St. Patty's....Sort of.

In the days leading up to St. Patty's day I had planned to make corned beef, cabbage, and Irish Boxty's.  Standard Irish themed meal.  Well yesterday morning Byrd and I stopped by her parents house to pick up some baby loot from Granny Annie (Byrd's grandmother) whom her mother went to see last weekend.  They had some grilled sausage for us for lunch, Johnsonville Irish O'Garlic sausage.  I had never seen this and think it creative and a bit funny that they named a sausage this.  Putting an O' in front of something makes it Irish, kind of like adding vowels to the end of words to make them Italian or Spanish depending on the voice used.  I am guilty of the latter.  Menu change 1. Byrd wanted sausage instead of corned beef.
McGuire's Irish Pub is and has been one of my favorite restaurants throughout my life.  This is the first and last place I have had Irish Boxty's.  Basically they are garlic mashed potatoes, made into balls, rolled in herbed bread crumbs, and fried. They serve them with a horseradish sauce, salsa, and guacamole.  I have no idea why these flavors work so well, but man do they.  We got to running around town and time slipped away from us, so Menu change 2 Potato cakes instead of boxtys.  I have never had a potato cake, but Byrd's dad used to make them for her when she was growing up so she wanted to make them.
The cabbage got to stay.
I fired up the Hibachi for the sausage.  My plan was to grill them, then add them into the cabbage and onion pan.

While those cooked I shredded some cabbage, sliced some white onion, and diced some bacon.  I started the pan with about 2 Tbsp of butter, then added 2 slices of diced bacon.  Cooked until the bacon was almost crispy then added in the cabbage and onion.  How to make cabbage unhealthy? Fry it in butter and bacon grease.  Then I pulled the sausage off the grill and put a lid on it to simmer.

While I was running around doing this, Byrd was making Potato Cakes.  She washed, peeled, and shredded 2 cups of potato.  Then put them in a towel and rang out all of the water.  Into a bowl, then added 3 eggs,  1 1/2 Tbsp of flour, and salt.  I was in awe of my wife.  She then broke out a cast iron skillet and added some oil.  Once it was hot enough she started to spoon in the potato mixture.  I was drooling at this point.

The doctor would not be happy if she new this is what we were cooking last night, but it's just one meal right.

As for the theme of the day, we definitely ended up more German than Irish, but that's ok, because it was delicious.  As Byrd reminded me, our house smells like Waffle House, and it's because we cooked, not because we needed it to soak up the St. Patty's day festivities like years past.

Wings 3 Ways

Lately Byrd has been craving Chinese food, mostly Hot and Sour soup and spring rolls.  Yesterday the plan was to go pick some up and that would be dinner.  But at some point I got a taste for wings, I don't know where it came from, but after I talked them up, she finally agreed to put the soup and spring rolls on hold, in order to satisfy my wing craving, I am a lucky guy.  I have been wanting to try my friend Evan's (evanspices.com) sweet soy wings.  I started to make the soy sauce/marinade.  I am usually pretty good at following a recipe, but sometimes my mind wanders and I make mistakes.  This was one of those times.  Instead of the 1/8 cup of soy sauce and apple cider vinegar, I put 1/2 cup of each.  I finished the sauce and well, it tasted fine so I went with it. I had a package of 8 full wings, that I cut down to drumsticks and flats.  I took the "hook" as I call it off.  I wanted a variety so I marinated 7 wings in this sauce.  Reserving 2/3 for tossing and dipping. 

Sweet Soy Sauce

1/2 cup Soy Sauce

1/2 cup Apple Cider Vinegar

1 cup Sugar

1 Tablespoon Crushed Red Pepper

Years ago I worked for a restaurant here in Birmingham named Locos Grille and Pub.  I have always loved their hot sauce so I  made some as well.  This isn't their exact recipe, but I will say it's as close as it gets.  They don't marinate their wings, they fry them and toss them, like most restaurants do.  But I marinated 3 wings in the hot sauce just to see how it would taste grilled.  I left 8 wings with no marinade or seasoning to  toss in the sauces to see how much of a difference the marinade made.  

Hot Sauce

1 1/2 cup Texas Pete Hot Sauce

1/4 cup Sugar

1 Tablespoon Blackening Seasoning

1/4 Tablespoon granulated garlic

I used the 30-20-10 method from Nibble Me This.  I have never tried this method, but I have tried several of his dishes and have no reason to doubt him now.  So I set up my grill for an indirect cook, while the wings were drying out in the fridge.  I got my temperature to 350 and put them on.  

I cooked them for 30 minutes lid on, flipped them, cooked for 20 minutes, then sauced them and put them directly over the fire for 10 to crisp them up.  I took them off and sauced the wings.  The wings I didn't marinade I tossed in the hot sauce and sprinkled the tops with lemon pepper seasoning.  I used to do this when I worked at the above mentioned restaurant.  I love the flavor pairing.  Here are the wings with their best friends, celery, carrots and fies. We are still on the diet, but I needed some fries.

The wings turned out perfect.  I will now live by the 30-20-10 method for wings.  Great timing.  The hot sauce tossed wings were great, although Byrd and I agreed that a mix of the sweet soy wings dipped in the hot sauce was our favorite.