The Rock & Roll Cookbook: Ram by Sir Paul

The Last Rock & Roll Cookbook on the LexWine Blog

The editor for this blog has resigned, and the owners have put the site on hiatus. Though this was written months ago, the final installment of the Rock & Roll Cookbook as a column on the LexWine Blog has just gone up.

I began this project specifically for the LexWine Blog, and I'm not sure how to proceed with it. I think the best step for now is to put it on hiatus until I find a new home for it. I considered putting it here, but I don't think it fits thematically with the rest of this site...



UPDATE 7/10/12
The Lex Wine blog is totally down :(
So I've reposted these articles here.
Thankfully I retained the rights to this project
_______

Hello Lex Wine Lovers and Rock & Rollers,

I hope you had a happy and healthy holiday and New Year. I want to start 2012 out with a feel-good, positive album and where else would I turn but to the “cute Beatle” Sir Paul McCartney and his 1971 release of Ram.

After McCartney’s self-titled first post-Beatles release, which went double platinum but did not have a hit single, he and his wife Linda decided to spend an extended holiday at their farm at Mull of Kintyre in Scotland. It was in this pastoral setting that the two began collaborating on songwriting, with Linda providing concepts and backing vocals. A photographer, Linda was the first female photographer to have her work featured on the cover of Rolling Stone. However during her time with McCartney she learned to play the piano. Though critics claimed that her singing was flat, something she herself agreed with, she went on to become a member of Wings and to prove herself a capable musician.
Though the album was written in Scotland it was eventually recorded in New York City. The session musicians were auditioned under the guise of recording a commercial jingle. The record was pressed in stereo, and mono copies were made for radio stations. Those mono copies remain the most expensive and rare.
Ram contained Sir Paul’s first #1 hit after the break-up of the Beatles with the tune Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey, titled after Paul’s uncle and an American war hero. Many were relieved to see that Paul could still write hits without his famous songwriting partner. John Lennon was more than a little suspicious of the project, and not without reason. Lennon felt that there were many thinly veiled insults directed at him and Yoko Ono throughout the album, a fact that Paul himself later confirmed. “[John] had been doing alot of preaching and it got up my nose a bit.” This frustration with Lennon’s public statements led to the writing of the opening track Too Many People which contained lines like “Too many people preaching practices.” and “You took your lucky break and broke it in two.” Lennon fired back with his song How Do You Sleep? on his record Imagine. More on that in the next installment though.
One of the legacies left behind by Linda McCartney is that of adamant vegetarianism and a passion for animal rights, one that her widower carries on to this day. Linda was often quoted as saying “If slaughterhouses had glass walls than the whole world would be vegetarian.” It is with this in mind that I present No Ram Shepherd’s Pie a vegan version of a classic English favorite.

No Ram Shepherd’s Pie

You’ll Need:
1 Large Onion
1 cup sliced Crimini Mushrooms
2 minced Garlic Cloves
4 large Russet Potatoes
½ cup sliced Carrots
½ cup Corn
½ cup Peas
½ cup cooked Spinach
3 tsp Flour
Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Soy Creamer
Margarine
Salt
Pepper
Whole Bay Leaves
Chopped Parsley

Optional:
Any other vegetables you like. Really, the more the merrier.
Gimme Lean Soy Based Ground Beef

How to do it:
Peel potatoes and boil water.
Preheat your oven to 400 degrees
In a large sauce pan put 2 tbs of Olive Oil, saute’ the onions
As the onions have begun to caramelize add in the mushrooms, giving them a little room to brown.
When the mushrooms are browned turn off the heat and allow to cool slightly.
Add in ¼ of a cup of the soy creamer and the bay leaves, and put on a very low flame.
While stirring add in the flour to thicken. This creamy mushroom sauce serves as a base for our Shepherd’s pie.
Take your peeled potatoes and cut them into manageable pieces.
Drop potatoes in the now boiling water.
As the potatoes boil saute the remaining vegetables and garlic in olive oil, salt & pepper. If you’ve decided to add the soy saute’ that in with the vegetables. When the vegetables are ¾ of the way cooked remove them from heat.
By now your potatoes should be done boiling. Strain and transfer to a large mixing bowl.
Add in ¾ a cup of the Soy Creamer, 3 tablespoons of Margarine or similar vegan butter.
Add 1 tsp salt and 1 tbs extra virgin olive oil to the mashed potatoes
Mash using a manual masher, tabletop mixer, or hand mixer.
If you prefer creamier mashed potatoes then add more soy creamer.
In a deep baking dish (I use a 10 inch diameter circular ceramic one) layer the sauteed vegetables, then pour on the mushroom sauce.
Finally cover the top of the mixture with the mashed potatoes and smooth flat with a spatula.
Brush the top of the pie with olive oil.
I like to put a little shake up nutritional yeast on top of the mashed potatoes before I put the whole thing in the oven to bake.
Bake for 15 minutes or until the potatoes take on a light gold color.

Wine
In keeping with the theme of animal friendly options and environmental stewardship we suggest a hearty red of the organic variety.

The Gustatory History of a Culinary Punk (Pt1) : Meat is Murder, but sometimes Murder is Ok

I’m going to admit it, given the chance to eat human, in the proper situation, I might. There are a lot of “ifs” here, but if the person died of natural causes, and wanted to be eaten post-mortem, it would be something I might consider.

