vegetable rocket-punch/black people are always right

menu

• capelin & flyign fish roe with cream cheese on rice crackers


• sesame-soy custard


• kabocha soup


• walnut-miso green beans


• gobo-mushroom sushi


• lemon-hazelnut sole


• chocolate cupcakes with whipped cream and brandy cherries

movie
surburbia

caviar & roe with cream cheese on rice crackers

This was a impulse no-brainer, while shopping at Mitsuwa for the rest of the ingredients for dinner I came face to face with the sushi department. I was not entirely confident about the menu at the time so I needed a something I knew was a easy hit, flying fish roe alternating with atlantic capelin roe nestled in cream cheese on rice cracker. Salty and creamy, you just can't lose.

sesame-soy custard

This was the one I was most excited and scared about, vegan custard? How the hell is that going to work? I think the custard in the title is mostly for lack of a better term for it. The secret for it is kanten (agar agar), a seaweed based gelling agent. This is weird stuff when cooked it starts to thicken, fast! It's also a cleaning nightmare, not as bad but no unlike leaving cream of whear or oatmeal out to dry.

The custard was actually pretty good, the only problem was the recipe for called for soy sauce and a dab of wasabi. The soy sauce worked well with the nuttiness of the sesame seed and I the wasabi worked well, however I think I put too much. It kind of overpowered the custard a bit.

kabocha soup

This was almost disaster only averted by my inability to calculate my portions correctly. Kabocha is a mild, faintly sweet, pumpkin-like squash. It's a total pain in the ass to peel. Crisis comes as again my inability to calculate portions rears it's ugly head. The recipe called for 6 oz. block of tofu I was planning on doubling the recipe so I bought 2 packages of tofu. However, the packagesI bought were 12 oz blocks! As I was sauteeing the tofu it looked it was a bit much for sqaush based soup. I also purchased two kabocha squash, so I had plenty of squash left over to quadruple the recipe without too much damage.

The soup was really good despite my fuck up. It's pretty much like miso soup really light, but nicely accented with some scallions.

walnut-miso green beans

By far the easiest thing to make here. A nutty flavor which always seems to go with green beans. The only problem here was the beans. They weren't the freshest beans and totally lost their snap when blanched, fuckers.

gobo-mushroom sushi

Gobos are funny looking, long brown root vegetables that are about a inch in diameter. They have a dark,earthy flavor that could run the danger of being too, how should I put it, brown-tasting. This dish refers to sushi in the technically not colloquial sense. The rice is made with water and rice vinegar which gives it quite a bite. It does mix very well with gobo and shiitake mushroom.

lemon-hazelnut sole

The recipe called for Meyer lemons, but I couldn't find any so I went with the normal variety. This was almost too easy just toast and chop some hazelnut, grate some lemon peel, coat sole fillets and grill.
The end result was awesome, simple and elegant.

chocolate cupcakes with whipped cream and brandy cherries

This dessert was something I put together for a little bit of weight after a fairly light meal. Kind of a disconnected black foerst thing. It would have been perfect except for my stupid oven, over cooked the cupcakes. I was always forget to keep an eye the oven, it always bakes really fast. It wasn't a total failure it dried them out a little bit. I could tell it was a little dry when I brought out the extra whipped cream everybody went for a little bit more.

Overall things went great, the four main recipes were adapted from Yumiko Kano from the New York Times. Yumiko runs Sen, a 14-seat restaurant in Tokyo [which sounds like my dream restaurant]. She serves only vegetable-based meals, not in a vegetarian sense, but more in focused area in which to create. This is what drew me to them. I not a fan of subsitution vegetarianism, if you don;t eat meat then don't eat. But don't just subsitute portabello mushroom for burgers. Start with vegetables and build from there.

suburbia

My how things look so different after a few years. There was a time that my friends and I couldn't drive past a bus without somebody saying "give me that bottle!". I don't remember this movie being sexist or racist but with this seems to be something that happens from now and then in punk rock.I also don't remember it being as bad as actually is. The acting is horrible and the plot, groomed for maximum drepravity. The first scene with dogs? WTF? An equally strange scene is the next where a poser gets her comeuppance and stands naked and screams for like 5 minutes while being taunted by all the true school punks.
While this for me was a revisitation of what was a defining moment fro just about everbody I knew who, a one point in their lives were all about teen angst and punk nihilism, it wasn't an international phenomenom. Some my guests were from Canada and this was their first experience with suburbia, which they all found quite amusing.
My favorite moment that I didn't notice before was Officer Bill's, Jack Diddley's dad, stunning array of Member's Only Jackets. My other favorite is the best citizen group ever, Citizens Against Crime.

Enter the chamber...

This is my foray into my adventures as a stuntcooker and daredevil diner.

Stuntcooking is defined by the fact I have no idea what I'm doing. I can follow recipes and put together a meal however, I have not been able to attain the 'alchemy' of cooking. Given a random assortment of ingredients I could maybe put something together but who knows what'll come out.

Daredevil dining is more of the same, not in a fear-factor-eat-some-rancid-maggots sort of way but more in a try some new and different things sort of way.

Anyway, this is a recalling of my ongoing series of dinner parties, the food I attempt to make and the bad movies I show during those parties.

Enjoy!