venta

Last night's hurried bung-it-in-the-oven dinner was intended to be baked haddock with a herby crust. Breadcrumbs, mix in chopped herbs and olive oil, slap on top of fish, shove in oven. Done.

Except... well. The sliced bread had gone all pernicious. It looked fine, but had stealthily gone colourfully and fluffily off behind all the opaque bits of the plastic bag. No breadcrumbs :(

Except, lurking in the bread bin, overlooked, was the tiny, nobbly end of Saturday's baguette. Baguettes go a bit hard and dry when you've had them more than 35 minutes, so Saturday's French bready-product was rock solid.

I normally make breadcrumbs from fresh bread, rubbing slices between my hands. Occasionally, if I'm feeling very together, I put the slices out to go a little stale first. But four day old baguette? Not a chance.

On a whim, I tried grating it with a coarse grater. Bingo! A suitable-sized pile of breadcrumbs in no time. Probably even easier than normal.

Maybe everyone else already makes breadcrumbs like this. I just thought I'd mention it :)