Not the only dreamer

Well how was your Fat Tuesday?
Mardi Gras/Carnaval is a colorful time.

Tune: Agujetas de color de rosa by Los Pikadientes De Caborca


These guys have a huge tune on Mexican radio right now. I hear this song everywhere I go in San Francisco. Ring tones on the bus, taqueria juke boxes, low riders on Mission Street. Banda meets cumbia.

Tune: Cumbia Del Rio also by Los Pikadientes De Caborca


Not to be confused with the great standard Cumbia Hip Hop tune Cumbia Sobre el Rio by Celso Piña and Blanquito Man

Another interesting tune that gets a lot of play on taqueria jukeboxes is the Bollywood inspired tune from the kings of modern bachata, Aventura

Tune: Un Chi Chi by Aventura



Tune: Colorblind featuring Aloe Blacc by Afrodisiac Soundsystem



Tune: De Colores by Ismael Rivera


Get your carnaval fix over at Masala with a bunch of great soca and other Carribean tunes. And jump on the soca train over at the Heatwave blog. And for all things New Orleans check out Home of the Groove. And if you come to the Soul Cocina in search of food and music and I sleep [dream] like I did in the last few weeks, you can always check out the sidebar to your right under cuisine for other blogs with wonderful culinary tales and recipes. And check out the musica blogroll too. I have been meaning to post more stories from Shammi and I slept on sharing my thoughts on my three favorite holidays that came three days in a row in January. And I didn't comment much on one of my least favorite holidays, I let Shunna speak for me on that one. Oh and since I'm backpeddling all the way to christmastime... Have you heard QDog's Christmas tune from last year on Cardboard Sangria Records?

Tune: Punchy the Christmas Monkey by Emmett Quinn and the Cardboard Sangria Fam

A good friend of mine [who happens to be a great chef] recently said that they were anxious for spring and summer produce to make its way to the market. They said they were growing tired of root vegetables. I am also excited for new fruits and veggies, but I'll never get bored with root vegetables. And I love all the citrus we are blessed with, remember?

I've been working in the kitchen at Nopalito. The naranja salad is bliss. Slices of grapefruit, orange and blood orange with lime, house-made queso fresco, pickled red onions and Nopalito's special ground chile spice. As you can tell from this blog, Mexican Cuisine is close to my heart. And you don't have to wait for los fines de semana for birria and pozole anymore. Come visit Nopalito 7 days a week for these crudo cures. The meat is local and sustainable. The masa is ground in house from organic corn and the tortillas are made to order. If tomatoes are not in season, you won't be seeing any pico de gallo on the plates at Nopalito. Chantenay carrots for chiles en vinagre and watermellon radishes and cabbage to top the pozole. Just like abuela used to do it.

What to do with winter produce?
At home, I've been going through a few Pomelos a day. A few weeks ago I made a sunchoke soup and tossed in a few chopped mushrooms from the Alameny Farmers Market. it was like cream of mushroom soup from heaven. I often pass by the sunchokes aka Jeruselum artichokes because I don't feel like peeling them. But I discoverd that when you boil them, the flesh comes right out of the skin with ease. Then I saute onion and garlic in olive oil, add the boiled sunchokes along with some veggie stock and milk. Process with an immersion stick blender, toss in some chopped mushrooms and then season with herbs, salt and pepper. I encourage you to do the same, before they go out of season in the next week or two.

At our Monday Beacon cooking activity we made some veggie sushi with wonderful purple, red and yellow carrots and citrus spring rolls.

B.O.B was in town this month and he prepared a vegan feast with the season's bounty. He brought a bunch of stories from the farm in Wisconsin where they make there own wine and sauerkraut. He also brought ideas for a menu of grapefruit salad, vegan bbq sandwich with coleslaw, beets, and lentil soup. I added a colorful version of Aloo Gobi.

