Stone Soup Song

I recently enjoyed a concert at the Melbourne Recital Centre by Vardos, a three-piece band that performs traditional folk music inspired by their travels through Eastern Europe. The concert I attended was “The Balkan Cookbook” which explored the culinary identity of Eastern Europe through song. During the hour long performance we were taken on a mouthwatering journey through a traditional Eastern European menu. While my body responded to the vibrant music, my mind began concocting recipes for the food and dishes being celebrated. 

The starters began with a song about bacon, followed by a basil song and then one about bread. My stomach rumbled as I pictured a toasted bacon and basil sandwich! The soup course was next followed by mains, side salads, sweets and Turkish coffee. While I do love coffee and a Balkan sweet, it was the soup course that really fired my imagination – especially the tale of the stone soup.

Before launching into song, we were treated to tales about Balkan soups. It may be surprising to learn that Balkan soup courses can sometimes feature fruit soups, which are slightly sweet, usually served hot, but can also be served cold. I’m a big fan of fruit soups and have previously posted recipes for Cherry Soup and Blueberry Soup. The other soup discussed was stone soup – yes stone soup! 

Stone soup is a European folktale about hungry travellers who visit a village. Carrying only a large cooking pot, they ask the villagers if they will share some food with them. The villagers say no. The travellers go to the stream, fill their pot with water, drop a large stone in it and then place it over a fire. One curious villager asks the travellers what they are making. The travellers say it is a tasty “stone soup” which they are happy to share but it could be improved with the addition of a few more ingredients. The curious villager, wanting to try the soup, says they have carrots which they are happy to share with the travellers. One by one the rest of the villagers bring ingredients to add to the soup until the pot really does contain a flavourful soup. The inedible stone is removed and the travellers and the villagers all share the soup. Although the travellers have tricked the villagers, they have taught them the value of sharing and the importance of coming together as a community.

Stone soup begins with a trick so I thought it was the perfect tale to inspire an April Fool’s Day recipe. I chose a mussel soup as it contains mussel shells which reminded me of the stone. Just remember that the shells, like the stone, are inedible so discard them once you have scooped out the tasty mussels. 🙂

Mussel Soup

Ingredients
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 small onion, finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, finely sliced
1 medium red chilli, deseeded* and finely sliced
1 tablespoon tomato paste
1/2 cup white wine
1 lemon, juiced and zested
1kg tomatoes, finely chopped
1/2 cup fish stock
sea salt to taste
pepper to taste
1kg mussels, scrubbed and debearded
1/4 cup flat-leaf parsley, roughly chopped
1/4 cup basil, roughly chopped

Instructions
Heat oil in a large saucepan over medium heat.
Add onion and cook until translucent.
Add garlic and chilli and cook for 1 minute.
Add tomato paste and cook for 1 minute.
Add wine and cook for 5 minutes.
Add tomatoes and cook for 3 minutes.
Add lemon juice, zest and stock.
Stir until combined.
Increase heat to high and bring the stock to a boil.
Reduce heat to medium and simmer, covered for 10 minutes.
Add salt and pepper to taste.
Add mussels to stock.
Cover and steam, shaking the pan occasionally, for 3-5 minutes or until the mussels are opened.
Discard any unopened mussels.
Stir through the parsley and basil before serving.

*for a spicier soup, you can leave the seeds in.

World Goth Day

May 22nd is World Goth Day. World what day? World Goth Day! That’s right, there is a World Goth Day and it has been around since 2009.

During a BBC Radio 6 exploration of musical subcultures, two goth DJs thought it would be great to get an event going that celebrated the goth scene. They chose May 22nd as the day. Initially a British celebration, World Goth Day spread and is now celebrated all over the world. You can check out the offical page to learn more and to see if there is an event near you.

World Goth Day celebrates the cultural heritage of the goth scene. It is a day for goths to be proud of who and what they are. I have been a proud goth since I was young, openly exploring the darker side of life through books, films, television and music.

When I entered the world of punk rock music I found my clan – punk goths. Not surprisingly two of the bands that influenced me the most were The Damned and The Cure. Both bands were punk goth hybrids and difficult to pigeonhole into one category. They were, to borrow a term from the awesome Billy Bragg, genre fluid – much like me 🙂 Also like me, both bands have lasted the distance and continue to embrace the soul of punk goth culture. In honour of World Goth Day’s musical roots, I have made a recipe based on one of my favourite songs.

