Spinach/Squash Tart

A photo posted by Höķm Guerrerø (@revmcnasty) on Feb 4, 2016 at 4:06pm PST

1/2 of a puff pastry square that has been cut in half to make two 4.5 by 4.5 inch squares
Extra Virgin Olive Oil
1/2 cup white onion, diced
1/3 cup bell pepper, diced
1/4 cup celery, diced
Salt
Pepper
1 clove garlic, minced
Red pepper flakes
Leftover spaghetti squash, about 1 and 1\2 cups
1/2 cup frozen chopped spinach, thawed
1 wedge of your favorite Laughing Cow spreadable cheese

1. Preheat oven to 425. Put pastry squares on sheet tray and using a fork poke holes all over. Bake for 12 minutes, spinning tray halfway. Remove from oven and let cool.
2. Heat a tablespoon of oil in a medium sauté pan on medium-hugh heat. Add the onions, peppers and celery. Season with salt and pepper. Cook for about 8-10 minutes, stirring a few times. 
3. Stir in the garlic and a pinch of red pepper flakes. Cook for thirty seconds then add the spaghetti squash and spinach. Reduce heat and cover to heat mixture throughout - about 10 minutes.
4. Meanwhile take the cooled puff pastry and, using a pearing knife, draw a square - leaving a border - on the top of the puff party. Push down gently and the center should collapse leaving a square bowl shape.
5. Spread half of the Laughing Cow wedge inside each of the pastry bowls. Pack the squash/veggie mixture on top (you will have some leftover) and serve!

Yum Yum Quinoa Salad

A photo posted by Höķm Guerrerø (@revmcnasty) on Feb 3, 2016 at 4:17pm PST

It's been two months since my last recipe post.  Nothing wrong with that.  I spent a lot of the holiday season using the Cooking For Two book by America's Test Kitchen.  I have had it for a few years, but haven't opened it since I stopped eating land meat two years ago.  They have some wonderful things in there.

Tonight I wanted to do a quinoa side for our veggie burgers.  I was originally going to do a hot dish like a pilaf or my Masala Style Quinoa but the wife suggested something raw and salad like to keep in the fridge.  During the summer I rotate a few different cold salads that I make in large batches.  A few bites of something like that is better than three handfuls of Cheez Its when the munchies strike.  (I still always keep the Cheez Its near, just eat a lot less in a sitting.)

Yum Yum Quinoa Salad

1 cup quinoa, rinsed until the water runs clear
2 cups water
salt
Extra Virgin Olive Oil
1 shallot, finely chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 zucchini, julienned
1 cup broccoli florets (if frozen then thawed)
1 cup frozen corn, thawed
2-3 tablespoons sun dried red pepper, minced
1/4 cup cilantro, washed and chopped
1/2 cup cherry tomatoes, halved
1/4 cup of fresh herb(s)
1/2 lime

1. In a medium pot with lid, stir in quinoa, water and 1/2 teaspoon salt.  Bring to boil, cover, lower heat to low and simmer for 15 minutes (or until all the water is gone).  After cooking dump into large bowl and let cool completely. 
2. Coat the bottom of a medium saute pan with 1 or 1 and 1/2 tablespoons of olive oil over medium-high heat.  Once hot, add the shallot and saute for about 3 minutes, add the zucchini and 1/2 teaspoon of salt.  Cook for 5-6 minutes.  Then stir in the garlic and cook for about 30 seconds.  Remove from heat immediately and cool.
3. To the bowl of cooled quinoa add the shallot mixture, broccoli, corn, red pepper, cilantro, tomatoes and fresh herbs (for this one I used a mix of cilantro and basil).  Stir to combine.
4. Dress with the juice of (about) 1/2 lime and (about) 2 tablespoons of olive oil, to taste.  Season with Salt and pepper.  You won't need to add a lot of salt because the zucchini provide a sodium dose already. 

Add some extra fresh ground pepper when serving.  It really makes the other flavors jump into each other.

This will keep in the fridge for up to a week.  The complete protein found in the quinoa will fill you up better and much longer than a regular snack or salad.  For your health!

