Indie Rock Deli: How To Dress Salad Well (Inspired by How To Dress Well)

March 21, 2011 Laura Leebove2 Comments

THE DISH
Three everyday salad dressings (honey mustard, balsamic vinaigrette, lemon-tahini) + topping suggestions (recipes at the bottom)

THE INSPIRATION/ABOUT THE ARTIST
This post is purely for puns’ sake, but it’s “inspired” by the R&B-influenced lo-fi (chillwave?) outfit How to Dress Well, who I haven’t really gotten that into, but Pitchfork loves it.
How to Dress Well on MySpace

ABOUT INDIE ROCK DELI
It all started here, with a normal day at work that turned into an hours-long giggle fit. Indie Rock Deli dishes are inspired by punny takes on band names and song titles. Leave your own suggestions in the comments and they might be used in a future post! (No, they definitely don’t have to actually be indie rock.)

Pop Rock CAKE BALLS (Inspired by Matt & Kim)

March 15, 2011 Laura Leebove10 Comments

(All the good photos by Paul Dadowski)

http://listen.grooveshark.com/songWidget.swf

THE DISH
Cake balls dipped in chocolate, sprinkles and Pop Rocks (Recipe at bottom)

THE INSPIRATION
If you’re familiar with the electro-pop duo Matt & Kim, this one doesn’t need much of an explanation. This inseparable Brooklyn-based couple — Matt Johnson (keyboards and vocals) and Kim Schifino (drums) — is an explosion of smiley faces, rainbows and energy. These cake balls also explode (hello, Pop Rocks!), they’re guaranteed to cause smiley faces, they have rainbow colors, and they will give you energy — maybe even too much. This was my first time making cake balls (or eating them, for that matter), and they were as much fun to make as they were to eat. I highly recommend taking on this project with someone who has never eaten Pop Rocks before, like my friend Jill, because it will be a hoot. Also, how can you not giggle every time you say cake balls? CAKE BALLS!
Matt & Kim on MySpace

Asian Veggie Pot Pie (Inspired by Abigail Washburn)

March 11, 2011 Laura LeeboveLeave a comment

http://listen.grooveshark.com/songWidget.swf

THE DISH
Asian-inspired veggie pot pie (recipe at bottom of post). This was enough for three small baking dishes (two that were about four inches in diameter, the other a little bit bigger); I recommend adding more veggies to fill an actual pie tin!

THE INSPIRATION
My friend and former housemate came to visit last week, which was a perfect excuse to cook a LOT, since he was one of my best cooking buddies when we lived together. He’s just finishing his degree in Asian history and, it goes without saying, is super interested in Asian culture. We took a trip to Chinatown and came back with a bunch of fresh produce and some other goodies that resulted in a couple of really awesome Asian-inspired meals. Banjo player/singer/songwriter Abigail Washburn plays one of my favorite types of music (folk/Americana), but she’s been heavily influenced by Chinese culture, thanks to time she spent living and working there. So I wanted one of our dishes to be inspired by her self-titled record with The Sparrow Quartet (banjo master — and now Washburn’s husband — Bela Fleck, cellist Ben Sollee, and fiddler Casey Driessen), which mixes Americana and Chinese folk music.

As far as the dish goes, I wanted to take a very American comfort-food dish (because Americana music makes me think of comfort food) — pot pie — and give it an Asian twist with veggies like bok choy, bean sprouts, edamame and scallions. These turned out really great, although the recipe below is slightly modified from what we did because a couple of elements weren’t quite right! I definitely think I’ll be trying this one again, though, so expect an update sometime in the future.
Abigail Washburn on MySpace

Beet-Avocado “Tartare” and a California playlist

March 7, 2011 Laura LeeboveLeave a comment

THE DISH
Beet-avocado “tartare”

THE INSPIRATION
At the end of February I took my first trip to Los Angeles, to visit my cousins for a week. I did lots of yoga, went hiking, saw a not-so-hilarious improv show, played with puppies, and wandered around Santa Monica. I also ate lots of awesome food, like spinach and corn tamales from Hugo’s Tacos, a lemon bar from Big Sugar Bakeshop, an insanely fresh egg salad sandwich with avocado at The Trails in Griffith Park, and a huge veggie plate at Border Grill.

My most memorable meal, though, came from Madeleine Bistro, a fancy vegan place in Tarzana (run by Chef Dave Anderson) where I ate with my cousin, my yoga teacher and her daughters. I didn’t actually have a choice in what I was ordering — the girls just told me, “OK, you’re getting the beet tartare and the bigger mac.” The bigger mac is like a vegan version of a McDonald’s Big Mac, and it was awesome, but the beet tartare was gorgeous and something totally different (beats over a tofu “cheese crouton” with cucumbers, some kind of sauce and a balsamic).

