Brooklyn

It's nice to be home for a while. Hanging with my lady and the cats. Cooking my ass off. Dub Trio gig and recording session. Buying some vinyl again(*picture outside of Academy Record Annex). Appreciating what I have. Reminding myself it's ok to be a human BEING and not always a human DOING.


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WOW! The cat who posts this blog definitely does their hip-hop homework. i mean there is some serious time spent digging for this kind of knowledge. quite a few video gems, mixtapes, and album discoveries.

Party. Pizza Party.

wow, i can't think of the last time i actually made pizza from scratch. i think it had to have been sometime in late 80's at my pops house.. moreover, it was probably a Chef Boyardee pizza-in-a-box. while thinking of some new dishes to make in the upcoming week, i decided tonight was going to be pizza night.

after Dub Trio rehearsal i had an hour or so to make the dough (a mixture of whole wheat and unbleached bread flours, yeast and warm water, olive oil, and salt). upon finishing combining, mixing, kneading, oiling, and covering my creation it was straight to a meeting that went just long enough to let the dough rise. back home...voila...the dough had risen to more than twice it's size, and with a good punch down the center to remove any air bubbles, i started to make a pesto (basil, garlic, pine nuts, parm chesse, olive oil, and s&p). i separated the dough into two chunks. the first was to be rosemary infused crust (add fresh coarsely chopped rosemary while rolling the dough into shape) topped with the pesto and shitake and cremini mushrooms. the second pie was a simple San Marzano tomato sauce, a few dollops of the fresh pesto, fresh mozzarella cheese, olive oil, white truffle oil, and s&p.

i baked each for pie about 20 minutes on 500 degrees, and low and behold....PIZZA!

GUMBO night

since i've been eating food again for three days now, i've had a serious craving for some GUMBO. i remember eating some delicious seafood gumbo for lunch before sound check at the House of Blues in NO. i asked as many locals who has the best seafood gumbo within walking distance...my answer was Johnny's Po-Boys. a small little hole in the wall resto, filled with locals, a few tables and some folks behind the counter that looked like they knew what they were doing. this was the first time i had REAL gumbo. on a side note, the BBQ Shrimp at Mr. B's for dinner that night was killing. next time i go back it will the The Gumbo shop on the hit list.

back to tonight....so i figured i would make vegetable and soy chipotle sausage gumbo. last time i made seafood doing my best to recreate Johnny's.

Whole Foods stop:

onion, green pepper, celery (the holy trinity), garlic, okra, soy chorizo (or real adouille for you meat lovers), tomatoes (a big no-no in Cajon style, but we're making Creole), black-eyed peas, and i had the remaining ingredients (oil & flour (for the roux), dried herbs(thyme, basil, oregano), worcestershire, creole seasoning blend(must include cayenne pepper and paprika), homemade vegetable stock (seafood stock with seafood gumbo), lemon, and s&p).

basic recipe:

brown the sausage in a pan.
in a separate soup pot start the roux and cook to desired color. add the chopped vegetables (but not the okra) and aromatics and cook till tender. add browned sausage, diced tomatoes, okra, and stock. add seasoning and spices. bring to a boil. reduce to a simmer and continue cooking for 1 hour uncoverd. stirring occasionally and seasoning to taste. serve over rice and garnish with spring onions.

tips....

--cook the roux, without burning it, on med-high heat to get it as close to a dark chocolate color as possible. **stir constantly
--don't under season. it is a hearty soup and can take a little salt, heat, and spice. you can add bit of lemon or cider vinegar for some acidity. or try a small bouquet garni with some peppercorns, fresh parsley, bay leaf, whole cloves, etc....
--if you can't deal with the "slime" from your okra you can roast it in the oven for 10 minutes to take out a bit of its inherent moisture. however, the "slime" does help as a thickener in the soup.
--make sure your stock is very flavor-FULL. again, it is a soup and stock is the base. you can add Better Than Bouillon or Kitchen Bouquet to help with a uninspired stock.
--after bringing everything to a boil allow to simmer, with the lid off, and reduce and concentrate flavors
--server with a nice cold beer, California Zinfandel, Sancerre blanc, Australian Sauvignon blanc, or an Arnold Palmer.

YEZZIR

Drinking Food

Upon my return from South America i went straight into a juice fast. no caffeine. no wine. no solids. motherf'in fruits and vegetables. i went out and bought myself a Breville juicer, a plethora of produce and went to town. albeit a short cleanse, as day 6 approaches mañana, its almost time to eat solids again. here's some food for thought:

1. making your own version of V8 RULES and its contains about 90% less sodium. i made more like V12...adding things like parsnip, kale, golden beets, scallion as well as the obligatory celery, carrot, spinach and the like. try adding a little garlic (helps immune system, anti-everything, and aids in allergy relief). adding a few brussel sprouts will not disappoint either.

2. by adding a little peeled and juiced lime to any green juice will cut the bitterness and give a slightly sweet flavor.

3. grapefruit, blackberry, pineapple & pear juice combo RULES!!!

4. watermelon, ginger & fresh orange juice RULES...thanks Stu.

5. place your glasses in the freezer to chill them before pouring in the juice.

6. reuse your produce bags in the pulp container to cut down on clean up.

it's probably a good idea to buy all "organic" produce, since it will be the only thing you'll be putting in your body for an extended period of time.

....i broke my fast with vegetable soup (use some of the scraps & peels from the juice cleanse to make your own veggie stock for the soup), an avocado smoothie (avo, banana, pineapple, honey, rice milk) and homemade spirulina bars (spirulina powder, honey, various nuts & seeds, coconut oil, vanilla, cinnamon, and ginger powder)