Ever used matzo meal to bread thin cutlets – veal, chicken, turkey, or pork – for schnitzel? Or Scallopine Milanese, if you want to be all Italian about it?
You know the routine: Shake cutlets in seasoned flour, dip in an egg wash, dredge in crumbs, then saute in a couple tablespoons of butter mixed with olive oil.
I’ve been using Japanese panko crumbs for years, because they’re trendy, but they don’t really adhere to the meat as well as they should.
I made a big pot of matzo ball soup today, so I have plenty of extra matzo meal to go through in the next few weeks.
They were AWESOME!!! The margarine gave it a butter flavor without burning like butter. I don’t think she knew about using oil to raise the smoking point.
Made veal scallopini two days ago. Only had Panko bread crumbs(because they’re trendy). Big mistake. They soaked up all the olive oil/butter. First one was beautiful golden brown. Went downhill from there.
I use matzoh meal for breading often. Good way to get a light coating with some texture. Matzoh by itself is just a big cracker but matzoh balls, matzoh meal latkes, and matzoh brei are just some of the delicious dishes it can be used for.
I learned the crushed saltines trick from someone here at the Dope years ago and it does, indeed, produce quite nice schnitzel. Better than standard bread crumbs, in my opinion. I would expect matzoh would work well but, alas, I have not tried it. I say the OP experiments for us and reports back with the results!
Japanese Tonkatsu is excellent, but is generally deep-fried, which I never do (the Ukulele Lady would never let me live it down). I’m sure that’s why it’s so lovely and crunchy.
I WILL experiment and report back, possibly tomorrow, as we’re having yet another light vegetarian meal tonight and UL suggested I prepare some sort of meat as a side dish so I don’t go to bed ravenous.
Tonkatsu is fine pan fried. (At least I don’t deep fry it when making it for myself. The only food I really will get that much oil out for is chicken wings.) What’s nice about panko is if you’re avoiding frying at all, it can make a reasonably crunchy coating even for baked items. I usually toast the panko first when doing it this way. It’s not anywhere near the same as properly frying something, but it works out much better than just baking a normally breadcrumb crusted piece of meat.
A matzoh meal dredge is going to be a lot more delicate than regular breadcrumbs. Since you’re not deep frying, just try to be very careful when you flip or you’re going to lose your crust.
I’m always really careful when I turn my pan fried chicken – which only gets a double-dipping in seasoned flour – and I usually manage to lose part of the crust on at least one piece. I should probably cook it at a lower heat. Nobody complains though…