In my post Neat Neat Neat I created a recipe for Smashed Potatoes in tribute to The Damned song Smash It Up. I also answered questions by Bob T. Panda including these two:
If you could be an animal, which one would you be?
“A Giant Panda like Clint Recession.”

Who is Clint Recession? Well he is a creation by David O’Doherty, Claudia O’Doherty and Mike Ahern in the book 100 Facts About Pandas. According to this book of fun fake facts, Clint is a founding member of The Cure and the inspiration for their goth look – he’s also a giant panda.

Which leads me to the next question:
What kind of cuppycake are you, and why?
“A Black Forest Cuppycake because I like black and I like The Cure song A Forest.”

Naturally I couldn’t resist creating a Black Forest Cupcake combining both goth and panda culture. My cupcakes are decorated with black liquorice which reminds me of black bamboo. And if there is one species of bamboo a goth panda would love it’s black!

Don’t forget, the original Black Forest Cake is named for Germany’s Black Forest – the setting for many of Grimm’s fairytales – and home to some spooky folklore. Wow, that’s a lot of goth to pack into one cupcake 🙂

Have a Happy World Goth Day!

Black Forest Cupcakes 

Ingredients
for the black forest cupcakes
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1 + 1/2 cups plain flour
3 teaspoons baking powder
125g (1/2 cup + 1 tablespoon) unsalted butter, room temperature
1/2 cup caster sugar
1 egg yolk, room temperature
2 eggs, room temperature
1/2 cup sour cream
1/2 cup milk
425g (15oz) canned pitted black cherries, drained and chopped, reserving the juice
1/2 cup juice, reserved from canned cherries

for the whipped cream
2 cups double cream
4 teaspoons powdered buttermilk or powdered milk
2 tablespoons powdered (icing) sugar
black liquorice for decoration
grated chocolate for sprinkling
fresh cherries for garnish – optional

Instructions
Preheat the oven to 180C / 350F.
Line a 12-hole muffin pan with 12 paper cases.
In a small bowl, sift together the cocoa, flour and baking powder. Set aside.
In a medium sized bowl, cream the butter and sugar with an electric mixer until fluffy and pale.
Add egg yolk, one of the eggs and half the sour cream and beat well.
Add remaining egg and sour cream and beat until combined.
Add the milk and mix until combined.
Using a wooden spoon, fold through the cocoa mix 1/3 third at a time until combined.
Add the cherries and juice and gently mix through.
Using an ice-cream scoop, spoon the batter evenly into paper cases.
Bake for 10 – 20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the centre of a cupcake comes out clean.
Allow to cool for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.
While cupcakes are cooling make the whipped cream by whipping together the cream, powdered sugar and milk powder with an electric mixer on medium speed until combined. Add the vanilla extract and whisk on high speed until stiff peaks form. Spoon whipped cream into a piping bag and pipe onto cupcakes.
Decorate with black liquorice.
Sprinkle with chocolate and garnish with fresh cherries if desired.

Neat Neat Neat

When I saw that Bob T. Panda from The Panda Chronicles had nominated me for the Real Neat Blog award (thanks Bob T!) the first thing I thought was “Yay!” The second thing I thought was “that reminds me of the Damned song – Neat Neat Neat”. So, in the spirit of my favourite punk band, I’m going to claim this award in a punk way – by messing up the rules!

Some of the rules:
Thank the person who nominated you – done.
Answer their questions – okay.

If you could be an animal, which one would you be?
A Giant Panda like Clint Recession.

What kind of cuppycake are you, and why?
A Black Forest Cuppycake because I like black and I like The Cure song A Forest.

If you could change any event in the history on people on earth, what would you chose?
The saying “orange is the new black” became popular thanks to a certain show. But as far as I’m concerned, black is the old, new and future black. So I would try and stop anything orange from becoming popular or powerful – except at Halloween, because – you know – pumpkins.

What is your favorite city (other than the one you live in) that you have visited?
Brasov in Romania. They have vampires and really nice cakes.

What children’s book did you read as a child that you still love?
Dracula. That’s a children’s book isn’t it?

If you knew you only had one year to live, what would you do?
Try and find a vampire to convert me. Otherwise eat and drink as much as I want and then tell people what I really think of them just before I die.

What do you wish you had done in your life that you have not?
Become a vampire.