Jalapeño-Butternut-Cauliflower Soup

A photo posted by Höķm Guerrerø (@revmcnasty) on Nov 28, 2015 at 2:44pm PST

There is a great farm stand every Thursday near my wife's office.  She stops by and brings me things to cook with.  Last week she came home with a bag of rainbow cauliflower.  I had never seen red or orange or purple or green cauliflower before.  We are planning on using a bunch on a home-made pizza later tonight, but this afternoon I decided to combine the orange cauliflower with butternut squash to make soup.  Nothing beats the subtle heat of a jalapeño pepper so I threw some in too!  The brown sugar balanced nicely off the heat.

2 TBSP vegetable oil
1/2 cup onion, diced
2 cloves of garlic, chopped
1 carrot, peeled and sliced
1 rib of celery, chopped
1/4 tsp Caraway seeds, crushed with mortar and pestle
1/2 jalapeño pepper, seeded and diced
1 1/2 TBSP brown sugar
3 cups of cubed butternut squash
2 cups of orange cauliflower
1/4 cup dry, unoaked white wine
4 cups vegetable stock
1 cup water
salt & pepper

1. Heat the oil in a large pot on medium-high heat until shimmering.  Add the onion and garlic and cook for about 6 minutes, until the pieces start to brown.
2. Add the carrot, celery, Caraway seeds, jalapeño and brown sugar.  Stir to combine and cook for 5 minutes.
3. Add the squash and cauliflower.  Stir to combine and cook for 5 minutes.
4. Add the wine, stock and water.  Bring to boil, turn heat down to medium and simmer for 25 minutes.
5. Remove from heat and puree.  Salt and pepper to taste.

When serving try topping with a small smacking of non-fat sour cream and some sliced scallions (or chives).

Leftover Spaghetti Squash?

A photo posted by Höķm Guerrerø (@revmcnasty) on Nov 7, 2015 at 9:42am PST

My wife makes a spaghetti squash dish about three times a month.  She always varies the toppings and it's always good.  One thing: there is always leftovers.  We have used the leftover squash as a pizza topping, cold on salads and the other day I wanted to come up with something different.  Then it hit me:  Why not make latkes and replace the potato with squash?  I did a web search and didn't find anything exactly like my idea, so I came up with this recipe.  I decided to incorporate a small amount of grated potato into the mixture in order to ensure a crispy crust.  After one [successful] attempt I am sure that you could omit the potato entirely, but I think I will leave it in.


Squaghetti Squash Latkes
        makes 6 cakes

2+ cups cooks cooked and "pulled" spaghetti squash
1 small russet potato grated on the largest hole (about 3/4 cups)
1 smallish medium onion, diced
1 Roma tomato, diced
1 tsp Mexican oregano
10 coriander seeds
10 caraway seeds
1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1 clove garlic, diced
2 teaspoons cornstarch
1 tablespoon panko bread crumbs
2 eggs

1. Toss the squash and potato with some salt and place in a colander and place this into a bowl.  Place a few layers of folded paper towels on top and add a weight (like 2 or 3 stacked pint glasses).  Let sit for about 30 minutes.  The salt will pull water out and it will drain.
2. Heat 1 tablespoon of vegetable oil over medium heat in a medium frying pan. While heating crush oregano, seeds and pepper flakes using a mortar and pestle.  Add the diced garlic and set aside.
3. Add the onion to the pan and cook for 6 minutes, until they start to brown.  Add the tomato and cook another 6 minutes, stirring frequently, until the liquid from the tomatoes has mostly evaporated.
4. Stir in the seed/herb mixture and cook for about 30 seconds.  Remove onion/herb mixture from pan and let cool.
5. Take the squash/potato mixture from colander and place in large mixing bowl.  Stir in the cooled onion mixture, cornstarch, panko and season with salt and pepper.  
6. Fold in the two eggs.
7. Using a 1/4 cup measuring cup form cakes from the mixture.  This should yield about six cakes.  Let cakes sit for about 12 minutes before cooking.
8. Heat vegetable oil in a frying pan, enough to coat, and add three cakes.  Cook, undisturbed, for about 4 minutes.  Shake the pan to loosen the cakes and cook another two minutes before flipping and cooking for an additional 6 minutes.  Place cooked cakes on a paper towel lined plate.  Cook the remaining cakes, adding oil as needed. 

