Homemade Breadcrumbs

Breadcrumbs have always been a conundrum for me.  They are undeniably delicious, adding body and flavor to many dishes, but frankly, they also not very convenient.  Or so I thought.  Inevitably, I'd make a recipe that called for breadcrumbs, which either meant one of three things: 1) I'd have to make fresh breadcrumbs, which was sort of like having to make a whole other dish; 2) I'd have to use the store bought kind, which was bland, frighteningly uniform, and never lasted once opened; or 3) skip the breadcrumbs entirely.  Depending on how critical it was to the dish, I usually opted for option #3.  It was preferable to facing the other two options, but obviously not ideal.  Many a dish would have benefited from the addition of some breadcrumbs, but I did without.



Why I didn't want to use the stuff that comes from the grocery store in a cannister is pretty obvious.  But why did I consider having to make breadcrumbs like making a whole other dish?  Well, it seemed to me that it was a lot of effort.  First, I'd have to make sure I had the right kind of bread on hand, and recipes everywhere said that it was preferable if the bread was a bit stale.  So that took the spontaneity out.  I'd have to plan in advance to first wait for the bread to get stale, then make the breadcrumbs, then make the actual dish.  I'm not good at that much advanced planning.  Then there was the process of actually making the breadcrumbs, which to me also seemed strangely complicated for such a seemingly simple thing.  Many recipes talked about drying out the stale bread in the oven, for xx minutes at a low temperature, then crumbling or processing it afterward.  Other recipes spoke of grating stale bread using a cheese grater to create breadcrumbs, which seemed like a lot of effort to me.  Then after all that effort, you'd have breadcrumbs enough for the dish you were making, but then you'd have to do it all over again the next time.

Except it turns out that breadcrumbs freeze really well.  That being the case, I could conceivably make a lot of breadcrumbs at one time, freeze it, then use a bit at a time as necessary.  The effort to make the breadcrumbs, in that case, becomes more worthwhile.  Except it also turns out that there's actually a very simple and easy way to make breadcrumbs, that doesn't discriminate against fresh bread (though stale still is better because it takes less time).  Hallelujah!  How has it taken me this long to discover this?

Start with artisan or homemade bread if possible -- something hearty.  Basically, not white sandwich bread.  That would probably work as well, but it would probably be as tasteless as the stuff you buy in cannisters -- in which case, save yourself the trouble and just buy it.  Slice off the crust; it keeps the breadcrumbs from browning evenly.  Slice up the loaf or a few slices, however much breadcrumbs you want to make (keep in mind the volume shrinks by about half once toasted), to 1/2-1 inch cubes.  Put those in a food processor.  In this case, I'm definitely a fan of embracing technology.  Process until the bread has turned uniformly into large crumbs (it'll never get as powdery as cannister breadcrumbs).  Spread the breadcrumbs in a large, shallow baking dish.  Drizzle olive oil over the breadcrumbs -- figure about 1 tbsp per cup of fresh breadcrumbs.  Use a wooden spoon or spatula to mix well, distributing the oil over all the breadcrumbs as best as you can.  Spread out the breadcrumbs in the baking dish again.  Place in a 350°F oven on the second highest rack.  Every 4-5 minutes (more often toward the end), use your wooden spoon/spatula to stir the breadcrumbs and re-spread them out, so that they toast evenly.  How long it takes depends on how many breadcrumbs you have and how thick the layer of them are in the pan.  Here I've made about 3 cups of fresh breadcrumbs, and it took about 30 minutes, but your oven and experience may vary.  When browned to your liking -- be careful toward the end, it will easily get burnt if you're not paying attention -- remove the pan from the oven, give the breadcrumbs another stir, and let cool right in the pan.  I like to keep stirring every once in awhile, because the pan's still hot and I imagine that the breadcrumbs are continuing to toast, but I'm probably just being over cautious.  When completely cooled, use immediately or transfer to a freezer bag or other tightly sealable container.  (If you do it even when the breadcrumbs are even just warm, the condensation will moisten them and they'll lose that lovely crunch.)  They'll keep in the freezer for about a month.

You can obviously get fancy with this; what I describe above is the most basic of breadcrumbs.  You could add salt, herbs, etc.  You could use butter instead of olive oil, or a combination of both.  You could use plain sourdough bread, or you could use a loaf of onion rye.  The bread I used to make the breadcrumbs pictured above was a rosemary olive.  So really, there's no limit on what kind of bread or flavor comination you want to use for your breadcrumbs.  Now that I know they're so easy to make and can be conveniently kept in the freezer, I'll be enjoying breadcrumbs in a wider variety of dishes!  It's been awhile since I added breadcrumbs to my mac and cheese, for instance... >.>

Sole Meuniere

One of the most memorable dishes from the Julie and Julia movie was the first one we see Julia Child eat: sole meuniere. It's based on Julia's recollection of the meal in the memoir My Life in France. In both the book and the movie, Julia is served a whole sole, delicately cooked in butter and lemon. It's the first time she falls in love with food.



