Cauliflower and Orzo Soup with Savory Monkey Bread, Listener, Clowns and Light FM

On average, the time between me seeing a recipe on a blog and me actually making it is probably somewhere around two month. But when it came to this savory monkey bread I moved much quicker. Like a ninja. Mostly it was due to my having never contemplated that a savory version of monkey bread would work so it blew my mind when I saw it but there was also a hint of perfect fit that contributed to my ninja like quickness. The original recipe came from Mary at One Perfect Bite. In her post, she urged people to experiment and put their own touch on the bread and that is exactly what I did. Serve it as an accompaniment to Cauliflower and Orzo Soup (vegan) and you’ve got a meal fit for Nancy Reagan or Cindy Crawford.

Savory Monkey Bread (adapted from One Perfect Bite blog)
(printable version)

-3 cups bread flour
-2 Tbs. sugar
-1 tsp. salt
-2 1/4 tsp. active dry bread machine yeast
-1 1/4 cups whole milk
-2 Tbs. garlic infused olive oil
-2 Tbs. butter, melted
-1 egg
-1/4 cup grated Parmesan Cheese
-1 Tbs. sesame seeds
-1/2 tsp. garlic powder
-1/2 tsp. onion powder
-1/2 tsp. rosemary, crushed

1. Combine two cups of  flour, sugar, salt and yeast in a large metal bowl.

2. Heat the milk, butter and garlic olive oil in a saucepan until the temperature reaches between 120 and 130 degrees Fahrenheit.

3. Add the wet to the dry ingredients and combine until everything is slightly wet. Add the egg and beat until well combined. Pour in another cup of flour and stir until a soft dough is formed.

4. On a lightly floured surface, lay the dough down and knead for 8 minutes. Place the dough in a small metal bowl that has been coated with additional garlic olive oil. Circle the dough around the bowl until it has been completely coated in oil. Place in the oven, on warm, for an hour.

5. In a separate bowl, combine the sesame seeds, Parmesan Cheese, garlic and onion powder and crushed rosemary.

6. Remove the dough from the oven and beat around a little. Divide it into 40 pieces. Roll each piece into a ball.

7. Sprinkle the bottom of a tube pan with 1/3 of the sesame seed mixture. Place about twenty in the pan, you want to completely cover the bottom spreading them out as much as necessary. After the bottom layer has been laid out, top with another third of the sesame seed mixture. Place the remaining dough on top of the first layer in similar fashion. Finish the bread by sprinkling the remaining sesame mixture on top. Cover and place back in the warm oven for 30 minutes.

8. Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Bake for 35 minutes. Cool for ten minutes and then place on a wire rack. Prepare soup for dipping.

Listener is not something I thought I would ever like. Vocalist Dan Smith dubs their brand of spoken word over a bed of acoustic instrumentation as “talk music” because that’s exactly what is. But the heart and soul that Dan puts into his performance and the southern growl of urgency with which he presents it has won me over. Here is a recent video of their song “You Were a House on Fire.” It is from a stop at Livemusic’s Social Club in August.

On the other end of the spectrum is Australia’s Clowns. Fast, furious and full throttle “Repeat After Me” is the song that will pull your snuggie over your eyes and beat the piss out of you in the back of a dark club. If you’re lucky, it might help you up when it’s done, but I kind of doubt it.

Clowns-Repeat After Me by write.click.cook.listen

Light FM is familiar to you. You’ve probably listened to them while watching episodes of Gossip Girl, The Hills, How I Met Your Mother, One Tree Hill or Jersey Shore without even knowing it. Maybe you also caught them on the big screen in Shrek IV.  You’ve walked by clubs as they’ve opened for the National, Ra Ra Riot, Billy Corgan and Grandaddy. Maybe you worked with them at Whole Foods (I did). See, you know Light FM. And if you still insist you don’t, let me introduce you.

Light FM-Mercy by write.click.cook.listen