Chicken Wings the 'El Bulli' way

No, I am definitely not trying to imitate the 'molecular gastronomy' way of cooking, invented by Ferran Adrià in his famous restaurant El Bulli in Roses, Catalonia (Spain). Adrià has been called the world's greatest chef: the Salvadore Dali of the kitchen. But he also published a book (the Family Meal) which has been given to me as a birthday present by my dear friends Ellen and Dorian. This book contains 93 recipes of meals which were not prepared for the guests of El Bulli, but for the staff. Every afternoon a meal was cooked for the 75 members of the staff and they enjoyed that meal before the guests arrived.
The chicken wings prepared the El Bulli way are my favorite: great for a meal, but also for serving (prepared in the morning and warmed in the baking oven) when friends arrive in the afternoon for drinking a glass.

Ingredients:
- about 20 chicken wings
- 30(!) cloves of garlic
- 350 g mushrooms
- a small bunch of thyme
- 3 bay leaves
- 2 glasses dry white wine
- olive oil
- some water
- pepper and salt

Method:
Cut off the wing tips and separate the remaining wing pieces by cutting through the joint. Put the wings in a large baking tin and add pepper and salt. Splash generously olive oil over them and bake the wings high in the roasting oven for about 40 minutes. 

Check them regularly and turn them over a few times so they get browned on all sides. Chop the garlic (it isn't necessary to remove all the skin, only remove the base of the cloves) and let them bake together with the wings for the last 5 minutes of baking time. Slice the mushrooms. You can use any mushrooms, depending on what's available. I love porcini (penny buns or cep), which we are picking in the autumn ourselves. When out of season, I use deep-fried porcini, or dried ones, which I soak in the white wine. Add the herbs and the mushrooms to the wings when they are browned, splash over the wine and some water and transfer the tin to the roasting oven again for about 20 minutes. 

Take it out a few times to mix all the ingredients and eventually you can use the baking oven for the last 5 minutes, until the mushrooms are well done. Buen apetito! 

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