New Leaf: Massimo!

Capra has a new cookbook of one-dish meals

Monday, April 21, 2008
Last updated: Monday April 21, 2008, EDT 6:37 AM

Vegetarian recipes from recently released cookbooks:

"Massimo's Italian Kitchen: Authentic One-Dish Meals from a Seasoned Chef," by Massimo Capra (Sellers Publishing, 2007)

The mustachioed Food Network Canada personality comes back with more simple Italian recipes. Born in Cremona, Italy, Capra introduces each recipe with personal tidbits. For "My Mother's Frittata," for example, he explains a local habit in his hometown of enjoying 11 a.m. wine and frittata as a midmorning snack: It's a staple at local bars that easily can be made vegetarian. Italian cuisine usually is filled with vegetarian options, and this book has its share. Be prepared, though, to leave the pancetta out of recipes pairing it with brussels sprouts and the prosciutto out of the recipes with peas.

— Evelyn Shih

* Milanese fennel cutlets
2 fennel bulbs
2 eggs
1/2 cup milk
2 tablespoons Italian parsley
1 teaspoon fresh thyme
Salt and pepper
3 cups fresh bread crumbs
1/2 cup grated Grana Padano cheese
Extra-virgin olive oil, for frying
1 tablespoon butter

Bring a pot of salted water to a boil. Remove the stringy inedible outer leaf from each fennel bulb, clean the bottom, and cut the bulb lengthwise into wedges. Plunge the fennel into the boiling water for 30 seconds. Drain and cool on paper towels.

In a bowl, combine the eggs, milk, parsley and thyme. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Add the fennel wedges, and gently stir to coat.

On a tray, mix together the bread crumbs and the Grana Padano. Coat each fennel wedge by pressing firmly into the bread-crumb mixture, being careful not to crush the fennel by pressing too hard.

In a frying pan over medium-high heat, pour olive oil to about 1/2-inch deep. It should be enough so that the fennel doesn't burn at the bottom of the pan, but isn't submerged. Add the butter. When it has melted, arrange the fennel wedges so they fit comfortably in the pan.

Fry the fennel until golden, turning as necessary for evenness. Remove from oil with a slotted spoon, and drain on paper towels. Serve hot or at room temperature.

Servings: 4 to 6.

Per serving: 471 calories, 25 grams fat, 7 grams saturated fat, 125 milligrams cholesterol, 45 grams carbohydrates, 16 grams protein, 721 milligrams sodium, 4 grams fiber.

Chick, Bobby and Jack

A get-together by 3 jazz stars

Monday, April 21, 2008
Last updated: Monday April 21, 2008, EDT 5:15 AM

BY EVELYN SHIH

Chick Corea has played with Miles Davis. He's played the role of jazz fusion pioneer with his band, Return to Forever — which has reunited for a tour that kicks off at the end of May. He's played with a full orchestra, and he's played alone to great critical acclaim. He's juggled the hats of bandleader, composer and pianist like a seamless trick, rarely taking a moment to breathe in the course of a career that's pushing 50 years.

But right now, the Grammy-winning jazz artist is on tour doing something he's never done before: playing in a trio with Bobby McFerrin and drummer Jack DeJohnette.

"I don't even know what's going to happen," Corea said with a laugh two weeks ago, before leaving on the tour. "We're going to get together for our first gig. ... I know some music is going to happen, but I don't know what."

The trio will be at bergenPAC Tuesday and at Carnegie Hall Wednesday, so North Jerseyans have two chances to see them sink or swim.

Luckily, Corea has played with McFerrin and DeJohnette in separate musical configurations. DeJohnette was a fellow band mate from his time with Miles Davis in the late 1960s, and Corea has been working with McFerrin since their 1991 duet CD, "Play."

"The performance will be, for the most part, improvised, which is the way Bobby and I have done our duet work," Corea said. "We don't really discuss what we're going to do, ever, and we work it all out onstage as we go."

This wouldn't be the first time McFerrin has persuaded him to walk into the unknown. A jack-of-all-trades himself, McFerrin cajoled Corea for years to get him to play Mozart piano concertos with the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, which he conducted.

