1001: Arcade Fire: Neon Bible

I honestly hadn’t listened to Arcade Fire much before I bought tickets to the Denver concert as a Christmas gift for Dylan.  After I did this album became one of my favorites, though I would have to favor Funeral slightly more.  As it comes to food to combine with this I wanted to do something that was reminiscent of that which I had in Denver.  Therefore I decided to go with a dish that Montreal is iconic for and give it a little Denver flare.  Green Chili Poutine was born.

The Music

Favorite Tracks:

-Intervention: I love the lyrical content of this song more than any other.  It’s one of the ones that I can picture the story told in the lyrics very vividly.  It is brought to life

-(Antichrist Television Blues):  This song would be great as it is but the title for it just throws it over the top.  The allusions to terrorism are very intriguing.  If you asked me if a song about such a subject could be so upbeat but come out as reflective in tone and actually sound good, I would tell you that that is impossible.  This track pulls it off in style though.

Unfavorite Tracks:

-Black Waves/Bad Vibrations:  It’s kind of weird because usually the songs that Regine sings lead on are some of my favorites.  I don’t really dislike the song much either I just have a bit of a quibble about where it shows up in the track.  Immediately after hearing Intervention, I want to hear Wake Up.  Thing is Wake Up isn’t even on this album, and pretty much anything other than Wake Up is not something I want to hear.  It’s kind of weird but that’s just the way my head arranges songs.

Overall Ranking:

1.       Prince: Purple Rain (Amazon)
2.       Arcade Fire: Neon Bible (Amazon)
3.       Stooges: Stooges (Amazon)
4.       Frank Sinatra: In The Wee Small Hours (Amazon)

The Food

Green Chili Poutine

French fries can be a little tricky when you’re using fresh potatoes.  There are several things that you want to get right about them.  You want them to be crisp on the outside but soft on the inside.  Something that you can only really accomplish with an ice bath to get rid of the starch and double frying.  It is a bit of extra work to go through but is well worth it.  I do however have no big opposition to bag fries and you can definitely use those instead.

Ingredients:

3 Anaheim Chilies

2 Roma Tomatoes

1 Small sweet Onion

4 Small Russet Potatoes

¼ Cup Vegetable Stock

4 Ounces Cheese Curds

Oil For Frying

Start by roasting the chilies.  More info on how to do that in this blog post.

Run the potatoes through a French Fry Cutter.  Place them in an ice bath for at least 15 minutes before frying.

Dice the onions and tomatoes and sauté in a small sauce pan over low heat.  Once the onions start to become translucent, add the diced chilies and vegetable stock and simmer until sauce thickens.

Preheat the oil to 325F.  An electric deep fryer is perfect for this.

Fry at 325 for three minutes.

Raise the temperature to 350F

Fry for four minutes.  Immediately season fries with salt and pepper.

Pour sauce over the fries and top with cheese curds.  I throw them in the microwave for about 30 seconds until they are just about to melt and hit them with a blow torch just before serving.

The Drink

Firey Black and Tan

For the Drink, I decided to do a little spin on the Black and Tan.  I did however make it with an alcoholic ginger beer rather a lager to give it bit of a spicy taste as an homage to the band name.

Ingredients

1 Ginger Beer

1 Stout Beer

In order to make this drink it is very simple.  Just fill the glass halfway with the ginger beer.  Layer the dark beer by pouring it very slowly over an upside down spoon angled towards the edge of the glass.

1001: Prince: Purple Rain

Prince: Purple Rain

First Listen: At Home, Bose Lifestyle 15 Audio via Chromecast.

Second Listen: At Home, Bose Lifestyle 15 Audio via Chromecast.
Third Listen:  On HP Folio Ultrabook with Sennheiser HD-360 PRO DJ Studio Style while reading lyrics

While I am very familiar with Prince, I don’t think that I’ve listened to many of his studio recordings in their entirety.  I usually reach for the greatest hits.  That aside I had never listened to the Purple Rain Album before I did this time.  I also watched the movie which sort of changed my feeling about some of the tracks on the album as a whole.

