I'M HUNGRY (a cooking film blog)

What are some of everyone’s favorite cooking films, fictional and documentary?

and

Are there any films that anyone likes to play while he/she is cooking?

and

Are there any films you’ve gotten awesome recipes from, or that have inspired you to make a recipe based of that film?

also that shouldn’t say Blog in the title, it should say Thread. oops!

“Babette’s Feast”
“Chocolat”
“Tampopo”
“La Grande Bouffe”

I sometimes play music while cooking. A film would be distracting.

I would like to attempt some of the dishes in “La Grande Bouffe” but I have yet to summon the courage…..

Brundlefly’s vomit drop was made from honey, milk and eggs.

Szindbad by Zoltan has the most amazing feast and the way it’s shot seems to celebrate the eating. It’s sensual, beautiful, and really makes you hungry.

To get away from the “chilled monkey brains” for a bit:.
I had a badly malfunctioning stove.
After much complaining to management in my building that my old stove was leaking gas,
they finally gave me a brand new one, so it needed to be “launched” properly.

Hence, my first Lasagna.

Ground beef, Italian sausage, three kinds of cheese, olive oil…I won’t give away the whole plot.

Enjoy virtually….

looks good, no spinach in it ):

No spinach in this one. I like spinach, but the recipe didn’t ask for it.

Blame Brentos for getting me going…..

Saturday lunch:
Avocado-tuna salad.
1 can Albacore tuna (chunky, not the mashed-up stuff.)
1 Avocado.
A little olive oil and lemon juice, coarse salt and freshly ground pepper, garnish as you please.
French bread on the side.
Glass of white wine optional :-)

keep ’em coming. i look forward to trying some of these!

Brentos,

Thanks, here is the link to the lasagna recipe for anyone who wants to try it:

http://mylasagnarecipe.com/

Brundlefly’s vomit sounds like a great appetizer to Chilled Monkey Brains

While not a movie, I’m currently enjoying the Korean series Dae Jang-geum which is a sort of historical soap opera set in the royal kitchen during the Joseon Dynasty. It’s based on a real person, and it revolves around a lot of cooking and food preparations and the intrigue that surrounded the personnel involved. It’s pretty fun if you like the kind of soap opera structure the story is told in with its emphasis on emotional drama and serial wave pattern of storytelling.

Big Night is a sort of spin on the Babette’s Feast story minus some of the more religious elements and set in “present day” America. It’s worth seeing.

seeing as i’ve just seen a pic from it, and consequently also defluffed my tongue after licking the screen, i suppose i should mention oxhide II. that’s the most lethal ‘i need to eat that now’ cooking film i’ve ever seen.

but really i’d prefer to watch keith floyd any day. who is kind of fun if you want to watch a drunk man in a bow-tie pretend to cook. or even perhaps just an epicurean-related episode of jonathan meades.

If you don’t believe me that this is the greatest movie about a restaurant ever, just ask Phil A. Mignon.

I swear I am not trying to derail this thread, just going with the “food” angle here.

Food budget tip of the day.

I found this on-line, and I want to share it:

For those of us who eat sandwiches on a regular basis:

At your supermarket, instead of buying coldcuts from the deli counter or in the pre-packaged section, get thee to the cooler where you will find hunks of pre-cooked chicken, ham and turkey, generally in about 2lbs pieces.

Take them to the deli counter and ask the personnel to slice it for you, at whatever thickness you desire.

Result, in this case: 2 pounds of freshly sliced ham at $4 a pound, as opposed to the $7.50-$8.50 I have seen, ready to be put in portion sizes in Ziploc bags in the freezer:

Brentos, one of these days I will come up with something film-related so as not to kidnap your thread ;-)

I like I Am Love. A very tasteful and artsy film about food.

@Claus

have at it! i am loving your posts!!

personally, i really liked like water for chocolate and what i think is the actual food future of the world: soylent green

Easy Friday Fish and Potatoes.

This is for an evening when you don’t want to spend much time in the kitchen, but don’t want to be at the mercy of pizza or similar.

One frozen catfish or swai (Vietnamese catfish) fillet from one of the frozen bags from your supermarket.
A helping (depending on your hunger) of thick-cut steak fries from one of the frozen…you get it.
Olive oil or butter.
Veggie or Canola oil for the potatoes if you have it.
Lemon or lime juice
Coarse salt and freshly ground pepper to taste.

Thaw the fish during the afternoon, on a plate on the kitchen counter. Room temperature is your friend when cooking.
Cold fish or meat kills the heat of the pan upon contact, and makes it difficult to determine doneness.

When thawed, give the fish a bit of lime/lemon juice and salt/pepper before cooking.

Start your oven to pre-heat. The fries I bought specified 450 degrees.for 13-17mins.
Look on the bag at the salt content of the fries. You may not need to add. Mine listed 330 miligrams and had the right amount for me after cooking, without adding salt (but a dash of chili powder got them nicely kicked up.)

