Korean-inspired Sweet & Spicy Wings

I don’t know how many of you have tried Korean spicy chicken wings prior to having to eat gluten free, I only did once.  And they were delicious, sticky, spicy and oh-so-good! My husband often picks up a pack when we are at the Korean grocer for munching.  I don’t make them at home – usually – because not only are they tossed in seasoned flour (not GF, but easily converted) but they are deep-fried.

Now that is a mess I don’t like.  I like fried food as much as the next person but man, I hate that mess if prepared at home.

The other thing I don’t think I’ve ever gotten 100% right was the seasoning.  That sticky red-spicy and sweet sauce that coats the wings seems to also differ rather significantly depending on who is making it.  Since his favorite Korean chicken place closed a long while back (16 months +?), I know he’s been craving these wings.  And quite honestly, I wanted some sticky goodness too. 😀

This time around, I rinsed the pack of wings, patted them dry, seasoned them (salt, pepper & granulated garlic) and put them in the oven at a very high heat (450F+).  I flipped them a bit more than half way through cooking (25 minutes?) and broiled them for another 8-10 minutes until they were crispy brown.  Frying averted.

The only thing that remained was making the spicy-sweet sauce to coat them in. (I made it while they baked.)  Most of the recipes given to me over time contain “mulyeot” which is a malted corn syrup.  Since it is traditionally made with barley but now seems that most are making it with corn, I avoid it.  I don’t know enough about the processing, preparation, etc and the words “barley” and “malt” are all I need to know sometimes.  I substituted corn syrup (in the recipe below) but next time will also add some brown sugar to caramelize this even more.

If you are looking for a sweet & spicy wing recipe, this might be for you too!

Korean-inspired Spicy & Sweet Wing Sauce

Makes enough for 12-15 full chicken wings  (4 pounds+?)

Ingredients:

2 Tablespoons gluten free soy sauce
1 Tablespoon corn syrup (or honey)
1 1/2 Tablespoons sugar
1 1/2 Tablespoons mirin or other rice wine
1 Tablespoon minced garlic
2 teaspoons minced ginger
1 teaspoons Korean red chili powder (less/more to taste)
2 teaspoons minced jalapeño (seeded!  Or not – if you want it to be HOT HOT HOT!)
3 Tablespoons water (or 1 1/2 Tablespoons ginger juice* + 1 1/2 Tablespoons water)

Directions:

1. Mix together GF soy sauce, corn syrup (or honey), sugar, mirin, garlic, ginger, chili powder and 3 Tablespoons water.  (Reserve jalapeños – if you want to keep their color bright. If it doesn’t matter to you, toss them in now.)
2. Taste!  (no kidding!  Dip your finger in and taste this mix.  Is it sweet enough?  It will get a bit spicier as you let it blend together, but if it is not spicy enough or you doubt that it will be, add some more jalapeño or chili powder.)
3. Bring it to a boil then lower the heat.  Allow mixture to simmer – stirring frequently – until it has reduced by almost half.  It will thickly coat the back of a metal spoon when dipped and removed from the mixture.  (If time is running out – or you don’t think it is as thick as you’d like, you can speed up the thickening (but diminish the flavor intensity a bit) by mixing together 1 teaspoon cornstarch (not flour) and 2 teaspoons of water.  Add this to the simmering sauce at the end and stir constantly.  The sauce will thicken over heat with this mixture, so watch that you don’t over thicken it as well.)
4. Pour the sauce into a large bowl when done.  Add a few wings at a time and stir to coat the wings well.  Remove and place on a serving dish.  Continue until all wings are coated. (Sometimes we even save some of the sauce before dipping the wings in for dipping while eating – just an option.)

Happy GF Eating!
Kate

 

Is soy sauce “safe” for people with Celiac?

Just recently my husband and I were talking about soy sauce.  I know, it’s not your typical lovey-dovey conversation, but really – who has those everyday and/or posts them on their blogs?    But in all honesty, our discussion has often bounced back to soy sauce in regard to Celiac/Gluten Free diet.

You see, the reality of my life is this:  soy sauce is in everything (well… almost everything) my in-laws cook.  And while we sadly have not been able to travel in years (read: 2003) to visit them, we would like to.  We want to bring these beautiful babies toddlers (!) we have back to see the rest of our family.  So we start talking about the added expense of traveling when you need to buy food and/or cook.