It made me want to try sole meuniere at the earliest opportunity. I wasn't ambitious enough to attempt a whole sole, so I used fillets instead. It was still delicious, even if the presentation isn't as grandiose as in a proper French restaurant.

Sole Meuniere

Ingredients:

• 2 fillets of sole
• 2 1/2 tbsp butter
• 1/2 small lemon, cut lengthwise in half (so 2 quarters)
• about 1/4 cup flour
• chopped parsley to garnish
• salt and pepper, to taste

Method:

1. Melt 2 tbsp of butter in a pan just large enough to hold both fillets.
2. Dry the fish thoroughly and season both sides with salt and pepper. Dredge fish in flour, shaking off excess.
3. When the butter has stopped foaming, slide the fillets into the pan, "presentation side" down. Cook until golden brown and crisp, 2-3 minutes.
4. Meanwhile, thinly slice one of the lemon quarters on the horizontal (so you get little triangles).
5. Flip the fish over and cook another 2-3 minutes, until that side is also golden brown. Turn off the heat.
6. Swirl in the remaining 1/2 tbsp of butter, add the lemon slices, and top with parsley. Squeeze lemon juice from the remaining wedge of lemon over both fillets.

Korean-Style Crispy, Spicy, and Sweet Chicken Wings (Dak Kang Jung)

Dak kang jung, a Korean dish of chicken fried crisp then coated in a sweet and spicy sauce, is David Lebovitz's idea of Super Bowl food.  That is why he is awesome.  I was really excited to make these, because it gave me an opportunity to use my new Actifry, which I had never heard of before seeing DL's recipe for these chicken wings.  (He adapted it from Maangchi's recipe for use in the Actifry.)

I love chicken wings -- my favorite are the kind that are served in some Chinese restaurants, where they are deep fried, then seasoned with salt, pepper, and maybe some chopped hot pepper, but I also like buffalo wings, barbecue wings, etc.  So I was pretty excited about these.  I used walnuts instead of peanuts (because that's what I had on hand, and because walnuts are healthier) and tapioca starch instead of corn starch, but otherwise followed DL's recipe to the letter.  I also used rice syrup as he suggests.  Oh, and I had to add some water to the coating, because it was WAY too thick to actually coat the chicken.  It was more like a dough than a paste.



The verdict?  Too sweet for me. :-(  They were good, but I like my food more on the savory rather than sweet side (dessert excepted, of course).  That's why when I am asked to choose a barbecue sauce I usually avoid anything that says "honey" in it.  I think they would appeal to many people; the taste and consistency of the coating is like that of syrup or honey.  I think of this experiment as a success, however, because now I can make chicken wings the same way in the Actifry, but use seasoning I prefer, instead. :-)

A quick note about the Actifry and what it is/does: It basically makes food crispy, emulating the texture of deep-fried foods, with only 1 tbsp of oil.  Obviously this is a healthier and less smelly alternative to deep frying (and perhaps even more importantly, no pot of oil to deal with afterward).  It works well, but does not actually replicate deep frying.  I've made French fries and now the chicken wings, and while both get fairly crisp, it's definitely not to the same level of crisp as deep frying.  It's more like oven crisp, except more evenly done with less work.  So if you're going to make the $300 investment, do so with that in mind.

The chicken wings took 35 minutes to cook.  Here's a time-lapse image compilation of the process:



1) The raw chicken wings coated in batter.
2) Wings after 10 minutes of cooking.,
3) After 20 minutes.
4) Done after 35 minutes.



Afterward, the clean up was a breeze.  The loose batter became crisp, so it was really just a matter of wiping it out with a paper towel and giving the pan a quick wash.  No scrubbing required.  What *was* a big pain to clean was the wok I used to create the sticky coating.  Needed to soak in plenty of hot water before the syrup would wash off.

Korean-Style Crispy, Spicy, and Sweet Chicken Wings (adapted from David Lebovitz's adaptation :P)

Ingredients:

For the batter

• 1/4 cup (35 g) flour
• 1/4 cup (30 g) cornstarch or other starch
• 1 large egg
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp ground red chili pepper
• 10 chicken wings, tips removed, then each wing cut into two pieces
• 1 tbsp frying oil (peanut, olive, or canola)

For the coating

• 1/2 cup (125 ml) water or beer
• 3-inch (7 cm) piece of fresh ginger, peeled and thinly sliced
• 1 1/2 tbsps soy sauce
• 1/2 cup (packed) light or dark brown sugar
• 3 tbsps rice vinegar
• 1/2 cup (160 g) light corn syrup or rice syrup

