There is so much you can do with breadcrumbs
This was going to be a brief little thing about panko really - inspired by Nigel Slater's rave about panko in today's Kitchen Diary entry, but then when I started looking at it I saw that there are masses of things you can do with ordinary breadcrumbs, so I decided to leave the panko bit for another day as I have never used them. Suffice to say that Nigel Slater now thinks they are the best crumbs of all. I will investigate - though I have to say that I am a bit cynical, albeit with no experience of panko at all. But then I'm not a fan of Japanese food. Also another potential post.
But back to breadcrumbs - the ultimate poor food. It's something you have left when your basic food - bread - has gone stale. Which is not to say that you can't make breadcrumbs from fresh bread. And know that stale bread is definitely not the end of line, quite apart from breadcrumbs. You can toast it for a start, you can do David's trick of refreshing slightly stale bread by sprinkling it with water and then reheating gently in the oven - lovely crispy crust and bread almost like new in the middle. Garlic and other flavoured baked breads is an option too. Bread pudding (we've done that before), bread and butter pudding (a different thing), french toast, fattoush and other bread salads, croutons - the list is almost endless. But in this particular post I am talking about breadcrumbs - those things that Hansel and Gretel sprinkled inefficiently on the path to find their way home.
"Stale bread and breadcrumbs have become a key building-block in my cooking, one that previously I had regarded as a disposable, uninteresting and trifling ingredient. I feel as if I have learned the magic of a particular alchemy that stale bread and breadcrumbs demonstrate; how they transmute even the plainest of dishes to something rather special; I hope it has made me a better cook." Rachel Kelly - The Guardian
My mother, who was a thrifty and excellent cook amazingly never made her own breadcrumbs, at least I don't remember her doing so. She used to buy them in a packet - and I bet they weren't pure breadcrumbs. You can still buy them but honestly why would you? The ones I remember were like dust. I really consider them one of those products that are a complete waste of time, and an unnecessary extravagance to buy. Much, much worse than the real thing, even in this day and age. I suppose my mother didn't have food processors or liquidisers which would have made the whole process that much easier, but you can always toast them and then crunch them up or you can grate them on a grater - I have done that and it does work - and in that instance the staler the bread the better. These days though it's a cinch to make them - just remove the crusts (well they usually say to remove the crusts, but I guess you don't really have to), cut them into chunks and blitz in a food processor or liquidiser. Or, as I said before, you can toast the bread in the oven - or even in a toaster and then crumble it up into crumbs. I am told that they keep amazingly well in the freezer too.
"Breadcrumbs are a natural by-product of any home. A ciabatta left on the table overnight, a forgotten baguette, even stale sourdough and wholemeal loaves can be reduced to usable crumbs at the click of a switch." Nigel Slater
There are two types of breadcrumbs - fresh and toasted. So let's take them one at a time.
Fresh breadcrumbs are the ones you just blitz in the food processor - they can be the basis for toasted ones and I will come to that, but first of all I will just deal with the fresh. What can you use them for? The obvious ones are:
In stuffing - the other reason I thought of doing this post for we are going to have stuffed roast lamb for dinner on Sunday. The basis of our famous turkey stuffing is breadcrumbs. We have to buy whole loaves specifically for that purpose at Christmas time. Stuffing for meat, stuffing for vegetables, stuffing for fish ...
As an absorber of moisture - for fritters and meatballs, sprinkled over the base of tarts or strudel - makes them crisper and drier and the meatballs lighter.
To bind things together - sort of the same as absorbing moisture I suppose.
To thicken - it's an old-fashioned thickener for soups and it doesn't go lumpy like flour. Just sprinkle in the soup and stir. Elizabeth David has a wonderful recipe for a mushroom soup that uses bread to thicken it. You can thicken sauces with it too - old-fashioned English bread sauce is one. and the Italian salsa verde and Spanish romescu are two others.
To add crunch to toppings - sprinkle gratins and roast things with some breadcrumbs and they will toast to perfection to make a crunchy topping. Cassoulet is perhaps the prime example of this - and there, the breadcrumbs are also absorbed into the dish as well as providing the topping. They are an integral component of the whole thing. Mix them with herbs and/or spices and coat bits of meat or vegetable or fish with them before grilling, or frying or roasting and you will have a glorious crunchy topping or coating that is marginally healthier than a batter. Wiener Schnitzel is the classic here.
