Dinner and a Movie!!

Dinner and a Movie….Where have you heard that before? ….Dinner and a movie….hmmmm?….Dinner and a Movie…. Dang it!! I got caught, didn’t I!!!

Ok! So I swiped off the title for this blog from some show on TV. But I was too lazy to come up with something original and catchy by myself. So pardon and overlook my ‘plagiaristic maneuvers’, but still enjoy the recipes and the movies…..(Maybe it should be ‘Food & Film’ eh? HA!)

It’s not often that I get the opportunity for some quiet movie time with my husband and somehow on the same evening feel like cooking some fancy food for dinner. The co-ordinates are all perfect this evening…He is free, his mobile, laptop both switched off. I am cooking with whatever’s in the refrigerator and am in no mood for Indian food. This was also a blessed day when there were some fun veggies in the fridge….My hubbs is a veggie. Hence, that’s what I cook most of the times – veggies!….alternatives and suggestions are provided in my recipes…as always for the other more normal folks.

If anyone knows me, they will know that as much as I would like to follow recipes, the only time I follow them to the tee is when I am baking. I know too much about altering baking recipes and the resulting ‘altered’ results….My bakery ‘Prof.’ made sure I learnt my lesson well, Ouch!! It still hurts to think of some of those…err…impositions ‘ahem’!! I am the eternal improviser…I have to add my own stamp, mark to everything I cook. It is almost impossible for me to make something palatable if I had to constantly look into a book or paper….it has to be in my head and I have to sense it before I actually taste it. Write it off as a Chayism if you will...Also why I hate day to day cooking and find it so boring…..

There’s more to my culinary eccentricities and my recipes….I wont have accurate measurements to give you, since I ball-park most of my seasonings and ingredients. I will take whatever’s in the pantry and work with it…so each time it is different. That is the given standard at ‘Chez Chay’. Did I mention that I rarely taste while cooking. Or that I cannot eat right after cooking…well I can go on and on. Another time perhaps.

Now that this long introduction has gone on for long enough…lets get cooking folks!! Here are a couple of recipes I concocted…. (I like to have some ingredients in all the dishes in a meal…give some subtly pronounced flavours that carry thru the entire meal. Ex: garlic, parsley in this meal) But unlike the description, the food will not taste oxymoronic! That I assure you…

Spaghetti with spinach….sounds mundane?….maybe!…but do try it!


Spaghetti:

Get together: Spaghetti, garlic, olive oil, spinach, white onions, olives (any kind u like), heavy cream, chicken/veg stock, dried oregano, fresh curly parsley, parmesan (reggiano if you can get some), anchovies in oil, sun dried tomatoes in olive oil, red chilli flakes, salt, cracked pepper, sugar.

• A regular handful for every 2 persons. Pop it in a pot with plenty of boiling H2O.
• Season with salt sparingly *
• DO NOT add oil **
• Cook for about 8 – 10 mins, a little less than the package recommends.

Start the sauce -

• In a pan, take about a tbsp of oil from the jar of sun dried tomatoes. Combine it with 2 more tbsp of olive oil *** (Optional – 1 tbsp oil from sun dried tomatoes + 1 tbsp Olive oil + 1 tbsp butter)
• Add about 4 cloves of chopped garlic, sweat it a bit.
• Add the anchovies, 2 pieces ****. Stir it for about 2 mins till they disintegrate.
• Add a cup of thinly sliced white onions. When translucent add a couple of pinches of sugar and caramelize the onions just a touch.
• Put in about 3 handfuls of whole spinach leaves and wilt it a bit.
• Add ½ a cup of stock, 1 tsp of dried oregano and about ½ cup of the hot pasta water.
• When it’s beginning to boil, add ½ cup of the heavy cream, 1 tsp of chilli flakes, crack some pepper and salt into it and allow it all to come together. You determine the heat u want…in the food that is.
• Take a look at the pasta. Once it’s al dente *****, drain well.
• Come back to the sauce, see if it tastes fine and just put in the recently drained pasta into it.
• Toss it all together. After about a minute, cut off the heat.
• Leave the pan on the stove. Add the olives, the chopped parsley, about a cup of grated parmegiano-reggiano. Toss together again.
• Put into your serving bowl. Top it with chunks of chopped sun dried tomatoes and some more of the tomato flavoured oil. Shave some more parmegiano-reggiano on top and Voila!!

Of course, you can add pine nuts, feta whatever u like…I dislike feta. And I did not have any pine nuts.

