Le Chef (2012)

There are a lot of good food oriented movies streaming on Netflix right now and this is one of them.  I have not been cooking much since my recent cancer diagnosis--kind of a mistake because times of illness are when you should probably focus more rather than less on what is going into your body, but the truth of the matter is that it is just hard getting through some days without adding yet another expectation on top.
None-the-less, this foray back into food movies was a good one.  I do love a one Michelin star restaurant, but am not so keen on the three star places, so a movie poking a little bit of fun at that tier of dining suits me well.  Jean Reno plays the chef, Alexandre Lagarde at his famous restaurant Cargo Lagarde and he is burnt out.  He happens upon a true disciple of his, a difficult to work with out of work chef named Jacky, who not only has memorized Lagarde's recipes, he has taken it to a new level and over the course of the movie they manage to save each other, all the while serving fantastic food in the true French tradition.  A fun and farcical movie that I highly recommend.

Ode to the One Holding Down the Fort

It has been a long and tumultuous end of the year for me, but in a lot of ways it has been harder for my spouse.  He has had his health, which is a big plus, no getting around that, but that has it's own price.  While I have been sick, he has been left to do literally everything else.  even the occasional load of laundry which is most certainly my bailiwick, even at the worst of times.  I can definitely see myself rising from the worst of illnesses to put a load of laundry into the dryer.  It is the one thing that I do no matter what.  Except not always.  Like when I am in the hospital for a week, for instance.  Or there are laundry intensive events going on.
So I want to take a moment to say that no one gets through serious illness alone, at least not if they want to look the least bit graceful doing so, and it is often the spouse who bears the brunt of making that happen, often with very little fanfare or recognition.  Not to mention shouldering the emotional burdens of a sick loved one, which I know from personal experience can be crippling in and of themselves.  So hats off to my spouse today, as he begins another trip around the sun.  Hoping for all our sakes that it has joy and laughter  to remember it by.

Ceviche Veracruz

Jake made this for our most recent family and friends dinner at our house and it was an outstanding appetizer.  He made it with farm raised Chilean Sea Bass.

• 1pound “sashimi-quality” skinless meaty ocean fish fillet (halibut, snapper and bass are great choices), cut into 1/2-inch cubes
• About 1 1/2cups fresh lime juice
• 1small white onion, chopped into 1/4-inch pieces
• 1 jalapeno pepper stemmed and roughly chopped
• 1/4cup green olives, preferably manzanillos
• 1large (about 10-ounces) tomato cored, seeded (if you wish) and diced
• 1/4 small jicama, peeled and chopped into 1/4-inch pieces
• 1/4 cup  chopped fresh cilantro
• 2tablespoons olive oil, preferably extra-virgin
• Salt
• 1 teaspoon sugar

1. Marinade the fish in the lime juice. In a large stainless steel or glass bowl, combine the fish, lime juice and onion. The fish should float freely in the juice; if not, add a little more. Cover and refrigerate until the fish is as “done” as you like: An hour or so for medium-rare, 3 to 4 hours for “cooked” all the way through. Tip off the lime juice—sad to say that it’s fishy tasting at this point and can’t be easily used for any other preparation.
2. Flavor the ceviche. In a food processor, process the green chile and olives until finely chopped (or finely chopped by hand). Add to the fish along with the tomato, optional jícama, cilantro and olive oil. Stir well, then season with salt (usually about a scant teaspoon) and sugar. Refrigerate until ready to serve—preferably no longer than an hour or two.

Best Man Down (2012)

Very good independent movie, with a cast and a script that make it well worth watching.  As a bonus, it is streaming on Netflix.  The movie is about a couple from Minnesota who get married on a shoestring but decide to have a destination wedding despite their circumstances, and while the best man fulfills all the roles that he is classically supposed to do, including a great speech and cringingly embarrassing behavior, he does the one thing that no best man is supposed to do--he dies.  Which tunrs the wedding into a funeral and puts a major damper on the honeymoon. All that money goes to getting the body home.
 We watched this movie on the heels of another newlywed movie, "I Give it a Year", and it is a good contrast, because while the couple here have some issues, it becomes clear over the course of the movie that they are going to gel as a couple.  Their marriage doesn't start off idyllic, but they manage to form a team as they peel back the problems and come up with solutions that are definitely not something that you are going to find on the inside of a fortune cookie.  This is not romantic, and it is only modestly funny, but it is well worth watching and thinking about.

