Honey Bear

Round one: honey 2, Jamie 1.

As promised I've been playing with honey, trying to learn more about it and incorporate it into more of my dishes. Everyone knows honey is sweet, but working with it isn't always. I wasn't to thrilled with the results of my first few dishes and I'm guessing from the polite smiles and head nods from my friends this Friday they weren't either. Maybe next time I will pour the wine before I pass out the food.

Dish one: Honey Tequila Chicken Wings
I marinaded these wings over night and then baked them (not the best results but read on for variations)...

Marinade:
one cup tequila
one cup honey
boil until reduced by half
two cups apple juice
1 tablespoon tomato paste
1 tablespoon adobe peppers (minced) *more or less to personal heat preference
1 bunch cilantro (minced)
bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer. Taste. add more heat if needed or more honey/apple juice to reduce heat.
Marinade over night and bake.

These wings weren't 'bad' they just didn't have the sticky quality I wanted, the skin was slightly soggy and I was missing a layer of flavor. But they did smell amazing and I saw some potential. First thing I decided to change was the method. I know its bad for you but I promise to do some extra sit ups later....frying the wings is the only way to go with this one. I also kicked the marinade, instead I added a cup more honey to the recipe and reduced the entire batch by half. Oh and my missing layer of flavor? smoke! A couple drops of liquid smoke into the pot was just the trick. I then tossed the deep fried wings in the sticky sweet reduction. MMMMMM.....this is how its done. So for those of you who got round one Friday night, I apologize for the mediocre wings but I will make it up to you next game night.

Dish Two: Heirloom Honey Dijon Pizza
This dish was actually and accidental find. Since the beginning of this blog I have become slightly obsessed with reading others as well. By chance I was reading David Lebovitz blog and he had a recipe for a tomato tart with wild blackberry honey. It was to interesting not to try. However, since I am not living in France I made a couple variations to fit my American kitchen and tastes.
I made a basic pizza crust, brushed it with Dijon mustard and topped it with fresh heirloom tomatoes (beautiful shades of black, green and pink), crumbled goat cheese and then drizzled it with honey before baking. Truthfully I LOVED it. The dish made perfect sense to me. I mean we use honey and mustard on salads (with tomato and cheese), as a dipping sauce for chicken, glazes for pork, the list goes on and on. Having said that, the mustard as a pizza base seemed to freak everyone out. I got a lot of funny looks and comments like "there's something different about this and I can't put my finger on it" As soon as I mentioned mustard it was obvious that was where the confusion was coming from.
Overall I would say this dish was a fail (based on numbers, not my personal opinion) If you decided to try this one, know your audience.

Dish Three: Honey Raspberry Frozen Yogurt
Sadly enough, I'm the only one that has gotten to taste this delightful treat. It's the only dish so far that I consider a 100% win. Lucky for you though it is beyond easy to make! As much as I wish that my only job was to play around with recipes and review restaurants I unfortunately have a 'real job' as well. Although work is no where near as fun as this blog it does pay the bills and I occasionally have some wiggle room to add personal touches to our menu. One of my 'wiggle' areas is sugar free desserts. We have a lot of diabetics in our dinning room and we try and give them a new treat each week. I've been receiving requests for ice cream ever since the temperature outside went above 80. Sugar free ice cream is a challenge...sugar free frozen yogurt is not. This is so simple you will feel silly for not trying it sooner.
Plain yogurt (no flavor added)
*Greek yogurt is my favorite
fresh or frozen fruit ( I used raspberry but anything would work)
honey
fresh mint (optional)

blend your yogurt and fruit first, drizzle in the honey to desired sweetness and finally toss in the mint. Freeze, eat, enjoy!

***A quick note, honey is sugar so this dessert is not sugar free, I simple stumbled across it while make a sugar free version.