Fried mozzarella sliders!
Gourmet sliders are still a popular food trend that is going strong. Gourmet sliders of every kind are offered these days. Sometimes it is hard to draw the line between what is a mini sandwich and what is a slider. My own classic definition of a slider is a cooked mini burger that is made with any kind of ground meat on a mini burger roll of any type of bread. By that standard, anything else is really a mini sandwich. Because the world of modern sliders has included pork belly, Cajun blackened tuna, beef tenderloin medallions, prime rib, mousseline patties, veggie patties, crab cakes and even fried fish on the list of acceptable meats for sliders, the definition of a slider has become a little bit looser. The only meat items that are not considered to be sliders these days are cold cut meats and mayonnaise based meat salads like tuna salad. If it is a chilled meat item on a mini roll, then it falls into the mini sandwich category, instead of the slider category. I recently posted an article about the 2012 San Gennaro Feast in Las Vegas. Attending that event gave me a chance to catch up on new Italian American food trends. I posted photographs of some nice tasting meatball sliders that I sampled that day. When I was working in Italian restaurants, us cooks used to snack on a small dinner roll meatball sandwich when hungry. We sometimes jokingly referred to the mini meatball sandwich as an Italian slider, but that was long before the modern slider craze came to be. We never thought of marketing the dinner roll meatball snack sandwiches as sliders. All I can say is, more power to the Italian chef that thought of marketing mini roll meatball sandwiches as sliders during the modern slider craze! It was a good idea! While at the San Gennaro Feast, I saw a menu board offering for mozzarella sliders. This was another good slider idea from an Italian chef! During my first Italian apprenticeship, I cooked Mozzarella en Carrozza as an appetizer, so I knew how to make the featured ingredient for a mozzarella slider. Marinara sauce was something I had on hand, because I made a few fresh pasta recipes over the weekend. Mini hamburger rolls was an item that I lacked. I have posted mini focaccia roll recipes for Italian style gourmet sliders in the past. I have been wanting to post a recipe for the shiny looking hamburger rolls that have become popular in trendy restaurants on the Las Vegas Strip. Finally the age of the Kaiser Hamburger Roll has come to an end. Shiny old fashioned burger rolls are now replacing the kaiser burger roll on menus. I am sure that I was not the only burger fan that was tired of only having a choice of a kaiser roll when ordering a gourmet burger. Shiny burger rolls really do look nice on a plate and they have a soft agreeable texture.
Shiny Hamburger and Slider Rolls Recipe: This recipe makes 3 large hamburger rolls for 8 to 10 ounce burger patties and 6 slider rolls! You can scale the dough for any size burger roll that you want. Bread flour is used in this recipe. All purpose flour will not produce the same texture. All measurements in this recipe are volume measurements and not weight measurements. This recipe requires no proofing of the dough! The yeast is accelerated by the sugar during the activation time. This recipe is written for an electric mixer with a dough hook attachment! Mixing: Place 1 tablespoon of dry yeast or 2 tablespoons of fresh yeast in an electric mixer bowl. Add 1 cup of lukewarm water. (115 degrees is good for this recipe) Just dissolve the yeast in the water! Add 1/3 cup of vegetable oil. Add 1/4 cup of sugar. Let the yeast activate, undisturbed, for 5 minutes. Add 1 egg. Add 3 cups of sifted bread flour. Let the flour float like an island! Place 1 teaspoon of sea salt on top of the island of floating flour. Place the mixer bowl on an electric mixer. Attach the dough hook. Turn the mixer on and use a medium low speed to start mixing. Scrap the bowl while the mixer is turned off occasionally. When the ingredients form a loose wet dough, start adding a little bit of bread flour at a time, till the dough just starts to gather on the hook and pull away from the mixing bowl. Add only enough flour to form a soft dough and not a firm dough! Bench the dough on a lightly floured countertop. Portions: Cut the benched dough into portions. (Golf ball size portions are slider bun portions. Hamburger bun portions can range from tennis ball size to a little bit larger.) Shaping: Roll each portion with one hand, on a flour dusted counter top, till a ball shape is formed. Place the tip of the index finger of your hand against the thumb to form a round hole shape. Use the thumb of the other hand to press each portion of dough through the hole formed by the thumb and index finger of the other hand. Press the dough through the hole and stuff the dough into the smooth ball that is formed, so smooth dough ball expands like a balloon. When you get to the last bit of dough on each smooth ball, twist the dough ball to seal the dough ball shut. Place each dough ball with the sealed side facing down, on a parchment paper lined baking pan. Space the larger rolls 3" apart and space the sliders rolls 2" apart. Resting and Egg Washing: Let the dough rest for 10 minutes at room temperature. Do not proof the shaped dough portions over an oven or in a proofing box! After 10 minutes, gently brush each dough ball with plain egg wash.
