Food, Music, Food, Music, Food, Music... Ad Infinitum

I have a confession to make. Nothing drives me wilder than the smell of peppers being roasted or baked. The only other aroma that comes close to it is onions and garlic skating on sizzling oil on a frying pan. Which is why when I came across the recipe below in the July issue of the Observer Food Monthly I knew I had to share it with you, dear fellow bloggers and readers.

I'm aware that summer is gone and autumn is poking its sleepy face through my bedroom window already but this side dish or light lunch works with any season, like most of Nigel Slater's recipes, as I've found out over the years.

Baked peppers with a summer sauce

Serves 2-4 as a side dish (or light lunch, believe me)

large peppers
4olive oil
For the basil dressing:
basil leaves, a couple of good handfuls
oregano leaves, a small handful
mint leaves, a small handful
garlic 1 plump clove, peeled
extra-virgin olive oil about 150ml

Set the oven at 180C/gas mark 4. Cut the peppers in half, tug out the seeds and cores and lay cut-side up in a baking tin. Trickle a little olive oil over them then bake until the skins have blackened. Remove from the oven and cover with a tea towel or clingfilm. (The steam this creates will make it easier to remove the skins of the pepper.)

Put the basil leaves into a blender or food processor together with the oregano and mint, the peeled clove of garlic and the olive oil. Add a good pinch of sea salt and mix till almost smooth.
Peel the skins of the peppers and put them on a plate. Trickle the herb sauce around them and serve warm.

The music to go with this recipe is full of unbridled hedonism. The reason is simple: Nigel is one of the few food writers (I can't think of any others, and Nigella 'tries' too much for my liking) who makes the phrase 'plump clove' sound both sensuous and naughty without meaning to.

Hence my first musical choice. This tune is sick. The DJ and keyboard player sound houseish, the singer and backing vocalists are pure soul, the brass section, THE BRASS SECTION! yeeeesss! is jazzy and the guitar, drums and bass combine for a slow-burning reggae sound. This is the sickest melody - 'sick' as in 'good', by the way - I've come across in a loooooooooooong time. If this song carried a label it would read: 'No artificial flavours or colourants, just raw ingredients'. Fat Freddy's Drop for you, ladies and gentleman.



Telmary is a Cuban rapper who has a very strong side (she needs it badly in such a male-dominated medium) as well as a softer one as the clip below demonstrates. I reviewed her CD, 'A Diario', here last year and everytime I listen to it I never cease to be amazed at the wild array of melodies her record contains. Whenever I hear this tune or watch this video I think of that olive oil sliding down the sides of those peppers as they are getting baked. Indulgent.



It's a pity that Macy Gray's subsequent records haven't achieved the same success as her debut album 'On How Life Is'. But this track from her sophomore effort, 'The Id', is as tasty as that plump, juicy garlic clove Nigel mentions in his recipe. Consume carefully. Have a brilliant weekend. Ta.



© 2010

Next Post: 'Sunday Mornings: Coffee, Reflections and Music', to be published on Sunday 19th September at 10am (GMT)

Road Songs (Lacrimosa)

Writing about rain in London is an oxymoron. That much I know. A landscape that in winter is draped mainly in different shades of grey coupled with rising levels of humidity might not be an obvious topic to write about when discussing songs to listen to whilst driving. But as you well know this column defies logic and dogmas.

There was a time when I was afraid to go out driving if it was raining. This takes me back several years when I was still learning how to drive. Whenever the sky got darker and a group of cumulonimbus was discernible on the horizon my first reaction was to get on the phone to my instructor and ask him, in a voice barely disguising my angst, whether we would still be going out for our lesson. The reply on all occasions was resolute and firm: Yes.

Fast-forward to the present-day and that anxiety is almost gone. I cannot say that I enjoy driving in the rain as it is highly perilous and you can easily lose control of your vehicle. But at least I try to make the most of it. And music usually helps.

My first track is rain-themed, by the way. And that is because this natural phenomenon, so essential to us and other living organisms, can also fast-track you to nostalgia, that bittersweet longing for the past. And this is a tear-jerker, especially to us, Latins. This song was and I think still is very popular in Cuba because it manages to convey passion and commitment in a few lines. Excellent.

Armando Manzanero: Esta Tarde Vi Llover

As I cruise the streets of London in my car whilst it is pouring down outside the wipers on my windshield enter a strange relationships with other cars wipers. Their rhythmic 'splish-splosh' motion resembles the bows in the hands of expert violinists and when you are stuck in a set of traffic lights, or waiting to move off in a roundabout, it seems to me that a whole orchestra of windshield wipers have taken over the city and delivered their own perfect symphony. And then this melody comes into my mind. Mozart's swansong, which, unfortunately, he never got to finish. Touching.

Mozart - Requiem Mass in D minor

One's relationship with rain can be a love-hate affair. All those wet roads, the risk of accidents and the lack of visibility are not hurdles to laugh at. In the same way some partnerships in real life can and do, indeed, turn out that way. This singer's husky voice cannot conceal the pain of

what she is going through. When I first heard her I was captivated by her voice and to this day her debut album remains my favourite record by her. Poignant.

Macy Gray: Still

The delicacy with which the following piece is executed reminds me of the rainbows formed when it stops raining. And the other day I was lucky to see a humungous one from my office window. Hmmm... yes, I was not driving at the moment. Sorry for cheating. But when I was researching the music to put on the blog in this week's column I could not help thinking about the miracle of rain-followed-by-rainbow. It is Nature, the watercolour painter, at its best and this singer is an example of that phenomenon in music. Marvellous.

Sting: Shape Of My Heart

And this is all for this week. I sincerely do hope it stops raining soon, but in the meantime I'll continue to enjoy the symphonic splish-splosh sounds of my windshield wipers. I hope you do, too.

Copyright 2007