a criterion feast

These days it seems I can't get anything done unless it's preceded by an emotional breakdown. That's what happened with this post. I sat down, I cried, and then I birthed out a couple of decent paragraphs. But it feels good to care. To remember that I do. To put on some weight and anchor myself again.

Thank you Shawn for the tip and for always showing me that there are more good things.

Here's A Cinema Feast from the Criterion Collection.

forgetting my food films on ink. beef hearts and zombie chickens

Zombies + Fried Chicken = "Poultrygeist: Night of the Chicken Dead"

Les Blank Cooks Beef Hearts and Guinea Pigs (Probably) for Cinefamily Screening

No guinea pigs, but Joe and I prep'd the beef heart for Les Blank. I don't know if he actually cooked them himself, but they turned out unexpectedly well. A lot like lamb kabob really and, as you can see, so much cheaper.


Recipe from the Washington Post


INGREDIENTS:
3 tablespoons corn oil
1 tablespoon ground achiote (annatto seed)
1/2 fresh or canned aji amarillo pepper, minced (1 to 2 tablespoons)
1/2 cup water
2 teaspoons salt
2 teaspoons ground cumin
5 medium cloves garlic, minced
6 pounds beef heart, cleaned and cut into 1 1/2-inch-by-2-inch rectangular pieces*

DIRECTIONS:
Place the oil in a small heatproof container; microwave on HIGH for 10 to 20 seconds. Add the achiote, stirring to form a paste. Transfer to a large resealable plastic food storage bag.

Combine the aji amarillo and water in a mini food processor**; pulse to form a pastelike puree. Add to the bag, along with the salt, cumin, pepper, garlic and vinegar; mix well.

Add the pieces of beef heart; seal the bag, pressing as much air out of it as possible. Massage the marinade into the meat. Refrigerate for at least 4 hours and preferably overnight.

When ready to cook, soak several 12-inch-long bamboo skewers in water for 30 minutes, or have ready metal skewers.
Prepare the grill for direct heat. Lightly coat the grill rack with oil and place it on the grill.

Push 4 or 5 pieces of seasoned meat close together, end to end, on each skewer, reserving the marinade. Grill for 3 to 4 minutes (for medium-rare), turning the skewers as needed and using the marinade to brush the meat.

NOTES:
*The butcher can clean the heart for you. At Jons, which was pretty much the only place we could find hearts without at least a days notice, they were already cleaned and packed in cellophane.
**We didn't have a food processor so we just chopped as finely as possible. All combining was done by Joe with his bare hands. Further note, you might want to wear gloves. Also, don't touch your eyes.

"Ice Cream Man" and a few thoughts on "Julie & Julia"

"Eyeballs, Gore, and Clint Howard: Everything You Need to Jump Start Your Post-National Ice Cream Month Diet" is my formal farewell to July. It's kind of funny, if you want to take a look.

Also, because the "Julie & Julia" coverage is embarrassingly over-saturated, I'm not going to review it for SI. I admit I'm slightly relieved about not having to write it. I'm not a critic, so my review would deal primarily with the food aspects of the movie, which, as I noted in my Susan Spungan post, were flawless. The movie itself, however, was far from it.

I struggle to describe exactly what was wrong with it because I thought aspects of it were lovely, even moving. But there was something dishonest in the way the two stories were forced into parallel structures for the sake of the film's cinematic palatability. Something that I have too many specific words and instances for, but which ultimately amount to very little. Yesterday, Gourmet.com ran "The Trouble with Julie & Julia," an occasionally self-indulgent detailing of its writer Laura Shapiro's thoughts on Julia Child and Meryl Streep's portrayal of her, that concludes in a very apt detailing of at least part of what feels wrong in the film.

