Here are some food experiments I tried in the past few weeks.
The wings: After I discovered some of the rice noodles in a package had broken, I put the pieces in a spice grinder and ground them into a hard, gritty powder. Given that I was already making chicken wings, I thought I’d try the rice-noodle powder as a coating, rather than potato starch or a batter. I was pleased that the result was quite a robustly crispy wing. I’d consider the experiment a success, worthy of continued exploration.
The nori: As with the rice-noodle wings, I had hot oil, so I thought I’d cut up some nori, make a quick tempura batter and fry it up. The results were technically a success, but we found the tempura batter to be a bit too oily after cooking. Next time I’d cook with hotter oil—about 375 degrees F.
The RKBs: make rice Krispie bars, per whatever recipe you use, then crush hardened, caramelized sugar and sprinkle it on top of the bars. It looks cool (and dangerous), but the sugar shards don’t really add anything to the already good bars. This was a failed experiment.
What you’ll need for the wings
- However many chicken wing flats and drumettes you want to cook
- Salt and ground black pepper, to taste
- 1 or 2 eggs, beaten
- Enough rice noodles ground in a spice grinder to coat each wing
- Neutral oil for frying
What to do for the wings
Begin heating about 2 or 3 inches of neutral oil to 350 degrees F in your preferred cooking vessel.
Dry the chicken wings with paper towels and season them with salt or ramen salt and ground pepper. Put the ground rice noodles in a shallow bowl. Beat the egg(s) in a separate shallow bowl.
When the oil reaches temperature, begin coating the wings: dip a wing in the beaten egg, then roll it in the rice noodles before carefully adding it to the hot oil. Repeat until you have enough wings in the vessel to not crowd it. Cook for 5 – 10 minutes, depending on the size of the wings. Remove the wings from the oil with a metal spider onto a wire rack or paper-towel-lined plate. Repeat until all wings are cooked.
Let cool for a bit before serving with your favorite dipping sauce.
What you’ll need for the nori tempura (this is tons more batter than needed for just nori)
- 0.75 cups flour
- 0.25 cups starch
- 1T salt or ramen salt
- 0.75 cups very cold carbonated water (or cold still water)
- 0.25 cups very cold vodka (just use more cold water if you don’t have vodka)
- 1 egg
- 1 sheet of nori, cut into small squares or rectangles (circles would look cool)
- Neutral oil for frying
What to do for the nori tempura
Begin heating about 2 or 3 inches of neutral oil to 375 degrees F in your preferred cooking vessel.
When the oil is close to or at the target temperature, whisk the flour, starch and salt in a medium bowl. Whisk in the water, vodka and egg until a thin batter forms. Ensure there are no lumps of flour or starch remaining.
To cook, pinch a piece of nori by the edge and dip into the batter before very carefully lowering it perpendicularly into the oil. Repeat with more nori pieces, but don’t crowd the oil. Let the nori cook for a couple of minutes, until the batter has crisped. Remove the cooked nori to a paper-towel-lined plate with a metal spider. Repeat cooking batches until it’s all cooked.
This could be part of a larger tempura meal or just an appetizer.
What you’ll need for the RKBs with sugar shards
- Freshly made Rice Krispie bars
- About 0.25 – 0.5 cups of granulated sugar
What to do for the sugar shards
Lay a sheet of parchment paper into a rimmed sheet pan. Add the sugar and gently shimmy the pan until the sugar spreads into an even layer.
Put the sheet pan on the center rack of your oven and begin heating it to 400 degrees F. Let the oven and sugar heat over the next 10 or so minutes.
Sugar melts at 365 degrees F, so start watching it when your oven gets to that temperature or after 10 minutes have elapsed.
As the oven heats further, you’ll notice the sugar start to melt and turn golden. Keeping a close eye on it, let the sugar continue to melt and darken until it’s completely melted and has turned a deep golden, almost brown.
Remove the sheet pan from the oven (careful!, the sugar is like lava) and put it on a rack to cool. Once the sugar has completely hardened and cooled, break it up with a meat tenderizer or whatever else you want to use. The sugar should be very brittle and it will break easily.
Sprinkle over the RKBs and tell friends and family that it’s broken glass.
The sugar shards are a nice topping for many deserts, including pudding, cheesecake and ice cream.
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