Thursday Lead In 2: Hellboy 2: The Golden Army (2008)

There are a lot of different trailers out there for this movie, I had to go with this one because I'm a Rammstein fan.  It features "Mien Herz Brennt."

Thursday Lead In 1: The Canterville Ghost (1997)

Getting started early this week.  We are doing Fantasy films in general, and our brand new Lord Of The Rings blu-ray set in particular.  Next Friday is very special!  It's The Peanut's birthday.  Around here, if your birthday happens to to fall on a Friday, then you get "Fright Nighted" big time.  This film is just a little something for him to tide him over!  We collect ghost stories, and there is a whole slew of Canterville Ghost films out there!  Enough to make it a sub-genre in the ghost file.  This version is actually set during the Victorian era and was released only a year after the Patrick Stewart version, that was set in modern times.  It stars the late great British actor Ian Richardson.  I really like this version better actually, and I think that the story has been set in the modern era so many times, that it is refreshing to have it set in the period that it was actually written in.  

31 Days Of Blavod: Black Cat Jello Shots

I was just cataloging my 31 days of Blavod files and realized that it only added up to 30 days, I suddenly figured out that I had forgotten to include the other black jello shot recipe in the list--shame on me!!  So here it is.  It's raspberry--a personal favorite of mine!  Save the best for last.

Black Cat Jello Shots!

1 cup boiling water

1 3 oz. sized package of raspberry jello

1/4 cup ice cold water

1/2 cup Blavod

1/4 cup Chambord liqueur

1.  Dissolve the jello in the boiling water, stir until completely dissolved.  Add the cold water and stir.  Then add in the vodka and the liqueur and stir again.  Allow to cool fully to room temperature, then pour into jello shot molds.  Refrigerate overnight.  That's easy!!

Theme Recipe: Squid Ink Pasta With Italian Cheese Sauce

This is the theme recipe for the Film Noir night that we did on the 4th.

Film Noir or dark movies (loose translation) do not always have to be black and white film stock, though most are; but even the few that are in color (thinking of House Of Bamboo from FOX) have to have a indelibly dark mood to them.  So I started thinking about dark or black colored foods that I had actually tried.  Black olives jumped to mind, then things like black beans, wild rice, black dhal, black licorice, even black truffles came up.  Then, since I have a really big thing about Native American food, the quintessential American "mushroom" and "weird food" of the Aztecs huitlocoche popped in the noodle.  But honestly, the real black food treat that occurs in cuisines all over the world is the use of squid ink.  Squid ink pasta as funny looking, but very tasty, and quite widely available.   It's a dark food to be sure, and seems exotic, yet it has a mild taste despite it's appearance.  It is also easier and easier to find these days, even in upscale supermarkets.  It used to be that you'd be lucky to find it at all, and then only made into fettuccine.  Nowadays, it is found in all types of pasta shape; so use what you like or can find.

Squid Ink Linguine

A member of All Recipes just made up a nice sauce for "black pasta" last year.  One Clyde Thomas came up with an innovative cheese sauce made with real Italian Gorgonzola,  that is turned pink with addition of tomato paste.  I really like this idea.  Usually when you find recipes for pasta sauces, they are either the red tomato affair or the white cheese and cream deal--finally someone had the guts to put the two together.  Follow link above for recipe.  I admit that I haven't tried it, but it is really appealing to me as I love blue cheese and black pasta, and I think the tomato paste, along with the Italian ham (Prosciutto) is likely to make it a nice rich dish.  Some reviewers didn't like it, but they also admitted to not liking some of the ingredients, like the cheese.  I can't for the life of me figure out why someone would go to all the trouble of making a fancy dish that they known ahead of time they probably not going to like.  The dish comes out like this:

Variations

Some of the reviewers made this with variations; they include:


Making it with vegetable stock, she remarks that the low sodium type is best because the ham is already salty.


Using other types of pasta in place of squid ink paste.


One person substituted Shrimp and Mushrooms for the ham (that sounds really good!).


My remarks:  If you find the squid ink pasta to be expensive.  Mix it with other types of pasta to stretch it.

Pen & Fork have a list of 5 black foods to try, amongst them squid ink pasta.

And here's a cool You Tub video of making the ink pasta.

The Last Bit For Veteran's Day

Just finished part of another documentary that invovled the Korean War, this time with an emphasis on Gerneral MacArthur from PBS

The PBS show "American Experience" produced a two part episode on MacArthur  in 1999; Part 2 deals with the Japanese reconstruction and his role in basically screwing the pooch in the Korean War.  It is a fascinating look at the later life of a complete megalomaniac and sometimes brilliant military man.  As a result of the way that the "Korean Conflict" was prosecuted by MacArthur, American military presence has not diminished in the region and tension between North and South as a hot as ever, with the North actually committing military acts of aggression toward the South in recent years; the most serious of which resulted in the deliberate sinking of a South Korean Naval vessel, with all hands lost.  With that in mind, my last selection for the day is a modern South Korean military film entitled Han anseon, which translates into Coast Guard in English.  

Tae Guk Gi: The Brotherhood Of War

This would in no way be a fair or balanced "serious" Friday Fright with the Korean War as the theme, and honoring veteran's to boot, not to include movies on the subject from Korea.  This tells the story of two brothers forced to fight in the war and ways they could in no way have expected.  