Meanwhile fire up your pan. You can use cast-iron or non-stick; in this case a cast-iron one.
Put a pad of butter or a dollop of olive oil on the pan.

When the pan is heated, put the fish on. let it get nicely going on one side before flipping it.
Season the other side with salt and pepper as it cooks.

With mild, soft fish such as this, you will most likely get “three flips” before it is so done it starts to fall apart:
One for side one, initially,
One for side two, when side one is looking good.
A third to get back to side one when the browning commences.

Lower the temp on the fish and let it go along on medium.

Take a flat oven tray with edges, put metal foil on it to reduce the mess of having to clean the tray, wipe some vegetable oil onto the foil and spread the potato wedges on it.

Put into oven, and note what time it is.

The frying pan may be starting to lose its fluids as the pan itself reaches a higher temperature. Add a bit of water to the pan, which should start steaming right away and calm the pan down. This also moistens the fish while it is cooking, preventing it from getting dry.

You are avoiding some of the greater “sins” with this approach: the potatoes are not getting deep-fried, just having a bit of oil to help with the browning in the oven.
The fish isn’t getting “fried” so much as browned and steamed, which, again, is better for the ol’ arteries.

Flip the potatoes after about 8mins using tongs.

When the taters are looking brown and nice, turn off oven, take the tray out and place it on the stovetop to cool down a bit.

You can serve this many ways: with tartar sauce or mustard for the fish; vinegar or ketchup with the fries; a nice green salad on the side….

@Lady Spiggott

I’ve been waiting for someone to make a post on The Cook The Thief His Wife Her Lover hahahaha!

@Claus

you need to make a recipe based off The Cook The Thief’s end dining sequence!

Its getting towards fall, so it’s GOULASH TIME!

The old Hungarian standby can be done in a number of ways, with people having strong opinions about which is more “authentic” but as long as you love the result, who wants to quibble?

Here we go:

Vegetable or canola oil.
Either a medium-sized onion or a bunch of the little pearl ones, chopped.
2-3 (or four if you really like it) cloves of garlic, chopped.
A good stick of celery, chopped (my choice in this case)
2 carrots chopped finely.
4 smallish “new” potatoes (you can skip potatoes and decide on Fettuccine instead.)
1-1.5lbs of good stew beef, cubed in small squares.
1/4 cup or so of Paprika (the real Hungarian stuff is the best.)
1 tomato (if you wish) chopped.
2 tsps of Marjoram
2 tsps of Caraway seeds
Coarse salt and freshly ground pepper to taste.
A bit of milk or cream to enrichen the sauce.
4 cups water.

Take a good tall pot, add a dollop of oil and heat it.
Add onions only and let them simmer (not fry) until they get soft and nice.
Turn the heat up some and add the stew beef. Put salt and pepper on it and brown the meat.

When brown, add paprika, caraway, marjoram and garlic and cook.
You have to pay special attention at this point, because the paprika acts as a strong thickener of the available juices in the pot, so the possibility of burning things is there if you let the pot “run away” from you.

Stir as it starts to bubble, let cook for 3-4 mins, add carrots and about 4 cups of water.
Bring heat to medium and let the ingredients make love for about 40-45mins.
(About 20mins in, take some of the fluids out into a measuring cup, let them cool for a bit, then add the milk or cream, stir it together and pour it back into the pot.)

After 40mins, add potatoes and tomato and cook on medium for another 25mins or so.

If you go the Fettuccine route (without the potatoes in the sauce) a second big pot, plenty of water brought to a boil with some salt, a handful of the pasta goes in and you check on it regularly until it is just before Al Dente. The excess heat in the pasta will finish the cooking, so “stop short.”
Drain the pasta in a colander, put it back into the warm pot, add a touch of butter and stir. The pasta now waits for the sauce.

NOTE: While this is a pot dish with slow cooking, do not get so distracted that you don’t check on it. Movies/PCs/Phones…always remember you have food on the stove, and if necessary, set an alarm.

Serve with good bread, a wee bit of sour cream, a tart green salad to counterbalance the richness of the stew, and…enjoy.

Seriously, the masterpiece of all recipe films. I make it about twice a month. And on the few occasions I’ve butchered my own pig to make it, it’s the best Mexican dish I’ve ever had.

Note: if you’re butchering your own pig, “Pork Butt” actually comes from the torso of the pig, while “Pork Shoulder” actually comes from the hind-quarters of the pig. How this ever got mixed up is one of the great mysteries of life.

Jerry,

That is true….it must have been one heck of a committee that decided on the pig parts.
I look forward to watching the film you linked.

bump because i started it.

Does anybody remember Alan Alda’s light comedy from 1981, The Four Seasons? It’s a sweet little movie about a group of friends ( 3 couples + 1) who get together for vacations. These usually center around cooking. It’s one of those good, time-filling “rainy day” movies.

i am currently making Chicken Florentine with specific personal tweaks as influenced by Amarcord, will post pics and recipe when it’s done!

also i made some Cowboy Stew after watching some Ford films and The Big Country, will post that recipe and hopefully pictures in a bit!