"He kept inviting me to play with his orchestra, and I kept saying no because it would just be too much practice to get it to happen," said Corea of McFerrin. "But between his encouragement and my wife Gail's encouragement, I finally did it."

In 1996, they recorded the "Mozart Sessions," a compilation of concerto performances. And so it was that the two collaborators, who found each other through improvisation, deepened their relationship by doing the opposite: playing composed music.

"In Bobby's orchestral projects, when he's conducting, he's operating with a whole program of pre-written music — very fixed in the way the score goes," said Corea. (In addition to the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, McFerrin has worked with the Vienna Philharmonic, the London Philharmonic Orchestra, the New York Philharmonic and the Gewandhaus Orchestra, among others.)

"But Bobby is an amazing improviser. So I think the contrast of doing performances that are completely improvised provides a balance. And it's the same for me."

Like other musicians who have straddled the divide between jazz and classical, Corea sees continuity between the genres. It took a shock, however, to open his eyes to the modern appeal of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.

In the early 1980s, Corea was invited to be the jazz component of a piano festival in Munich, Germany — "It was all classical pianists," he remembered. There, he played with the late Austrian classical pianist Friedrich Gulda, who happened to have dipped his toe in jazz.

Corea noticed a strikingly beautiful passage that Gulda inserted during an improvised solo onstage. He knew immediately that it must have been written, but he had no idea who it could be.

"I said to him, 'Hey, what was that you just played? Was that some young guy?' " said Corea. "And he looked at me kind of strange and said, 'No, that was Mozart.' It caught me off guard, because I thought I didn't like Mozart."

He began studying Mozart's oeuvre, burying his ears in the harmonic structures and melodies. When McFerrin found out that his friend had caught the classical bug, the rest was history.

Ever the improviser, Corea ended up departing from script for the cadenzas, or the piano solo portions of the Mozart concertos. "That was the original intent, actually," he explained.

The experiment was not without its bumps. At first, Corea injected too much of his jazz background into the cadenzas. "I think I offended some people," he said ruefully.

"After that, I did take the time to delve into the score and the harmonic language and the Mozartian ways a bit more. So that my later cadenzas, like on the 'Mozart Sessions,' pay more attention to the Mozart style."

Now he's embarked on yet another experiment with McFerrin, and he has no doubt that the payoff will be equal to all their previous collaborations. After all, who could manage not to have fun working with the guy who brought us "Don't Worry, Be Happy"?

"Bobby's a very fun-loving guy, and both of us are a little wacky," said Corea. "We get on that way. ... That's the reason we named the first duet disc we recorded 'Play.' Because that's what we like to do when we're together.

"He's a great impersonator, you know," he added.

We can imagine.

E-mail: shih@northjersey.com

Young Lion

Prodigy Eldar opens for Dave Brubeck at NJPAC

Friday, April 18, 2008
Last updated: Friday April 18, 2008, EDT 7:11 AM

BY EVELYN SHIH

Jazz prodigy Eldar will be opening for a giant of his genre, Dave Brubeck, tonight at NJPAC. It might be a rare pairing to see Eldar's 21 years matched with Brubeck's 87. But the young lion isn't intimidated: From a young age, he's been recognized by great musicians like Brubeck and the late Oscar Peterson.

Eldar, whose full name is Eldar Djangirov, performs under his first name. He immigrated to Kansas City, Mo., from Kyrgyzstan as a child. By 12, he was regularly featured on Marian McPartland's NPR show "Piano Jazz," and he attended the Brubeck Institute at age 15. He took a few minutes to talk about his understanding of jazz.

Q. Are you excited to be working with Dave Brubeck on this performance?

I'm psyched about it. ...

It's going to be a variety of things: pieces from my latest project, "re-imagination," which was nominated for a Grammy this year, and a mix of standards.

Q. You performed "Place St. Henri," a tune by Oscar Peterson, at a tribute to him last year. Is that one of your favorite pieces?

It's hard to say what my favorite piece is. I try not to have favorites, and it's hard to do at this point. But it's among my first influences, the first pieces I've had to learn. It's because Oscar Peterson was the first piano player I'd heard.

At first when I heard him, I admired the power, the drive, the technical sensibility. But the more I listened to Oscar, the more it became the inexplicable things: the phrasing, the ideas and how he presented them. For me, those were life-changing.

