Who's Cool

I watched yet another Tadanobu Asano movie (Café Lumière) and I just realized how cool this guy is. He can stand there not saying or doing anything yet I am drawn to him, no matter how small the role or screen time. I have seen maybe a dozen of his movies and I liked him in all of them. Having seen hundreds of movies, I made a list of movie celebrities that I think are so cool, along with one or two of their best movies, IMHO.

The coolest guys in cinema


Humphrey Bogart - The Maltese Falcon, Casablanca, Sabrina











Tadanobu Asano - Gojoe, Last Life In The Universe











Steve McQueen - Bullitt, The Thomas Crown Affair











Jonathan Rhys Meyers - Gormenghast, Velvet Goldmine











Alain Delon - Le Samourai, L'eclisse











My All-time Favorite Movie Performers

• Jimmy Stewart
• Humphrey Bogart
• Cary Grant
• Steve McQueen
  
• Katharine Hepburn
• Audrey Hepburn
• Jake Gyllenhaal
• Adrien Brody
• Johnny Depp
  
• Brad Pitt
  
• Ben Stiller
• Maggie Gyllenhaal
• Toshiro Mifune
• Tadanobu Asano
  
• Takeshi Kitano (Beat Takeshi)
  
• Jet Li
• Jackie Chan
• Takeshi Kaneshiro
  
• Tony Leung
  
• Maggie Cheung
• Vincent Cassel
• Jean Reno
• Alain Delon
  
• Audrey Tautou
• Colin Firth
• Jonathan Rhys Meyers
• Christian Bale
  
• Gary Oldman
• David Bowie
• Rachel Weisz
  

Empanadas

Empanada jumpstarted my blog a little over a year ago because, strangely, not one of the Filipino cookbooks I own at the time has the recipe for the Filipino empanada, although my Spanish cookbooks have. I searched online for the recipe and found a few sites that mention empanada but not the recipe, one of them is the very funny filipeanut which I have been visiting regularly since. I finally found one site called English Patis and made my first empanada following her recipe. I also found in her blog a list of Filipino bloggers, some I still read at least once or twice a week. I got inspired to start my own blog by one of those Filipino bloggers, which btw I don't visit anymore as often as I used to.

Empanada
pie crust
2½ cups pastry flour
1 stick very cold salted butter, cut into small cubes
1 stick salted butter, sliced very thin or flattened to 7 x 6 inch rectangle (should be very cold)
½ teaspoon sea salt
½ cup ice water

• In a medium bowl, mix salt with flour. With fingers, mix in the cubed butter until crumbly, add water 1 tablespoon at a time. Lightly mix with a fork and form into a ball. Flatten slightly, wrap in plastic film, put in a gallon zipper bag and refrigerate overnight.
• The next day, roll the pastry into a 10 x 8 rectangle, put the flattened butter on the top 2/3, fold the bottom without butter over, then fold again like a letter. Roll and fold, wrap in plastic film and let rest for 1 hour in the refrigerator. Repeat 2 more times before using. You can eliminate the folding and incorporate all the butter at once but the empanada won't be as flaky. Roll into desired thickness and cut into rounds, fill, pinch edges and crimp, brush with egg wash, then bake in a pre-heated 425°F oven until golden brown.

filling
2 tablespoons grapeseed or olive oil
5 cloves garlic, finely minced
1 small onion, finely chopped
1 cup each potato and carrots, finely diced
2 pounds lean ground beef
1 finely chopped chorizo, optional
1 cup raisins
1 cup canned sweet peas
2 teaspoons sea salt
¼ teaspoon ground black pepper
1 tablespoon soy sauce
water

• In a skillet, heat 1 tablespoon oil and fry potatoes and carrots for 4 minutes, set aside. In a medium saucepan, heat the remaining oil and saute garlic and onion for 3 minutes, add the beef and chorizo, cook until beef is no longer pink. Add the potatoes and carrots, raisins, salt, black pepper and soy sauce. Stir fry for 3 minutes, add 1 tablespoon water, cover and let simmer for 30 minutes until all the liquid has been absorbed. Add the well drained sweet peas and mix well. Transfer to a shallow container and let cool completely before using, or refrigerate overnight.

juicy beef filling inside flaky and tender pie crust

photo Neal Oshima

What I am interested to know is the recipe for the empanada with wavy multi-layered crust (like a mille-feuille) that comes from Silay, Negros. (BTW, the Neal Oshima photo below is from my cookbook Memories of Philippine Kitchens by Amy Besa and Romy Dorotan). If anyone has the recipe or knows how to make that distinctive layered crust, please, pretty please let me know.

DVD Review - 300

300 D-

This movie failed to make me love it, or at least like it. Before I watched the dvd I asked my daughter what she thought of it and she said I might not like it because it is a 'dick flick', as opposed to chick flick which I am not a fan of either. But I have read so many rave reviews from both men and women so I went ahead and borrowed, watched and cringed. This is one inane, pointless movie. The only thing that saved it from an F grade is the photography. It's okay, I guess, since it is based on a comic book, graphic novel to others, whatever.
First, I didn't like the soundtrack, having unnecessary and misplaced 'dramatic' music. I was annoyed when whipping sounds came out of all 5 speakers of a....TORCH! What the heck was that, it's just a moving torch which should not get the viewer's attention as if it's a beast or something. Laughable. And then, lots of unnecessary female nudity, a gratuitous sex scene, yeah, yeah, yeah, the king makes love to his beautiful wife, why does he look like he's having sex with a ho? The foolhardy king led his men wearing nothing but a shield, a red cape, and a black speedo/diaper, to fight a horde of ugly Persians. The diaper reminds me of the costume Sean Connery wore in ZARDOZ but Sean's was a nicer saffron-colored diaper with a matching X bandolier and go-go like boots (see photo at the bottom). Also the whole movie is full of cliched dialog, and during the battle a lot of blood spilled that just evaporated in mid-air because you won't see them anywhere on their newly waxed and perfectly chiseled Greek manly chests, on their shields or on the ground. As I said this movie is based on a graphic novel so it's forgiven. Bad story and bad bad king, going to war without adequate planning and let his men and himself die needlessly because they're all macho warriors, (hmm, why does this sound familiar?)

doesn't it look like a diaper?

Sean Connery in ZARDOZ

Filled Chocolate Candies

The other day I was looking for a plastic container in the upper shelves of the kitchen cabinet and found my candy molds. I haven't used these molds in maybe 2 or 3 years, they have yellowed a bit. I bought them 8 years ago when I was into candy making. One Christmas I made the Santa Claus, Christmas tree and ribboned gift molds, each one painted the appropriate color. They are tedious to make and it only takes a second to eat them. ;-)

So, I put the non-holiday molds to use and the one that is very yellow and brittle cracked after unmolding, I had to throw it away, time to buy new molds. Anyway, I filled them with soft very tart lemon fondant, candied figs, pb & j, and plain crunchy peanut butter. I used extra dark chocolate and they are super delicious! My favorite is the pb & j. You can learn how to temper chocolates here. It's not really that complicated, give it a few tries until you perfect it. You can experiment with milk chocolate first (which I prefer with the candied figs), then with really dark chocolate. Next time I will fill them with other unusual flavors like cayenne pepper, burnt sugar, cacao nibs, ground espresso coffee, and hard sponge candy (Crunchies in Australia).

crunchy peanut butter filling

peanut butter & grape jelly filling

soft super lemon fondant filling
candied fig filling

I think after eating non-stop all the yummy ice cream and now chocolate candies, it's time to hit the treadmill because my skirts are getting just a little bit too tight.:D