Monday 8 December 2008

A Rock 'n' Roll Cookbook

Along with a couple of colleagues, I collected some cooking tips and recipes from a few of the willing musicians interviewed for The Skinny. It appeared in the magazine in more condensed format, but here is an extended Rock n Roll Cookbook! Thanks to Darren Carle and Dave Kerr


Elvis regally living out his last minutes on the toilet, cheeseburger in hand. Mama Cass' final dreams of California rudely disrupted by a ham sandwich lodged in her gullet. Ozzy Osbourne... well, y'know, the whole bat thing.


Over the years the consumption habits of the stars have played a consequential – if unsavoury - role in rock history. But today's muso is a more domesticated beast, more likely to be cooking up a storm than cooking up... well. Anyway, we spoke to a handful of our favourite artists and asked them to share some culinary tips. The response ranged from the sublime to the ridiculous.


JASON FROM THE BOGGS - RôTIS SAVOUREUX DE PORTOBELLO

I really love cooking. My favourite things to make are roasts like lamb, chicken or beef. But I’ll give you a vegetarian recipe I often do. I’m not to sure about the measurements and timing since I mostly go instinct but

-First I pre-heat the oven to 405 F.

-I peel and cut young carrots into long slivers and lay them in a roasting pan.

-Next I drizzle olive oil over the carrots and sprinkle them with chopped Thyme.

-Half and then quarter potatoes—I often use red or black one’s but it can be done with whatever looks good at the market.

-I lay out the potatoes beside the carrots and drizzle them with a little oil.

-sprinkle the potatoes with chopped rosemary and salt and add a few teaspoons of butter in among them for flavour and texture.

-Place the roasting pan into the heated oven and cook for approx 45 mins turning the potatoes and carrots periodically to avoid burning.


-clean the mushroom and coat the cap with a mix of

*cayenne pepper

*dried oregano, thyme and sage.

*black pepper.

-in a pan, caramelize some sliced onion rings and crushed garlic with olive oil and balsamic vinegar.

-add the caps to the pan face down and scoop the onion and garlic mix into the cap.

-You want the mushroom to become almost crispy on the outside so allow it cook to the edge of burning and then add small amounts of vegetable broth to the pan to both reconstitute the contents of the pan and so as to allow the mushroom to absorb the liquid. This should be done until the mushroom is almost completely cooked through.

-To finish it off, place the mushroom into the same pan as the carrots and potatoes scooping a pat of butter with an herb mix onto the onion garlic mix.

-Place the pan back into the oven and allow the butter to dissolve all the way through the mushroom.

-You can reconstitute the pan residue with more broth and flour to make a type of gravy.

-Boil the kale for two minutes and then toss in a pan with lemon, butter and red pepper for another minute or so.

-plate the kale and place the carrots and potatoes around the edge.

-center the mushroom cap on the plate

-add some goat cheese to the inside of the cap and lightly cover the cap and potatoes with the gravy sauce.

-Done and done.








Video: The Boggs - Remember The Orphans


DEAN FROM NO AGE - SIMPLE VEGAN FETTUCCINI ALFREDO


“Tracks to listen to while cooking? The Buzzcocks - I Don't Mind; or Hüsker Dü - Makes No Sense At All.”

Boil 1lb of spaghetti in a pot. Whilst boiling, cut a block of extra firm tofu into rectangles, fry this in a separate pan with a little oil until lightly browned on both sides. Drain the pasta and return to the pot. Add two cups of plain soy milk, ¾ cup of margarine (non hydrogenated), two cups of nutritional yeast and the tofu. Cook over a light flame for a couple of minutes, stirring continuously. Add spike seasoning to taste.










Video: No Age - Eraser


ADAM GREEN - THE SLEAZE BURGER


“I'm not the greatest in the kitchen, but I can make something up for you if you like?”


Mix ¼lb beef and lamb together into a ball. Flatten with rolling pin. Add mozzarella, horseradish, cayenne pepper and ginger and cook in preheated oven until well done. Chop a fresh apple in half. Spread peanut butter on one half and honey on the other. Place the meat pancake between the apple 'buns' and trim any excess meat from the sides. Make four shish kebabs using sweet gherkin slices. Garnish with two sprigs of sage and dip in HP Sauce mixed with Rice Krispies.







Video: Adam Green - Dance With Me


FRANK BLACK - QUICK PASTA SAUCE


“My oldest boy, he likes his tomato sauce with pasta, so sometimes I have make it really quickly; but I don’t like using jars of sauces.”

“I’ll tell you how to make a really good, quick tomato sauce. Obviously to make a proper tomato sauce you need to put some time into it, you need to cook it for a long time. My oldest boy he likes his tomato sauce with pasta so sometimes I’ve got to make it really quickly but I don’t like using jars of sauces. So the first thing you need is an iron skillet. The next thing you need is a lot of olive oil. You put a lot of olive oil in the skillet and of course you put in about three cloves of garlic and maybe half an onion or a whole shallot. Then what I’d do is I would take some double concentrated tomato paste – this is the kind of tomato paste that you buy in a tube. OK, I squirt that into the skillet, I don’t add a can of tomatoes or anything like that, it’s just with tomato paste. Then to give it that dark note, of having been cooked a long time, I will add some balsamic syrup. It’s kinda like balsamic vinegar but it’s more sugary and it’s thick like syrup, y’know. I’ll add maybe a teaspoon of that – you don’t need a lot. The sugar of course balances out the acid nicely and the darkness of the balsamic gives it this kind of…it kinda coats the onions. And if I have some decent wine in the house, I’ll add like a half a cup of red wine and I just put that baby on high to cook off the alcohol quickly. Then finally salt and pepper and then fresh or dry herbs. Even though it’s not a spaghetti kind of herb, I frequently keep herb Provence around for salads. Put a pinch of that in there. That’s a good way to make a very thick, dark, heavy, rich tomato sauce that seems like it’s been cooking a long time but it hasn’t. And then I take the pasta of course and I add the pasta directly into the pan. You take it out of the water – try not to drain it, try to scoop it out with something so that you get a bit of that pasta water in with the sauce. You don’t drain the pasta and then dump the sauce on top of it. You take the pasta directly out of the pot and put it in there and it’s OK if a little of the water gets in there, that’s OK. Anyway, that’s my recipe.”








Video: Frank Black - Headache


CALEB FROM THE KINGS OF LEON - A GUIDE TO SUCCESSFUL BARBECUE


“Being from the South we eat a lot of barbecued food, and of course the main ingredient is meat, but you can’t forget about the trimmings. I’m a pretty good cook so here’s what you need to serve on the side to have the perfect barbecue…”

Gorgonzola cheese and lots of it. Good quality bacon. It’s all about the combos. Bacon and gorgonzola cheese, delicious. Sweetcorn bisque, mashed potato. A barbecue isn’t a barbecue without mashed potato. You need some onions and salad too. Maybe some potato salad to go with your steak. And to wash it down you should have some ice cold beer!

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