Q. Did you ever meet him?

I met him a couple times before he died. I was certainly lucky to do so.

The moment that I met him he was a very nice human being. And he recognized me. I was very young when I met him, about 14 years old. He said, "Hey Eldar, my man. How are you doin'?" And it felt good.

Q. How did you first learn music?

My first connection with the music was ever since I was born — my father was a music lover. I was always in an environment where there was a lot of music. Among the recordings he had were ones of Bill Evans, Oscar Peterson and Dave Brubeck. They were certainly among the first exposures to not just jazz, but to music. That was where I started picking up an interest.

It was very convenient for me to have one of the greatest teachers I've ever had: my mother. My mother was one of those quintessential Russian piano teachers, and not in a bad way. She wasn't slapping my wrists or anything. But she provided the foundation of my music. I was around 5 years old when I started taking lessons.

Q. Do you think your mother minded when you turned to jazz instead of classical music?

One of the great piano players, Bill Evans, would say that he looked at jazz as more of a process than a genre. If you think about it, in the classical days, people would improvise, but they had no means of recording it. Now with recording, I think jazz has become the music of evolution. I don't think my mother would be upset with my choice of music. And I think the music really bonded me and my dad.

E-mail: shih@northjersey.com

Quickie: Film Fest

WEDNESDAY, Fort Lee; THURSDAY, Rutherford
Asian America on film
The Fort Lee Film Commission's fifth annual Asian American Film Festival connects with young viewers.

TELL ME MORE: The event, one of the original film festivals coordinated by the Fort Lee Film Commission, has been doing better each year. Last year's festival winner, a film about a Chinese-American rabbi called "Oy Vey," went on to do well at the Garden State Film Festival in Asbury Park.

"It's important that we have diverse programming that reflects Bergen County's population," said executive director Tom Meyers.

Like Tomoko Oguchi's 2005 short animation "Folklore Restaurant," at left, most films are relatively recent and come from all over the country. This year, there will be two additional screenings of Taiwanese films, courtesy of the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in New York.

The festival winner will be played at the Bergen County Film Commission's Williams Center in Rutherford.

QUOTE: "The most difficult thing for small films is getting them played at all. That's where we can help them out." — Tom Meyers

DETAILS: Films show 7:30 p.m. Wednesday at Fort Lee Community Center, 1355 Inwood Terrace, Fort Lee; 201-592-3663 or fortleefilm.org. Free. Festival winner screened 7:30 p.m. Thursday at the Williams Center, 1 Williams Plaza, Rutherford; 201-592-3663 or bergencountyfilmcommission. org. $7 admission.

— Evelyn Shih

Kewt Wittle Puppies

A hound finds a home

Thursday, April 17, 2008
Last updated: Thursday April 17, 2008, EDT 6:36 AM

BY EVELYN SHIH

Emma Jackson, a Northern Highlands Regional High School freshman from Upper Saddle River, was hoping for extra credit in English class. But she ended up playing school librarian for her classmates when she pulled out a mock-up of her children's book, "A Home for Dixie," which will be in stores Tuesday.

"They started yelling, 'Story time! Story time!' " said the 15-year-old author. The class gathered in a circle, with permission from the teacher, and Emma began reading her own words aloud.

It was an exciting moment for the first-time book writer, but "I got called 'Pippi Longstocking' for a week," she said ruefully, referring to the school-aged redhead featured in the Astrid Lindgren children's books.

By Page 6 of "A Home for Dixie" (Collins, an imprint of HarperCollins Children's Books, $16.99), at Emma's first appearance, the comparison becomes clear.

The illustrations in this picture book consist of photographs of a strawberry-blond Emma in pigtails and jeans, playing with a redbone coonhound puppy. But the real star of the work is her canine co-protagonist, Dixie, a lovable pup that Emma and her family adopted last March from rescue shelter Aunt Mary's Doghouse in Hope. The puppy is shown, only a month after its adoption, so lively and eager she's almost jumping off the page.