The Music

Favorite Tracks:

-Let’s Go Crazy:  How can you not love this classic track.  It’s one of those tracks that is an instant mood changer.  You listen to this track and you’re instantly happy and ready to dance no matter your mood.  Not to mention the sick guitar solo.

-Purple Rain: Maybe it’s the experience of doing this song at karaoke and being held up on my friend’s shoulders as I horribly belted out one of the worst renditions of Purple Rain to an ironically enthusiastic crowd, that makes this song one of my favorites but I absolutely love it. 

-I Would Die 4 U: That upbeat tempo combined with that smooth execution of quickly belted out run on sentences is a combination that can’t be beat.

-When Doves Cry: Rounds out the list of songs that I’ve heard before in great fashion.

-Beautiful Ones: This song is played in an early and somewhat pivotal point in the film as Prince declares his love for Apollonia through this song.  I’m a sucker for dramatic declarations of love so there you go.

Unfavorite Tracks:

-Computer Blue: It is like the only song you get to on this album and you outright want the skip.  You don’t really do it though because the guitar in the middle is amazing but to get to that you have to torture yourself with this just plain mediocre verse.  It’s also far too long.

-Take Me With You: While I do love the lyrical simplicity of the song and I do love the drum riff that breaks out in the beginning and end of the song, I feel like the transition between that riff and the rest of the song is not as clean as I would like it to be.

Overall Listing:

1.       Prince: Purple Rain (Amazon)
2.       Stooges: Stooges (Amazon)
3.       Frank Sinatra: In The Wee Small Hours (Amazon)

The Food

So Prince is a Vegan.  Because of that I had to go with a vegan meal. I wanted to incorporate the color purple into both food and drink but quite frankly that is rather difficult to do.  I really don’t know of that many purple foods, it’s just not that easy of a color.  Grapes, red cabbage, red onion, eggplant.  Exactly four things that don’t really go together.  Although I may have not completely owned up to the challenge of making a meal that exactly goes with the album.  I did make a good vegan dish, and I did use a bit of eggplant.  For the meal I made a decadent smooth and creamy curry cauliflower soup, along with portabella mushroom steaks and sautéed eggplant.

Curry Cauliflower Soup

1 Head of cauliflower diced (you can use much of the core for this but not the green leafy part)

1 ½ Teaspoons Curry Powder

1 Can Coconut Milk

1 Cup Vegetable Stock

2 Tablespoons Coconut Oil

Salt and Pepper to taste

Sautee the cauliflower over medium heat with the curry powder, salt and pepper.

When the cauliflower starts to brown.  Deglaze with the vegetable stock and the coconut milk and cover and simmer until the cauliflower is very tender.  (If the cauliflower is not very tender, you won’t get a smooth and rich texture when you try to blend it, it will come out sort of grainy, if this happens to you though you can always take what you have in the blender, add it back to the pan and keep on cooking it for a bit before blending again.  It really isn’t that huge of an issue if you mess up)

Transfer to a blender and blend until smooth

For the sides

4 Portobello Caps

1 Medium Eggplant

1 Tablespoon Ground Cumin

1 Tablespoon Ground Coriander

Salt and Pepper to taste

1 Tablespoon Coconut Oil

Remove the stems from the mushrooms and season with the cumin, coriander and season with the salt pepper and coriander.  Cook over medium heat until browned.

Remove the top from the Eggplant and cube it.  Season with salt pepper and coriander and sauté over medium heat until tender.

The Drink

For the drink I wanted to make something purple again, but what out there is purple.  I thought about this for quite a while and then I finally came to the conclusion that well…. Hibiscus Tea is kind of purplish-red.

Hibiscus Tea Martini

3 Ounces Cold Hibiscus Tea, sweetened appropriately

1.5 Ounces Gin

Shake the two together and serve up in a chilled martini glass.

1001: Frank Sinatra: In The Wee Small Hours

Frank Sinatra: In The Wee Small Hours

First Listen: While Driving, Car Audio Speakers via Bluetooth

Second Listen: At Home, Bose Lifestyle 15 Audio via Chromecast.