Then there are the more unusual uses. Here are two of them.
CRUMBY CHEESY CRIMBO WAFERS (from Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall)
A little oil or butter, for greasing
100g grated hard cheese
35g fine breadcrumbs
1 teaspoon thyme leaves (optional)
salt and freshly ground black pepper
Preheat the oven to 220ºC/Fan 200ºC. Lightly grease a large baking sheet or two smaller ones.
Put the cheese, breadcrumbs and thyme, if using, in a food processor with a few grinds of black pepper and pinch of salt. Pulse a couple of times to combine.
Pile spoonfuls of the mixture onto the baking sheet(s), leaving space between each pile for them to spread out. Bake for about 8 minutes until pale golden brown.
Take out of the oven and leave to firm up on the baking sheet for 3 minutes.
Use a spatula to lift the wafers onto a wire rack to cool completely or straight onto a place if you're serving them warm.
Once cooled the wafers can be stored in an airtight container for 2 or 3 days.
You can also use the mix as a gratin or pasta bake topping.
GLAMORGAN SAUSAGES (from Jane Grigson)
150g grated Caerphilly or Lancashire cheese (well a hard cheese)
110g fresh white breadcrumbs
2 tbs finely chopped spring onions, or leek
3 egg yolks
1 heaped tbs chopped parsley
1/2 tsp thyme
1 level tsp mustard powder
Salt, pepper,
1 egg white
Extra breadcrumbs and lard for frying. Lard has come back into fashion so give it a go.
Mix the cheese, breadcrumbs and spring onion, or leek. Whisk the yolks, herbs, mustard and seasoning together - use about 1 tsp salt, and plenty of pepper - and add to the breadcrumb mixture to make a coherent mixture. If the breadcrumbs or cheese were on the dry side, you may need, another yolk or a little water, before everything hangs together, as it should. Divide into twelve and roll each piece into a sausage about 5 cm long. Dip them in egg white, roll in the extra breadcrumbs and fry until golden brown in lard. Or you can blend the breadcrumbs, onion and parsley in a food processor, then add cheese, thyme and mustard. Finally add the egg yolks.
I found this recipe via Rachel Kelly's excellent article on breadcrumbs in which she gives a variant on it that includes bacon and some leftover pasta sauce. She calls them boum-boum sausages.
And also:
Walnut cardamom cake from Nigel Slater
Then there is the toasted variety. There are two ways of getting toasted breadcrumbs. One - you toast the bread and then make the crumbs. Two you make the crumbs and then toast them in the oven either alone or with various other ingredients. Or you can fry them in oil.
And what can you do with the toasted variety? Toasted breadcrumbs are probably not quite as adaptable as fresh ones, but that said there are quite a few interesting things you can do with them. Mostly you mix them into things that need a bit of extra crunch or sprinkle them on top. I love them sprinkled on orecchiette with broccoli and/or cauliflower - the breadcrumbs are absolutely what makes the dish. And I guess croutons, either plain or flavoured are sort of breadcrumbs. So here are a few ideas.
Golden bread and hazelnut ice from Nigel Slater.
BROWN BREAD, HEMP OIL AND PARSLEY PESTO (from Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall)
Don't know if you can get hemp oil here, but I guess you could use a different oil.
80g coarse wholemeal or Granary breadcrumbs
A large bunch of parsley (about 50g) leaves only
1 small garlic clove, roughly chopped
150-200ml hempseed oil
50g Parmesan or matured hard goat's cheese, finely grated
Juice of 1/2 lemon
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
Toast the breadcrumbs in a small frying pan for a few minutes, until crisp and nutty, then leave to cool.
Put the parsley leaves and garlic in a food processor and pulse until finely chopped. transfer to a bowl and stir in enough oil to create a thinnish paste. Stir in the cheese and breadcrumbs, thin with a little more oil if you want, then adjust the seasoning with salt, pepper and lemon juice.
Absolutely delicious with jacket potatoes.
"Crumbs for thickening. Crumbs for coating or for giving a crisp crust to a pie. Crumbs for a fruit pudding or for toasting with sugar for a brown bread ice-cream. Crumbs for fish and crumbs for fritters. Crumbs for the kitchen." Nigel Slater