The book tells the story of Emma's quest for dog ownership. While many children have begged their parents for a dog, and some have their wishes come true, few find their story resulting in a children's book. In this case, it's because Emma is not just any teenager: Her mother is Kate Jackson, the editor in chief of HarperCollins Children's Books.

She's also "a 15-year-old with a point of view," said editor Maria Modugno, who worked with Emma in a relatively short time frame. Emma's age "did not factor into it," Modugno said — except for the fact that a list of questions she sent by e-mail was answered in bright pink print.

The story came together with relative ease: As a young only child, Emma saw other people walking their pets in public and asked her parents for a puppy. Instead, she was given a goldfish, a hamster and a guinea pig in succession.

"Probably mostly 'cause they didn't think I would take care of [a dog,]" said Emma of her parents.

Though she loved all her pets, it just wasn't the same. "You can't really take them out to play and talk to them like you can with a dog," she said.

About two years ago, Emma's parents finally agreed to her request. Finding the dog, however, took the family another year as they explored adoption options. It was this journey — and the irresistible cuteness of the dog in question — that inspired the book.

"We found out that there are 4 million dogs that are left in shelters every year," said Emma. According to the Humane Society, a combined 6 million to 8 million dogs and cats enter U.S. shelters annually. Three million to 4 million of these animals — or about half — are euthanized when shelters hit capacity.

The appropriately named Dixie was one of three puppies born in a litter in South Carolina. The dogs traveled up the coast from a shelter to Aunt Mary's no-kill facility, thanks to a string of volunteers, Emma explained.

"It's almost like an underground railroad," she said. "They give the dogs to one person, who drives them about 100 miles, and they're given to the next person who drives another hundred miles."

Mary Cody, owner of Aunt Mary's Doghouse, received a Bravo for Bravery medal from the American Red Cross in 2007 for her rescue work. To ensure a proper match between pet and owner, Cody wouldn't allow the Jacksons to take the puppy home right away. Instead, she asked the family to sleep on it.

"She doesn't want people making fast decisions that they might regret," said Emma of Cody. Although the Jacksons wanted to take Dixie home, "it was definitely the responsible thing to do."

Impressed by Cody's work, Emma decided to donate all her royalties from the book to Aunt Mary's Doghouse. After all, getting Dixie was reward enough.

"She gives me so much love every day," said Emma of her dog, now a 60-pound yearling. "She's not perfect, obviously. We had to train her, and she chewed up my flip-flops, but it's definitely worth it."

A year into the relationship, Emma has learned to love Dixie's idiosyncrasies, such as snacking on ice cubes and sharing carrots with Wilbur, the guinea pig. The pup also has been a big hit with young children at Emma's karate school, where part of her duties as a black belt is to help teach.

"I like little kids, and I want to be a teacher," said Emma. "So I was always really excited when the kids would come up to me and say, 'Aw, look at your doggie! She's so cute.' "

E-mail: shih@northjersey.com

Vegetarian Seder

Vegetarian options for Passover Seder
Monday, April 14, 2008
Last updated: Monday April 14, 2008, EDT 6:42 AM
Vegetarian recipes from recently released cookbooks:

"Jewish Holiday Cooking," by Jayne Cohen (John Wiley & Sons, 2008)
Image courtesy of jewishholidaycooking.com

As a non-Jew who has celebrated Passover Seder at a friend's table, I know by taste that there are vegetarian options on Jewish feast days — and they are quite spectacular. Jayne Cohen seems to agree. Next to the other menu suggestions for Passover and Sukkot, she includes an entire vegetarian Seder. Other occasions like Rosh Hashana and Hanukkah also have ample options: After all, it was olive oil that burned in the temple for eight days, not poultry fat, Cohen writes. Oil-drenched latkes are a cruelty-free food. The vegetarian Passover Seder menu includes the chopped eggs and onions below, as well as an artichoke matzoh ball soup, zucchini frittata, wild mushroom potato kugel, fresh asparagus and, of course, bitter herbs and oranges.

— Evelyn Shih

* Chopped eggs and onions
3 to 5 tablespoons olive or avocado oil
1/2 cup thinly sliced onions
1/2 cup finely chopped onion
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
6 large hard-boiled eggs, peeled and cut into eighths
Olive oil schmaltz, optional (see note)

Heat oil in a medium skillet and add sliced onions. Sauté over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until rich golden-brown. Salt and pepper lightly and remove from heat to cool.

