DJANGO UNCHAINED

Django Unchained (2012)

My Score: 9.0/10
IMDB Score: 8.7/10
Rating: R
Favorite Lines: "I like the way you die, boy" and "Cora, say goodbye to Miss Laura"..."Bye Miss Laura!"
Director: Quentin Tarantino
Stars: Jamie Foxx, Christoph Waltz, Leonardo DiCaprio, Kerry Washington and Samuel L. Jackson


When I first watched the trailer for Django Unchained I was disturbed and intrigued all at the same time; I wasn’t quite sure which one I felt more strongly. But I knew I was NOT going to see a movie about slavery, and definitely NOT a Quentin Tarantino film about slavery and ABSOLUTELY NOT on Christmas Day. Well y’all...I DID NOT see that movie...on Christmas Day. I waited until after New Years and after I heard from multiple sources (which included mostly Black friends and family) that they did NOT leave the theater extremely jaded about the future of this country, vehemently furious about it’s past, or exceptionally mad at all White people. So I put my big girl pants on and dragged my mom and aunt to the movie theater to see Django AND I LOVED IT! I’ve actually seen it twice now and it is most likely going to be added to my collection when it comes out on DVD.

So why was I so hesitant? Well, if you’ve ever seen any of Quentin Tarantino’s films NOT on censored television, but in theaters, on DVD, or whatever, you know that his films are usually bloody, gory, cut-throat and offensive. I mean they’re phenomenal films but be ready to see Daryl Hannah’s eyeball get plucked out and squished into a moldy blood-stained carpet (Kill Bill vol 2.) or for Samuel L. Jackson to blow the brains out of some guy sitting in the backseat (Pulp Fiction) or for some Nazi’s head to be brutally bashed in with a bat (Inglorious Bastards). I could go on and on with examples but what I’m trying to explain is with Quentin Tarantino’s style you really see the insides of some guys brains splattered everywhere, you REALLY hear the skull cracking underneath the force of that bat, and you feel that eye getting ripped out and squished. I don’t know if its just me but I can’t help but wince and cringe each and every time and I wouldn’t say I’m squimish. But you may think differently! 

Anyways, Tarantino is raw and non-withholding with violent scenes making them dramatic and overzealous but extremely real and tangible at the same time. So I was definitely bracing myself for the whipping scenes and the blood and the gore in Django! The violence in Django wasn’t any worse than his other movies. However, to be honest, while I could bare the whipping scenes with Kerry Washington I couldn’t help but cover my eyes ***SPOILER*** when Leonardo DiCaprio’s character fed his “Mandingo” slave to some dogs or during the Mandingo fighting scene(took me back to Ellison’s Invisible Man). **** Both of these scenes were terribly graphic and evoked a deep sadness, pain and rage within me (Tarantino’s aim, I’m sure). However, because my great-great-grandmother, who lived long enough for me to meet, was the daughter of a slave...I don’t know, it was a little too much for me. Anyways, most of the violence in this movie involved Django “killing white folks for money”.

What did I like about the movie?
Let’s talk about this cast: Jamie Foxx, Christoph Waltz, Samuel L. Jackson, Leonardo DiCaprio, and Kerry Washington! Phenomenal. I loved everyone! Samuel L. Jackson did an amazing job acting as an Uncle Tom and depicting the actual power role  and complex relationships between the Master and his “servants”. The minute I laid eyes on Sam Jackson I immediately thought of Uncle Ruckus from Boondocks**. 

Uncle Ruckus's name is an amalgam of Uncle Tom and Amos Rucker, the latter being an African-American United Confederate Veterans member, who allegedly wanted to stay a slave after the Civil War. The name also bears a similarity to Uncle Remus.

Leonardo DiCaprio was amusing, yet creepily sinister as Calvin Candie; I don’t know when I’ll be able to NOT see him as a villain for a while. I absolutely love Christoph Waltz as Dr. Schultz; he has definitely redeemed himself (he’s in my good graces again) from his Nazi villainy in Inglorious Bastards and I’m really looking forward to seeing what else he’ll do in the future. Kerry Washington, like the many other women in this film, didn’t really have a voice (meaning she had very few lines). Her acting came through her facial expressions and because she is a great actress I loved it.
Also, the soundtrack was A-MAZING! Tarantino always uses an  interesting mix  of music  and he did not hold back for this movie. Django jumps across genres, from country, Latin, to rap and R&B; it even features an original song written by Jamie Foxx and performed by Rick Ross!  