Serve with a dollop of pesto and a side salad.

Stroganock-off (a vegetarian variation)

A photo posted by Höķm Guerrerø (@revmcnasty) on Nov 2, 2015 at 4:49pm PST

Stroganoff is a classic fall dish.  Childhood memories of my Mother making it include the way the house smelled - full of dill (remember in the mid-1980's when dill the "in" herb?), cooked red meat and that wonderful smell of noodles boiling in water.  I remember being excited about the big flat style egg noodles she would use.  I forgot about the dish for about 15 years but a few years back I remembered it and starting subbing chicken for the red meat.  It was still just as good and continued to bring back memories of Mom cooking on those cold fall nights.  Most importantly: it's an extremely easy dish to pull off.  

The closest Whole Foods to my house is a bit of a drive, but once a month I play a jazz brunch right next door so I stop in and pick up some of their vegetarian meatless meats.  Some are okay, most aren't the same, a few are actually pretty damn good.  The other day I noticed, for the first time, a product from  a company called "Beyond Meat" that was a container of grilled "chicken" strips.  What struck me as interesting was the ingredients.  Many times these fake meats, although meatless, are still filled with chemicals and fake stuff I can't pronounce.  This product was 100% plant protein!  The ingredients included pea protein, carrot fiber, water, sunflower oil and less than 0.5% of vinegar, sugar, spices.  I decided it was time to put a vegetarian twist on Stroganoff with what I am calling: "Stroganock-off".

Classically this kind of protein/entree is served over egg noodles.  I also like it with a side of rice that has diced celery and scallions.  When I make this kind of rice I replace half the water with vegetable stock and add the celery and scallions after the rice is made.  The finely diced celery adds a fun crunch.


Chicken Stroganock-off
       serves 2

2 servings of Beyond Meat Grilled Chicken Strips (about 12 pieces)
1.5 tablespoons of olive oil
1/2 large onion, thinly sliced
1 1/2 cups mushrooms, sliced
1/2 cup frozen peas
3/4 cups sour cream
1 tablespoon dill (I use fresh or Penzey's dried dill)
2 tablespoons vegetable stock
2 cups (dry) cooked egg noodles
large handful baby arugula
Salt and Pepper.

1. Heat the oil in a frying pan and add the onion.  Cook on medium heat until the onions are soft and translucent.  Make sure you don't add any color to them.
2. Add the mushrooms and season with salt and pepper.  The salt and heat will pull out water from the mushrooms.  Cook about 10 minutes, add peas, cook additional 7 minutes.
3. Gently stir in the sour cream, dill and stock.  Add the Beyond Meat Grilled Chicken Strips,  removing from heat just as it begins to boil.
4. Off heat stir in egg noodles and arugula.
5. Season and serve.

Asparagus and Bourbon-Brie Soup

A photo posted by Höķm Guerrerø (@revmcnasty) on Oct 19, 2015 at 12:13pm PDT

Asparagus and Brie Soup is always a treat.  It's considered "delicate" and "posh" and other fancy things.  The flavors blend well and I discovered that it's fairy easy to make.  Most recipes I found are pretty much just asparagus and brie - with some stock, cream and flour added.  No onion, or any aromatics - a couple recipes did include garlic. While I was in the grocery store today I noticed asparagus was insanely cheap and I decided to try my hand at a variation of this soup.  I wanted something that had a bolder and in-your-face flavor compared to what I was reading about online.  I got even more inspiration when I found a container of "smoked bourbon" brie also on sale.  I decided that today I'm gonna put the cookbooks aside and wing this thing.  

When I got home I realized I didn't have brie, but Creme de Brie.  It is creamier and more spreadable.  I figured this would make the step of melting the brie into the soup easier as well as replacing any milk or heavy cream I might decide to add. 


