The Briefing Room
General Category => Grassroots Activism and Living => TBR Kitchen => Topic started by: EasyAce on December 29, 2018, 04:27:08 am
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One fine weekend I came home from the beach to discover my mother running her Sunbeam Mixmaster's meat grinder attachment. Specifically, she was running the ends of bread loaves through it. I busted a gut laughing, which cracked her up . . . until she explained we were out of bread crumbs, she wanted to make chicken parm for dinner that night, and she didn't feel like running to the market or sending me there after I'd just got home from the beach. (These were the decades pre-cell phone, and thank God, because the thought of my mother on the cell phone yakking or texting . . . well, you get the idea, God rest her soul in peace.) And since nobody in the house liked eating the ends of the bread, she thought, Light bulb!
I've been low-to-no-carb/no-starch/no sugar since June and I've peeled 35 pounds off my ornery carcass since, while striking to lose 60 more. I've had to get a little creative to keep from going completely nuts or wearing orange (since, let's face it, when you're dieting like that, a lot of what you eat seems like prison food), and I thought one fine day a) of the two big plastic barrel-jars of large pork rinds on my shelf; and, b) out of nowhere, my mother's ancient bread crumbs.
And since I was given (for my 60th birthday three years ago) a completely-restored-from-the-guts-up Mixmaster first made in 1955, the basic accessories plus its power transfer unit and meat grinder attachment, I thought . . . why the hell not? Chicken parm has been one of my favourite meals since boyhood. And I got to thinking, why not try it with pork rind crumbs? (Especially since I couldn't possibly be the only human on the stone who ever thought of it.) I hooked up my silver beast, resisting the temptation to laugh my fool head off the way I did with Mom all those decades ago . . .
(http://www.mylespaul.com/media/dsc00386.81720/full?d=1492885098)
. . . and ran about four or five cups worth of the pork rinds through that grinder. (If you don't have a grinder rig like that, or a similar attachment for another food mixer, just crush them with a mortar and pestle. Takes a little bit longer but worth it.) Then blend in a little Italian seasoning and a little oregano, but don't overdo it.
Then, I trimmed the fat off my chicken thighs as normal (once I got a taste of chicken parm made with thighs I refused go back to the breasts---the thighs are just that much more tender and less dry), dipped them in beaten eggs, and then dipped in the pork rind crumbs. Beware---pork rind crumbs come out a lot more soft than ordinary bread crumbs. Once you figure that out, just dip them again in the pork rind crumbs, then fry them in vegetable oil like normal to brown the crumb crust as you would with ordinary bread crumbs. Then put a tablespoon of low-carb pasta sauce on each piece over your mozzarella, and bingo!
(http://www.mylespaul.com/media/20181228_201149.108740/full?d=1546057223)
By the way, pork rind bread crumbs are also a great substitute for binding up meat loaf on the same diet.
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I have used grated parm cheese in place of bread crumbs for coating chicken, which also fits your low carb eating.
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I have used grated parm cheese in place of bread crumbs for coating chicken, which also fits your low carb eating.
I did that too until I remembered Mom's old bread trick and married it to a huge container of pork rind chips I had and put two and two together.
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That looks remarkably good.
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That looks remarkably good.
And if I do say so myself it tasted even better! I'm making it again this weekend.