...Ephron is wholly faithful to the essence of Julia’s experience, and to the reasons why her years in Paris contributed so markedly to American culinary history. When Julia went to the Cordon Bleu and learned how to cook—by hand, without fancy equipment, from the ground up—she was also learning that passion and appetite weren’t enough. She needed technique, confidence, patience, and a host of finicky skills that only came with practicing. It was an approach to cooking that had all but disappeared from American kitchens, and without it Americans were never going to know what they were missing. That’s why she wanted to teach—because mastering French cooking had ushered her into a world so fascinating, so enlightening, and so endlessly delicious she thought everyone deserved access to it.

The idea of Powell as a contemporary heir to this personal and culinary epic is absurd. Nothing in her relation to the kitchen offers the slightest hint that she has learned anything at all from her heroine. In the film, Adams tackles each recipe as if it’s her opponent on a battlefield and the only point of cooking is victory. If the dish comes out well, she glows; if it fails, she throws a tantrum. Watching tapes of The French Chef (splendidly recreated with Streep as the 1960s Julia), her sole reaction to the sight of a genuine master at work is to coo, “She’s so adorable.” This is a journey of self-discovery? At the end, she visits the Julia Child kitchen exhibit at the Smithsonian, and her husband takes a picture of her mugging at a portrait of Julia (i.e. Streep). It’s completely unbearable.

Although I don't think the movie suggests that Julie Powell is "a contemporary heir to" Julia Child, I can see why it might seem that way. The end of the movie tries to tie things up in a convenient bow -- Julia gets Mastering the Art of French Cooking published and Julie's answering machine fills with offers for movie and book deals. Success/success suggests an aligning of fates to a point, not destinies. But more importantly, Shapiro says, "Powell progresses from cute to famous without anything happening on the inside." Or on the outside, I'd like to note, since she's supposedly gaining all this weight from cooking. Again, it's insincere but insignificant, shortsighted maybe.

I guess I just feel that for a movie that has a built in resonance with 20-30 year olds who have graduated college only to find that they've leaned everything except how to become the people they want to be, there are so few moments that honor that connection. "Julie & Julia" starts strong and then gets lost along the way. By the end, we know that we are not Julie. But maybe that's the thing that pushes us in the kitchen after seeing the movie -- the need to start as Julie starts, honestly and with integrity, and actually finish that way.

Bon appetit! My post on "Julie & Julia" food stylist, Susan Spungen

"'Julie & Julia' Food Stylist Susan Spungen Explains the Secret to a Perfect Cheese Pull" was a pleasure to write, as Spungen herself was incredibly interesting, but getting it up was like trial by fire.

The PR people from Columbia hounded me about when I was going to post on the blogger event and then, when I was all ready to go, they couldn't get me photos. It seriously took them 5 days to send me the photos, which were actually a link to the photos and came with their own set of hoops for me to jump through. My editor Amy really went to bat for me though. She called the PR girl and (I assume) tore into her for making this whole thing so difficult. I can only imagine what she said exactly because she got the photos up shortly thereafter and the post looks lovely.

"Mushrooms" in Ink, Morels in Cream

Here's the review of the documentary, "Know Your Mushrooms" I wrote for Squid Ink. I planned to run the review with a recipe from Joe's mushroom phylogenist friend, Tess, but the recipe didn't make it into the final copy so I'm reprinting it here as a Live and Active cultures EXLUSIVE recipe.

May (and into June) is "morel month" in the mushrooming community (Morels can be several species of the Morchella genus).
And then the beginning of June and through the summer is Porcini (Boletus edulis) time.

Both mushrooms grow all over the world in wooded areas. They are both "mycorrhizal" fungi, meaning they grow in association with plants roots, in this case tree roots.

Those are the two main wild mushrooms people can easily find or buy at all times of the year, either fresh or dried. Actually, both are great even when dried. Here is a recipe using morels. It is a pretty common combination of cream and morels, but it's not copied from any specific recipe, so that should be good for you to print.
It is great on bread as an appetizer, or over pasta, or with grilled chicken or steak, etc.