To finish

• 1/3 cup (35 g) roasted walnuts (or peanuts), very coarsely chopped
• 2 tbsps toasted sesame seeds
• 1 tsp red chili flakes

Method

1. In a large bowl, mix together the flour, starch, egg, salt and ground chili pepper until it's a thick paste. Add the wings and mix well with your hands until they're thoroughly coated.  You may need to add a bit of water or milk if the paste is too dry.
2. Put the coated wings in the ActiFry and drizzle with the oil. Close the lid and cook for 35 minutes, until brown and crispy.  (Or deep-fry the wings in a pot of hot oil twice, in batches. Drain well.)
3. In a large pot or wok, bring to a boil the water or beer, ginger, soy sauce, brown sugar, rice vinegar, and syrup. Let cook until the mixture becomes syrupy and thick, and is foaming. It should be about as thick as honey.
4. Turn off the heat and stir in the cooked wings, nuts, sesame seeds, and chili flakes, until completely coated.

Linguine with Clams

A simple and delicious recipe from Alice Waters.  This is the second time I've had this in 3 days.  If I pre-soak the clams I can start cooking and be eating in less than 30 minutes.  This is one of those recipes that makes me realize there's really no excuse for not making a hot meal for myself.



Linguine with Clams (adapted from The Art of Simple Food by Alice Waters)

Ingredients:

• 2 lbs small clams
• 4 tbsp extra virgin olive oil, divided
• 5 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 tomato, diced
• 1/8 tsp dried chile flakes
• 1/2 cup white wine
• 3/4 lb uncooked linguine
• 1 tbsp parsley, chopped (optional)
• parmesan cheese, grated (optional)

Method

1. Wash the clams well under cold water, and soak for 30 minutes to get all the sand out.
2. Bring a large pot of salted water to boil.
3. Heat 1 tbsp of olive oil in a heavy-bottomed pan.  When it's hot, add the clams, tomato, garlic, chile flakes, and wine.  Cover and cook until the clams open, about 6 minutes.
4. Meanwhile, cook the linguine in the pot of boiling salted water to al dente, about 6 minutes.
5. When the clams are open, stir in 3 tbsp olive oil and the parsley, if using.
6. Drain the linguine, toss with the clam sauce, add more salt if needed, and top with parmesan cheese if desired.  Serve immediately.

Note: You can use larger clams; if you do, steam them open then remove them from their shells and chop them up.  Add them to the sauce along with the parsley.

Tom Douglas's Garlic Smashed Potatoes

At long last, an overdue recipe.  These are possibly the best potatoes you will ever eat.  Certainly of the non-mashed variety.  That's right, I said it.  I'm putting it out there.  Now you HAVE to take on the challenge, maybe just to prove me wrong.  But I bet I won't be wrong.

Making these is a labor of love.  It's very simple and easy, but I'm not going to lie, also time consuming.  From start to finish, it'll take 1 hour and 40 minutes to cook them.  But it will be worth it, I promise you that.  Every single person I've made these for has been amazed by how good (and simple) they are.  They in turn have made them for other people, who demand to know how to do it themselves.

I adapted this recipe from Tom Douglas's "Greek Smashed Potatoes" recipe in Tom's Big Dinners.  At Tom's restaurant Lola, they serve garlic smashed potatoes, which is where I first had them.  They were so good that I had to find a recipe so that I could have them whenever I pleased (and wouldn't have to pay $8 for a small dish).  The Greek Smashed Potatoes recipe seemed just right, with a slight adaptation to make them purely garlic.

The key to making these successfully is to choose smaller potatoes.  The recipe says to use red-skinned potatoes; I've used yellow skinned ones to good effect (once they're done cooking, you can barely tell what color they started out as -- see photo above!).  What doesn't work is bigger potatoes (it used to be that you couldn't even GET red-skinned potatoes that were very big; now I've seen them in a size close to a Russet!).  They should be golf ball size or slightly larger; if you go bigger than that they may not cook properly in the time indicated in the recipe, which means you may not get that perfect harmonious blend of salty crispness on the outside and soft potatoey inside.

Garlic Smashed Potatoes (adapted from Tom's Big Dinners by Tom Douglas)

Ingredients

• 3 lbs small red-skinned potatoes (about golf ball size or slightly larger) 
• 1/2 cup olive oil, divided
• salt and pepper
• 1 tbsp garlic

Method

1. Wash and dry the potatoes, then put them in a roasting pan large enough to hold them, with a bit of room between each potato. Roast them in a 450F degree oven for 40-45 minutes, until just tender.
2. Remove the pan from the oven, then use the bottom of a china mug to smash down each potato to about 1/2". The skins will split and the white of the potatoes will show through.
3. Drizzle with 1/4 cup of olive oil and season generously with coarse salt and pepper. Pop back in the oven for 25 min.
4. Remove the pan, flip the potatoes over with a spatula (the bottoms should be nicely browned), then drizzle with another 1/4 cup of olive oil, keeping 1 tbsp of oil in reserve. Pop back in the oven for another 25 min.
5. Remove the pan again, season the second side of the potatoes with salt and pepper, and sprinkle the garlic over them.  Drizzle the 1 tbsp of remaining olive oil over the potatoes. Toss to make sure seasoning is evenly distributed, then roast for a final 5 min.

