Top 8: The top breaded foods like chicken drumsticks and potato croquettes on shop shelves
Fried Fish Fingers on a Plate Directly Above Photo
Oh, crumbs, could it be that time already?
There’s homework to be supervised, sports kit to be washed, music practice, laundry to sort, the morning’s breakfast dishes to get into the dishwasher, more washing, more ironing, and lunches to sort.
And now supper/dinner to serve. And whatever we serve needs to appeal to all the family, young and old.
Though batch cooking at the weekend is a very good idea, we don’t always get to have the week’s food ready.
We run out of ingredients, don’t have enough time to shop and feel stressed. Mostly, though, we feel tired.
The recipe book (Blasta Books) may inspire us to turn up the heat in the kitchen.
Written by food columnists Russel Alford and Patrick Hanlon, it has a collection of fried foods, including turkey schnitzel (watch for bargains in supermarkets, making sure it’s Irish), fish fillet burgers (with cheese and lettuce in a bun) and spice burgers.
But what about the days we want the cooking done for us? With this in mind, we went shopping for crumbed foods that tasted good and didn’t have the worrying additives often found in processed foods.
When researching this week’s Top 8, we were pleasantly surprised by the quality of the food we tasted. To avoid adding fat, we experimented with using our air fryer.
Most of the samples worked well. We also followed the producers’ instructions (oven or frying pan) for a second batch.
Leg meat is often far tastier than breast, and so it is here, with a deep flavour.
The crumb crisped up nicely in the air fryer without added oil.
They’re handy for lunch boxes and as substantial finger food at parties.
We also loved the delicious monkfish goujons with separate tartare sauce (250g €6).
- Score: 8.5
Two rounds of camembert are paired with a sachet of mixed berry compote.
A good coating of crunchy breadcrumbs allows the cheese to be heated and melted while crisping up the coating.
The accompanying compote of berries makes a nice contrast of sweet and slightly sourness. Lovely for lunch with green salad.
The label suggests it as a course after mains — good as long as the main is light. Good in air fryer.
- Score: 9
A creamy white sauce is deliciously flavoured with chopped leeks, cheddar, potato, 7% unsmoked, 24% smoked haddock, and a good sprinkle of white pepper.
The breadcrumb coating enclosed it well and crisped up nicely in the air fryer.
A good, reasonably priced product.
- Score: 8.75
While the haddock fillets were quite thin, the flavoured, crunchy crumb worked well around the fresh fish.
Good in the air fryer (try for five minutes first and test if fillets are thin). Attractive packaging.
From an increasing range in selected Dunnes Stores’ units and English Market, Cork.
- Score: 8
Four Atlantic cod fillets are thick, nicely chunky, flaky, and juicy, and they are coated in a flavourful crumb that includes dried mustard, garlic powder, and yeast extract.
Cooked well in the air fryer without added oil.
The fish is caught in the northeast Atlantic Ocean. Produced in Ireland for Green Isle Foods. From frozen food cabinet.
- Score: 9
Chopped and shaped Irish chicken breasts coated in breadcrumbs are tender and have good flavour enhanced by a topping of a simple tomato and herb sauce sprinkled with cheddar cheese — not quite the parmigiana suggested in the title.
However, even without Parmesan, the herby flavours work well. Because of the sauce coating, the fillets don’t crisp up.
Good in air fryer.
- Score: 7
The idea of a schnitzel without the traditional Viennese veal was intriguing.
Moulded into a flat oval, the overall flavour of spinach wasn’t very pronounced, but we could see it as well as the hard, melting cheese.
The outside breadcrumb texture was crunchy.
Served with some corn and peas, or as a sandwich filler with chutney, it can make an easy lunch for vegetarians.
- Score: 7
We wondered about gluten-free crumbs, so tested these with an eye on creaminess inside and crispness in the coating. Good on both counts (as were M&S croquettes).
Irish Rooster potatoes are mashed with butter, cream, and coated in a gluten-free batter and gluten-free crumb made with rice and gram flours. A handy one for the fridge, even as a snack for after school/work.
- Score: 8