Asparagus & Bourbon-Brie Soup

1/3 cups (or more) of unsalted butter
1 medium onion, chopped (2 inch pieces)
1 stalk celery, chopped (2 inch pieces)
1 carrot, peeled and chopped (2 inch pieces)
1 bunch asparagus*, bottom white end removed, chopped (2 inch pieces) and separate the tips for later
1 tablespoon flour
1 and 1/2 teaspoon Herbes de Provence
1/2 teaspoon Aleppo Pepper
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 bay leaf
4 cups vegetable stock
1 five ounce container of Creme de Brie

*Note: I also had a small head of broccoli leftover from last week's trip to the local Farmer's Market.  I figured I'd use it before it went bad for some extra "oomph"  I cut the ends into tiny florets and put them with the asparagus tips.  I chopped up the "meat" part of the broccoli and put that with the stalks of asparagus.

1. Over medium high heat melt that butter in a large pot.  (Add a dash of Extra Virgin Olive Oil to help prevent burning the butter). Turn heat down a little and cook down to just before the butter turns brown. Add the onion, celery and carrot and stir.  Salt and pepper a little.  Increase heat slightly and cook for about 10 minutes.
2. Add the asparagus (and broccoli) stalks.  NOT THE TIPS.  Stir, salt and pepper.  Cook another 10 minutes.
3. Stir in the flour, Herbes de Provence, Aleppo, garlic and bay leaf.  Cook for one minute to unlock the aromatics.
4. Stir in the vegetable stock in batches, making sure there are no clumps from the flour. Bring to boil, turn heat down and simmer for 20 minutes.  
5. While this is simmering: turn your oven's broiler on and adjust the rack to be about 8 inches away from the heat.  Place the asparagus tips and broccoli florets onto a greased, foil lined baking sheet and broil for about 4-6 minutes; removing just as the ends start to brown (but they aren't over cooked).  Remove from broiler and let cool on baking sheet.
6. Remove the soup from heat and discard the bay leaf.
7. Using a hand held emulsion blender puree the soup.  
8. While the soup is still relatively hot add 4 ounces of the brie in half once spoonfuls, stirring after the second and fourth to dissolve the brie into the soup.  Add the spear tips and, if using, broccoli florets.
9. Serve hot, garnishing each bowl with a small dollop of the remaining Creme de Brie. Crusty bread is nice too!

The Bandleader as a Coach

It amazes me that I feel compelled to feel the need to compose an article such as this. But events that I have either witnessed or been told first hand accounts of has angered me to the core.

Music is an incredible thing existing in a way almost comparable to a living organic entity. It can be thought of like a flame: it has a birth, it breaths, expands, retracts and eventually dies. The spark of creativity and the give and take of human interaction from each musician allows even a note for note recreation of a performance to have an incredible individualistic identity; each performance has factors that will influence that specific moment to have a unique life.

The musicians that make up a band are no different from a football team. I'm not the first to make a music/sports analogy. I've been reading these comparisons for over twenty years. Miles Davis frequently used boxing as a reference for his own aural creations and bandstand interactions. The team needs to support one another regardless of who is "soloing" or the focus of audience attention. The fluidity of improvised music is two-fold: not only does it mimic the passing of the ball but the actual positions rotate around the bandstand depending on what is happening. The quarterback is always someone different; passing the ball to a receiver and hoping he will catch it; hoping everyone will all still be on the ONE when a spontaneous group hemiola resolves.

If the band is the team, then the bandleader is the Coach. As I previously stated, the quarterback is always someone different, but the Coach is always the same. The Coach's job is not limited to the ego-stroking that comes with being onstage. The job has an important role "off-field" as well. The Coach represents the band to the general public. The Coach is the normally the first contact a new venue has. The Coach's abilities in sales, marketing, legalese, accounting and organization should be limitless. The Coach has got to stand up for his team, otherwise the team will lose faith in their Coach. And a team that has lost that faith will not perform.

A Coach who does not stand up for the band externally - or stand up to the band internally - has no place being a Coach.