Food in Films – Dangerous Beauty

January 20, 2021 ~ foodinbooks ~ 8 Comments

I hadn’t done a Food in Films post in quite awhile and I’m sorry for that. These are among the most fun posts I can do, particularly because I enjoy the inherent creativity in recreating food from a movie. You really do have a lot of artistic license, almost more so than recreating food in a book because the visual aspect of the food and the necessity of understanding what the author had in mind is necessarily different from the vision of a filmmaker and their approach to food.

Being still working from home and trapped in this never-ending pandemic, I’ve been rewatching old favorites quite a lot, both on streaming services and also dusting off my own DVD collection. I was going through them the other day, and found an entire shelf of DVDs dedicated to, and set in, Venice. Well, Venice is probably my favorite city in the entire world, more so than even Barcelona and I love Barcelona! But there is something about the siren call of La Serenissima, as Venice is lovingly called by those who adore her as I do, that draws me back again and again. And in this case, the criminally underrated film Dangerous Beauty is on the menu today.

Dangerous Beauty, Harlequin romance title notwithstanding, is an absolute jewel of a film. It’s the fictionalized version of the life of a famous 16th century Venetian poet and courtesan named Veronica Franco. Veronica is of an old Venetian family but they are impoverished, and so her desire to marry Marco Venier, of one of Venice’s most notable families and who was expected to become one of the powerful Council of Ten (essentially the governing body of Venice) is not allowed. Her mother, Paola, gives her the options of becoming either a lady’s maid, working in a winery, becoming a nun, or turning her talents to becoming a courtesan. With those choices, I’d choose the path of courtesanship any day too, though it does tell you how bleak the choices were for women back then.

The film is lushly filmed, gorgeously captured, with the most stunning – if questionably authentic – costumes, gowns, hair styles, jewels, etc. Veronica herself is a closet heroine, being both highly educated and well-read, as well as being trained to be a wonderful female companion and of course, being one of Venice’s most famous courtesans, her sexual skills and prowess were also legendary. Venice itself is as much a character in this film as Veronica and Marco are, lending its beautiful canals and famously sinking, opulent palazzos to the backdrop of what is a fascinating early tale of feminism, finding your own destiny and path in life, and never bowing to those who would punish you for being yourself.

With witty dialogue and verbal ripostes like “If your prick is as limp as your verse, no price can buy time enough” (my personal favorite), “a coat of arms does not an inheritance make,” and of course this one “desire begins in the mind,” you can understand why I love this movie so much. It combines a feminist mindset with gorgeous sensuality, and reminds all of us that beauty is not just about looking a certain way but also having faith in yourself and understanding that looks are only a small part of what makes us who we are. An important part, but ultimately it’s having that education, that ability to read and write and learn…….those are things that are the most hard-won in life and the things that are nearly impossible to take away. After all, our looks will fade, we may lose our money or our jobs or our lovers, but our education and the wonderful workings of our minds will (hopefully) remain with us the longest and provide us the most satisfaction.

The cast of this film is also outstanding! Some of my favorite character actors make an appearance here, including the sexier-than-hell Rufus Sewell as Marco Venier; Fred Ward standing in as Domenico Venier; the always amazing Jacqueline Bisset as Paola Franco; Jake Ward (remember him from that rad TV series American Gothic?) as King Henry of France; Naomi Watts as Giulia de Lezze, the woman Marco is forced to marry; Moira Kelly as Marco’s sister and Veronica’s best friend Beatrice Venier; the wonderfully funny Oliver Platt as the dangerous Maffio Venier; and of course, the gorgeous and talented Catherine McCormack playing Veronica to perfection. I really don’t understand why McCormack wasn’t nominated for an Academy Award for this performance, but Hollywood is full of dumbasses so perhaps it’s not surprising.

Possibly my most favorite scene in a film that is full of favorite scenes is when Paola is teaching Veronica how to become a courtesan. She tries to make her understand that lust starts in the mind, that beautiful clothes add to the package, and that pleasure is not a weapon but a tool that can be rendered even more powerful when the courtesan herself feels it, not just gives it through sex. Paola slowly eats an artichoke leaf, sips a glass of wine, then, oh so sensually, demonstrates her oral sex method by lasciviously deep-throating an asparagus spear before looking expectantly at her daughter to see if Veronica has internalized this important lesson. Veronica, of course, being angry at this is her only option, defiantly munches away on her own asparagus spear. It’s hilarious and erotic at the same time.

So what else could I have done but made Venetian-style asparagus, after a scene like that? I used my friend and fellow food blogger Luca Marchiori’s method to make sparasi alla Veneta. Traditionally, white asparagus is used in Venice, but it’s a bit more difficult to find where I am – sadly, not Venice – so I used green asparagus and it was lovely. And no, I didn’t deep-throat it. Read on!