Kedgeree

This recipe has been an old standby for my spouse when there is salmon to be used up, especially if that salmon is smoked.  One need halve or quarter the recipe in that case.  It is one of the very best of recipes, one that transforms leftovers into something that is wholly and definitely different from the original.

-->

• 4 salmon fillets (about  1¾lb in total)
• 2 kaffir lime leaves (torn into pieces)
• 3 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 1 teaspoon olive oil
• 1 onion (finely chopped)
• ½ teaspoon ground coriander
• ½ teaspoon ground cumin
• ½ teaspoon turmeric
• 1 ¼ cups basmati rice
• 3 hard-boiled eggs (quartered)
• 3 tablespoons chopped cilantro (plus more for sprinkling)
• Zest and juice of 1 lime (plus segments to serve)
• Thai fish sauce (nam pla) (to taste)

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 220°C/gas mark 7/425ºF. This is because the easiest way to poach the salmon for this is to do it in the oven. So: pour 500ml / 2 cups of cold water into a roasting dish, add the lime leaves and then the salmon. Cover the dish with foil, put in the oven and cook for about 15 minutes, by which time the salmon should be tender. Remove the dish from the oven and drain the liquid off into a jug. Keep the fish warm simply by replacing the foil on the dish.  Or use salmon you already have left over.
2. Melt the butter in a wide, heavy saucepan that has a tight-fitting lid, and add the oil to stop the butter burning. Soften the onion in the pan and add the spices, then keep cooking till the onion is slightly translucent and suffused with the soft perfume of the spices. Add the rice and stir with a wooden spoon so that it's all well coated. There's not enough onion to give a heavy coating: just make sure the rice is fragrantly slicked.
3. Pour in the reserved liquid from the jug about 500ml / 2 cups - and stir before covering with the lid and cooking gently for about 15 minutes. If your stove is vociferous you may need a heat-diffuser.
4. At the end of the cooking time, when the rice is tender and has lost all chalkiness, turn off the heat, remove the lid, cover the pan with a tea towel and then replace the lid. This will help absorb any extra moisture from the rice. It is also the best way to let the rice stand without getting claggy or cold, which is useful when you've got a few friends and a few dishes to keep your eye on. Just before you want to eat, drain off any extra liquid that's collected in the dish with the salmon, then flake the fish with a fork. Add to it the rice, eggs, cilantro, lime juice and a drop or two of fish sauce. Stir gently to mix - I use a couple of wooden paddles or spatulas - and taste to see if you want any more lime juice or fish sauce. Sprinkle over the zest from the two juiced halves of the lime and serve. I love it served just as it is in the roasting dish, but if you want to, and I often do (consistency is a requirement of a recipe but not a cook), decant into a large plate before you add the lime zest, then surround with lime segments and add the zest and a small handful of freshly chopped cilantro.

Some Kind of Beautiful (2014)

This is a sad sort of romantic comedy, where you really have to be able to relate more to the middle aged Lothario than to the much younger women who seem to fall for his foot free and fancy loose charm.  If you have been a long term Pierce Brosnan fan you will find this entirely within his predictable repertoire of late.  To his credit, while he has aged more than gracefully, he definitely looks his age.
Brosnan plays Richard Haig, a man who has followed almost impeccably in the footsteps of his absent father, avoiding long term entanglements as well as the consequences of sleeping with his students, which he does as a matter of course.  Then a student gets pregnant and he decides to change it all in for fatherhood (which is the big leap that the film doesn't expertly uncover how exactly that came about, but part of it is the poor relationship he has with his own father and not necessarily wanting to have those regrets).  Brosnan is affable and glides through this light movie with heavy themes if you are on the side of the child, and it is a good streaming Netflix show, if not exactly a good movie.

