Skillet Croutons

Does it ever happen that you've made a salad and you think, gee, "this would be great with a couple crunchy croutons on top," but you don't have any croutons?

It never happens to me. Mostly because I don't like croutons on salads.

Now, don't misunderstand. It's not that I don't like croutons. I like them just fine. I just don't like them with salad. I like them near salad. Or next to salad. Or with soup. But crunchy croutons on top of salad really aren't my thing.

So, when I get a salad in a restaurant that's topped with croutons, I eat the croutons first. Then the salad.

And when I have croutons at home, I eat them as snacks. Or with soup. But not on salad.

Yes, I am weird. This is the first time you're noticing it?

When I first met croutons, way back in my childhood, I thought they were some kind of mystical product that my aunt stuffed into unsuspecting Thanksgiving turkeys, or that restaurants put on top of salads.

I didn't think they were something you could actually make. And they weren't something that mom ever had in the house. Not store-bought, and not home made.

Nope, croutons where something mysterious and rare.

And then I found out that you could slice some bread into cubes and dry them out in the oven to make croutons. Wow! Magic.

But of course, if you're going to be toasting croutons in the oven for all that time it takes them to dry out, you'd better make a huge batch of them. Because the oven is a big place.

And then you have a lot of croutons sitting around.

For one salad? Really?

The final crouton-related AHA moment came when I realized that croutons are just ...

toast.

Cube-shaped toast. Perhaps flavored cube-shaped toast. Very dry toast. But really just toast.

And then I realized that  I didn't have to bake the croutons in the oven in big batches. I could make a small batch - a slice at a time - in a skillet.

Wow. It's like ... voodoo!

So, when I got a fancy bottle of sweet almond oil from Emile Noël, I decided to use a little bit of it to toast some croutons.

Conventional wisdom says that you shouldn't use fancy organic virgin cold-pressed oils for cooking. I agree - sort of. To preserve the flavor, those fancy oils are best used for dipping oils, salads, drizzling onto already-cooked foods, or other cold preparations.

For sure you don't want to use those fancy oils or high-heat frying and searing, but gentle heating isn't so bad. Sure, you lose a little flavor, but you don't kill it entirely.

Skillet Croutons

1 thick slice of bread
1 teaspoon sweet almond oil
Seasonings, as desired

You can cut the crusts off the bread or not. Since I was using a tasty home made loaf, I left the crusts on.

Cut the bread into cubes.

Heat the oil gently, making sure it's spread across the bottom of the pan.

Add the bread cubes and quickly toss them around - you don't want them sitting in any oil puddles, or you'll end up with a few pieces that are too oily.

Cook the bread cubes, stirring or tossing regularly, until they are nicely toasted on all sides.

If you like, sprinkle them with whatever flavored seasonings you like.

Serve immediately. They'll be crunchy on the outside and just a little soft and chewy in the center.

These don't store well unless you cook them until they're completely crisp, but I suggest that you make small batches - just as much as you need right away - and gobble them up.

The giveaway (which is now over) was sponsored by Emile Noel. I was not require to also write a recipe post.

Now I'm cooking carrots with sous vide - sooooo good!

Okay, I'll admit it. I'm kind of like a kid in a candy store with this Sous Vide machine from Anova Culinary. I've been experimenting with all sorts of things. I saw a post about how great carrots are when they're cooked sous vide, how they're so much more ... carrot-y.

So I figured I'd give it a try. I found a discussion of sous vide vegetables that said that vegetables became tender at 183 degrees, and the idea was that they'd be done in an hour.

Well, okay then. I sealed some carrots in a bag, put them in a pot with the water temperature set for 185 degrees (for extra cooking insurance) and at about 45 minutes, I noticed that my bag had puffed up with a lot of air. It was ballooning like crazy.

Hmm. And the carrots weren't even thinking about becoming tender. Nope, no way. I opened the bag and resealed and plopped them back into the water. And ... it got to the point where I REALLY needed them to be done so I gave up and microwaved them to finish.

I don't know what went wrong with those carrots, but an hour wasn't nearly enough time to get them tender. And they weren't huge, old gnarly giant mutant carrots. They weren't teeny ones, either. But they were normal not-huge carrots.

I tried again, this time raising the heat to 190 degrees and planning on cooking them a lot longer. Turns out, six hours got me what I wanted - the carrots were tender all the way through. They were still firm rather than mushy, but they weren't crisp or crunchy.

And ... the bag didn't fill with air this time. Or at least it didn't turn into a giant balloon. At one point it did seem puffy, but then it shrunk back down again. It never got to the point (or at least I didn't see it) when it got so air-filled that the bag was bobbing on the surface of the water. I don't know if it had to do with the temperature I cooked at this time, or if my previous batch of carrots was weird.

If you're a fan of the tender-crisp carrot that's cooked on the outside but still raw in the middle, of course you want to adjust your cooking time. But me, I like my carrots cooked all the way through, or all the way raw. That tender-crisp thing just doesn't do it for me.

Meanwhile, I had gotten some macadamia nut oil from a company called Emile Noel, and this seemed like a fine use for the product. Macadamia nut oil isn't generally used for cooking - it's more for drizzling on warm vegetables or for salads or for drizzling onto vegetables. But I figured that since the heat was relatively low, this could be a good use.

And I figured the flavor would be a good pairing, as well.

These carrots had the deep flavor that you get from roasting, but without shrinking or drying out. I really loved them this way.

Sous Vide Carrots with Macadamia Nut Oil

1 pound carrots, peeled and trimmed
2 tablespoons macadamia nut oil
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon sugar

Put the all the ingredients into a vacuum-seal bag and seal according to manufacturer's instructions.

Cook, using sous vide at 190 degrees for 6 hours.

Serve warm, drizzled with extra macadamia nut oil, if desired.

These were perfect as is, but I could see cooking these in advance - for a party or holiday - and then warming them by roasting them briefly or heating them in a pan with a bit of butter. I left the carrots whole, but there's no reason you couldn't slice them.