Third Listen: Coffee Shop, Samsung stock headphones with Galaxy Note Three while reading lyrics.

I’m pretty familiar with Frank Sinatra, as I sure most people are, but to be honest, when I heard this album, I don’t think I ever heard any of these songs before.  The songs on this album haven’t quite reached the level of popularity as such tracks as Come Fly With Me, which is incredibly popular.  For what it’s worth, the album itself is extremely melancholy.  The songs themselves are short and direct to the point.

The Music

Favorite tracks:

-I Get Along Very Well: This is a perfect break up song.  I love the overall sarcasm of the song. 

-Can’t We Be Friends: It’s the start of this song that I love more than anything.  It hits you as pure storytelling.  There is something pure to the vocal quality that Frank has that is further showcased by the limited number of instruments in the beginning.  For the first few moments of that song it is just you and Frank with a few simple notes on a piano.

Unfavorite tracks:

To be clear, I don’t really dislike any of the tracks on this album, here are just the three I like least of all.

-Last Night When We Were Young: Call me crazy but I don’t care for the dramatic buildup of the song.  When you measure the lyrical content of the song against the slightly overproduced orchestral music in the background, the lyrics almost come across as an afterthought, and are the most unmemorable of the album.

-I’ll Be Around: Sweet or Creepy? Though this song doesn’t particularly drift into the sheer stalky nature of say Sting’s Every Breath You Take, still even though it isn’t quite as creepy, it sort of flirts on the edge of that territory.  Then again, that may just be a quality of there being no hopelessness to my romanticism.  Unrequited love is quite foolish.

Overall Listing

1. Frank Sinatra: In The Wee Small Hours

The Food

Completely unnecessary but I did make fresh pasta for this.
Recipe is not included because I don't know how much of anything I used
and I ended up making like 3 pounds of pasta.

It was rather difficult to track down food of the 1950’s era that I found appealing.  I did do some digging in order to see what were Sinatra’s favorite food and drinks were.  He loved Italian as well as Whiskey and Water.  I wanted to take some of the popular dishes of the era and adapt it into something tasty with a bit of a fresh twist that is a departure from the overuse of canned products during the era.

Menu:

-Italian Style Gougeres with Sun Dried Tomatoes:  A slight bit of French/Italian fusion into this easy appetizer that combines salty Parmesan with tart sun dried tomatoes to make this near perfect puff of pastry that is reminiscent of a nice pizza.

-Chicken A La King: Not Italian again, but it was wildly popular in the 1950’s.  I also wanted to do a versatile dish, because Dylan was there.  This dish allowed me to share the sauce that I built that was pretty tasty between the two proteins that I used Chicken and tofu, to make a omnivorous dish for me and a vegetarian one for him with just one more pan.

-Creamed Asparagus:  This was a very simple dish.  I used the water that I had on for the pasta to quickly blanch the asparagus before pairing it with a simple roux based white wine and cream sauce.

-Classic Sidecar:  Whisky and water was a bit to simplistic of a drink for me so I went with something traditional and tasty.  This version is one of the few sweeter drinks that I really enjoy and has a nice tartness from the lemon.

Italian Style Gougeres

1 cup water

1-1/2 cups flour

½ Cup Grated Parmasean Cheese

¾ Cup Butter

½ Teaspoon Salt

Four Eggs

¼ Cup Sun Dried Tomatoes Diced

Preheat Oven to 425F

Bring Butter, Water and Salt to a boil.

Adding flour and stir until dough starts to form and then add Cheese and tomatoes.  Stir until you are left with a dough ball

Add to the bowl of a stand mixer, and let cool for a couple minutes.  Start the mixer on low speed.  Add the eggs.

Pipe out onto a parchment lined baking sheet and dot each with a bit of water before baking.

Bake at 425F for 10 mins and then at 350F for another 10 mins.