Yes, there was a bunch of cursing, some in your face male frontal nudity, excessive use of the N word, lots of violence, yes Spike Lee disapproves and it will challenge you emotionally and psychologically! But there were many things I loved about this movie; it was original, daring, purposeful, and powerful.

TREAT. YO. SELF. Cinnamon Apple Pie Eggrolls and Fried Coconut Bananas

Fried Banana and Apple Pie Eggroll

Fried Coconut Bananas

Although I found this recipe in a Thai cookbook I tasted these delicious sweet treats sans the coconut on the city streets of Hanoi! They are yummy by themselves, drizzled with sweetened condensed milk or with a heaping scoop of ice cream. If you’re a weirdo and you’re not a banana fan this dish is great with a variety of fruit, such as apple and pineapple slices! So no excuses, its super easy, super cheap and supper yum!

Ingredients

1 cup self-rising (or all purpose; comes out a little different but still yummy)

½ tsp baking soda IF you’re using all-purpose flour

Pinch of salt (1/8 tsp)

3 heaping tbsp. sugar

1 egg, beaten

6 tbsp water

2 tbsp shredded sweetened coconut (or 1 tbsp sesame seeds)

4 firm bananas

Vegetable oil, enough for frying in your wok or deep         pan

 First, sift the flour and baking soda OR just place the self-rising flour in a bowl.

Stir in the sugar, egg and water until you have a thin batter (but thick enough to stick to the bananas). Then whisk in the shredded coconut so that it is evenly distributed.

Next, peel your bananas and carefully cut lengthwise and then in half cross ways to make 16 pieces. DON’T DO THIS STEP UNTIL YOU ARE READY TO DROP THESE JOKERS IN YOUR OIL otherwise they’ll get mushy and brown, ugly and gross.

Heat your oil in your wok or deep fryer (a small fry daddy is <$20 at Wal-mart if you’re really into frying). We dropped a piece of the coconut in the fryer to test if it was hot enough. You can also use a chunk of bread; it should brown in about 30-45 sec. Carefully drop the bananas in the oil. Please don’t burn yourself…hot oil hurts A LOT. And it will stick with you if it’s hot battered shredded coconut. Ja’Naie took over the frying because I’m kind of clumsy.  Flip the bananas over after about 12-15 seconds and cook for another 10 seconds on the other side if you’re using a deep pan/wok. If you’re using a fryer wait about 30-40 seconds. Test one or two to get your timing right and don’t crowd the pan or fryer. Place the cooked yummy goodness on some paper towels!

Serve this dish immediately. The hotter the better! Enjoy this dish with a scoop of vanilla ice cream, drizzled with condensed sweetened milk or honey or by itself. SO DELISH!

My best friend, Ja'Naie, helped me make these dishes for my family holiday party. Although these eggrolls aren't particularly Asian; I found this recipe on StumbleUpon and fell in love. This dish is a really cool take on a East Meets West fusion dessert. Picture if an eggroll and an apple pie made a baby; that baby would be a beautiful inter-pastry baby! The world would love and embrace that baby.

Cinnamon Apple Pie Eggrolls

Ingredients

2 medium apples (Granny Smith)

4 tbsp sugar

2 tbsp all purpose flour

Egg roll wrappers

3 tsp cinnamon, divided

Vegetable oil (1/2 cup if frying in deep pan, 2 cups in deep fryer, 1 tbsp for baking)

First, peel and finely chop (small pieces but not mush!) apples into a bowl. Toss with 2 tbsp flour, 3 tbsp sugar and 2 tsp cinnamon until well coated. To make the eggrolls, take one eggroll wrapper and place it on a plate. Spoon about a tbsp. and a half into the middle on a diagonal. Fold one corner over the filling tightly. Then take the side corners and wrap tightly from the side. Using your finger brush a little bit of water on the remaining top corner and roll the eggroll tightly sealing with the final corner.

Aha! This was definitely a trial and error dish!

