Za'atar Wings with Tahini and Spicy Honey

Home run. Touchdown. Goaaaaaaaallll!  Insert whatever sports scoring term you want here. These wings are it.

Whenever someone calls me a good cook, I usually counter with the claim that really I'm just good at following a recipe. My experiments in the kitchen have had mixed results, to put it kindly. In the past whenever I've tried to just improvise with ingredients or wing it (heh), I usually would wind up with something at least edible, but maybe not what anyone would go for given other options. I've generally done best just finding a recipe for what I want to make and adapting it with my own changes. It's really only within the last couple of years that I've started to gain confidence in my ability to just get in the kitchen and create. Sure, I still look up recipes, but more and more it's just to double check oven temperatures or cooking times or an ingredient ratio, giving me a solid foundation from which to branch out.

I bring this up because these wings were a personal victory for me. As simple as they are, it would have been easier still for me to decide that I wanted to make za'atar spiced wings and just go online and find a recipe. But I didn't want to do that. I decided to pay attention to that little voice of confidence in my head telling me that no, I didn't need someone else's recipe, that I in fact already knew how to make these. And that voice was right! I totally did! 

These wings turned out to be some of the crispiest, most tender wings I've ever had out of the oven. Finished with a generous dusting of Za'atar and drizzled with tahini and spicy honey, they are lemony, nutty, spicy, and sweet all at once.

If you haven't yet tried za'atar, then get on that ASAP. It's a Middle Eastern herb blend that works on many types of meat, on french fries, popcorn, you name it. The mix of herbs can vary, but usually it contains sumac, thyme or oregano, and sesame seeds. I used a mix of store bought and a homemade version I bought at a winery in Arizona (of all places). It should be easy to seek out or make your own, since both za'atar and sumac seem to be having a moment these days.  

So make these wings, and I dare you not to finish the whole batch in one sitting. I managed to share one or two with my roommate. I deserve a medal for that.

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Za'atar Wings with Tahini and Spicy Honey Recipe

These wings use a technique I discovered from a Tasting Table email that landed in my inbox right before the Super Bowl. A mix of egg white, baking soda and salt coats the wings and overnight, actual magic happens. If you don't want to wait overnight to make your wings, you can easily skip this step. I've made oven baked wings without it and they've been terrific. But these wings are so tender they fall right off the bone, and I just can't go back from that.

1.5-2 lbs chicken wings
1 egg white
½ tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
3 Tbs za’atar

To serve:

Tahini
Spicy honey (I used this honey, but you can also add a pinch or two of cayenne to regular honey)

Make the wings:

1. Lightly grease a wire rack (like a cooling rack) and place on a foil lined baking sheet. Whisk together egg white, baking soda and salt. Toss the wings in this mixture to completely coat, and then place on the wire rack. Let sit overnight in the refrigerator, uncovered, so the skin can dry out.

2. When you are ready to bake the wings, take your baking sheet of wings out of the refrigerator, at least 30 minutes prior to baking. This is a good time to preheat the oven to 450 degrees.

3. Bake the wings for 20 minutes, then flip and bake 10 minutes more.

4. Toss the wings in the za’atar and then bake 5 more minutes to finish crisping and toast the spices a bit.

5. Just before serving, drizzle the hot wings with tahini and spicy honey.

Notes:

• The real secret to oven baked wings is to bake them on a wire rack, so air can circulate beneath them and they aren't frying in puddles of grease.Yes, you can bake chicken wings flat on a baking sheet and they will be edible and tasty and fine. They will not be as crispy, so if that's what you're after you'll really need a rack.

Ricotta Toasts, Four Ways

I woke up on Saturday with the idea of having a lazy morning watching Parks and Rec reruns.

Thirty minutes later I was out the door on my way to meet a friend for some city hiking and exploring.

Ten hours and 22 miles after that I had crossed four food establishments off my “to try” list, explored seven new to me SF neighborhoods, and gained a shiny new fitbit badge after logging 52k steps for the day. It turned out to be the opposite of the lazy day I had in mind, but was all the more relaxing for that.

Some highlights on the tour of SF:

Short stop at Plow to check the wait. Two hours? Really? We moved on.

Wise Sons Deli. I will be going back repeatedly until I eat my way through the entire menu.

Earl Grey ice cream at Mr. & Mrs. Miscellaneous. So good in the moment but felt like a mistake so soon after the giant pastrami sandwich I ate for breakfast. That might also have been the four sticks of homemade licorice I just had to try.

Beretta. A much needed dinner break before the final push. Standouts were the Brussels sprouts and the eggplant with burrata. Yeah. Burrata. What else do I need to say?

Mission Pie for dessert. Turns out I don’t know what dutch apple pie is so I didn’t get what I thought I ordered, but it was still delicious. I took it to go and paired it with wine for my "recovery".

All the views. I think every 20 minutes I had to stop and take a picture.  

So what does this all have to do with that photo up top?  

Nothing. I just wanted to brag that I walked 22 miles. 

Also, I recently made cheese!

And then I ate it with delicious things!

I think you should make cheese too. 

