Friday, June 30, 2017

Panko Encrusted Homemade Chicken Fingers

Today we will be taking a look at how you can make homemade chicken fingers that are vastly superior to the store bought frozen variety and that are truly easy to prepare.

We will be making them using panko as opposed to regular breadcrumbs as panko provides a tastier and crunchier crust.

Panko is a Japanese style breadcrumb that is available at most large grocery stores.

To begin you want to buy some raw, skinless, boneless chicken strips. You want these to be not too wide or thick as they have to fry quickly. Most grocery stores sell these pre-cut, but you can also purchase boneless, skinless chicken breasts and slice them yourself.

Season your strips to taste with sea salt.


Put three bowls out in your prep area. In the first place a cup of all-purpose flour.



In the second put two eggs, a teaspoon of Herbs-de-Provence or Italian seasoning, a teaspoon of garlic powder and a couple dashes of cayenne pepper and beat all until thoroughly blended.



Finally, in a third bowl put a cup of panko crumbs.



These measurements will make a fair number of chicken fingers, but if you are making an especially large batch simply add more of each to their respective bowl as required.

Take each chicken strip and dredge in the flour lightly first, then dip in the seasoned beaten eggs and then into the panko. The egg will cause the panko to adhere. You do not need to coat the strips with panko quite as much as you would have to with traditional bread crumbs. The picture below will give a general idea of how they should look after prep and prior to deep frying.



Into a large saucepan pour about 1 1/2 to 2 inches of vegetable oil and and heat on the burner until it is ready for frying. Then add your panko battered strips into the oil in batches so that they are not too crowded or touching each other and deep fry for about 2-3 minutes a side (turning only once!) until golden brown. You want to make sure not to cook for too long to avoid burning the panko.

Remember that the strips will deep fry relatively quickly as they are thin. (If you are concerned, after resting cut the thickest strip in half to check that they are done. This means that they are white inside and have been cooked to an internal temperature of 165 degrees).

Rest the chicken fingers on a platter for a couple of minutes, season a bit more with sea salt to taste, and then serve with lemon wedges and sauces for dipping. Plum sauce works well or, for those who like a little heat, try our Buffalo chicken wing sauce recipe.



These are always a huge hit with kids or at parties.

Enjoy!

See also: Southern Style Chicken Wings Stove-top Deep Fried

See also: Slow Cooker Chicken Wings

Thursday, June 29, 2017

Mouseland a Fable by Tommy Douglas -- The Comic

The great Tommy Douglas Canadian socialist parable 'Mouseland' told in comic format, 1979.

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Source: Ontario Labour May / June 1979, by the Canadian Region of the UAW


Also, see more Vintage Communist and Socialist Leaflets on our vintage leaflet project page. 

Tuesday, June 27, 2017

Vintage Vegas 1958 - A Colour Postcard Folder of the Classic Hotels

Before on the blog we have looked at a style of vintage little keepsake postcard packet that unfolds to drop down a long row of connected full colour illustrations. These were quite popular in the mid-20th Century. The idea was that you were supposed to mail the whole packet to yourself or someone you wanted to share memories of your trip with -- you know, long before instant shares via cell phones and even before personal ownership of cameras (remember those) was widespread.

Today we are featuring a packet released in 1958 that showed the "fabulous strip" in Las Vegas, Nevada. Many of the famous hotels are included here such as the Sands and the Stardust. They are surrounded by classic 50s American cars. Note also the billboards for Louis Armstrong and Frank Sinatra!

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You can see links to all our past vintage photography and postcard posts on our Vintage Photography page. 

Sunday, June 25, 2017

Tim Buck - Fighter for Peace and Socialism 1951

Vintage Leftist Leaflet Project

See the end of this post for details on the project.

Leaflet: Tim Buck - Fighter for Peace and Socialism 1951

Published by the Labor-Progressive Party (Communist Party) of Canada in 1951 to honour his 60th birthday, this booklet gives a brief outline of the life and struggles of Tim Buck, the legendary Canadian Communist leader.

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 When The Left Chapter began part of what I wanted to do on the blog was to show and highlight vintage public leftist election/political leaflets and booklets. While many of these have been offered with commentary to date, a very large collection of hundreds of them from several different sources remains and to preserve these often quite rare documents we will be posting them on a regular (almost daily) basis now often without or with minimal commentary so that people may have access to them as quickly as possible as an historical resource. 

While these will all be leaflets from a variety of different leftist viewpoints and countries, they are being posted as an historical/study resource and the views or opinions expressed in them do not necessarily reflect the views of this blog or blogger.

All of these posts (as well as posts made to date) will be listed on the page: Vintage Communist/Socialist Leaflets (which is still being updated with past posts).

If you have any public, vintage leaflets or booklets you would like to contribute to this project please contact us via theleftchapter@outlook.com

The Minsk Tractor Plant USSR 1970s Part II - Technology, International Ties and Lives of the Workers


The book we are looking at today is a fascinating promotional hardcover that was published in the USSR in the 1970s to advertise the tractors of the Minsk Tractor Plant. It celebrates the achievements, technology, workers and internationalism of the plant that was the largest of its type in the Soviet Union (it produced 20% of all Soviet tractors) and one of the largest in the world.


They were justly proud of its tractors as well as the fact that it had produced 100,000 of them by 1958 and 1,000,000 of them by 1972.

The tractors were sold or sent as aid around the world and there were many different models. The plant complex was gigantic and a community unto itself with housing, educational, recreational and medical facilities for its workers and their children.

The first of our two parts looked at the plant history, tractor models and technology. This second part continues with the technology of the plant, looks at its international ties (there is a picture of the Soviet tractors at Toronto's CNE!) and then culminates with a section centred on the "Hero-City" of Minsk and the lives, recreation, healthcare and education of the plant workers.

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Soviet Tractors at the Ex!