Chicken A La King

8 Ounces Mushrooms

3 Red Peppers

1 Sweet Onion

2 Cloves Garlic

3 Bay Leaves

1 Cup Sherry

½ Cup Stock

½ Cup Cream

2 Tablespoons Butter

½ Tablespoon Dried Herb de Provence

1 Pound Protein (I used Chicken thighs for the chicken dish and firm tofu)

Roast red peppers, they take the longest so you should start with this.  I roast the peppers  on my stove by placing the peppers over high heat directly over the flame of my gas stove.  This can also be done under a broiler.  I then transfer them to a covered bowl and leave them until they’re cooled, then I remove the skin under running water and slice the peppers.

Sweat the onions with the bay leafs and season with salt and pepper.  When the onions start to become translucent, add the mushrooms sherry and stock cover and simmer.

If you’re doing the chicken, season it with the salt pepper and herb de Provence and brown it on both sides.  Once the chicken is done browning add the sauce and simmer until cooked through.  Finish the sauce with the cream.

If you’re doing the tofu, once your liquid has reduced by about half brown the tofu and add the tofu and cream to the sauce.

Serve all this tossed in cooked egg noodles.

Creamed Asparagus

½ Pound Asparagus

¼ Cup Dry white wine

1 Tablespoon Butter

1 Tablespoon Flour

¼ Cup Cream

¼ Cup grated Parmesan Cheese

Fresh Ground Black Pepper

Combine the butter and flower in a small sauce pan over medium heat.

Whisk in the white wine and parmesan cheese.

Add cream and continue whisking

Serve sauce over blanched asparagus woody ends removed.

The Drink: 

Sidecar

3 Ounces Whiskey

½ Ounce Triple Sec

Juice of Half a Lemon

1 Teaspoon Sugar

Shake all the ingredients together and serve in a rocks glass with a lemon twist.

Year of the Horse

Near finished product

So I know I’m a couple of weeks late on this blog post, but I’ve been super busy trust me.  I didn’t want to watch the Super Bowl this year, so instead, I went to a party hosted by my friend Lian.  I couldn’t bear to watch this year because of the Seahawks making it to the Super Bowl.  In my head I knew that they would win, but I didn’t want to admit that to even myself.

Action Shot

DOUBLE THE ACTION

Taking Photos of photo takers

This party was perfect though, since it would be mostly Super Bowl free.  We did end up watching the halftime show though.  I decided to play along with the theme and ended up making a vegetarian dumpling.  I was secretly hoping that someone would make one with pork, but I didn’t want to be that guy, so I just made a mushroom leek dumpling.

Anyway my dumpling kicked ass.  All of the other fillings people made were really good too, except for that kimchi one.  I absolutely hate kimchi, and I don’t know how anyone can eat it.  The smell of it makes me sick.

I also wanted to make a cocktail, because I’m good at it and I already had something in mind.  I did a test run the night before just to make sure and it ended up tasting great so everyone got the benefit.

Mushroom-Leek Dumplings

8 ounces cremini mushrooms

8 ounces silken tofu

1 large leek stalk, cleaned and chopped, woody ends removed

1 stalk lemongrass

⅓ Cup tamari

Living the High Life

⅛ Pound Daikon radish cubed

About 30 snow peas julienned

1 tablespoon sesame oil

1 tablespoon sriracha

1 tablespoon coconut oil

Method:

1. Brown the mushrooms and leeks in the coconut.  Bruise the lemongrass stalk and add it to the mushroom leek mixture while cooking.  

2. Deglaze with the soy sauce and simmer for 10 minutes over low heat

3.  Remove the lemongrass and add it to the food processor with the tofu, puree until smooth.

4.  Mix in the radish and snow peas for a little crunch and you’re ready to start filling your dumplings.

Pro tip: Fry your dumplings and when you add liquid to finish cooking the dumplings use vegetable stock to steam rather than water.  It makes a huge difference in taste.

Lychee Drink Thing

So I couldn’t come up with a name.   Hey it’s tasty and that’s all that matters.  I did get sold on a vita mix when I was here, since the one they had there made great drinks even though it was a little bit older model.  Anyway to make a pitcher of this frozen goodness, this is how you do it.

