Fried Chicken Sandwich and Poppyseed Coleslaw
I read about a fried chicken sandwich on Serious Eats and I had to have one. A fluffy white sandwich roll cradling a tasty hunk of fried chicken, a spoonful of coleslaw…a truly excellent sandwich but unfortunately for me I’m not in Oakland, Ca. Instead I decided to make my own version.
Not much of a recipe needed for this pretty puppy. I used boneless chicken breasts; butterflied and pounded them flat, dunked them in cream, dredged them through seasoned flour, and fried them up using my 8 quart Le Creuset dutch oven.
The bun is a whiter than white (flour) version of my earlier whole wheat. I didn’t get quite the fluffiness I wanted because I rushed the final rise, but they were still tasty, tender, and fresh.
The coleslaw was my absolute best ever, really! Farm fresh Napa cabbage sliced thin and dressed with a fabulous poppyseed dressing. I used an apple vinegar I get from Vom Foss and it is so frackin tasty I could have snarfed the whole bowl of coleslaw all by myself. But I was charitable and I shared. The poppyseeds are fun because they add a little crunchy, nutty explosion in each bite. Make this coleslaw now…you can thank me later.
We’ve been visited by a family of Sandhill cranes almost every day this week. They lope through the yard and graze on some berries that fall from a tree and then they move on. I shot this photo using the 10x zoom feature on my camera.
Poppyseed Coleslaw
(printer-friendly recipe)
Head of Napa Cabbage
1/2 medium white onion
2 cloves garlic
1/3 cup canola oil
1/3 cup apple vinegar
honey (optional)
salt
pepper
3 tablespoons poppyseeds
Slice the cabbage into thin ribbons. Put the onion, garlic, oil, and vinegar into the work-bowl of the food processor and pulse until combined. If the vinegar is very tart you may want to add some honey. Season with salt and pepper and then add the poppy seeds. Don’t dress the cabbage until your ready to eat…it’s not as sturdy as regular cabbage. Pour the dressing over the cabbage and toss and serve.
Frankenstein salad, quinoa, chard and plum
This unusual combination took root in my head last week and it just couldn’t be denied. I had a small bunch of chard from our CSA, some of those cute, miniature seedless cucumbers, a perfect Santa Rosa plum, and some red onion. I felt pretty confident that it would all work well together despite the Frankenstein nature of the combination. I blanched the chard for one minute and then dunked it quickly into a bowl of ice water. Once it had cooled down I patted it dry and chopped it into ribbons. All the other ingredients were just a quick chop. I cooked a cup of quinoa according to the package directions but next time I should only cook 1/2 cup of quinoa. Once that cooled down I added the chopped veggies and dressed it with a dressing that combined rice wine vinegar, ponzu, yuzu honey, apple cider vinegar and canola oil. I think I also added a few dashes of chili oil.
The salad was surprisingly tasty. Actually the first bite struck me as a strange flavor but then I couldn’t stop eating it…something about the flavor combination was strangely addicting, the dirt-ish flavor of the chard, the cool slippery cucumber, the crisp bite of the onion, and the sweetness of the plum all wrapped up with a sweet-tart dressing. Dave had the exact same reaction…he thought it was weird but then he couldn’t stop eating it. I’ll definitely make this again.
The weakest link - the hamburger bun
I used to be obsessed with perfection. But over the years I’ve realized what a treacherous mate that mindset can be. Thankfully I’ve mellowed, I now understand that perfection is transitory… if it comes my way I’ll grab it, but I’ll never, ever, become its slave. Since we know where our meat comes from and how it it’s butchered, we feel comfortable eating things like steak tartar and medium-rare burgers. A good burger is a sum of its parts though, and if any part is lacking then it just isn’t perfect. I’m of the opinion that the weakest link is consistently the bun. Think about it, how often have you had the perfect burger, with the perfect toppings, and then had a lame bun that collapses, slides off, or just tastes awful? It happens all the time and we just accept it.
I decided to make my own hamburger buns because I couldn’t stand the thought of shelling out $5.00 for a really bad set of buns. I threw the dough together in the morning, let it rise for 6 hours in the refrigerator, formed the buns using my new and fabulously trusty cylinder technique, then they rested and rose for another hour or so and then I baked them.
They tasted fresh and yeasty with an excellent consistency and crumb. They held up really well with no collapsing, slipping, or sliding. Bread baking is so ephemeral, it requires a unique confluence of ingredients and weather. As I recall it was a perfect day…not too hot, not too cool, and no humidity. As for the ingredients, I only measure the liquid and the yeast, I add the rest until I’m happy its look and feel. I think I’ll continue to make my own burger buns, but I doubt that I’ll get this lucky again.
Vanessa’s Burger Bun
printer-friendly version
1 cup water
1 cup whole milk
2 teaspoons yeast
1/2 cup melted butter
2 eggs
1 teaspoon of sugar
2 teaspoons salt
1 cup whole wheat flour
Unbleached white flour
Place all of the ingredients, except for the white flour, to the bowl of a stand mixer. Using a paddle attachment mix well on medium low until well combined and no longer lumpy. Begin to add the white flour slowly, adding 1/2 cup or so at a time with the mixer running on a low speed. Once the dough clears the sides of the bowl you can stop the mixer, scrap the dough off the paddle and fit the dough hook onto the mixer. Let the mixer work the dough on a low speed for 7 - 10 minutes. The dough should be very sticky. Once the dough has been worked well you can stop the mixer, remove the dough from the bowl, coat the inside of the bowl with a thin coat of olive oil and then place the dough back into the bowl, cover it with saran wrap and let it rise for at least 6 hours in the refrigerator, overnight is okay too.
2 hours before you want to bake the buns remove the dough from the refrigerator and roll it into a big fat cylinder, the diameter of which will be the diameter of the buns. Slice the dough into pieces remembering that the thickness of the piece determines the thickness of the bun which will need to be split through the middle after baking.
Arrange the buns on a cookie sheet lined with a silpat. I arranged them so that they would touch each other after their last rise and bake. Now cover them with a clean towel and let them rise for an hour.
Preheat the oven to 375°F. Bake them until they are golden brown and their internal temperature is at 210°F, mine took about 10 minutes.