“You must know pleasure to give pleasure.”

INGREDIENTS
20 asparagus spears, trimmed
4 hardboiled eggs
8 anchovy fillets
1 tablespoon capers
2 tablespoons white wine vinegar
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
Freshly ground black pepper

METHOD
Steam or boil the asparagus for 5-7 minutes, or until they are tender-crisp. Pat dry.

Peel the hard boiled eggs and put them into a food processor.

Add the anchovy fillets and the capers, and whizz together with the eggs until well combined.

Keep the mixer going at low speed, and slowly add in the vinegar and the olive oil until they both incorporate into a lovely, thin mayonnaise-like sauce.

With the asparagus served just warm, spoon over the sauce. The capers and vinegar pack a punch and the anchovies give it the perfect desired saltiness. Enjoy with a glass of Italian wine, preferably in a Murano glass goblet and whilst channeling your inner sex goddess/courtesan/poet while you do so.

Food in Films – My Big Fat Greek Wedding

March 24, 2020 ~ foodinbooks ~ 30 Comments

I haven’t felt much like posting over the past few weeks. The ongoing coronavirus situation continues to scare me, even though I am doing all the recommended things the CDC has instructed: social distancing, frequently washing my hands, covering my cough, cleaning and disinfecting frequently-used items and surfaces, checking on elderly neighbors, and trying not to panic but instead be prepared. I have limited my reading of the news to the simple facts of new cases, what to expect from our Governor in terms of closures and service limitations, and I am cooking like a madwoman to feed my elderly neighbor who is blind, my grandmother who is 95 and in fragile health, and other family members who are also self-quarantined…..and to keep myself calm. I am also watching quite a lot of Netflix and Amazon Prime, and in fact, last night decided to rewatch a film I hadn’t seen in years and didn’t find terribly funny at the time – My Big Fat Greek Wedding.

Well, hell. It’s hilarious! I don’t know what was wrong with me when I first saw it but on second viewing I literally snarfed wine as I watched the shenanigans of her loud, obnoxious, and loving Greek family. If you haven’t seen the film, the basic premise is this: Toula Portokalos is a frumpy, 30-year old woman living at home with her very traditional Greek family. Her father, Gus, is uber-proud of their Greek heritage, having their house painted in the blue-and-white colors of the Greek flag. He and his wife Maria own the Greek restaurant Dancing Zorba’s, where Toula works as a waitress. One day, she sees Ian Miller and falls for him, though she is so socially awkward that her attempts to talk to him fall somewhat flat. She soon starts to stretch her wings by taking computer classes, which in turn help her confidence to the point where she gets a haircut and a makeover, buys new clothes, and convinces her father to have her work at her Aunt Voula’s travel agency. She meets Ian again, they fall in love and he proposes. But…….no one in her Greek family has ever married a non-Greek, so bringing this outsider into the family has some complications.

The fact that Gus goes around with a bottle of Windex claiming it as a cure-all for any and all health issues took me back to my great-grandfather Reymundo who fixed anything and everything with duct tape and baling wire, and my great-grandmother Antonia who sprinkled holy water on everything as her own cure-all. The scene where Toula’s brother and cousins keep teaching Ian inappropriate phrases in Greek knowing he doesn’t understand brought back memories of my own male cousins totally messing with one of my female cousins’s future husband. Aunt Voula’s horror at finding out Ian is a vegetarian brought back memories of me introducing a college friend (and vegan) to my grandmother and her offering him beans and chile – that were cooked with pork. 🙂

I suppose part of the humor of this film is the familiarity. So many of us come from large, loud, “ethnic” (for lack of a better way to put it) families that are like this. My own paternal side of the family lived in what we call the “compound,” with three family houses next to one another on the same three family-owned acres and as kids, we’d run between all three, visiting our great-grandparents, our aunt and uncle and then back to our grandparent’s house. The familiarity of how the Portokalos family is portrayed was as comforting as it was funny, which is what we all need in this very nerve-wracking time. Comfort and humor go a long way toward calming and settling the soul.

Possibly the funniest moment in a movie filled with laugh-out-loud moments is when Ian’s very reserved, Caucasian parents come to meet Toula’s parents – and the rest of their enormous Greek family – after the engagement, and Ian’s mother brings a Bundt cake. Maria and Gus have never seen a Bundt cake before, and the ensuing language culture clash is beyond funny!

