).



When you’re ready to serve the wings, melt some butter in a saucepan. When it’s melted, add the entire bottle of Nandos hot sauce and stir it through the butter. Drop the cooked, crispy wings into the saucepan and stir until coated in the sauce. Then serve on a platter or individual plates, drizzling the sauce over.



Celery and Blue Cheese Dressing


Ingredients:

A head of celery

1 cup mayonnaise
2 tablespoons finely minced onion
1/2 teaspoon finely minced garlic
1/4 cup finely minced fresh parsley
1/2 cup sour cream
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 tablespoon white vinegar
1 cup crumbled blue cheese - try a mix of gorgonzola and something drier and stronger like a stilton

Method:


Wash and prepare the celery – you want it in easy-eat batons. To me this involves splitting the stalks lengthways as well as into sections, but I know some folks like to keep them at full width to scoop up dressing.
In a blender, mix the dressing ingredients together. Season to taste with salt and pepper. It really is as easy as that. Decant into dipping receptacles like large ramekins or small bowls, one per person so nobody at the table double dips.


Barbecue spare ribs


The single most important factor in this dish is the cut of meat you get for the ribs. This is NOT a dish designed to be used with a hollowed out ribcage with no meat on it. You want pork loin back ribs, in a single piece with as many ribs on as you can. These are ribs from the blade and centre sections of the loin, with meat in between the ribs and a covering of loin meat over the top of the ribs. There should be no skin and the fat should be trimmed off as much as possible (the loin would normally be covered by a layer of fat and a layer of skin).


Ingredients:

Slab of pork ribs
Rub of your choice, e.g. smoked paprika and black pepper


Marinade ingredients are:
1 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup tomato ketchup
1/4 cup worcestershire sauce
1/4 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup dark rum
chili sauce to taste
1 tsp mustard powder
1 tsp chili powder
2 cloves of crushed garlic
A good grind of black pepper


Day Before
You can marinate the ribs in a spice rub overnight before cooking. Sometimes I like to rub smoked paprika, salt and pepper into the meat and leave to sit in the fridge overnight, other times I just go with smoked paprika alone. They’re fine if you don’t marinate in spice too. Take the rib piece and cut it into large chunks of two to three ribs each. Whatever you rub into the meat, create a tight parcel around the meat with greaseproof paper (make as many packages as you have rib pieces). Then wrap the parcels individually in tinfoil. This will go straight from the fridge into the oven the next day, without unwrapping. Salt will make liquid come out of the ribs – they’re best cooked in this liquor inside the parcel, so don’t oversalt them.



On the day:
Preheat the oven to 175 degrees about three hours before you want to serve the ribs. Place your ribs in their foil packages in a roasting dish. Cook for between 90 minutes and two hours – if you have a particularly hot, fan assisted oven, look at reducing the temperature to about 150-160 degrees and doing 90 mins, otherwise go to 175 degrees and cook for two hours.




When you take the out of the oven, take off the foil and greaseproof wrappers and return the ribs to the roasting dish they were in.pouring in any juice from the packages. Allow them to cool slightly. At this point I recommend cutting them into individual rib servings, but you can leave them in their chunks if you like to make it easier for people to serve themselves their share.

While they’re cooling, take a bowl and mix up all of the ingredients for the marinade. Stir it well so the sugar begins to dissolve.


Mix the marinade thoroughly and pour the entire lot over the ribs into that roasting pan. Turn the ribs to coat them. Allow them to sit in the sauce, flipping at least once, for about 15 mins to half an hour with a tinfoil tent or a teacloth over the roasting dish. Then return the ribs to the oven and bake on 170 degrees for about 30 mins, stopping at least four times to baste them over and over in the marinade. The marinade will darken into a sweet, sticky coating that covers them completely. Once the marinade is almost boiled off, you can turn off the heat and leave the ribs in the oven until you’re ready to serve them.



Egg Fried Rice

For the fried rice, egg fried rice is at its best cooked from totally cold rice. It just doesn’t work if you cook and then cool the rice in cold water. It needs to be cold and dry, so a night in the fridge works best. Cook your rice as you normally would, drain, allow to cool and refrigerate before completely cold (there’s a happy medium between putting only cold things in the fridge, and allowing rice to sit out at room temperature for too long).



