Pantry 101 – Make your own Breadcrumb(s)

I was actually pacing back and forth wondering if I should do a post on this…making breadcrumbs hardly requires a recipe, least of all brain matter but somehow because the theme is stale bread week, I thought I should just include it for the benefit of those who are really clueless in the kitchen. If you ever have leftover bread that you can’t finish within the said date or even that skin part of white bread that we always leave out, don’t throw it away….make them into breadcrumbs and they’ll keep even longer.

All you need is a food processor or a blender of some sort that will grind them into fine powder. When the bread has gone stale, put them in the freezer for 30 mins and then tear them into pieces, freezing them makes it easier to grind. Blitz the processor till all the lumps disappear into fine powder. Then toast them, by toast I mean just heat to get rid of any moisture. Store them into sandwich bags and keep in the fridge until needed. You can actually toast the bread pieces first but due to my average processor, somehow it wasn’t able to blitz toasted pieces of bread for some reason. I always find a few big lumps here and there. But do whichever way works for you.

Panko breadcrumb

I love my panko breadcrumb, they’re much rougher compared to the homemade breadcrumbs but I prefer finer breadcrumbs when adding it to meatballs or meatloaf mixtures. Coating something with panko for frying just gives a better exterior crunch. But they’re lots of other things you can do with fine breadcrumbs, here’s one recipe to share;

BREADCRUMB, GARLIC & CHILLI COATED EDAMAME

Ingredients;

Edamame
Garlic, 3 cloves chopped finely
Chilli flakes
3 tablespoons of fine breadcrumbs
Olive oil
A pinch of salt
Toasted sesame seeds, mixed black and white
Water, for cooking edamame

Steps;

1. Cook edamame in salted boiling water for 10 mins, until the edamame are soft to bite but the seeds are still firm.
2. Add olive oil to a frying pan, fry the chopped garlic and add the breadcrumbs. Mix it around in the oil till you have rather crunchy lumps.
3. Sprinkle chilli flakes and salt. Lower the heat at this point and toast the breadcrumbs till they’re crunchy.
4. At the last second, toss in your cooked edamame to coat. Add sesame seeds. Plate and pour the rest of the crumb coating on top. Sprinkle more sesame seeds.
5. Eat while it’s still warm.

Enjoy!