Baking: It takes just about the same amount of time to bake slider portions as it does to bake large hamburger roll portions. The larger hamburger rolls do need an extra couple minutes of baking time. Bake in a 425 degree oven for 10 to 12 minutes. (Quickly check at 8 or 9 minutes.) When the burger and slider rolls are cooked to a light brown shiny color, then they are ready. Allow the rolls to cool and stale for 2 hours. The burger and slider rolls can be reheated in an oven for about 1 minute before being used. Handle the finished shiny burger rolls gently, because the shiny finish is easy to damage.
Marinara Sauce Recipe: The proportion of olive oil in a marinara sauce is about 20%. Olive oil is the key to cooking this classic tomato sauce. Without enough olive oil, a marinara will turn out to be "flat" like stewed tomatoes. Only the best imported Italian tomatoes should be used to make marinara sauce! Marinara sauce has evolved from being a quickly made tomato sauce that prevented scurvy on a seagoing Italian boat, to becoming a signature tomato sauce that features the very best tomatoes in the house. The finest Italian restaurants that I worked in always featured San Marzano tomatoes from Italy in their marinara sauces. Imported canned Italian San Marzano tomatoes are the very best and they do command a higher price. San Marzano tomatoes are a special breed of plum tomatoes that originated in Peru. There are also good imported Italian regular plum (Roma) tomato products that make good marinara sauces. Always seek a bright red imported Italian tomato product that is packed in its own juices. The juices should be bright red, rich and not watery. It is best to choose imported Italian tomatoes for marinara that also say "Con Basilico" on the label. Tomatoes that are packed with basil leaves are perfect for making marinara. Place a 28 ounce can of imported Italian San Marzano tomatoes or Roma plum tomato filets that are packed in their own juices with basil leaves into a mixing bowl. (The can label should read "Filetti di pomodoro con basilico." Crush and squeeze the tomatoes in their own juices by hand. Set the tomatoes aside. Heat 7 ounces of olive oil in a sauce pot over medium/medium low heat. Add 8 thin sliced garlic cloves. Fry the garlic in the oil, till it cooks to a light golden brown color. Immediately add the tomatoes to the garlic and oil. Add 1 handful of whole fresh basil leaves. Add sea salt and black pepper. Bring the sauce to a very gentle boil, while stirring often. (Do not over heat this sauce!) Reduce the temperature to medium low heat. Gently simmer the sauce. Stir the oil into the sauce once every five minutes. The oil must be stirred into the sauce regularly so the olive combines with the tomatoes. Cook the marinara for almost 45 minutes, till the tomato juices have reduced and till the sauce becomes a medium thin tomato sauce consistency. Add 2 tablespoons of very finely chopped Italian parsley. Remove the marinara sauce from the heat. (Marinara is never kept warm on a stove top! Marinara is made to order or reheated to order.) Place a 5 ounce portion of the marinara in a small sauce pot and reheat the sauce when the fried mozzarella is started. Mozzarella en Carrozza Recipe: If you do not cook at a quick pace, then chill or partially freeze the breaded mozzarella, before frying. This will provide a few extra seconds, before the cheese becomes soft. Regardless, it does take a good eye to see when the cheese is soft, partially melted and ready! Cut a 3" to 3 1/2" ball of fresh mozzarella cheese into 3 thick slices. (The slices should be about 3/8" thick.) Dredge the cheese slices in flour. Dip the the floured cheese slices in egg wash. Dredge the egg washed cheese slices in bread crumbs that are seasoned with sea salt, black pepper and oregano. Heat some blended olive oil in a saute pan over medium heat. (The oil should be about 1/2" deep in the pan and it should be 360 degrees.) Add the breaded sliced mozzarella to the hot oil. Note: Breaded mozzarella cheese fries very quickly! Be ready to flip the mozzarella and be ready to remove it from the hot oil. It only takes a few minutes to fry breaded mozzarella. Do not fry for too much time, because the cheese will melt and leak out of the breading. Fry the breaded mozzarella, till it becomes golden brown on both sides. Remove the fried cheese from the oil. Drain the excess grease off onto a dry lint free pastry shop towel.
Mozzarella en Carrozza Sliders with Marinara: Cut 3 warm shiny slider rolls in half. Place the bottoms of the slider rolls on a plate. Place the 3 mozzarella en carrozza on each slider roll bottom. Spoon a little bit of marinara on top of each mozzarella en carrozza. Lean the tops of the shiny slider rolls against the sliders. Garnish the plate with Italian parsley sprigs.
Gooey melted fried mozzarella and marinara gourmet sliders with shiny slider rolls! Yum! Ciao Baby! ... Shawna
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