Ingredients:

2 Sprigs Rosemary leaves removed from woody stems

2 cans lychees, drained and frozen

Ready to be cooked

½ Cup Gin

½ Cup Green Tea Vodka

½ Cup Ginger Liqueur

Juice of one Lemon

8 oz. Coconut Water

3 tablespoons reserved syrup from lychees

Blend all ingredients until smooth.

NAH6: A Foodie Dice Challenge Edition. Curried Bean Cakes

With the second roll of the dice, I chose to use the vegetarian protein and I ended up with:

Beans

Rice

Cabbage

Curry

Dill

Hot Peppers

Roast/Bake

 The hardest part of this was the roast bake thing, and the dill element.  Dill is an herb that I rarely use.  There is something about these dice that makes me much more creative.  Curry is an herb that I do use a lot though.  Then all of a sudden everything just sort of clicked together.

 

I knew that the roasted element would have to be the cabbage straight away.  I couldn’t think of any way of roasting the beans at all.  I decided to make a panko crusted bean cake with basamati brown rice.  It would go alongside curry roasted cabbage.  With the dill I made a pickled fennel, raddish , pimento and finger chilies.  To tie everything together I had a sweet coconut sirracha sauce.

It winded up pretty well balanced.  You had the spiciness and depth of the entire dish, lots of richness.  You had all sorts of great textures going on, the crispness of the bean cake along with the soft roasted cabbage.  The rich creamy sauce went well and countered perfectly with the pickled vegetables.  I’ve got to say these foodie dice have reinvigorated my desire to cook.

I wish I would have though plating through more though because this doesn't really do the dish justice.

Ingredients:

For the pickled vegetables:

One Fennel Bulb

4 Pimento Peppers

3 Finger Peppers

½ Bunch Fennel

1 Teaspoon sliced fresh ginger

1 Bunch Raddish

2 Cups Vinegar

½ Cup Sugar

Juice of one Lime

1/2 Bunch Fresh Dill

Two star Anise Pods

For The Bean Cakes:

2 Cups cooked white beans drained

½ Cup Flour

2 Tablespoons sweet Curry Powder

¼ Cup Panko

Coconut Oil for frying

1 Cup Cooked Basamati Brown Rice

For the Coconut Sirracha Sauce:

1 Can whole fat coconut Milk

Zest of one lime

1 Tablespoon Siraccha

For the Cabbage:

1 Head Cabbage

3 Tablespoons Extra Virgin Olive Oil

1 Tablespoon Curry Powder

1 Teaspoon Cumin

1 Teaspoon Coriander

Method:

For the sauce:

Refrigerate a can of Coconut Milk for around 8 hours or overnight.  DO NOT SHAKE

Scoop off the cream from the top half of the can leaving the rest of the clear liquid behind

Whisk the sirracha and lime zest together with the removed coconut cream.

For the Bean Cakes:

Add cooked beans to blender and pulse until finely ground

Transfer mixture to bowl and add in all remaining ingredients except Panko and stir until combined.

Season the mixture with salt and pepper

Form into round cakes and coat both sides with panko

Cook both sides over medium heat until browned

For the Cabbage:

Cut the cabbage into large wedges.

Combine all ingredients and mix until coated.  Season with salt and pepper.

Roast at 375F for 45 minutes

For the Pickled Vegetables:

Over Medium Heat, dissolve the sugar over medium heat

Add all of the thinly sliced vegetables to the mix along with the lime juice and cover and let sit for at least two hours.

BLT 2.0

This sandwich is amazing.  It is basically a huge upgrade on the traditional BLT.  It comes from getting rid of the bread.  There is absolutely no need for it.  The bread gets replaced with awesome crispy fried green tomatoes.  When I initially made this I only intended to eat two of them, but I ended up eating all of them because it is so tasty.  I also cheated on the traditional recipe by adding in a bit of smoked Gouda.  Everything in this sings together.  You can also make it vegetarian by subbing in Tempeh bacon or smart bacon.

I’m only going to include the method of the fried green tomatoes themselves.  I combine it with some arugula, mayo, bacon and cheese to make a sandwich.