COLORFUL ALOO GOBI FOR DREAMERS

Toast cumin, fennel seed, kalonji, coriander and dried kashmiri chillies seperately. Grind to a powder and combine.
Roast yellow cauliflower, purple cauliflower, purple potatoes, yellow carrots, purple carrots with a little salt, peper and olive oil.
Puree onion, ginger, garlic and green chillies with a little olive oil.
Heat olive oil or ghee in 2 saute pans and cook mustard seeds until they start to pop then add the onion-ginger-garlic-chile paste [half in each pan]. In one pan add finely grated turmeric root and cook slow.
Add the spice mix to both pans.
Toss the yellow vegetables in the turmeric pan and the purple veggies in the other pan. Add a little veggie stock and simmer for 2 minutes until the stock evaporates and the flavors merge.
Finish with cilantro and julienne raw ginger.

*To avoid overcooking the veggies I like to roast them at high tempurature on a preheated pan to give them a nice golden sear and cook for a short while so they are still firm. Then after they simmer with the spices and stock for a few minutes they will be al dente. The authentic method does not call for roasting, the veggies are all cooked down in the pan with the spices. But I like the flavor/texture/color from my roast first method.

K'naan's new album Troubadour was released today. Buy it today.
I bought K'naan's first album when it came out based solely on the cover. I've been following along ever since. I have been excited for this album that was recorded at the marley family studios in Jamaica.
Here's what K'naan has to say about the album [from a few days ago on myspace]

Hey folks.

I wanna start by saying thanks to all of those who
have shared with me, in person or online, how much
you've been moved by my music. This great response
is encouraging. You must understand that a lot of artist these
days are losing motivation. I know intimately, many would-be
great artists who are being shackled by the business of music
today. Sales are low across the board, because most people
are not really interested in buying music. I had a theory for a long
time that, this is because a lot of the music being made today isn't
worth people's money anyway. But when an artist steps outside
the box, and puts his heart and soul into their music, ignoring all the
voices hoping he would stray, the weight of suspicion is greater than
you can imagine. A lot of people out there would like for me to succeed.
But there are quite a few also, who would rather say "I told you so".
"Listen K'naan" they would say... "You can't make genre-hopping music
with lyrics that actually have meaning and be successful". I've heard
this through out my entire musical life, even from people who wish me well.
But I could never lower myself to make music that I don't believe in. This is
why I made Troubadour, and there is a reason why I recorded it in Bob
Marley's home studio in Jamaica. You can now give the entire album a listen
on myspace. I'm very proud of it and I hope that it will mean something
to you for a long time to come. This tuesday, February 24th, the album
will be available on iTunes, music stores and all major on and offline
outlets. If you love it, I ask that you actually buy it. This is when supporting
real music becomes real critical. Trust me, the odds are way bigger than us.
Tell everyone you know also, because it's one thing to commend me for my
efforts and integrity, but it's another thing to help me continue to do it.

Thank you very much, and know that all the support is truly appreciated.

Let's celebrate, because Troubadour is here!

K'naan



Dreamer - K'NAAN



Check out this tune from the album with Jr Gong, Damian Marley
Tune: I Come Prepared (feat. Damian Marley) by K'naan

Big tune from the album, Somalia, has a great video too.

Betel Bump

Here is another Soul Cocina Motion Picture called Betel Bump. The video starts off in the village of Mutt on the Malvan Coast of Maharashtra near Sindadurg. There is a festival and ceremony during the week of Holi. The tree is a supari tree.
Then the motion picture moves on to a paanwalla working with the product of the supari tree. then the film moves on to people and places across India from the soul cocina lens.



Anthony Bourdain should go to the Malvan Coast

His No Reservation show airs around he world. But apparently, in some Muslim countries they edit out the pork scenes.

I guess the Soul Dukra Motion Picture would have to be edited out as well. This is the film of the wild boar hunt and butcher ceremony that also happens durring Holi in Mutt. [more on Soul Dukra here.]