Theme Recipe: Pork And Kimchee Casserole

My dad often told stories about the food he was served in the Navy during the Korean war.  He often spoke about having Chipped Beef On Toast, "affectionately" known as "Shit On A Shingle" for the first time, thinking that it couldn't really get any worse than that!  That was, until he had the bread on board ship-- which apparently had more weevils than flour in it!  I few years back I remember stumbling on a story about how the Chinese and the US equally had a hard time getting Korean soldiers to fight without their kimchi!  Seems reasonable!!  I love Korean food.  In behind Filipino cuisine, it's my favorite Asian cuisine period.  So a kimchi dish it is!

This is a household favorite!  It's one of two pork and kimchi dishes that we make a lot, but this is really my favorite because it contains tofu as well.  We are lucky that our local "Asian grocery" is run by Koreans, the lady who owns it is no paragon of polite conversation, but boy (!) does she make really, really good kimchi!!!  If you can't get the local stuff, don't worry, the jarred type works just a well with this.

Kimchee Chighe

1/2 lb. boneless pork chop (or, and this is what I like, 1 country style rib)

14 oz. Cabbage Kimchee

3 cups beef stock (either homemade or boxed)


1 package instant Dashi stock (or a Fish stock cube) (or you can boil some bonito in water and season with salt)


1 or 2 crushed garlic cloves


Salt to taste


Ground red chili pepper


12 oz. tofu


4 dried shitake mushrooms (soaked in water) or use fresh


2 scallions (green onion) or small leeks (I really like the leek)


1/4 bunch or about 1 cup watercress (the traditional calls for Asian chrysanthemum leaves, but these are hard to come by if you don't live in a big city or grow you own.)  Arugula works too!


3 tbsp. oil

1.  Slice pork into thin slices.

2.  Very roughly chop the kimchee, place in a colander to drain and press.  Save the liquid. (my note:  in my opinion the draining step is irrelevant).

3.  In a large pot, heat the oil and sear the pork well on both sides. Add the drained kimchee and cook for about 2 minutes.  Add the kimchee liquid back and add the stock.  Bring to a boil and remove from heat.  Season with salt and a little red pepper, stir in the garlic.  

4.  In a Korean metal "casserole" dish or a shallow saucepan, arrange the soaked mushrooms (my note:  I like to add the soaking liquid to the beef stock), you decorate them with a cross in the top.  

5.  Cut the tofu large chunks and arrange in the pan with mushrooms.  Slice the onions or leeks on the diagonally and arrange as well.  Spoon in the pork and kimchee mixture, heat slowly.  As soon as the tofu starts to bubble it's ready to serve.  Garnish with greens, and if you like it hot, top with more red pepper.

Variations:

This is easily made vegetarian by not adding the meat and using vegetable stock.  Other stuff that is good in it include tempeh, soy bean cakes and vegetarian sausage or bacon (fakin bacon).

It's good make with chicken.

It good made with other types of kimchee, like Daikon, either alone or with the cabbage kimchee.

If you like really sour dishes, add a little rice vinegar.

It can be made with ham, or even, as above, with Spam, which is strangely popular in Korea, although not as much as Hawaii!

Add some cooked Asian noodles.

More Of The Korean War

Back in the fall of 2009 my father received his annual calendar from Veterans Of Foreign Wars and called me up to tell me that the anniversary of the start of Korean War fell on a Friday in 2010.  He always seemed to get a mild kick out of my Friday Frights, always willing to poke fun at my "booger nights," right up until his 76th birthday in August of 2009 when he got "Fright Nighted" because his birthday fell on a Friday.  So, he calls me up and suggests that we make a plan to do a Korean War Fright Night that Spring...only he didn't make to that Friday.  When it did roll around, I just couldn't bring myself to keep it.  So this Veteran's Day, I'm making good on my promise to him; and hope he's out there, somewhere, enjoying it with me!

Korean War Memorial at night, Washington DC

Just finished the second half of:

Moved on to:

Eastwood as the hard nosed Korean war vet, who loves a good scrap, that is until he has to take charge of a group decidedly un-combat ready troops in his old haunt of Cherry Point NC!

It's Veteran's Day

My late father served in the Navy during the "conflict" when he was only 17 years old on board the USS Floyd B. Parks.  We are honoring Veteran's Day with a Korean War theme.  I am also privileged to have two uncles that are still with us who served in the Navy in the Pacific Theater in WWII and a late grandfather who served in the Navy in WWI.  Also dedicated to my cousin who was drafted and served in the Vietnam war in the 1970's.  RIP Rick!  And it's even dedicated to my husband's late grandfather, Dick, who served in WWII as well.  To all Vets, we thank you for your service!

Korean War refugee with infant

Started the day off with a film that illustrates what ultimately led up to the Korean War.

Then watched 1/2 of the 3 hour:

Currently viewing Mr. Gregory Peck in Pork Chop Hill, a movie that I watched a couple of times with my Dad.

The Stranger (1946)

With this we get some Edward G. Robinson in....not to mention ORSON WELLES.  That just leaves Humphrey Bogart and James Cagney.  Cagney is sort of in a (odd) class to himself, and the Bogart stuff really needs to be released on Blu-Ray (most of it is still on some questionably transferred DVD editions).