Ingredients:

• 2 Medium Green Tomatoes
• Creole Seasoning to taste
• 1/8 Cup Panko
• 1/8 Cup Cornmeal
• ¼ Cup Buttermilk
• ¼ Cup All Purpose Flour
• Oil for frying (If you’re using regular bacon you can just use the bacon grease)

Method:

1. Slice the tomatoes to 1/4 inch thick slices.
2. Season one side with creole seasoning and place that side down on a cooling sheet for 15-30 minutes.  Season the other side and flip and let sit on the cooling sheet for 15-30 minutes.  (This is to draw some of the moisture out.  If you’re just making fried green tomatoes it’s not fried green tomatoes the wait is not necessary, but in order to keep the sandwich a little neater and make the tomatoes a little drier and more bread-like.)
3. Dry off excess moisture from the tomatoes
4. Combine the cornmeal and panko.
5. Dredge the tomatoes in the flour.  Coat them in the buttermilk and then the panko cornmeal mixture.
6. Fry over medium heat for about two minutes each side until golden brown

NAH5: Kohlrabi Salad with Pickled Mushrooms

Inspired by a trip to the farmer's market.  This was a quick and easy one.  I kind of lucked out with all of the ingredients.  The Kohlrabi was on sale for a really good price.  So were the mushrooms and I can't ever really see myself passing up a good deal on some shiitake mushrooms.  I also got really lucky as the herbs were on manager's special half off.  I sort of got the idea for the dish by combining the good experience I had with a kohlrabi salad at Girl and the Goat with the pickled mushrooms I enjoyed with carpaccio while in London.

Ingredients:
1 Bunch of Kohlrabi
1 Pint of Shitake Mushrooms
1/2 Clove of Garlic (I actually ended up mincing thee cloves and then once I came to my senses about having raw garlic I only used about 1/6th of it)
1/4 Cup Vinegar (For this I used a coconut white balsamic from Twisted olive, and it has a lot of sweetness to it.  If using say white wine vinegar, you might want to mix in a teaspoon or so of sugar)
1 Teaspoon Crushed Red Pepper
1/4 Cup Vegan Mayo
1 Tablespoon Chopped Fresh Tarragon
Zest of one Lemon
Juice of 1/2 Lemon
Salt and Pepper to taste

1. Remove the stems from the mushrooms and thinly slice them
2. Add them to a bowl with the vinegar, red pepper and very finely minced garlic Allow to marinate for at least two hours.
3. Peel and chop the kohlrabi.  Any cut will work here, I just chose to julienne because my mandoline makes pretty quick work of it.
4. Whisk the lemon juice into the mayo and toss everything together.

No Animals Harmed 4:Vegan Fettuccine Bolongese

After a trip to the farmers market, I was pretty set on what I wanted to end up cooking it was one of those times where I already had the dish mapped out in my head.  I wanted pasta.  At the market there were these great crememi mushrooms on sale for $2.50 a pint.  I had to take advantage of them for this recipe and they provide the meatiness for my meatless Bolongese sauce.  If you prefer a more classic carnivorous version, my friend Phenix has an excellent version on his blog.

Ingredients:
1/2 Large Sweet Onion Diced

3 Celery Stalks Diced

3 Medium Carrots Diced

2 Bay Leaves

3 Cloves Garlic Minced

4 oz Tomato Paste

1/4 Bottle Dry White Wine

1- 15 oz can San Marzano Tomatoes

1 Pint Cremini Mushrooms Finely Diced

1/8 cup Extra Virgin Olive Oil

1 Tablespoon Fresh Oregano

3 Tablespoons Fresh Basil

1. Season the onion, celery, garlic, bay leaves and carrots and sweat over medium low heat in the extra virgin olive oil until the onions are translucent and the veggies are soft. Stir frequently so the veggies don't caramelize.
2. Add in the tomato paste and stir until it coats the veggies and is fragrant.  Add in the finely diced mushrooms
3. Deglaze the pan using the white wine, and allow to reduce until you have a thick sauce.
4. Add in the tomatoes and mash them into the sauce and mash them a bit using a potato masher.
5. Add In diced fresh herbs.  If using dried herbs you want to use a third of the amount and add them in during the sweat.
6. Serve over pasta.