Bourdain visited some great places in the past few years for the show.
In Jamaica he hung out with Mutabaruka. One of his new shows is in Puebla, Mexico, a center of cumbia sonidera culture and mole poblano. He went to Saudi Arabia, Ghana, Transylvania, Malaysia, and in Spain he visited Eric Rovira's Choccolate Lab, Extebarri, Mugaritz, yeah, that Mugaritz and El Bulli. Just a good show.


Tony at Mugaritz


Tony visits some pastry gurus of Spain. Check out the chocolate egg!

Tune: Junk Food - Food Dub by Mutabaruka


Tune: Da System by Mutabaruka


Pick up some Mutabaruka CDs and books here.

Tune: Downtown Pigs by Daleduro



Tune: I Crave My Pig Meat by Blind Boy Fuller


Tune: Goodbye Pork Pie Hat is Charlie Mingus' ode to Lester Young


Tune: Gimme a Pig Foot by Bessie Smith


Tune: I Heard the Voice of a Pork Chop by Jim Jackson

Rocket Stove

This is the first of a few posts from Shammi. Shammi recently returned to India from Kufunda Village, Zimbabwe where he was continuing his life journey of learning and sharing. Whether bicycling the hills and jungles of Rajasthan bartering his hands and mind in exchange for food and shelter, learning how to make chapals from used tires, creating tasty meals with little or no oil/ butter, documenting the love songs of the Bengali Bauls on film or creating useful everyday objects from old magazines, Shammi is always active creating a more beautiful, sustainable world.

His first contribution is about a rocket stove that was built by his friends Jenny and Steven in the Kufunda Village:

~Whenever Jenny would sit near the fire as we would cook she would look at the smoke
coming out of the fire and express her concern for the unburnt smoke and would talk
about the fuel efficient Rocket Stove that they have in their place. So finally
she began working on it with Steven and finished it just before she left. It had not dried before she left so she didn’t get a chance to test it.

One day when we were cooking with the kids we decided to use it and I was REALLY
AMAZED at its working. It is super efficient, I would say it can do the same job in
half or even 40 percent of the wood and doesn’t give any smoke. I used to think
how can one have a wood burning stove without smoke but this actually is.
It was made on one of the old stove like the ones next to it.
The inner chamber was made by joining small, metal cyclinders and was given a layer of clay outside.
The gap has to be filled with ash in order to insulate and keep the heat go up rather than pass on to the clay which will become a thermal mass. We don’t want the stove to get hot but to transfer all the heat from the fire to the pot. One has to just put some clay over the ash and make three protrusions to put the pot and jenny had also said that we need to make a skirt around the place of the pot so no fire escapes from the side as that also is a big loss in the fire.
Tinashi was the one who agreed to light it up. The kids in Kufunda are really good at making fire, as I suppose they do it enough at home.

The chamber for putting wood is really small and according to jenny one is supposed to put thinner pieces. I read some where that it increases the surface are of the wood which makes it burn better.As you can see only the tips of the wood burn unlike the other stove where the whole log can also burn at on time thereby dying out soon.
The fire is on but there is no smoke, only when you take your hand near you feel the heat.
There should be a skirt made around the place you keep the pot so no heat escapes from the side and is all directed to the pot.

Zimbabwean soldiers are being given elephant meat for their rations ~BBC news

Tune: Ration by Bongo Herman And Bingy Bunny



Tune: All That Meat and No Potatoes by Fats Waller




Tune: The Elephant Never Forgets by Jean Jacques Perrey

Tune: Turn My Teeth Up! by Baby Elephant

Tune: Andarele by Papá Roncón & Katanga

Tune: Girl from Pakistan by Bikram Singh & Elephant Man

Tune: El Tren Featuring Corrales - Prince Nico Mbarga by The King Elio Boom from Champeta Criolla Vol II


