Oscars 2013: Django Unchained

The next Oscar nominated movie of the series is Django Unchained, a Southern style Spaghetti Western from Quentin Tarantino. And it’s a tasty one!

I am seriously hurting for ideas on how to incorporate Zero Dark Thirty into SOME kind of food. If you have any crafty thoughts you’d like to share, please do! If I use your idea, I will send you a $10 Starbucks card. Free coffee for your brainpower, it’s easy.

Are you ready for it? Straight out of Candie Land and topped with Django’s signature…

If you haven’t seen the movie, Leonardo DiCaprio plays a sadistic plantation owner, who offers Django and his travelling partner some white cake at a crucial moment in the film. This next statement shouldn’t surprise you. Quentin Tarantino often incorporates guns and blood into his films. Alas, Django Unchained is too, a bloody flick.

The strawberry sauce (do I have to tell you it’s supposed to be blood?), which drips over and puddles under the Django White Cake, is simply sugared up strawberries with a bit of cocoa powder for depth. You can easily change the flavor with any berry you choose and same goes for the cake. To keep your cake white-ish, be sure to use clear extract. This recipe calls for whole eggs, leaving you with an almost white cake. The almond flavor lends itself well, but vanilla would work perfectly too.

It’s hard to tell from the photo, but there is a white layer of cream cheese frosting between the layers and on the top of the cake, it helps mask the tint of the cake, holds it together and gives it an extra layer of flavor.

How does it taste? It tastes “You better hide this cake from me, because I WILL find it in the middle of the night and eat 3 pieces” good. It tastes, “I am going to hide in the bathroom with the shower running and eat another piece” good.

The (Kinda) White Cake

• 1 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup butter
• 2 eggs
• 2 teaspoons almond extract (make sure it’s clear!)
• 2 cup cake flour
• 1 3/4 tsp. baking powder
• 1 cup milk

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees, prepare chosen cake or cupcake pans with spray or butter and a sprinkling of flour.
2. In medium bowl, cream sugar and butter. Beat in eggs, one at a time. Stir in almond extract.
3. In separate bowl, mix flour and baking powder.
4. Gently mix dry ingredients in with the wet.
5. Stir in milk until batter is smooth and pour into pans.
6. Bake 30 minutes or 25 for cupcakes.
7. Let cake cook before icing.

Strawberry Sauce and White Cream Cheese Frosting

• 2 cups strawberries
• 1/4 cup water
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 1/8 cup cocoa powder
• 1 brick cream cheese
• 2 cups powdered sugar
• 1/8 – 1/4 cup milk

1.  In a medium saucepot, bring berries, water and sugar to the point of boiling. 
2. Lower heat and stir sauce until it thickens a bit and sugar is melted.
3. Mix in cocoa powder and set aside to cool.

(You can also use a Vitamix or Blendtec to make the sauce if you have one!)

1. Blend together cream cheese and powdered sugar. Add milk slowly and only if mixture is too dry. That’s it!

Now, gotta go pay the bills. I know you may not believe this, but I don’t actually get paid for being wife and mother of the year. No one has actually ever accused me of being wife or mother of the year, but I totally know lots of people are just thinking it, so it must be true.

Oscars 2013: Life of Pi

Next movie up, Life of Pi!  After dropping $15 for a matinee in 3DXD, I was a little worried that I had fallen prey to a cinema gimmick. Half way through the film, I realized I had never experienced something as visually stunning as what I was witnessing. My next thought? I’m totally gonna make Life of Pi Fish Pie!

Based on the best-selling novel by Yann Martel, is a magical adventure story centering on Pi Patel, the precocious son of a zoo keeper. Dwellers in Pondicherry, India, the family decides to move to Canada, hitching a ride on a huge freighter. After a shipwreck, Pi finds himself adrift in the Pacific Ocean on a 26-foot lifeboat with a zebra, a hyena, an orangutan and a 450-pound Bengal tiger named Richard Parker, all fighting for survival. – IMDB

Fish pie is not a dish we hear a lot about. I had vaguely remembered seeing a recipe for a fishy casserole in Jamie Oliver’s book, Jamie’s Food Revolution. Many posts  mention my love for Jamie and his recipes. I’ve yet to make one of his dishes that didn’t turn out. Was that a double negative, or only one and a half? I still need to buy Jamie’s Food Revolution, I’ve checked it out from the library many times over, yet haven’t dropped the cash for the actual book. (Birthday, Jy?)

You can find near anything through Google, yet I could NOT find this recipe online, written for an American cook. I had to ask the fishmonger at Sprouts what 1 kilogram of fish means pound-wise. I had a list of fish that I hadn’t heard of before either. Lacking in both math and fish knowledge, I wound up purchasing enough cod and tilapia to equal somewhere close to two pounds.

Life of Pi Fish Pie

Here is what you’ll need:

• 5 large potatoes, peeled and diced
• 2 eggs
• 2 handfuls spinach or kale
• 1 onion, finely chopped
• 1 carrot, halved and diced
• olive oil
• 1 1/4 cup heavy cream
• 2 cups grated cheddar
• juice of 1 lemon
• 2 pounds white and boneless fish
• salt and pepper

The original recipe has a few changes and additions. For the fish, Jamie uses a mix of smoked Haddock, salmon and raw King Prawns. He also adds some tomatoes, fresh chili and celery. For the original British version of this dish, visit Jamie’s site.  The version I recreated was found at Grouprecipes.com and written by the elusive, Debra47.

Preheat oven to 450 degrees

Put the potatoes into a pot of salted, boiling water and boil for 10 minutes

At the same time, hard boil the 2 eggs and quarter when cooked and cooled

Steam the spinach in a colander over the pan that has the potatoes for 1-2 minutes

When the spinach is done, remove from colander and squeeze out excess water

Drain the potatoes in the colander

In a separate pan, sautee the onions and carrots in a little olive oil for about 8-10 minutes

Add the cream and bring just to a boil

Remove from the heat and add the Cheddar cheese and lemon juice

Put the spinach, fish and eggs in an large casserole dish

Pour the creamy sauce over the fish

Mash the cooked potatoes – adding a bit of olive oil, salt and pepper

Spread the potatoes on top of the fish

Place in the oven for 25 – 30 minutes

I wasn’t sure what would end up coming out of the oven, but I am happy to say this was a seriously comforting casserole. Perfect for a cold winter night, paired with a Hefeweizen (or diet coke) and two fuzzy socks on your feet. Enjoy!