This dish is inspired by that (a photo of the real thing at the bottom of the post — mine pales in comparison, but I am not a chef so I guess that’s OK! I also wasn’t trying to recreate exactly the same thing…), and also the other foods I ate on my trip: perfectly-ripe avocado, alfalfa sprouts, tangelos, and blood orange balsamic vinegar (the latter two I brought back to Brooklyn with me). And it’s vegan because hoooly smokes were there a lot of veggie/vegan restaurants there! (Not a complaint.) Anyway, I need to make this again and make it better because it’s not totally amazing, but it was yummy.

THE PLAYLIST
I spent a lot of time driving around with my cousin, which meant plenty of time to share music. These are some songs that were significant to my trip for various reasons — some are obvious/cliché California jams, some are songs my cousin and I both love, and others just found themselves running around my head while I was there.

http://listen.grooveshark.com/widget.swf

Indie Rock Deli: Danger Mousse (Inspired by Danger Mouse)

March 4, 2011 Laura LeeboveLeave a comment

THE DISH
Spiced chocolate mousse (recipe at bottom of post)

http://listen.grooveshark.com/songWidget.swf

THE INSPIRATION/ABOUT THE ARTIST
Danger Mouse is a rapper/songwriter/producer best known as one half of Gnarls Barkley (with Cee-Lo Green), one half of Broken Bells (with the Shins’ James Mercer), and also for The Grey Album, his mash-up of music from the Beatles’ White Album with vocals from Jay-Z’s The Black Album. This mousse doesn’t really have anything to do with him (as most Indie Rock Deli posts don’t…), but the spices — specifically the cayenne — are what make it a bit “dangerous.”
Danger Mouse’s website

One-Pot Black Bean Dip + a few kitchen songs

March 1, 2011 Laura Leebove5 Comments

THE DISH
One-pot black bean dip (recipe at the bottom)

THE INSPIRATION
I’ve mentioned this before but my last two years in college, I lived in a housing cooperative with about 13 other students. We had a massive kitchen — industrial-sized stove, a three-part sink, walk-in pantry, a huge island counter in the middle — and it was pretty common for five or six of us to be in there making food at the same time. This is a slight variation on a dish introduced to me by my old housemate Rachel, and I don’t even know how many times I cooked it when we lived together. It’s delicious and so easy to make, and it gets eaten SO quickly.

I’m lucky that my apartment in Brooklyn has a pretty huge kitchen (thank you, converted warehouse lofts!), but that’s definitely not the case for many of my friends in the city. Even though I’ve made this dish over and over in a kitchen big enough to fit the whole Duggar family, the beauty in it is that it’s all done in one pot and with very little equipment, so it’s perfect for even the least-experienced cooks and in the tiniest of kitchens.

THE SONGS
This recipe is mostly inspired by a lyric in the song “Cook For You” by Clare & the Reasons, but I threw in a few other songs that have something to do with kitchens.

Clare & the Reasons, “Cook For You”
This is a super-sweet love song that starts off with a line that instantly makes me think of the quirks that come with living in a cozy city apartment with a tiny kitchen: “I like to cook for you in my underwear/ ‘Cause our kitchen points to a wall.”
http://listen.grooveshark.com/songWidget.swf

Theresa Andersson, “Na Na Na”
“Na Na Na” itself actually has nothing to do with kitchens, but it’s here because it was recorded in one! I believe Andersson recorded most of her Hummingbird, Go! album in her modest-sized New Orleans kitchen, and the video of her playing this song there is awesome.

Those Darlins, “Keep My Skillet Good and Greasy”
The badass Tennessee gals Those Darlins didn’t write this song (I don’t think anyone knows who did?) but their take on it is awesome.
http://listen.grooveshark.com/songWidget.swf

Allo Darlin’, “Heartbeat Chilli”
I’ve already used this in a post, but it’s super sweet and part of it is about falling in love in the kitchen while making chili. It’s adorable.
http://listen.grooveshark.com/songWidget.swf

Indie Rock Deli: Super-simple !!!pea salad (Inspired by !!!/chk chk chk)

February 18, 2011 Laura LeeboveLeave a comment

http://listen.grooveshark.com/songWidget.swf

THE DISH
Super-simple chickpea salad

THE INSPIRATION
This recipe has absolutely nothing to do with the band (the oh-so-un-Googleable !!!, pronounced “chk chk chk”); it was just what I ate for lunch most of this week and I wanted to use the name!
!!! on MySpace

Healthy-ish DIY Dunkaroos (Inspired by Breathe Owl Breathe)