This is from a girl who was, for over seven years, a vegetarian. It began because I seemed to get sick after eating meat. However as I started learning and being aware of how meat was processed, it turned me off even more. I tended to be quiet about my opinions, citing health reasons, as environmental reasons seemed to only raise ire in people who were more into arguing than discussing. Most people were pretty cool about it. A cousin, now a vegetarian herself, once asked me if I was a Vulcan. She meant vegan. I wasn’t a vegan, but I REALLY wish I were a Vulcan. (Oh Spock, our forbidden interplanetary love can know no bounds.)

Being a generally heartless and morbid individual I’ve never abstained from meat out of concern for the deaths of animals themselves. Quick and painless is the ideal, but the actual killing of the animal doesn’t really concern me. The conditions in which they are kept previous to their deaths is paramount. Aside from the health and environment risks associated with factory farming, I think that treating an animal well during its life is just the right thing to do. I mean, chickens are pretty stupid animals, but they were probably as smart as my hamster (RIP Mr.Hamilton) and I at least took the time to clean his cage out.
However my life changed significantly during my time in Vermont. Living so close to many humane organic and non-organic farms, I saw that there were situations where livestock was being raised in conditions that I agreed with. With the thought being that you essentially vote with your dollar, I decided that it was time to make a shift back to meat and a change from Vegetarianism to the life of a Conscientious Omnivore, in part to support the efforts like I mentioned. It wasn’t an especially easy change, but it was one that I’ve remained dedicated to. Also, bacon is delicious.
I used to eat a pretty wide variety of meat. Having tendency towards anemia for some reason, my diet used to be lean beef heavy. I’m also kind of a seafood junkie, although I’m also very aware of over-fishing issues. (To the point that I am REALLY annoying to order sushi with. Yes, I’m one of those wackos with a chart that tells you what fish is an eco-danger and what is high in mercury.)In the past few years many things have changed. I now live with a boyfriend who isn’t crazy for beef, though he likes it well enough, and in New York, where things are generally pricy and fish is even more so. Plus the phrase “Discount Seafood” should never be uttered.

And so, almost by default, we’ve become chicken dependant. I’ll admit it. Trader Joes sells big bags of ice-glazed chicken breasts that are hormone free (as all poultry and pork in the US are) and raised without antibiotics. Though I am currently trying to find out more information about what specific farms this chicken comes from, no antibiotics are very a good sign. If animals are kept in cramped and dirty conditions they are extremely prone to infection and antibiotics are needed to keep them from dying off in massive numbers.

That being said it leaves me with an epicurean dilemma. How do I keep making the same basic ingredient interesting when you are eating it night after night. In actuality, it’s been a really great way to expand my cooking repertoire and to break out Martha Stewart’s cook book and of course Julia Child. Last night however I had a brain storm.

While chatting online with a friend living in California, I mentioned my issue. He recommended a site where you enter a few ingredients you have in your house and it bounces back recipes that contain those items.

I typed in chicken breast, my heart a flutter with hope. It responded back with “sausage!” I shook my head. I do not have sausage you stupid recipe robot! But then it struck me. My grandparents had made sausage, why couldn’t I? I mean, granted, I didn’t have the tubes, but I could make patties! And I didn’t have a food processor but uhmm…we’ll get to that later. I found this video, which honestly reminded me a lot of my own Italian American family, and decided to try it.

Italians Making Sausage

So I went home, and despite BF thinking I was crazy I began to chop up the defrosted chicken breasts into little pieces and put them into a cleaned out coffee grinder, turning them into an almost paste. I know! I know! Coffee grinder?!? I cleaned everything out afterwards, and I know it’s not the best way but I was IMPROVISING OK. I AM THE BROKE ASS MILES DAVIS OF COOKING.
In the spirit of having a rock and roll cookbook, I have decided to recommend an album and or artist along with any recipe I post.

(This is my idea, don’t fn’ steal it. I thought of it today 10/11/10. If you do I will hunt you down!)
Due to this idea’s IA roots with a New York rock twist I have chosen Santo and Johnny. Yeah I know, it’s old. It’s not what you’d think of when you hear “Rock and Roll” but it counts and it’s my blog and I’ll do as I please. I like old music.

Buy Santo and Johnny

Santo And Johnny’s Chicken Slider Sausage

Put 2 chicken Breasts in a food processor, and by pulsing, make into an “almost paste” NOT A GOO.

1 Tsp Basil

1 Tsp Parsley

1 Tsp Salt

½ Tsp Thyme

1 Tsp Black Pepper (I think I usually would have done a ½ tsp but F loves black pepper)

1/3 cup of red wine vinegar.

2 Medium Garlic Cloves, minced

Then I just got my hands in there, mixed it all together and formed them into patties that were about the size of the palm of my hand. Two chicken breasts yield 4 patties.

Then I pan cooked them in a tablespoon of olive oil in a fry pan

Pretty easy all-in-all and I got to use the phrase “Help me prepare the meat paste.”

I sautéed red and green peppers (I am IA therefore all sausage must be prepared with peppers. We were out of onion.) made some brown rice as well as collard greens with ginger.

It took like, 45 mins start to finish and was a pretty tasty meal, only briefly interrupted by a hail-storm of epic proportions.


Hooray New York.