Primarily while staying at someone else’s home, I don’t want them to feel put-out that I don’t eat what they are serving.  At my parent’s house, I have no problem sliding in to the kitchen and cooking.  In fact, I love it!  But at my in-laws, the kitchen is laid out differently and they do a different style of cooking than what I grew up with.  It makes cooking for them a bit more of a hurdle.  Add to that the fact that food intolerances/allergies are truly not a common topic nor common in the general Asian population (aside from dairy/lactose which isn’t really in the main diet plan anyway) and well… it can lead to some hurdles.

So back to the soy sauce.

When we traveled in 2003, I just bought a bottle of San-J when we arrived for cooking.  It was a great conversation starter (lol!) as we talked about the salty (or non-salty) factor compared to the sauces they liked to use.  (Yes, each varies significantly in saltiness, thickness, etc.)  At one resturant, my father-in-law tried to help my by explaining that I can have wheat/soy sauce and he beamed with pride when the wait-staff and chef told him there was no wheat in what they made.  And then out came the wheat-puffed pancakes for the wheat-soy sauced laden Peking Duck.  (PS.  The “dao mew” – snow pea pods shoots – were AWESOME that night.)

Soy sauce is everywhere in the Asian diet.

And I don’t always trust the labels.

And then I found this study by Frederik Janssen on the GlutenTox blog.  (I am not associated with them, just found them via my search about gluten and soy sauce).  (Copy of the PDF is here:  Safety-of-Asian-soy-sauce-in-gf-diet).

Approaching the gluten free diet frustration of eating-out and the common exposure/concern of soy sauce, the study looked at the varying ingredients found in different soy sauce brands (European based) and analyzed them for their gliadin content.  Remember, the protein that causes the damage to the intestinal track for Celiac patients (like myself) is this protein.  Truly, it is a speck within the wheat grain.

From the anecdotal piece of their survey, Celiac patients who self-reported information regarding how they approach soy sauces responded with the following commentaries:

• avoided all products with wheat listed on the label
• consumed soy sauce with wheat listed on label with non-typical reactions that could not be attributed to the wheat/soy sauce
• consumed soy sauce with wheat on the label with “ease since they know the proteins in these sauces were almost completely degraded; consequently they did not experience any symptoms.” (p.56/Jannsen)

The report further states that “given the results of our analysis, it is quite remarkable that symptoms occurred in some coeliacs after these products were eaten.”

The scientific analysis appears to demonstrate that the levels of gliadin are slightly lower (on average) that the proposed levels (20ppm in the EU).  Most surprising to me was this statement:

“Given the amount of soy sauce used in Asian dishes this level might be irrelevant.   

and

“There seems to be no correlation between gluten content and the declaration of wheat on the product label.”

The attached PDF (referenced above) then continues on to discuss the types of labeling laws now required (and those not, like for wheat starch) in the EU as well as whether or not the methodology available for analyzing such materials is suitable for the hydrolyzed gluten proteins found in the fermented goods like soy sauce.

As a result of their analysis (please, read it for yourselves) are the following recommendations:

• that, as far as possible, Coeliacs should choose Asian soy sauces which do not include wheat.
• if such information (ingredient listing) is not available, they should not be worried about the ingestion of gluten as investigation have shown that hte level so fgluten are almost insignificant in relation to the safe dose as reported by Catassi…
• Coeliacs should, however, still avoid dishes with very high levels of soy sauce.

Truly I am awed.

I have always wondered.  And in all honesty, have not worried too much about soy sauce.  I have a good handle on food prep/recipes in Asian (mainly Chinese) foods and have felt fairly confident selecting my items with care.  But soy sauce remained one of those ingredients that I question.  NOT because I think it is “bad” but because I wonder what the levels truly are.  This paper has brought the conversation back to our dinner table.

I’d love for it to begin conversation here.

What do you think?  I’d love to collect some info/ideas from you all to post in a follow up post.  I will NOT share you personal information ever.  The results will be tabulated into a graph for sharing.  If you are willing, please click here.

Is soy sauce ‘safe” for the gluten free diet?