Important tips:

• To keep your apple mixture from turning a gross brown color, squirt some lemon juice over them.
• If for some reason you don’t want to use fresh apples you can use canned apple pie mixture; however I’m unsure how it will taste. Also if you’re not an apple fan at all you can use other pie type fruits instead. My mom is actually allergic to apples so we made some cherry apple pie eggrolls with powdered sugar on top. If you’re using canned fruit topping/pie filling taste it to make sure its sweet enough! I added a tablespoon of sugar to the cherry pie filling because it was a little tart.
• Roll them tightly! Otherwise all the yummy juices will leak out and make a hot mess.
• Don’t overstuff the eggrolls or else all the juices will bust out and make a hot mess.
• Watch your oil! Make sure it’s not too hot!

To bake: Preheat the oven to 400 and place the eggrolls seam side down on a sheet pan line with parchment. Lightly brush the eggrolls with the 1 tbsp of vegetable oil. Bake for 15 minutes or until browned and crisp.

To fry: Gently heat 2 cups of oil over low heat until about 350 degrees. Fry each eggroll seam down for 3-4 minutes until golden brown and crisp. Let them drain on paper towels.

We attempted to bake these to be healthier but the eggrolls weren’t crispy enough. So we put some oil in a deep pan and fried them for a few seconds to crisp them up.

Toss the eggrolls with the remaining sugar and cinnamon immediately after cooking and serve hot! I also drizzled the eggrolls with a little sweetened condensed milk; caramel would work too!

I served this desert dish alongside the fried coconut banana with a scoop of ice cream for our holiday party. Everyone was skeptical at first because they were used to eggrolls being a savory appetizer. However, once they smelled the sweet aroma of apple pie they were excited to taste it. Everyone loved them; they were a great success!

新年， 新的开始！New Year, New Beginnings!

Happy New Year Everyone! 

With the onslaught of exams, papers and final assignments I had to take a break from my delicious meals, movie binges and blogging once again. The good news: I finished my first semester of grad school with a bang. Bad news: I haven't been here in over a month! But its a new year and I have some new recipes for you all to try! I'm glad to be home for the holidays. While at home I was able to recreate some delicious Thai treats I've been dying to try out on my mother. Check out the blog later this week for my movie post!

Thai Chicken & Lemon Grass Curry

4 servings

Ingredients:

3 tbsp vegetable oil

2 garlic cloves, crushed

Chicken breast tenderloins, chop into bite sized pieces

3 tbsp fish sauce

1/3 cup + 1 tbsp chicken stock

1 tsp sugar

1 lemon grass stalk, chopped and crushed

5 kaffir lime leaves, thinly sliced

1 tsp cumin

Curry paste:

1 lemon grass stalk, chopped

1 piece ginger, chopped

2 kaffir lime leaves, chopped

3 shallots, coarsely chopped (or ½ onion)

1 tbsp cilantro or ½ tsp ground cilantro

1 tsp fish sauce

1 tsp ground turmeric

Steamed Rice

First, make the curry paste. Place all of the ingredients in a food processor (or a blender) and process until you have a smooth paste.

Then heat the vegetable oil in a work or heavy sauce pan. Add the garlic and cook over a low heat, stirring until golden brown. Make sure you don’t burn the garlic or else it will taste bitter. Definitely done that before and its nasty! Add the curry paste and stir fry for about 30 seconds.

Next, add your chopped (bite size) chicken pieces to pan and stir until thoroughly coated with the paste. Stir in the fish sauce, chicken stock, sugar, cumin and cook stirring constantly for about 2 minutes.

Finally add the lemon grass and lime leaves. Reduce the heat and simmer for about 10 minutes. I actually used this lemon grass paste tube and minced garlic jar. Your hands don’t get smelly and you can put the jar and tube back in the fridge to use for many other recipes. It’s also really nifty because on the back of each tube and jar is a conversion chart telling you approximately how much paste in tbsp. or tsp. correlates to a stalk of lemon grass or a clove of garlic. 

These items can be found at Kroger, Harris Teeter, Wal-Mart, etc. in the produce section with the fresh herbs.

But if you prefer to use the fresh lemon grass make sure you crush it really well or else lemongrass can be kind of scratchy going down your throat.

I served this dish on a bed of steamed rice with a side of sautéed spinach. My mom describes my dish as aromatic, spicy, bold and delicious.