Anecdote

I'm a fan of soy-braised anything but chicken wings and mushrooms are the perfect vessels as they take on so much of the flavour. There's saltiness from the soy and sweetness from the sugar. You also get a hint of heat from the chillies and sichuan peppercorns. Make sure you get the rice cooker on early as you don't want to be hanging around once this is ready.

Ingredients

Aromatics:

• 3 bashed (and peeled) chunky garlic cloves

• 4cm knob of ginger, peeled and sliced into 5 thick discs

• 3 sprigs of spring onion, roughly chopped - see below. 2 and a half will be for frying, the greens of one sprig is set aside for garnish

• 5 dried chillies (if you want a bit of extra heat, throw in a dried bird eye or two - I will not be held responsible if you can't take the heat)

• 1 tsp of sichuan peppercorns

• 1 star anise

Mushrooms and chicken wings:

• roughly 10 small dried (and rehydrated) shiitake mushrooms

• large handful of dried (and rehydrated) wood ear mushrooms - around 25g

• 8 chicken wings (my preference is without the tips so I chop it off...)

Liquids:

• Reserved mushroom water (the hot water in which you soaked the dried mushrooms)

• 45ml of light soy approx.

• 30ml of dark soy approx.

• 50ml of shaoxing rice wine appr- you get the picture

• cold water to top up just below covering the wings

Other:

• 3 cubes of lump sugar (you can find this in the Chinese supermarket) or granulated sugar but start by adding one pinch, taste and work from there

• neutral oil - small glug

• sea salt to taste

Recipe

1. Mise en place:

• Prepare all your aromatics (they can all be put in one bowl as they go into the pan at the same time). Also set aside the 3 sugar cubes so you don't forget later

• Wash your dried mushrooms as they might be grimy. Hydrate them by placing each type in a small bowl (rice bowl size) and covering with hot water. Do not throw away the water! The mushrooms will expand when hydrated, especially the wood ear, do not be alarmed. If you think the ear is too big, chop them. There's normally a slightly tough bit at the ear's base, chop that tiny bit off too

• Pluck the stray chicken hairs...

• Measure your liquids if you can be bothered

2. Heat just enough oil to coat the bottom of your pan

3. When the oil is hot, dump in all the aromatics. You want to fry until fragrant, around 2 minutes or so, keep stirring and make sure it doesn't burn!*

4. Push the aromatics to the side of the pan (so they don't burn) and place the chicken wings skin side down first. You want all of the chicken surface area to touch the pan, so definitely don't stack them. Nestle them together like a jigsaw puzzle. Leave until one side browns, then flip it over and let that other side get brown too. Colour is flavour

5. Pour in all the liquids, add the hydrated mushrooms and lump sugar. I normally add two pinches of sea salt and then give it a good stir. You want the liquid level to nearly cover the wings but not quite, the wing tops should stick out (see photo reference below). To reach that level, I normally pour a little cold water in

6. Turn up the heat so that it comes to a boil and then turn it down to medium. Give the sauce a taste, see if it needs more salt or sugar though note it will reduce a little. Let it simmer for 40 minutes with the lid on. I keep the wings skin side down, you might want to flip them mid-way if you care for a more even colour (I do not)

7. Lid off at 40 minutes, let it reduce for another 10 minutes or so. The end point depends on how much sauce you want, I like a good dousing over rice

8. Garnish with the chopped, reserved green part of one spring onion. Serve with fluffy rice

*NB: you can also brown the wings first in some oil, set them aside and then fry the aromatics in that oil, returning the wings afterwards. The benefit of this is probably produces a more even browning on the wings without burning the aromatics. It's really up to you (I am just set in my ways with the method above but I will try this way if I can remember next time...Emphasis on the if).

I also wrote a few musings about dried wood ear and shiitake mushrooms during lockdown no. 1 times. Wild I know. You can read them below if you're in lockdown bizillion and want to read about mushrooms...

• Wood ear

• Shiitake