So of course I had to make a Bun-Bo-Bunk-Bonk-Bundt cake! I have my grandmother’s Bundt cake pan that she used to make all of our birthday cakes every year, and my favorite being her traditional rum cake with pecans and a sugar glaze, I decided to recreate that. DISCLAIMER: I am not one to EVER use a cake mix from a box, but in the spirit of tradition and comfort, I followed my Nana Jean’s recipe to the letter and it involved a yellow cake mix. (sigh) Don’t judge me.

INGREDIENTS
1 box of yellow cake mix
1 packet vanilla instant pudding mix
4 eggs, room temperature
1/2 cup grapeseed oil
1 cup golden rum
1 generous cup chopped pecans

For the sugar glaze:
1/4 cup butter
1/4 cup water
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup golden rum

METHOD
Heat the oven to 325F and spray your Bundt cake pan with baking spray.

In a large mixing bowl, combine the cake mix, the pudding mix, the eggs, the oil, the rum, and the nuts.

Pour into the Bundt pan and bake for an hour.

Let the cake cool while you make the glaze. Melt the butter in a small saucepan and add in the water and sugar, stirring constantly. Don’t leave it as the sugar burns very easily. Boil for about 5 minutes, stirring all the while, until it thickens, then add the rum.

Drizzle over the Bundt cake.

If you so happen to have one, garnish with a lovely potful of flowers! Just like Mama Maria!

Food in Films – The Godfather Part III

February 3, 2020February 3, 2020 ~ foodinbooks ~ 24 Comments

I don’t even want to hear it, you Godfather III haters. I happen to think this film is an underrated masterpiece. No, it doesn’t come close to the jewels that are the first two Godfather films, but to me, The Godfather Part III it has a dark beauty and pain that makes it its own work of art.

I’m on a Godfather kick lately, probably because of the change of season. Something about the dark, cold winter makes me want to snuggle in and watch The Godfather trilogy. I think it has something to do with the colors of the films. The shades and hues are deeper, richer, more jewel-like in tone and the underlying sense of darkness in all three films goes well with the darkness of this season.

Also, I just think Andy Garcia’s performance in this film is stunning. He is the perfect embodiment of the new Don and it doesn’t hurt that he is one mighty fine piece of eye candy. I actually liked his character, Vincent Mancini, the illegitimate son of Sonny Corleone, better than any other in this film. He is cold, ruthless, has no problem in killing his enemies to get them out of his hair, and yet, has a soft and romantic side that you see when he falls in love with Michael’s daughter Mary (and his cousin – yikes!) and takes her under his protection.

Another reason why I also love this film is the theme of possible redemption and ultimate paying the price for the choices made in life. That is, after all, the place Michael Corleone has come to in this film. He is older, has worked to take his family out of crime and become respectable, and in the opening scenes, has just received a medal of honor and honorary title from the Pope himself. Kay, his former wife, has remarried and stays far away from him, and he’s been estranged from his children for many years. At the party celebrating his Papal honor, you see Kay, his children, his sister Connie and many other family come together to celebrate, in scenes very reminiscent of the opening of the first film when Connie gets married. Vincent and his mother Lucy Mancini – remember the scene in the first film when Sonny is banging the bridesmaid upstairs? – yup, Vincent is the result! Anyway, he’s a real tough guy, has his own criminal career on the upswing and is drop-dead gorgeous. Mary sees him and it’s love at first sight.

The film trajectory follows Michael as he tries in his own way, to make amends with his children, reconcile with Kay and, once and for all extract his family from the Mafia that controls most gambling, casinos, drugs, prostitution and other such activities. Needless to say, he doesn’t succeed. After an attempted assassination in Atlantic City where all the old-school Mafia dons are killed by an upstart Mafioso called Joey Zaza (played with a stylishly stupid menace by the wonderful Joe Mantegna), Michael reflects on the difficulty of changing his life, saying before he collapses into a diabetic coma, “Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in.” Pretty much sums up The Godfather’s life.

Anyway, I personally loved the romance between Mary and Vincent. I highly doubt they are the only cousins ever to fall in love and have an affair, and in my opinion, it’s handled with tact and delicacy, because Vincent so clearly wants to protect her above all else. He loves her and is attracted to her, it’s obvious, but the protective side of him is what I found lovely and sweet. When she comes to his apartment after the attempt on her father’s life and he teaches her to make gnocchi, it was romantic and soooooooo sexy.

I sometimes wonder if this particular scene was one of the reasons I so wanted to learn to cook, in the hopes that someday I would reenact this scene with someone. Without removing any clothes or showing any nudity, that scene left no doubt that these two were going to burn the place down with their passion. So of course I had to make gnocchi!