Notes:
* - The only time u can actually flavour the pasta is when u are cooking it. Add salt, always a little, because you will season the sauce as well. Remember the cheese is salty too.
** - Oil will only avoid the salt from attaching itself to the pasta. Don’t worry, the noodles will not stick if cooked properly and removed in time.
*** - Personally I prefer extra virgin, but if u dislike the strong flavour opt for fino or light oil.
**** - Anchovies – beware veggies, avoid this, it’s a fishy fish. However, for the uninitiated, once it disintegrates, it will no longer taste like fish, but very nutty and subtle. It will be the base for all the other flavours…Yummo!
***** - Al dente- a texture when u can still bite into it, a little less than done. I like to cook it a little less than recommended. It will cook through in the heat of the sauce. Please do not rinse cooked pasta in cold H2O. It is a hot dish so the pasta should go right into the pan of sauce. If you are making a salad or some cold dish, then you can rinse it briefly in ice cold water – a process that will arrest cooking completely – Refraich/refresh.


Asparagus

Get together: Asparagus (6-8 stems), garlic, fresh curly parsley, white wine/sparkling wine, salt, Cracked Pepper, Olive oil.

• In a pan, heat some olive oil. Add a dot of butter if you like.
• Medium heat - add 1 tbsp chopped garlic and sauté till brown. Move it to a cooler part of the pan or just remove it onto a plate.
• Turn up the heat. Into the flavoured oil, add the cleaned, trimmed asparagus stems. Make sure they are all in a single layer.
• Move it around a bit till it get a bright green colour. Do not use a spoon. Just shake the pan.
• Add 1 tbsp chopped curly parsley*. Mix in the garlic.
• After about a minute, add about a 1/2 cup of wine. **
• If you are adventurous and have an audience, try this. Tilt the pan a wee bit till the wine catches fire. It will leave a nice charred flavour on the vegetable. Flambe!!
• Do not cook for more than 5-6 mins. By then the wine should be completely evaporated.
• Do not over cook the vegetable. It should still be crunchy.
• Add the salt, crack some pepper. Take it off the heat and put it directly onto a serving plate.
• If you don’t want to scrape the pan, put it back on the fire. Add another dash of wine, some stock and get all the wonderful flavours to mix and marry. This is deglazing…a technique used to make sauces for meat dishes.
• Pour the sauce on top of the asparagus. Garnish with a spring of parsley. Voila!!

* - Curly parsley is not as flavourful as flat leaf parsley. If you want an intense parsley flavour, opt for the flat leaf variety.
** - I happened to have some terrible tasting sparkling wine that they like to call ‘champagne’ in the cooler. It is nowhere near champagne and I just wanted to try it for cooking before using it as a drain cleaner. Use any wine you have on hand. If you have no wine, some vinegar will be fine too. Apple cider vinegar, rice vinegar, or even red wine vinegar will be ok. Balsamic will make it an entirely WOW new dish!!. Try that too…it’s fantabulous!!

So that was the food. No dessert, just coffee for me and juice for Hubby. By the time dinner was served, he had found a Harrison Ford movie on ‘By Demand’. So we sat with our plates on the couch and the floor…we invariably slide down to the floor. I guess it’s impossible to tame us.

There I go again!! As always I had to take a short detour. Where were we…aah the movie. ‘Hollywood Homicide’. I must say I was a bit disappointed in the beginning…Harrison Ford playing an LAPD cop…it looked typical…like a guy’s bang-bang movie, until I saw Josh Hartnett in the next shot. Ooooh! That boy is cute eh!! 2 cute guys – one old, one young…what could I say except ‘Perfetto’ The mood definitely was Italian!!

So the movie was ok. The great traditional combination of guns, fun, sex, romance, violence, swearing, yeah it was ok. What kept me interested was the way both the protagonists were always interested in something other than their actual jobs…one is a cop, and a real estate broker, the other is a cop and an aspiring actor. One is trying to sell an enormous property while being interrogated for false charges and the other is practicing lines from ‘A Street Car Named Desire’ while being shot at by a punk!! Josh Hartnett, so adorably practices screaming, ‘Stella!! Stella!!’ At the end of the movie they show his final play. A funny disaster…as expected! It made us both laugh….these days we are coming across a lot of people who are thinking about careers changes (definitely includes me ….!!) But somehow, both the cops seem to do the ‘copping’ best…what had me sitting through the whole movie was Harrison Ford…besides my Hubby that is. I am consciously diverting the direction of this blog now.

Harrison Ford…

Here are some other Ford movies I have enjoyed! I took the trouble of putting the list in ascending order based on the year it was made. However, I saw them at different times in my life. Think of it as a partial filmography...I omitted a few early pictures!! I also took the liberty of putting up my opinion of each movie…not that it really matters.