Spring Hill's Fried Chicken Dinner

One of my favorite foods in the world is fried chicken. There are few things better than biting into hot, crispy batter then encountering juicy, flavorful chicken.  It's damn good.  Not ever having had the pleasure of eating homemade fried chicken in the south, most of the fried chicken I've had have been at fast food establishments and restaurants.  I've just about given up having fried chicken at restaurants.  It's inevitably overpriced and not as good as the fast food places -- such as Church's or Ezell's (a Seattle establishment famed for having fried chicken so good that Oprah Winfrey has said that it's her favorite fried chicken and has it flown out to her in Chicago).

Well, one restaurant has finally done it right.  Is it really any surprise that it's West Seattle's Spring Hill?  Not to me, at any rate.  Spring Hill rarely disappoints.  At least when it comes to their food.  Their Fried Chicken Dinner for 4 -- by special reservation only and served only on Monday nights -- is something special.  It comes with two whole chickens (with the breasts cut in half, so there's a higher crunchy batter to meat ratio, which means you can get delicious skin and meat in every bite), which is more than you think it is.  It also comes with seasonal sides.  It was one of the most satisfying meals I've had in a long time.

And now, the pictorial.


A truly enormous platter of fried chicken, fried in peanut oil, that once you start eating, seems to grow in size.  We thought we'd be able to tackle it easily.  We ended up taking a box and a half of chicken home.


What's a fried chicken dinner without mashed potatoes and gravy?  It would be wrong.  Spring Hill doesn't leave it out.  Here's buttered russet potatoes with a light but intensely flavorful gravy.


Spring Hill calls this "herbed dumplings with Beecher's Flagship."  I call it upscale macaroni & cheese, made all the more delicious by the use of Beecher's Flagship cheddar.  Beecher's is another wonderful Seattle institution.


Then of course, there's cornbread.  But with a twist, or maybe a kick; these are jalapeno.  It came with a delicious honey butter (not pictured).


Caramelized broccoli; I like to call it oven crisped.  I like pretty much any preparation of broccoli, but there's something about the texture it gets when prepared this way that I just love.  I could have eaten five plates of this on its own, so really for four people it's quite small (especially in comparison to the chicken).


Put it all together and what do you have?  A PLATE OF HEAVEN, THAT'S WHAT.  Oh, the dinner also came with marinated cucumber spears, but I didn't have a chance to take any photos of that before it'd been passed around too much and was obliterated.


After dinner I went home and sliced up a mango, Thai style, because it was overripe and needed to be eaten.  Lord mangoes are good.  Fried chicken and mangoes ... life is good.

Her name is Lola...

...she was a showgirl...

Wait. Where was I... oh yes, not channeling Barry Manilow.

On Sunday my family and I went to Tom Douglas's Lola for brunch. Lola has a Mediterranean/North African influence. I've been there several times, for brunch, lunch, and dinner, and have never been disappointed. It's simply delish. It's where I first had TD's garlic smashed potatoes, which are out of this world. I could have sworn I posted that recipe here, but apparently I didn't. I feel somewhat guilty for depriving you for so long. I'll post that soon.

Anyway, Lola. They have their kebabs available any time, but the best time to get them is during brunch/lunch, when they're considered an entree and come with either potatoes or a Greek salad, pita bread, and dill yogurt. They're several dollars less during dinner, but they're considered appetizers and don't come with anything but the kebabs themselves.

On to the food porn!

I had... Tom’s big breakfast: Pacific octopus, snap peas, bacon, chickpeas, green garlic yogurt, an egg sunnyside up, and toast.


My mom had... Lamb kebabs with caramelized garlic and a red wine glaze, pita bread, yogurt with dill, and Jackie's Greek salad.


My aunt had... Alaskan salmon kebabs with capers and tarragon, pita bread, yogurt with dill, and garlic smashed potatoes.


My cousin had... Squid kebabs with crushed chili and chermoula, pita bread, yogurt with dill, and Jackie's Greek salad.


My cousin's kids shared... Washington chicken kebab, pita bread, yogurt with dill, and Jackie's Greek salad. (It comes with 3 kebabs, the older one got 2 and the younger one got 1.)


We also had loukoumathes (a type of Greek fried puff, kind of like a donut) for dessert, but they went too quickly to take a picture of. They were dusted with cinnamon and sugar, and came with a tangy rhubarb topping and vanilla mascarpone which was just AMAZING.