Gnocchi, if you don’t already know this, are little dumplings seasoned with salt. Simple to make, and this method adds the flavorful twist of pumpkin, sage, butter, garlic, and ricotta cheese to create these little bundles of deliciousness.

INGREDIENTS
1 cup ricotta cheese
1 cup canned pumpkin puree
3 cloves garlic, finely minced
Pinch of sea salt
Good grinding of fresh black pepper
2 eggs
1 cup flour, plus lots more for dusting
4 tablespoons salted butter
Large bunch of fresh sage leaves
1 cup shaved Parmesan cheese

METHOD
Combine the ricotta cheese, the pumpkin, the garlic, the eggs, the pepper and the salt in a large bowl and mix well to combine.

Add in the flour and stir until just mixed. It’s supposed to be sticky but still workable so just go by feel.

Flour a surface or a rolling board very well, place the sticky dough on the floured surface and flour the top of the dough.

Cut the dough into quarters, then roll each quarter into a long rope shape.

Cut 1-inch dumplings from each dough rope, and using a fork, press the tines into each dumpling to give it the classic shape. The tine marks also help sauce adhere to the gnocchi dumpling. I was fortunate to have help today in the form of my friend Tina and her grandson Michael, who helped with the kneading, rolling and fork-tining. It was great fun!

Lay the dumplings on a baking tray and chill for at least an hour, if not more. When you’re ready to cook them in the butter-sage sauce, you want them to be cold so they retain their shape.

Heat a large potful of salted water and boil 6 gnocchi until they float, the remove and repeat until all the gnocchi are cooked.

Melt the butter and oil in a large skillet until it starts to sizzle. Fry 6-7 cooked gnocchi until they brown nicely on either side, and again, repeat until all the gnocchi are fried.

Add the sage leaves and fry until crisp, roughly 20-30 seconds. Don’t let them burn. Remove and set aside.

Pour the butter-sage sauce over the gnocchi and sprinkle over a generous handful of the Parmesan cheese.

A wonderful dish! Warming, hearty and the flavor of pumpkin goes deliciously with the sage and Parmesan. My gnocchi were a bit stodgy, but I imagine with practice, that will improve. A keeper……..if only Vincent Corleone were the one showing me how to roll out the gnocchi, I’ve no doubt they’d be perfect. Or burned. 🙂

Food in Films – Star Wars: A New Hope

December 23, 2019December 23, 2019 ~ foodinbooks ~ 17 Comments

It’s the end of an era. Or at least, the official end of the Star Wars films. I haven’t actually seen the last film, but I have an idea of how it ends. Don’t spoil it for me in the comments! That being said, part of what I did to prepare for this end game was to watch the original trilogy over the weekend. I’d forgotten I had it and it was such a great trip down memory lane. I still remember seeing Star Wars: A New Hope for the very first time as a kid at the Lensic Theater in Santa Fe. I was blown away, as I think every impressionable kid and teenager was at the time.

It’s definitely a cultural icon, if you think about it. How many movie lines can you quote? I can probably quote all three of the original trilogy, so don’t watch with me if that irritates you. How many references to the film are part of our society? Endless references, I imagine, my favorite being when Ross fantasizes about Rachel in a Princess Leia costume on Friends. Can you imagine a world without Darth Vader’s ominous breathing, Luke Skywalker’s youthful naivete, Princess Leia’s iconic cinnamon-bun hairdo, Chewbacca’s growly yells, Han Solo’s swaggering arrogance, C3P0’s pedantic words, and of course, the great Obi-Wan Kenobi? I certainly can’t.

Obi-Wan might be my favorite character in all the Star Wars films, besides R2-D2. There is just something about the classic archetype of the mentor figure that draws me. Characters like Gandalf the Grey, Professor Albus Dumbledore, Merlin the Wizard, and of course Obi-Wan, are so fascinating. The magician/wizard/mentor who guides the young knight in his quest to find the treasure is a classic trope in every culture.

Having studied the Tarot for many years now, I also found wonderful parallels between Obi-Wan and the figure of the Magician in the Major Arcana. The Magician is symbolic of both earth and heaven, or the joining of the esoteric with the widely known, the shadow with the light. If Star Wars were a deck of Tarot cards, Obi-Wan would be the perfect embodiment of the Magician, being completely at one with The Force and at the same time, tied strongly to his physical life, demonstrated by the fact that he chooses to go into hiding until such time as he can play a role in the events of Luke’s life. I suppose the combination of the earthly and the divine attract me because, if you think about it, we as humans are all that combination of faulty humanity constantly struggling toward divine oneness with the Universe.