Star Wars – Childhood memories..... May the Force be with us!! Han Solo’s drawl and smile were way better than Luke Skywalker’s boyish charms. I still am a great ‘Star wars’ Fan…When they made the digitalized versions, I went back to see it. A real pity my husband slept through it, that too on our first date!!

Heroes – Never saw this one.

Force 10 from Navarone – with Robert Shaw as well…what a treat that was! Another childhood memory

Apocalypse Now – He had a relatively smaller role, but who can be big in front of Marlon Brando!! Martin Sheen stole the rest of my applause anyway…Excellent picture!! I had to see it a couple of times before understanding it…I was probably 12 or 13…

Frisco Kid – It was fun!

Star Wars – Empire Strikes Back – May the force be with us!! Reminiscing childhood memories. Hubby going…ZZzzz when I took him…again.

Indiana Jones & Raiders of the Lost Ark – I think I have seen this one a few hundred times. Even though this was made before the Temple of Doom, I somehow saw this much after the Temple of Doom. One of the first gifts my father got that I enjoyed more than him.

Star Wars – Return of the Jedi – May the Force be with us again!! Hubby going…ZZzzz…again. Why did I take him this time...again?? Chay = Late Bloomer!!

Indiana Jones & the Temple of Doom – this was the first ford movie I saw. I was 8 or 9, petrified of the eye ball soup and slithering baby snakes cut right out of the big mommy’s belly, and was screaming when Ambrish Puri plucked out a human heart and drank its blood. Gory eh!! Sure was!! I was clinging to my mother’s neck the whole time…and it was mercifully in the safety of my house. I suspect my Ma was a bit scared too.

Witness – Aaah!! He was nominated for an Oscar, the Golden Globe and the BAFTA. My Ma’s fave movie….more childhood memories.

Mosquito Coast – Aaaah again!! This was one neat picture!!! Nominated for the Golden Globe again. Exceptional performance!!

Frantic – I saw this more recently. Pretty darned good!

Working Girl – Saw this very recently. I enjoyed Melanie Griffith more!! Cute chick flick!

Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade – Aaaaah!! Ford and Sean Connery…Dad and son!! This was something!! 2 great drawls, 2 great smiles, 2 great senses of humour(s), 2 great great actors!!

Presumed Innocent – No presumptions here…he is good!!

Regarding Henry – Yet to see this one…

Patriot Games – Neat again!!

The Fugitive – Wow!! How can anyone forget Dr. Kimble!! I don’t know who was better
though...Ford or Tommy Lee Jones…Another Golden Globe nomination.

Clear and Present Danger – so so.

Sabrina – Awesome!! It has a great ‘Pollack’ian quality to it…wonderful romantic comedy. Ford as Linus is detestable yet lovable and Julia Ormond is simply…charming! A perfect chick-flick!! Yet another Golden Globe nomination.

Air Force One – Glenn Close was good. Ford is comparable at times to President Bush. Ok, only during the speeches. Otherwise, this is a movie that makes you love being American…only to remind you that you are not American, thankfully!

6 days and 7 nights – Oh the ruggedness is back! This is the ford to die for…He looks old and haggard, but still very charming.

Random Hearts – Not seen this one

What Lies Beneath – I am not fond of horror movies. I do get spooked. But this combo meal of Zemeckis, Ford and Pfeiffer is probably worth some credit.

K-19: The Widowmaker – Exceptional!! Definitely a good piece of entertainment. Besides I love war movies.

Hollywood Homicide – Funny…time pass, a bit bakwaas!

Water to Wine – Yet to see…..

I am looking forward to Indian Jones 4 among other movies.

Phew!! Are you folks still awake after this loooong blog! Well, here’s some more then…Harrison Ford is half Irish. Great person to blog about on the ‘day after Paddy Day’ eh? He also used to be a carpenter till he made it big in Star Wars. The year it was made was the year I was born…WOW!!

The funniest Ford story I have heard – was during the shoot of Raiders of the Lost Ark an awesome collaboration between George Lucas and Steven Spielberg. Shot in Tunisia in 73 days, this movie left everyone, including Indy exhausted!! To top it all he had a bad case of a bad stomach. The scene is the one with the sword fight - Indy is chased and finally cornered by this sword wielding henchman. After a few takes, Indy asks Spielberg if they can shorten this scene. Spielberg laughingly says maybe he can shoot him instead of fighting him and everyone laughs. Indy just shoots the guy at the next take – unplanned. And the rest is history! This scene alone has been copied and improvised in hundreds of movies since the original.

And what of that music score by John Williams…Oh My Goodness!! John Williams is another blog altogether…

So, there folks! This is my offering for the day - recipes, an amateurish movie review, and a filmography that will hopefully evoke some nostalgia. And some trivia - about Harrison Ford and Chay!!