Monday, July 6, 2009

Toronzo Cannon shares his mommas recipe for Sock It To Me Cake




CAKE INGREDIENTS
3 cups all purpose flour
¼ teaspoon baking soda
¼ teaspoon salt
1 cup shortening or butter
2 cups white sugar
6 eggs
1 cup sour cream
1 teaspoon vanilla

FILLING INGREDIENTS
3 tablespoons of the dry cake mix above
3 tablespoons ground cinnamon
4 tablespoons brown sugar
4 ounces of chopped pecans

GLAZE INGREDIENTS
1 cup confectioner’s sugar
¼ teaspoon vanilla
1 tablespoon milk

DIRECTIONS
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray bundt pan with pan release spray or grease and flour pan. Sift the baking soda and flour together. Set aside 3 tablespoons of mix for filling.

Cream shortening and sugar with electric mixer set on medium. Add in the eggs one at a time, beating after each addition. Next, stir in the sour cream and the vanilla with a wooden spoon. Adjust the mixer to a low speed and add in the flour mixture a little at a time and beat until it is mixed well.

Fill bundt pan with half of batter. Mix up the filling ingredients and sprinkle into batter in pan. Add the rest of the batter over the filling.

Bake in preheated oven for approximately one hour. When a toothpick inserted into the middle comes out clean, take the cake out of the oven and let it rest in the pan for about 15 minutes. Then turn it out on to a wire rack to cool completely.

When it is cool, mix up the glaze and drizzle over cake.

Growing up in the shadows Chicago's blues mecca, Theresa's Lounge, had a lasting effect on Toronzo Cannon. As a kid, Toronzo would listen to the raw, soulful sounds of legends like Junior Wells, Buddy Guy and Muddy Waters. "It wasn't just the music that got me, but the effect on the people. I knew right then, that was what I was gonna do." These experiences led him to pick up his first guitar as a teenager and begin to learn to sing and play the sounds he heard. Inspired by the three Kings (Freddie, B.B. and Albert), a little Hendrix and some 70's R&B/Soul, Toronzo soon developed his own sound. "If I wasn’t gigging I was hitting every jam session I could find. I couldn’t get enough." It was during this time that he developed his own powerful, gospel-flavored vocal style and electrifying stage presence.


After playing rhythm guitar with local artists like Wayne Baker Brooks and Joanna Connor, Toronzo decided to form his own band, The Cannonball Express. He immediately was in demand, playing some of Chicago’s greatest blues venues like Buddy Guy’s Legends, Kingston Mines, B.L.U.E.S, and Blue Chicago as well as shows from Kentucky to Delaware and Iowa to Indiana. He also became a popular festival attraction, playing The Chicago Blues Festival and the 2008 San Jose Blues Festival with other local young guns Chico Banks and Mike Wheeler. Internationally, Toronzo has been flown into Latvia as a featured solo artist three times over the past few years.
The wide stylistic range on 2006’s MY WOMAN, Toronzo’s second recording as a front man, merely hints at the unpredictable, explosive nature of his live shows. Says Toronzo, "I like to bring that energy to the stage. It goes back to the shows I had spied on as a kid at Theresa’s. Those cats would play some smokin’ music and put on a great show at the same time.” Since the release of MY WOMAN, Toronzo and his band have been tearing up stages and exciting crowds from Chicago to the Balkans. At the core of Toronzo's appeal is his heartfelt love for the music and his respect for the audience. His feeling is if he doesn't leave them sweatin' and smilin', he hasn't done his job.

SO GET ON BOARD, TORONZO'S CANNONBALL EXPRESS HAS JUST BEGUN TO PICK UP STEAM, AND THERE'S NO END IN SIGHT!