Morels in Cream
8 oz. fresh morels (or 1 oz. dried)
1 cup cream
2 oz. butter
salt and pepper to taste

Additional ingredients for variation:
1 t. chopped fresh herb such as parsley, thyme, basil, sage, or chervil, etc.
1 chopped shallot
1 clove minced garlic
1/2 c. white wine

Begin by blanching morels, both fresh or dried. This helps remove dirt and some compounds from the mushrooms that are potential carcinogens. To blanche, slice morels either lengthwise or crosswise and place in a small bowl and pour boiling water over them, soak 5 minutes then discard the water.
Add blanched mushrooms and butter to a heated skillet or sauce pan. Saute' 5 minutes. Add wine, if using, and reduce. Add cream and herbs and reduce to desired consistency- thinner if serving over pasta, thicker if serving over meat, and thicker still if serving over bread.

That's the recipe. It's simple, easy, versatile and tastes delicious!

Tess makes and does a lot of cool stuff on her blog, Homegrown. Thanks again for the recipe, Tess! I'm super excited to try it!

Food on Film

Daily Dish ran this breakdown of upcoming food films. The list is only slightly underwhelming. I've actually seen "Pressure Cooker" already and it totally choked me up so I'm optimistic for the rest. Still, a good food-centric narrative doesn't seem like too much to ask for.

'Food, Inc.'
Director Robert Kenner has teamed up with famed authors Michael Pollan and Eric Schlosser to make an expose that he says “started out as a story of how our food gets to our dinner table, and turned into a horror film.”

Kenner, who won an Emmy for “The American Experience,” interviewed several commercial farmers for the documentary, which provides a critical look at our nation’s failing industrial food system and how we got into this mess in the first place.

Opens Friday at the Nuart Theater.

'Pressure Cooker'
"Pressure Cooker" is the culinary equivalent of "Dangerous Minds," showing that a little tough love can go a long way for a few Frankford High School students in Philadelphia. This documentary follows a class as it participates in a culinary training program run by Wilma Stephenson. Stephenson is one tough cookie, but she’s just the type these at-risk youth need to serve up success. The students are prepping for a competition held by C-CAP, where they compete for scholarships to some of the country’s top culinary schools (Iron Chef Morimoto makes a guest appearance as one of the judges). Though it lacks thrills and serious drama, this film serves as testament to the power of food.

Now playing at the Laemmle Sunset 5 and the Laemmle Pasadena Playhouse 7.

'Corked!'
This wine country mockumentary is a spoof on the romanticized ideas of winemakers and producers that "Sideways" and "Bottle Shock" have portrayed on the big screen. The film was co-written and directed by Paul Hawley of Sonoma’s Hawley Winery (who makes a fabulous Viognier) and Ross Clendenen. It packs a few laughs and some stunning vineyard footage, courtesy of the access the boys had from Paul’s papa being in the biz.

Showing through Thursday at the Downtown Independent Theater

'Bananas'
Filmmaker Fredrik Gertten sheds light on the global politics of food and the effects of free trade in his film, which documents the plight of 12 Nicaraguan banana plantation workers fighting a legal battle against Dole Foods over use of a dibromochloropropane-based pesticide called Nemagon (the chemical has been banned in the U.S. because it causes sterility in men and has also been linked to certain cancers). Spearheading the legal battle is a local celebrity, Juan Jose Dominguez, whose ads are on the back of L.A. Metro buses.

Screening at the L.A. Film Festival on June 20 at 7 p.m. at the Regent Theater and June 23 at 9 p.m. at the Landmark Theater 8.

'Know Your Mushrooms'
Fungi gurus Gary Lincoff and Larry Evans star in a documentary about the strange and mysterious world of mushrooms. Foragers and 'shroom enthusiasts will likely get a kick out of this film, which features two of the most highly regarded mycologists in the field.

Opens Friday at the Downtown Independent.