Also, he has what, IMHO, is one of the most rad lines in the film series:

The symbolism is also pretty interesting, too. Light versus dark, black versus white, The Force versus The Dark Side, the son overtaking the father……you see a lot of traditional Judeo-Christian imagery in the trilogy. If you want to stretch the analogy even further, you could argue that Obi-Wan, Darth Vader and Luke Skywalker represent the Holy Trinity – Darth is the Father, Luke is the Son, and Obi-Wan is the Holy Spirit. There’s the whole story arc of rebirth and redemption, which is about as symbolic as you can get.

I thought about what kind of food might be both fun and tasty to recreate for this latest Food in Films post. I considered blue Banta milkshakes; frog legs from the scene where Jabba the Hutt eats the frogs in the third film; Cornish game hens to stand in for the cute little Porg creatures; or even some kind of floaty fruit like what Anakin manipulates to try and impress Padmé in the Clone film, but being the dork that I am and loving a good food pun, I give you……..wait for it…………Obi-Wan Cannoli. You’re welcome.

INGREDIENTS
6 cannoli shells
1 cup finely diced prosciutto or other ham
1 cup Ricotta cheese
Zest of one large lemon
1 cup shaved Parmesan cheese
Fresh mint and basil
1/2 cup capers, finely chopped

METHOD
Mix the finely chopped prosciutto with the Ricotta cheese until well combined.

Add in the lemon zest and some sea salt, taste for seasoning and mix.

Add in the Parmesan cheese and the mint and basil, and taste again. Adjust the seasoning as needed.

Spoon the cheese mixture into a large plastic bag and refrigerate for an hour.

Assemble your cannoli on a large platter.

Snip a small hole in one corner of the plastic bag and squeeze the cheese filling into each end of each cannoli shell until each is filled, then garnish the ends with the chopped capers. Serve with marinara sauce for dipping and some good red wine, and know that The Force will be with you…….always.

Food in Films – Beetlejuice

October 13, 2019October 13, 2019 ~ foodinbooks ~ 26 Comments

Well, it’s that time of year again, the high holy season of horror, darkness and goth – October! My personal favorite time of year, when I can indulge my love of all things dark and deathly. I can wear black from head to toe and no one bats an eye. I can watch all the horror films I want, read all the scary books I want and no one will think I’m weird. (OK, they MIGHT still think I’m weird but what do they know?)

One of my favorite Halloween-themed movies of all time is Beetlejuice. I mean, how can you not love Winona Ryder as Lydia? I WAS Lydia in high school, dark and goth and in love with death, running around in black with white makeup and listening non-stop to Joy Division, Siouxsie and the Banshees and of course, The Cure.

It’s hard to pick a favorite character or indeed, a favorite scene, because the whole movie is so hilariously funny and the cast fucking rocks! I mean, Michael Keaton as the title character was so terrific! Catherine O’Hara as the evil stepmother who isn’t so bad after all. Jeffrey Jones, Geena Davis, Alec Baldwin, Glenn Shadix, such a great cast of characters! And the scenes both in the afterlife and in the real world are so awesome. But of course, being a foodie post, I had to blog this particular scene, because come on! What else could I possible make except shrimp cocktail?

There’s this scene!

And of course, the best one of all!

So in honor of Beetlejuice himself, I created what I call a monster shrimp cocktail, garnished with jade-green chunks of avocado, nice pungent cilantro, and a couple of shots of silver tequila. Perfect for a lovely fall afternoon.

INGREDIENTS
20 raw jumbo shrimp, shelled and deveined but with tails still on
1/2 fresh lemon
3 tablespoons sea salt
1/2 cup Frank’s Hot Sauce or any hot sauce you like
1 tablespoon celery salt
1 tablespoon freshly ground black pepper
1 generous tablespoon prepared horseradish
3 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
Juice of 1 fresh lime
2 generous shots tequila blanco
1 avocado, cubed
Fresh cilantro, finely chopped

METHOD
In a large pot, boil about two quarts of water, including the lemon and sea salt. Add the shrimp and cook until pink and opaque, maybe two minutes at most.

Drain and put the cooked shrimp into a bowl of ice water, to immediately stop them cooking. Drain, pat dry, squeeze over more lemon juice, and chill in the refrigerator for about an hour.

Combine the hot sauce, the celery salt and pepper, the horseradish, the Worcestershire sauce, the lime juice and the tequila together in a mixing bowl, taste for seasoning and garnish with cilantro.

Arrange the cold shrimp artistically along the side of the bowl with the spicy sauce, as similar to the shrimp cocktail in the movie as possible.

Cube the avocado and sprinkle it around the serving platter for garnish, along with the cilantro and some lemon slices.

Admire your platter and wolf it down, occasionally busting out into a chorus of “Day O!”

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