Tune: Fire Fi Mi Roots by Noiseshaper


Tune: Chillando Goma by Fulanito


Tune: The African Way by K'Naan

Tune: The Bauls of New York by Zeb

Tune: Fever by Kazi Arindam from the Singing Guitars album via radio Diffusion

Tune: Elephant und Mücke (The Elephant and the Fly - 1918) by Weyert A. Moor and Benjamin Kohon from an Edison phonograph cylinder

Tune: Fire Dub by Yabby You

Tune: Keep it to Yourself by Queen Ifrica

Tune: Scrappy Elephant by elephant Man and Missy ElliotBangers R Mashed on the flip side of the Healing in Vain record

reposted tune:
Tune: Killer in Tunisia has Elephant Man singing over a version Dizzie Gilespies classic Night in Tunisia done by La Sonora Poncena Elephant man was born on 9-11 in the wonderful year of 1975. from Noisybunch records

Tune: More Fire by Mr. Arssen via Esta Bater

Tune: Now that I found you by Munman


Tune: Aki Special by Uproot Andy Via

Get Ready San Francisco for Valenines Day Tormenta Tropical with Uproot Andy.

Tune: elephant message cumbia


Tune: Sweet Mother by Prince Nico Mbarga

Tune: Zimbabwe by Bob Marley

Tune: Abuela Santana by Papá Roncón & Katanga

Tune: O Elefante (SHH remix By Philip Cohan Solal (Gotan Project) & Haaksman) by Ray Barretto

More funk from the vaults of Nori

Tune: Get It Together (Part 1) by James Brown from I Can't Stand Myself When You Touch Me

Nori, Me and Jimmy Wu 2000 Flying Saucer, SF

Besan Ladoo
2 cups besan [chick pea flour]
1 cup ghee
3/4 cup sugar
2 Tablespoons cardamom

toast the chick pea flour in a large saute pan over low heat, stirring constantly until it is toasted to a golden color and smells nutty. Add the sugar and ghee and continue to stir and cook over low heat for 10 minutes. Mix in the cardamom and spread onto a pan to cool. Allow to cool to warm temperature [not hot, not cool] and roll into little balls. Garnish with silver foil or nuts. Reminds me of my mom's energy balls made from peanut butter and powdered sugar back in 1984 when Afrika Bambaataa and James Brown put out the Unity record.

Tune: Unity pt3 [Nuclear Wild Style] by Afrika Bambaataa & James Brown from their 1984 Unity 12"

Firni Funk

Bosc Pear poached in star anise infused white wine with cinnamon phirni.