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Goat’s Milk Ricotta Recipe

This yields about 1 cup of cheese.

1 quart goat's milk (regular cow's milk works too)
½ to 1 tsp sea salt (to taste; the first time I made this I used ½ tsp, this time I wanted a little more salt)
3 Tbs fresh lemon juice or distilled vinegar (I like the flavor the lemon gives it)

1. Heat the milk and the salt in a heavy-bottomed pot over medium heat until simmering but not boiling, stirring occaisionaly so it doesn’t scorch (if you want to use a thermometer, heat the milk to 180-190 degrees F).

2. Remove from the heat and add lemon juice. Give it a quick stir and then let sit for 5 minutes, undisturbed.

3. Pour the curds into a sieve lined with cheese cloth (it’s helpful to prop the sieve over a bowl to catch the whey as it drains).

4. Let drain at least 20 minutes, or up to an hour (just keep in mind it gets less “fluffy” and more dense the longer it drains).

5. Share with friends (yeah, right) or hog for yourself!

This would be great to eat with crackers or possibly even dollop on pizza. My favorite way to eat it is to spread it on toast and top with delicious things. Some suggestions are below.

Olive Oil, Sea Salt, Cracked Black Pepper and Chili Flakes  Super simple. Drizzle ricotta toast with  extra virgin olive oil, sprinkle with a high quality sea salt, fresh ground pepper, and a few chili flakes. If you're feeling ambitious a few swipes of lemon zest would be wonderful too.

Roasted Grapes with Thyme  Toss red grapes in a little bit of olive oil and roast in a 400 degree oven for about 8-10 minutes. Sprinkle with a little sea salt and fresh thyme.

Roasted Hazelnuts and Honey  Roast hazelnuts in a 450 degree oven until dark and fragrant. Let cool slightly and then rub together in a kitchen towel to remove as much of the skins as you can. Roughly chop the hazelnuts and sprinkle on ricotta toast. Drizzle with honey.

Pesto and Smashed Blackberries  My favorite! Before spreading ricotta onto warm toast, spread a layer of pesto first, so that it can soak into the toast a bit. Then spread a layer of ricotta and top with blackberries that have been slightly smashed with a fork so the juices run. 

Notes: 

There are many interesting things you can do with your leftover whey, such as using it in stocks or smoothies. I was wasteful and poured mine down the drain. Don't be like me. 

German Chocolate Cupcakes: Or (An Unexpected Meditation on the Disappointment of Healthy Baking)

These cupcakes were a year in the making.

By that I mean I thought about making them for a year. Really. I don't usually wait that long to try new recipes, but these are not just your everyday, over-sweetened, butter-laden cupcakes. They are cupcakes that are supposed to make you feel great about eating a cupcake. Sounds cool right? Well, maybe?

See, I love baked goods. Like a lot. Enough that I had to finally admit to myself in my late 20's that I do in fact have a sweet tooth. It hides in the background as I easily turn down candy, soda, and sickly sweet cocktails, only to come raging out when I’m anywhere in the vicinity of sugar mixed with butter and flour. This means that if I’m going to get the idea in my head to make cupcakes without any of these things, I’m really going to have to convince myself there is a good reason to do so. When you are someone who consumes kale with a frequency that makes your doctor weep with joy, it’s kind of hard to find a good reason, since “Because it’s healthy” doesn't quite matter so much*.  And also, doesn't that miss the point of cupcakes? Where's the joy  when it's not immediately followed by regret and a violent sugar crash?

*Sounds medically valid to me! Doctor friends can weigh in.

So what was my reason to finally make them? Mostly just that I was tired of thinking about making cupcakes. I have this insanely long list of ideas for dishes I want to make, and it’s lately become a source of stress in my life. I sit in my cube at work and go over this list (uh, during lunch, of course) and I get so annoyed that I’m freezing at the office and not home in my kitchen making these things. I decided to check these off the list once and for all, for my own sanity. That's normal, right?

I first came up with the idea for these cupcakes after trying a raw “caramel” dip. It didn't really taste like caramel, but what it reminded me of was German chocolate frosting, if you added pecans and coconut to it, and I could not get that idea out of my head.  

The cake was another issue. I was set on using this delicious, magical, dates-somehow-become-caramel frosting that was even arguably healthy. I was hesitant to undo that by adding back in all the missing "bad" ingredients. In this case, the frosting has no refined sugar, so it would be awesome if the cake didn't either, right? Yes, and I found plenty of recipes out there for chocolate cakes that, while maybe not the healthiest thing you could eat, won’t be blamed for any metabolic diseases later in life. Problem solved!

So, I finally made them, after settling on a cake recipe I thought would work, not surprisingly from the same source as the frosting. I adjusted the recipes to what I wanted and added them together into something I hoped would be even greater than the sum of its parts.

The result was…not life changing. The frosting was delicious and the cake was delicious and yet together, they didn't mesh.   The cakes were super dense and adding frosting to them was like making cupcakes out of fudge. It tasted great but I just wasn't into it. And then too there’s the fact that I made them right before coming down with a stomach bug**, and now there’s an association there in my mind.