If you want to see Toronzo perform in person, check out his myspace.com calendar

Booking Information:
1(773)744-0018
toronzocannon@mac.com or
toronzocannon@sbcglobal.net

Friday, July 3, 2009

Mississippi to Chicago Salmon Croquettes





"This was my Mother's favorite, original, quick meal recipe to be served with spaghetti & cole slaw "…Ramblin Rose Kelly


Here's Ramblin' Rose and Marty McCaw at
"Marty Gras 2008" (The keyboard player in the background is Al Woodley from the Pat Smillie Band)




Ingredients
1 can Pink Wild Alaskan Salmon (approx.15 oz.) or
2 cups of flaked, fresh cooked salmon
1/2 medium onion
1/2 medium bell pepper
1 clove garlic (Optional)
1 large egg
1/2 t. salt (to taste)
1/2 t. black pepper
1/2 t. cayenne pepper
1/2/t. paprika
1/2 C. White or Yellow corn meal
( Finely crushed cornflakes can be substituted for corn meal
Olive oil

Utensils
shallow Bowl
fork
wax paper
skillet or deep fryer

Procedures
Empty salmon into bowl, use fork to flake salmon apart into tiny pieces
Finely chop onion, bell pepper & garlic, then add to salmon
Add egg, salt, black pepper, cayenne pepper to salmon, mix & mash thoroughly
Form salmon patties by hand or use the rim of a glass, etc.
Spread corn meal on wax paper, sprinkle with paprika, then coat each pattie with corn meal
Fry in moderate amount of hot olive oil or spray entire pattie with PAM and Bake in 350o oven until golden brown

Makes 5 Patties (Um! Um! Yummy!)


Mississippi Mama Kelly served these croquettes as a meal with spaghetti
or Cole slaw but I sometimes make them smaller and serve them as appetizers with a little Cajun rémoulade sauce on the side. I make about 10 small patties or if it’s a party where there will be standing up eating, I make 20 little balls and serve on toothpicks or skewers

Rémoulade Ingredients

½ tsp Cajun spice mix
¼ tsp Cayenne
1 cup mayonnaise
3 tsp yellow mustard
1 tbsp pickle chopped fine

Just whip it up in a bowl and serve as a sauce for the patties or as a dip for the balls.

Thursday, July 2, 2009

Greens for Bluesmen





"Now I'm not a cook, but I do know this, All bluesmen love these greens!"…Carl "CC" Copeland


GREENS Ala CC
2 ham hocks
3 cloves garlic
1 large yellow onion
2 tbsp white vinegar or cider vinegar
3 lbs greens (any combination of collards, turnip greens and mustard greens)

Put hocks in large pot on stove and cover with 5 quarts of cold water
.Bring to a boil and then reduce heat to a simmer
Greens are usually grown in sandy soil and must be washed two or three times to remove all the grit
Cut away the thick stems and any yellow or damaged leaves.
Submerge the leaves in the cold water and swish them around let the sand settle to the bottom of the sink.
Gently remove the floating leaves and drain and clean out the sink. Repeat 3 times.
Roll the leaves four times and chop into strips about 1”
Add the clean, chopped greens on top of ham hocks
Cover pot and let simmer for at least 1 hour
Add a shot of white vinegar in the last half hour and serve
your greens with some corn bread to soak up the "likker"


Greens are good for you baby
They're full of calcium, potassium, iron and magnesium


**
Turn your left over collards into ‘Kickin’ Collards

1 tbsp oil
1 garlic clove, peeled and sliced in to at least 6 thin slices
1 cup ham stock
1 tsp crushed red pepper flakes
2 cups left over collards

Heat oil in sauté pan
Add garlic. When the garlic is just barely light brown on the edges immediately add stock and crushed red peppers. If you hesitate, the garlic will change flavor and ruin the whole dish...don't let the garlic get too brown! When stock is heated through add collards, stir. Cook for 2 minutes and they are revived, refreshed and ready to KICK

These greens can stand up to almost anything else you can put on the table.
They are so outstanding that they cannot be overpowered by anybody's BBQ sauce. And yet, they are sublime with the bland comfort foods like grits, mashed potatoes, beans or mac and cheese. Any they are good tomorrow too! So, as long as you are going to all this trouble, make a “whole mess o’ greens”

IF YOU END UP WITH TOO MUCH WATER IN THE POT AT THE END—SAVE IT! Simmer it down. It makes a good beginning for soup stock. Let it boil down to a quart or two and save until the next time you want to make jambalaya, split pea or navy bean soup.

According to folklore, collards served with black-eyed peas and hog jowl on New Year's Day promises a year of good luck and financial reward, hanging a fresh leaf over your door will ward off evil spirits, and a fresh leaf placed on the forehead promises to cure a headache.