More rules:
Make up your own questions to ask your nominees – done – sort of. I’m not going to make up my own questions, I’m going to “borrow” Bob T’s instead.

Nominate other blogs for the award – here I go! There are so many that I want to nominate so I am going to nominate all the blogs that follow me and all the blogs I follow. So jump in, grab an award and answer “my” questions above. Or feel free to participate in any way you like.

But I am going to break my own rule by nominating one blog. This person hates getting awards and responds in a way that most punks would envy. So hit me with your best shot NCM!

Drawing culinary inspiration from one of my favourite Damned songs, Smash It Up, I’d like to share a recipe for Smashed Avocado. I mean, what could be more punk than healthy, green avocado balanced on a wholegrain slice of bread and maybe served with a side of quinoa? Hell no! If I’m smashing any food up it’s going to be potatoes. And then I’m going to splash them with oil and throw grated cheese on them – now that’s punk! And don’t expect precise measurements for this recipe. You’ll get ingredients, basic instructions and a photo, but that’s it 🙂

Smashed Potatoes

Potatoes
Oil
Salt
Grated Cheese

Peel, cut up and boil some potatoes. (You can leave the skin on if you want but I like them peeled).
Drain and cool.
Preheat oven to 220C / 430F.
Lightly oil a baking tray.
Add the potatoes then smash them with a fork until they just start to break. I smash some more than others for variety.
Splash extra oil over them.
Sprinkle with salt.
Bake for 15 minutes.
Remove from oven and flip them over.
Throw on some grated cheese.
Return to the oven and bake for another 15 – 20 minutes or until they are golden.

Clubbed Out

I was lucky enough to start seeing bands at a very young age.

It was the mid 70‘s and I was two months shy of my 12th birthday when I saw Alice Cooper at Festival Hall in Melbourne, Australia. Alice and a troupe of performers treated us to a mix of music and theatre; a night of song and dance. I was blown away. It cemented my love of music and performance; a love I was born with. Two years later The Police played the same venue. I went. They were great and while I loved the concert, I was totally unprepared for the wild journey I was about to take.

I was invited to The Police’s second concert by a group of women I had just met. I didn’t have tickets but they said not to worry as they knew one of the security guards so we could get in for free. Naturally I went. We had a great time and they invited me to see some local bands with them on the weekend. They had no idea how young I was! Once they found out they took me under their wing and introduced me to a world of bands, bands, bands. I really wasn’t supposed to be going into clubs and drinking but it was the late 70’s and nobody really cared about those things.

What followed was 7 years of drinking and seeing bands. I left school at 15 and left home at 16. I was totally immersed in the Melbourne Punk Rock scene. I was even briefly a thrash punk bass player! The years flew but as I got older I got bored. I was getting sick of the lifestyle, the people, the music. I wanted something different.

It was a great shock to everyone – especially myself – when I left the scene and went back to school. I went and finished High School and then went on to University. I immersed myself in my studies and music almost became a thing of the past. The only band I kept listening to and following was The Damned. I mean, how could I resist the gothic charm of vampiric lead singer Dave Vanian? In my darkest moments – and there were many – I would sit alone in my room and listen to The Damned. I would remember a time of music, of friends, of fun. I wanted to go out and see more bands but something always held me back. I thought that maybe I was rebelling against what I had once been. Then someone who had been through a similar experience said that maybe I had seen too many bands, gone out too many times and drunk maybe one too many times. Maybe I was simply “clubbed out”. Yes! That was it!! Now that I knew what the problem was, could I find a cure?

In 1992, I celebrated the Pagan festival of Lammas by getting together with some Pagan friends and camping out for the night. The next day I heard some of them excitedly talking about their plans for the evening. They were going to see Nirvana. I was so out of touch with modern music that I thought they were seeing some New Age band. When I asked them who Nirvana were their looks of incredulity froze me to the spot. The young girl who had seen Alice Cooper at 11 years of age was long gone. I often think back on this and think “Damn! I missed Nirvana!!”

Synchronistically it’s thanks to Alice Cooper that I returned to the club! While watching him on some show I can’t even remember he talked about a band he really liked – The Offspring. I decided to listen to them and my world of music came crashing back to me. Something about them reignited my love of music and my desire to see live bands. I’m happy to say I’ve seen them many times, as well as a host of other bands. And I am so happy to say that I am no longer clubbed out!

Have you ever over indulged in something you love so much that you never want to do it again? I’d love to hear!