I remember first arriving in Mumbai a few years ago and my friends brought me from the airport to a restaurant opposite a flyover [Indian addresses are cool like that, "next to the banyan tree" "opposite the cricket club" "around the corner from the temple"]. The meal was great after a long flight. Not too "street exciting" like the fish fry shop inside Sasoon Docks, the sev puri stand at Juhu, or Bademiya, nor was it too plush. A great first meal for Bombay. What was super remarkable was the phirni. I had never heard of phirni [or firni] before this. It is basicly a rich rice and milk custard that is slow cooked in a clay ramekin called a kulhar. These earthenware cups and ramekins are still found all over India, but there used to be a lot more back in the day. Used for warm chai, warm dhood and various drinks and sweets sweets, these cups made basically from dried, molded mud are a pleasure to drink from. Calcutta uses a lot more than bombay. The warm milk that steeps all day long in giant vats on the streets of Calcutta are served in kulhars. Sugar cane juice too! Now chai is often served in plastic cups instead of the clay cups. The train tracks are full of plastic cups taht have been thrown overboard after comsumbpion. I think they were trying to pass a law that would bring the kulhars back to the rail system. They give work to many families who survive off of kulhar production rather than the big plastic cup factories and they drastically cut down on liter. Those scenes in Slumdog Millionaire with all the garbage were not filmed on a set, that is the real everyday life in many parts of Mumbai. And the kulhars add to the flavor and help with the slow cooking process of phirni, as the clay cunducts heat well and is poreous. But it's all about the great milk of India. The custardness comes from khoya and the reduced milk, which is common in so many Indian desserts. At the Cidade de Goa kitchen, there were always a few 50 gallon buckets filled with half liter bags of milk [dhood in Hindi, dhooda? in Konkani] and they were always broken open by the dozen or more. I always asked why they didn't just get milk in larger containers, or better yet, reusable barrels or bottles. They wasted so much plastic everyday. It's like that with little individual wrapped candies and snacks too, which are rapidly replacing many hand made snack stand fare. Although the chaatwallas will never die, they are taking a bit of a beting from the mass produced packaged snacks. So all these packages of milk are slashed open with a knife and used to make paneer, khoya and tea. For firni, the milk is cooked down and the rice is broken and simmered in the milk to create a gloriously unique texture. This firni was flavored with saffron. The place was close to Victoria Station. Now I remember! It is a place called Saffron. Or maybe Zafron. It is next to a Bengali place that serves great banana flour fritters. I may have forgotten the name of the place. But I will never forget the firni. A few weeks after my first taste of firni, I came across a a part of Mumbai where there are a bunch of shops that specialize in making firni durring Ramadan along Mohammed Ali Road. They have huge pans lined with clay ramekins filled with the delicacy.

PHIRNI
2 liters of milk
150 grams [about 3/4 cup] basmati rice
125 grams khoya
2 teaspoons ground cardomom
a few pinches of saffron
sliced pistachios for garnish

grate the khoya
soak rice for 4 hours, drain and roughly grind.
simmer milk slowly with a tiny pinch of saffron until reduced by almost half
add rice and simmer over very low heat, stirring often until rice is almost cooked
add the khoya, sugar and cardomom, mix well
pour into kulhar or ceramic ramekin
top each kulhar with a tiny pinch of saffron
bake in a water bath @ 300 degrees for one hour
cool to room temperature
garnish with pistachio
can also be flavored with rose water, almond extract, vanilla, cinnamon......

Silence is ......


I have been excited for the release of Slingshot ever since I saw this trailer a few years ago. It finally debuted in SF and I missed it.

Tune: War In The Poppy Fields by Dub Gabriel from Bass Jihad off of Azra Records

Tune: Make Dub Not War by Quantic from Death of the Revolution

Don't sleep. Get hip to this Quantic album today. If we did best of 2008 lists at Soulcocina, this would be up there in the top ten with Ticklah [even though Ticklah vs Axelrod was late O7]

Tune: Stop the War by Okokan Sound System

Tune: Born Here by DAM - Da Arab MC's

Tune: Palestinian by Ja'afar Hassan from Choubi Coubi (Flok And Pop Songs From Iraq)

Radio Diffusion has a few tunes by Ja'afar Hassan up along with a bunch of great Indian Slide Guitar music, tunes from obscure Indonesian records, and a bunch of great music from North Africa, the Middle East and beyond. Check the records from Algeria, Tunisia, Azerbaijan, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.

Tune: #$%& a WAR by The Geto Boys

Tune: War feat. Nas by Saigon

Tune: WW4 (Dirty) by Saigon feat. Lil Fame from A Rosenberg Oddisee EP
Oddissee always on point.
"it's brothers like [Oddissee] that keep the movement moving forward in an authentic way" - Ali Shaheed Muhammad

Tune: Warlord's Daughter (Krishna XL remix) by Lexie Lee from Di Preparation

Tune: Yo Ka Ka ka by Mighty Ki La

Le Monde à l'envers

Tune: Se Está Acabando el Mundo by Principola



.....and just for fun:
Tune: Tienes El Culo Aguao by Japanese


and
Tune: Sa Péké Passé by by Mighty Ki La


And another unforgettable spot for grub in Mumbai: