Ordinary to extraordinary: Super Bowl snacks

The snacks served at a Super Bowl party are enjoyed with almost as much interest as the game itself. So as you prepare for this Seahawks Super Bowl Sunday, take a few notes from The Seattle Kitchen Show.

This week, hosts Tom Douglas and Thierry Rautureau take classic Super Bowl snacks from ordinary to extraordinary.

Chicken wings:

Tom Douglas: Typically, a buffalo chicken wing is just dropped in a vat of deep fryer oil. It’s not breaded. I think a breaded wing is better.

If I were breading, I would do the one we do at TanakaSan. Basically, we make a cornstarch, rice flour batter. We dip it in there and deep fry it two times. It really does change the whole nature of the wing. It’s got a crunch texture. At that point, we’ll take it out of the fryer and we’ll toss it in a dry Korean chili powder mix. Then we add Frank’s Red Hot which is the classic traditional buffalo chicken wings sauce.

We also do wings in a ginger-caramel with Serrano chilies. We do that Vietnamese style where we take our sugar and we melt it down into a brown caramel and then we add fresh ginger and fish sauce to it. It’s so salty and sweet and delicious. It’s just trashy good. That’s a way to take an ordinary chicken wing and make it extraordinary.

Thierry Rautureau: I would go probably the roasting way. I would make a salt and spice cure, put it on the chicken wing for a couple of hours. Then throw the wings in the oven really hot. Then turn down the heat so it finishes to cook very slowly. Keep it in there for quite some time so it’s totally meat falling off the bone.

I would concentrate on making a nice little gastric on the side, basically sugar, vinegar reduced down almost like a caramel. Finish with a nice Dijon mustard so you give it a bite. You could use wasabi if you want to get crazy, really go spicy and hot.

I would do something so you can dunk your chicken wing into that sauce, the gooey, caramelly sauce and eat your chicken wings. I think that would be delicious.

Chili

Thierry: I would make a bean stew. I would make beans with bacon that’s been rendered, not crispy, but rendered tender, with beautiful diced carrots and onions. Garnish with sausages cut down in small pieces. I would use nice, really meaty sausages, pan toss them quickly and throw them in your beans at the last minute. Then lots of fresh herbs at the end, parsley and chives. It doesn’t have to have the tomato or chili kind of thing.

Tom: I would take a mild dry chili and I would toast them over a live flame, gas flame or a charcoal grill. Then I would cook those down in chicken stock, and then puree the whole thing and strain it. Now you have this beautiful rich, thick, succulent chili sauce.

Then I would take some top sirloin, a nice tender cut of beef, and I would cut it into small cubes. Put some onion in there and brown it up. Then add it and braise it in this chili sauce. Just let it go low and slow and just velvety. To me, I like serving chili that has that kind of unctuousness.

Pigs in a Blanket

Thierry: I don’t think there’s much to improve on a smoky link in a Pilsbury crescent roll. I would think then the relish is where you could embellish. You could add some spice, you could add some chili, spice up the mustard.

Tom: I would go with pinch buns – like you find at Chinese restaurants – those little yeasty pinch buns. Steam them up. Put your sausage in that blanket. Finish it with a little bit of Hoisin, some Siracha, then shred some Nori (seaweed) over top. That’s a nice Sea-dog. You could just eat a ton of those.