**Is there a sadder sight than tossing perfectly tasty home-made cupcakes in the trash because you realized your food poisoning was probably actually your co-worker’s stomach flu and you don’t want to be responsible for passing it on? 

So I tried again, this time with my favorite go-to chocolate cupcake recipe, which, while not as virtuous as the fudgy cake, is vegan so not totally in violation of the spirit of this endeavor. And I did like these better, and they were proclaimed delicious by everyone else who tried them, but I still wasn’t in love with them. These cupcakes also had a tendency to topple over, since the cake was a little bit too light and airy to support the frosting.

Maybe the real problem was me, and what I really wanted out of these. To me, baked good junkie that I am, as much as I want to try baking healthier options, I’m never going to convince myself that these are just like the real thing. They aren’t.  Generally, I find it best to appreciate these alternatives for what they are, not what they are trying to be, because they do have merits on their own. It’s exactly what I tell people when they complain that a veggie burger isn’t a replacement for a meat patty. Maybe it’s better to stop thinking of it that way. It is what it is, not what it’s trying to be, so don’t force it. If at the end of the day what you really want is a hamburger, a veggie burger won’t cut it. And if what you’re really craving is a German Chocolate cupcake, this maybe isn’t the recipe for you.

Would I make them again? I don’t know. Maybe I'll let this one go. One of my favorite things about cooking is that the possibilities are endless. You can come up with experiments or alter recipes and you might get exactly what you were looking for or nothing close. Ultimately, it really doesn’t matter. For me, the point is just to get in the kitchen and try. 

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I won't go so far as to call these a failure, because they were pretty tasty. They just didn't live up to what I was imagining in my mind. So, if my non-enthusiasm above hasn't dissuaded you, here's the recipe!

Fudgy Chocolate Cupcakes

Adapted (barely) from My New Roots. I decided non-organic cocoa powder was okay, since I didn't have any. I also made this cake into 12 mini cupcakes, and was happy about that decision as these came out intensely rich. It affected cooking times and from what I can tell, possibly also the final texture of the cake, as these were dense but not exactly wet as described in the original recipe. 

4 oz. high quality dark chocolate
1 ½ Tbs cocoa powder
7 oz. (half a 14 oz. can) garbanzo beans, drained and rinsed
2 eggs 
1/4 cup date syrup (or maple syrup)
1/4 tsp. baking powder

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Lightly grease a 12-cup mini muffin tin.
2. Melt dark chocolate over a double boiler on the stove or in short bursts in the microwave. Set aside to cool slightly.
3. In a blender, puree beans, eggs, date or maple syrup, cocoa and baking powder until very smooth.
4. Add melted chocolate and blend until fully mixed.
5. Spoon batter into muffin pan and bake 10-15 minutes, when inserted toothpick comes out clean. A good visual cue these are done is that the tops split and crack.
6. Let cool completely on a wire rack, then chill in the refrigerator until ready to frost.

Notes:

• I halved this recipe from the original, so some of the amounts are a little awkward. It’s easily doubled if you want more cupcakes. I found a dozen mini cupcakes to be plenty, given how rich the cake is.
• The original recipe notes that a toothpick inserted at the end of baking will not come out clean. My toothpick came out clean, no doubt due to the smaller baking size.
• When these first came out of the oven the tops were high and domed, but flattened out as they cooled. It’s a dense cake, so I would assume this is normal.

German Chocolate Frosting

Also barely adapted from My New Roots. I halved the recipe and added the pecans and coconut to the mix. I also used pecan butter made from roasted pecans, so my version no longer qualifies as “raw”.

1 cup pitted Medjool dates
1/8 cup pecan butter, either store bought or homemade (recipe below)
2 tsp. fresh lemon juice
¼ to ½ tsp. sea salt (to taste)
½ Tbs vanilla bean paste
soaking water as needed
½ cup toasted coconut flakes
½ cup toasted pecans, chopped

1. Soak dates for at least 4 hours in water.
2. Drain, reserving about a quarter cup of soaking water.
3. Add dates to food processor with pecan butter, lemon juice, salt, and vanilla bean paste. Blend until mixture is very smooth. Add in soaking water a teaspoon at a time if needed, although this is supposed to be frosting so mixture should be thick but spreadable.
4. Fold in coconut and chopped pecans.
5. Spread generously on chilled cupcakes.

2-Ingredient Pecan Butter

You can use another neutral tasting nut butter in the recipe, such as almond, but this stuff was amazing. I got a little more than ¼ cup of nut butter, so if you aren’t doubling the frosting recipe, you’ll have plenty left to spread on toast and top with honey. You won’t regret it.

1 cup pecans
Sea salt, to taste

1. Toast pecans in a skillet over medium-high heat until fragrant, about 8-10 minutes, tossing frequently so they don't burn.
2. In a food processor, pulse the pecans until crumbly and a paste begins to form. Add sea salt to taste, and continue to puree until mixture is smooth and buttery, scraping down the sides of the food processor as needed. Be patient, it will take a few minutes but magic will happen.