A Spool of Blue Thread by Anne Tyler

In the interest of full disclosure, I have been a huge Anne Tyler fan for over thirty years, so the fact that I really liked this book should be taken with that particular grain of salt in mind.  In the book's defense, it was also long listed for the Booker Prize last year, so it does have that going for it as well.  Other people found it praise worthy.
The themes of the book are well known to Tyler fans.  They are families in all the glory of their interconnectedness and their dysfunction, in this case over three generations.  If that sounds tiresome to you, then move on, because this is the bread and butter of a great Tyler novel.  The ability to see the foibles that all people and families have, and to somehow find something redeeming, if not all out charming, about those who we share genes with is a gift.  We all have family, we all struggle with them and Tyler makes it less painful and more obvious why those struggles happen and ultimately gives us a clue as to how we might survive them gracefully.  Or not.  Your choice.

Red Chilaquiles

Chilaquiles are part of a traditional New Year's celebration when it comes to food, and I have a preference for the red version of the dish.

You start with a great sauce:

1. 3 Tbs.  oil
2. 5 garlic cloves, peeled
3. 1 onion, peeled and quartered
4. 4 tomatoes, cored and quartered
5. 6 dried mild chiles, like guajillo or California, stemmed and seeded
6. 2 teaspoons ground cumin, plus more to taste
   1/2-1 c. stock
   Salt and black pepper to taste

Heat 3 tablespoons of the oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the garlic and onion and cook until softened, about 5 minutes. Add the tomatoes and chiles and cook until the tomato juices are released and the chiles are soft, about 5 minutes. Season with cumin, salt, and pepper. Cook until soft, and puree.

2. To assemble:
1. Coat bottom of a pan with sauce.  Cover with fried tortillas.  Stir in some chicken to the sauce, and heat through. Cover the tortilla chips. You can thin a 1/2 c. sour sour cream with milk, and pour over the top prior to cooking for added richness.  The sauce should cover the chips, but not drown them.  More coverage than nachos, and less than for a lasagna.  Sprinkle with shredded cheese, and cook until heated through, about 25 minutes at 350 degrees.  Prior to cooking, can pour Add cilantro and sliced onion over the top, and serve.

Double Indemnity (1944)

This is a film on the American Film Institute's list of the best 100 American films ever made.  It is particularly interesting because there is not a really likable character in the movie, with the possible exception of the Edward G. Robinson character, who is a bit of an unpleasant bulldog of an insurance salesman, but he has a nose for the truth and he manages to ferret out the heart of what happened.
Walter Neff is a door-to-door insurance salesman ably played by Fred McMurray who gets hoodwinked into an affair and a murder by Barbara Stanwick in order to collect on an insurance policy and divest herself of an unwanted husband.  Neff is easily convinced to participate and he quickly comes up with a plan--so he is not so innocent as he might appear--but as the story unfolds it becomes quite clear that the charming Ms. Stanwick is out for herself and she is not going to bring poor Walter along.  The movie has a great cast, a wonderful script and is the result of stamina on the part of the director, Billy Wilder, because it took him eight years to get the movie approved by the professional standards board that ruled Hollywood movies from the mid-1930's going forward.  Well worth watching, especially for film buffs.

It is A New Year

This is a new kind of year for me, one where I am not sure what to expect, and so, more than is usually so, I am reflecting on what my hopes are for the year.  First and foremost of course I hope to wrap up or at least reach a level of maintenance in terms of treatment for my cancer.  That would be the highest hope.  Next on the list would be to plan what in fact I would like to do this year, both in terms of accomplishments as well as enjoyment.  These are always equal parts of a new year contemplation, but this year they seem particularly poignant.  Don't forget to give equal weight to both, because they each have their place.
the good news is that what i hope for is mostly what I accomplished in 2015.  I went to some places that I dreamed of going and I was not disappointed in them.  I enjoyed time with my spouse alone, and with my family as a whole.  I have been blessed to have them more or less nearby this past year, and have not squandered that.  My parents moved nearby and that has been good for us, if somewhat stressful for them.  Moving in my 50's was not easy, and I am certain it doesn't get easier in your 80's, but they have been soldiering onward with that, and I think are more or less glad to have done so.  In addition to all that in 2016, I would like to do more crafting in my spare time this next year, and to continue to read course material to my youngest son so that he can continue to be successful in college.  I also want to really take in the numerous acts of kindness and caring that people across my life have shown me in my hours and months of need, and make that part of who I am in the year to come, regardless of what happens.  These may not seem like lofty goals, but I am more or less certain they will keep me busy.