February 15, 2011 Laura Leebove1 Comment

“You are a princess/
And we are pen pals/
I am a dragon/
But you don’t need to know that”
— “Dragon” by Breathe Owl Breathe (from last year’s Magic Central)

http://listen.grooveshark.com/songWidget.swf

THE DISH
Healthy-ish DIY Dunkaroos (recipe at bottom of post)

THE INSPIRATION
Breathe Owl Breathe are magical. I’m still kicking myself for not having gotten into them when I was living in Michigan (they’re from there, too), but it’s definitely better late than never. They’re an inventive, whimsical folk trio that sings about love, fear and humanity, disguised as stories about dragons, lions and various other creatures. I chose this recipe because, just like their music, it’s something that’s kid-friendly but it’s just as rewarding for the grown-ups, too. (The band also just used Kickstarter to fund a children’s book and record.)

On their phenomenal LP Magic Central (one of my favorites of last year), the song “Dragon” is, on the surface, about a dragon and a princess who are pen pals, but the princess doesn’t know the dragon is a dragon because he has good handwriting. But beyond that, it’s a song about loving someone that other people don’t think you should love, even though their hearts are in the right place. So these treats are also fitting because kids will love them (c’mon, they’re animal crackers!), but they’re actually pretty healthy, thanks to whole wheat flour, flax seeds, and raw sugar. The frosting isn’t quite as healthy (lots of powdered sugar), but still uses low-fat cream cheese and plain low-fat yogurt instead of butter, so it’s at least a step up from typical frosting. And, unrelated to the band, apparently February is National Snack Food Month!
Breathe Owl Breathe on MySpace

Heartbeat Chili (Inspired by Allo Darlin’)

February 11, 2011 Laura Leebove9 Comments

“I was in the kitchen on my own making chili/
You came in with an onion and got dicin’/
It seems silly that this chili has two heartbeats in the recipe/
So come over, give your heart to me.”
— “Heartbeat Chilli” by Allo Darlin’ (from last year’s Allo Darlin’)

http://listen.grooveshark.com/songWidget.swf

THE DISH
Heart-healthy veggie chili with heart-shaped tortilla crisps (recipe at bottom of post)

THE INSPIRATION
Allo Darlin”s self-titled debut was one of my favorite records of 2010 — it’s indie-pop that’s sweet and earnest enough to make me all warm and fuzzy every time I listen. Elizabeth Morris’s lyrics are unbelievably witty, and she occasionally mixes her own lines with snippits of songs like Weezer’s “El Scorcho” (“Kiss Your Lips”) and Johnny Cash’s “I Walk The Line” (“Heartbeat Chilli”). This ukulele-based song is pretty perfect for Valentine’s Day, and this chili is a perfect dish to warm up with in the hell that is mid-February. I made sure the chili had plenty of heart-healthy ingredients like beans and spinach — beans are great for their omega-3 fatty acids, calcium and fiber; spinach for its potassium and fiber, among other things. The heart-shaped tortilla crisps are kinda self-explanatory.
Allo Darlin’ on MySpace

Rockin’ Valentine’s Day Cookies, with help from a super-cute music-biz couple

February 7, 2011 Laura Leebove4 Comments

THE DISH
Sugar cookies with buttercream and royal icing (Recipe below)

THE INSPIRATION
No CALL ME’s or HUGS & KISSES here! Each cookie has a different love-themed song title. I know they’re not all mushy love songs, but it’s more based on the titles than the lyrics…To make these even more precious, I had help from the cutest music-biz couple I know: Heidi Greenwood and Bryan Vaughan, who run Brooklyn’s Paper Garden Records. Paper Garden is home to one of my favorite discoveries of the past year, Peasant, as well as Danish up-and-comers Alcoholic Faith Mission, and several other acts. Heidi and Bryan were gracious enough to spend more than four hours with me on these … they are amazing and I can’t thank them enough! Enjoy some super-cute photos of them below.

THE PLAYLIST
Tracklisting is at bottom of the post.

http://listen.grooveshark.com/widget.swf
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Eating the Beats

No longer updating, for now!

Tag: vegetarian

Indie Rock Deli: How To Dress Salad Well (Inspired by How To Dress Well)

Pop Rock CAKE BALLS (Inspired by Matt & Kim)

Asian Veggie Pot Pie (Inspired by Abigail Washburn)

Beet-Avocado “Tartare” and a California playlist

Indie Rock Deli: Danger Mousse (Inspired by Danger Mouse)

One-Pot Black Bean Dip + a few kitchen songs

Indie Rock Deli: Super-simple !!!pea salad (Inspired by !!!/chk chk chk)

Healthy-ish DIY Dunkaroos (Inspired by Breathe Owl Breathe)

Heartbeat Chili (Inspired by Allo Darlin’)

Rockin’ Valentine’s Day Cookies, with help from a super-cute music-biz couple