Ingredients

1 cup of cold, cooked rice per person
1 egg per person
A couple of tablespoons of groundnut oil for each person


Method
Heat a large, non-stick wok or pan – wok for preference. Add all of the measured groundnut oil to the pan and heat until smoking.
While it heats, break the eggs into a bowl and beat them with a little salt and pepper.


Add the cold, cooked rice to the hot oil and begin to stir fry it. The grains should be coated and the rice will start to pop. You want to cook it until it’s piping hot through. Then make a well in the centre of the rice and pour the beaten egg into the well. Start stirring the egg into the rice, working from the centre of the well outwards, incorporating more and more of the rice into the egg and the egg through the rice. The heat of the rice will begin to cook the egg. Once the rice is thoroughly coated in egg, but the egg is probably still a little shiny and liquid, you can take the wok off the heat and put a lid on it. The egg and rice will cook, without overcooking, in the residual heat.

snowgal

Thanks, this all looks yum and bad! Illwait till the weekend to try, wings esp look great

applehunter

Looks like a nice alternative to have maybe once a month on a Saturday evening.

Need to buy a Deep Fat Fryer though.

Swampy

I love buffalo wings. When I cook them I make them the main event. Wings and fries. I only stop eating them when I can't physically eat any more.

My tip is when the wings are jointed, stick them in a plastic bag with plenty of seasoned flour to coat and leave in the fridge for 15-30 mins. When cooked in the fryer you get a lovely crunchy coating and the sauce sticks much better to them.

BaZmO*

Made the ribs tonight and they were beautiful. So tender and tasty.

I've made ribs before with varying degrees of success, this cooking method has been the best though.

The marinade is lovely but I'd like to try them with different sauces too.




Tomorrow's dinner is sorted too!



I also think you're doing yourself a disservice calling your recipes "Junk Food"

Nothing junk about those ribs!!

In Exile

Just a little tip for the wings sauce. Something I've picked up in the states. I've no measurements it is just a mix and match until it is right.

I use Franks because it works best for this. Same method as above but I move closer to 50/50 butter and hot sauce, melt the butter then add the hot sauce, but also add all the following:

some sherry
paprika
celery salt
Tabasco- i use garlic tabasco but the normal stuff works
sea salt & pepper


Again, it is all in the taste test but it works perfectly.

Martyn1989

Cooked these this evening using my own sauces and marinades, the best ribs cooking method I've tried!

BaZmO*

Second weekend in a row I’ve made the ribs. These are sooooooo good!



I’ve since learned (from watching countless Pit Boys videos) that the method of wrapping the ribs while cooking is called the Texas cheat. It makes the ribs so tender. I’d love to do the last bit of cooking on indirect heat on a BBQ sometime.

DavyD_83

BaZmO* wrote: »

Second weekend in a row I’ve made the ribs. These are sooooooo good!

I’ve since learned (from watching countless Pit Boys videos) that the method of wrapping the ribs while cooking is called the Texas cheat. It makes the ribs so tender. I’d love to do the last bit of cooking on indirect heat on a BBQ sometime.

I want ribs!!! (needs drool smiley)

RasTa

It's the Texas crutch!

DavyD_83

I made these ribs on Sunday, and had them for lunch on Monday, but didn't take any pictures to share their glory.
They were delicious, and cooked perfectly in the little parcel method.
I might add a little less sugar to marinade next time, but I also might not

When I asked for ribs in butcher, they only had the skinny rack, but then offered a pork belly which he took the top skin off. It was pretty much perfect for the ribs, but feel like it was a bit pricey. I paid nearly tenner for what essentially was 3 good servings.
What cut do you actually ask for generally, any tips on where/how to get it without bearing the bank?
Or is what I did pretty much the standard?

I'd still go for it occasionally, but would make it a regular event if could get the meat at better price

BaZmO*

I just ask for Pork Ribs (not Bacon Ribs). I get them in my local SuperValu easy enough. Only cost €8 for two decent size racks.

DavyD_83

BaZmO* wrote: »

I just ask for Pork Ribs (not Bacon Ribs). I get them in my local SuperValu easy enough. Only cost €8 for two decent size racks.

Will give it a go
I might need to look around for my ideal ribs butcher.

I went to F.X. Buckley's in Nutgrove who are usually quite good, but the guy I was dealing with gave me a bit of a blank stare when I asked for 'meaty pork ribs'