Things I love
Mediterranean aubergine and chickpea
I made this last night and it turned out well. It should serve two people with proper appetites (like me) or more for skinny mice. Everything is estimates, but if you cook, I’m sure you can judge it for yourself.
250g chickpeas, soaked overnight and cooked ‘til soft (or about two tins).
3 or 4 small or 2 large aubergines (eggplants for Americans), sliced, salted and rinsed.
Olive oil
2 tblsp Harrisa* - Make sure you try before adding it all: it can vary in how hot it is.
Squeeze of lemon juice- about half a lemon
Handful flat leaf parsley, chopped.
Fresh, mild, red chilli, deseeded and chopped.
(*This is an Arabic mild chilli paste flavoured with cumin and other spices. You should be able to buy this at any Arabic or Turkish food suppliers on their deli counter, but you can make it. The stuff in tubes, while useful for many things might not be any good in this.)
Fry aubergines in olive oil until they start to brown. Use enough olive oil to keep pan oiled, but not so much that everything is soaked in oil (you may need to do this in a couple of batches). Add harissa and stir through. Add chickpeas, lemon juice, enough water to make everything moist (about 1-2 cups), and salt to taste. Cover and leave on low heat while rice cooks. During cooking the aubergines will rehydrate and break down a little bit, making a soft sauce, red from the harissa. Before serving, add parsley and chilli.
Easy-peasy and yumm. Serve with basmati rice, yoghurt and grilled halloumi. Any leftovers are good the next day, drizzled with fresh oil, but the parsley will have discoloured. I think you can avoid this by adding the lemon after the parsley.
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Dasenergi did his eleven best ever albums a while ago and I started to list mine but never posted it, so here is this weeks version of it. Weirdly, there are some on this list I don’t actually currently own; but that doesn’t bother me, as I’m not all about ownership.
- David Bowie - Heroes I was tempted by the more ‘poppy ‘The rise and fall of Ziggy Stardust and the spiders from mars’ because this just works better as a whole album. Much of the stuff on it is grower material. Also, when I was a kid, my dad’s lodger with the cool record collection had this, so it’s a much stronger marker of my journey into music.
- Blondie - Parallel Lines. Perfect pop: how fresh it felt compared to all the ‘Abba’ that preceded it. Didn’t we all want to capture a little bit of that coolness? It just hurts that this doesn’t come with ‘Atomic’ embedded on it along with all the other goodies. (the alternative for this era was the ‘Specials’, another dose of cheery pop goodness).
- Gil Scott Heron - The Revolution Will Not Be Televised. To be honest, I couldn’t say what’s his ‘best’ album; but this is a good place to start.
- Pixies - Surfer Rosa This wins over ‘Doolittle’ just for that line ‘bloody your hands on a cactus tree, wipe it on your dress and send it to me’ which is just so…Fucking...HOT.
- Massive Attack - Blue Lines. It was just so far ahead of anything else around it when it came out and it took a few years for much around to catch up and catch on. In some ways it might be easier to listen to Portishead’s ‘Dummy’ over and over, but this album has sooo much more value. I’m a bass whore, so this feeds me; and listening to this takes me to the front of the crowd at a few festivals, where swallowing the air that their big bass speakers exhaled stuck in my throat while my smile expanded exponentially. One ex returned three amps within warranty when this CD was released.
- Mazzy Star - So Tonight That I Might See (it was this or Drugstore’s - “Drugstore”). You’ve got to have something for after the party and this has been thoroughly tried and tested in that role. The sun comes up as we collapse to cups of tea and Mazzy Star.
- Moby - Everything Is Wrong (far stronger than the later monster seller, ‘Play’. I chose this over ‘Leftfield’ or ‘Underworld’ which where other the mainstream staples of this era, as it has more variety to it.
- Liz Phair - Exile in Guyville. I own far more PJ than Liz, but if I’m just taking one ‘girl rock’ album, this is it. Best ‘girl’ lyrics to (attempt to) sing along to when you’re driving.
- Babybird - The Original Lo-Fi [Box set] Yes, I know, it’s a cheat: it’s a box-set; but I didn’t cheat and take my ‘Massive Attack’ box-set earlier, so I’m allowed this, even though I only own half the albums in this box set in real life. Those I have are all great and far better than his later, more ‘produced’ stuff once he’d picked up his band, with ach album better than the sum of its parts, which is odd, as they’re all quirky little songs that you wouldn’t think this would happen with.
- Spiritualised - Ladies & Gentlemen We Are Floating In Space. Chosen over the cooler, ‘Spaceman 3’ they arose from, because exposure counts for a lot. I love it that they make such big and messy sounds while still being quite symphonic and chilled out. Someone who knew once said to me this was classic artschool smackhead music. I have never been either, but it suits me.
- Beth Orton - Trailer Park. This woman can make me cry when she sings, and has done twice. If you get the chance, go see her and give yourself over to her for the night.
I know I’ve included nothing recent but I’m OLD. There are a few recent albums I’d be tempted by; but these have all stood the test of time and represent times in my life for which music was especially important.
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It was a_lovesong’s birthday and I know he hasn’t got Kirsty McCall’s Tropical Brainstorm, so here’s a couple of songs from that album that make me smile. The first, ‘Here Comes That Man Again’, is about virtual sex, and the second, ‘Celestine’, is about the alter ego who I imagine is within every woman. The third track is a cover, because I have a feeling he likes covers, and I'm hoping it's not something not already in his extensive collection. It's an Afrobeat version of ‘Fever’, by Jingo.
I’m off to Cornwall for the weekend and would like some of last month’s weather please, now.
(Also, much as I think it's great, Semagic does weird things sometimes with LJ cuts, eating text and changing formatting. It's not my fault that font so large in those LJ.)