Scrape the sautéed onion and all the oil remaining in the skillet into a wooden bowl, and chop coarsely. Add the eggs and raw onion and continue to chop until the mixture is well-blended but not pasty. Mix in salt and lots of pepper with a fork. The mixture should hold together loosely. If you need, add more oil or olive oil schmaltz. Chill well.

Remove from refrigerator 15 minutes before serving with garnish.

Servings: 4 to 6.

Per serving: 218 calories, 18 grams fat, 4 grams saturated fat, 318 milligrams cholesterol, 4 grams carbohydrates, 10 grams protein, 167 milligrams sodium, 0.4 grams fiber.

Note: Olive oil schmaltz can be made with 2 cups of finely chopped onions, salted and drained, and 1/4 cup olive oil. Cook the onions in the oil over low heat for 60 to 75 minutes, then emulsify in a blender.

Earth Day Comes Early

Ridgewood holds environmental fair
Sunday, April 13, 2008
Last updated: Sunday April 13, 2008, EDT 10:32 AM
BY EVELYN SHIH

With plenty of sunshine, tables of free handouts, balloons and crafts for the kids, it was almost as if the summer street fair season had begun early at Ridgewood Village Hall on Saturday afternoon.

Recycling at Ridgewood High, courtesy of Ridgenet.org

The public event, complete with a small cluster of booths, a lineup of presentations and live music, was the second annual "Environmental Celebration" organized by Ridgewood's Environmental Advisory Committee to mark Earth Day and Arbor Day.

"It's bigger this year, and hopefully it will be even bigger next year," said Councilwoman Kim Ringler Shagin, the committee's chairwoman.

"It's good to find out about the recycling and other things going on about town," said Stacy Hermann, who moved to Ridgewood with her family one year ago. Holding a sheaf of informational fliers, Hermann commented that she "didn't know Ridgewood had so much to offer."

Hermann's daughter Sydney, 7, was eager to plant a free red oak sapling she had received from the village's booth. With her mother's permission, she procured a Norway spruce for her brother Kory, 11.

Nearby, the Interfaith Environmental League was giving out temporary Earth Day tattoos for children. The organization has participants from all over Bergen County, but houses of worship in Ridgewood anchor its efforts, said Jacqui Riordan of Christ Episcopal Church.

"We need to indoctrinate kids at an early age about the value of recycling," she said, adding that the league promotes both secular and non-secular initiatives.

Girl Scouts provided recycled material to children for craft activities and lent out tin-can stilts. Toyota brought in hybrid vehicles for test driving, and Whole Foods Market handed out sample snacks.

Inside the community center, presentations ranged from a live reptile showcase with Patrick Scheuer of the New Jersey Audubon Society to a composting primer by Jen McDonnell of Whole Foods.

Mayor David Pfund signed the U.S. Mayors Climate Protection Agreement at the Sierra Club booth and pledged to initiate efforts to reduce the greenhouse gases emitted by the village.

"It's a good thing to do," Pfund said. "Other towns should also consider it."

The Sierra Club's Cool Cities program has persuaded 973 mayors nationwide, and more than 80 towns in New Jersey, to sign the agreement. Other North Jersey towns that have made the pledge include Closter, Cliffside Park and West Milford.

"Signing is easy," said Stefano Crema, who runs the New Jersey Cool Cities program out of Denville. "It's figuring out the efficient way to improve the towns and implementing changes that is hard."

One action that is close to implementation in Ridgewood is an energy audit by Green Living Solutions, a Ridgewood company that had a booth at the celebration.

Owner Edward Schwartz, a certified energy professional, evaluates private homes and businesses for energy efficiency, and may soon do the same for the Ridgewood public buildings. The state Board of Public Utilities has committed to covering 75 percent of the audit costs for the village, but has not yet made an official announcement, Schwartz said.

"It's the cool environmental thing to do," he said. "But right now, the reality is that it's also cost-effective." Rising energy costs are a pain, but "the dollar factor" may finally move the average consumer to think about conservation, he added.

E-mail: shih@northjersey.com