Quite a few years ago, David and I took a feature film to the Independent Feature Film Market in NYC. Good times! Wandering around the area of New York that surrounds the Angelika, watching strange films during the day. Seeing my film at the Angelika. It’s an ideal week, in a lot of ways. Interesting, exciting, but strangely discouraging as well. I know, it’s a market, it says so right there in the title, but it was depressing that the entire focus of everybody’s frantic energy was selling selling selling. We had very few conversations about the films themselves – about their ideas or aesthetics. It felt like the death of thoughtful American independent film. The quality of the films suffered for it – they were made to be sold. How many knock-off Tarantino films can you sit through (when honestly his films aren’t that original in the first place, are they?) Sorry, I can get very boring and whiny on the subject of American Indies – I’m such a cranky old lady. As I was saying, it was a delightful week, in many ways. Days spent wandering around New York with David are always good days. One evening, physically and emotionally tuckered out, we wandered into a bar that used to be across the street from the Angelika. Match. It was nice inside, warm and glowy. We ordered red wine, hummus and french fries. Rarely has a meal seemed so perfect. Sometimes you don’t know what you’re in the mood for, but when you eat it you feel blissful, and you remember it long afterwards. Since then, it’s become a tradition, when we spend a day in the city, we do a lot of wandering and walking, and we always find a place to have red wine, hummus, and french fries.

Yesterday I got home from work quite tired, and we decided to have a simple meal – so I oven roasted some fries, and made some roasted beet hummus with smoked paprika, cumin, lime and fresh basil, and we had a big salad of farm greens, apples, hazelnuts and goat cheese. Perfect.

Here’s The Selecter and Dave Barker with What a Confusion.

1 medium-sized beet, grated
1 T olive oil
1 t balsamic

2 cloves garlic
1 can chickpeas, rinsed and drained
1 t smoked paprika
1/2 t cumin
juice of half a lime
pinch cayenne
3 T olive oil
small handful fresh basil
salt & pepper
water

Peel the beet and grate it. Preheat the oven to 425. Stir the olive oil and balsamic into the grated beet, and spread it in an even layer on a small baking tray. Cut a slice in the garlic cloves, and put them on the tray as well. Roast the beets and olives for 15 – 20 minutes, till the beets are starting to get dark and smell like burnt sugar, and the garlic cloves are brown on the outside and soft on the inside.

Transfer the beets and garlic to a blender. Add the chickpeas, spices, olive oil and lime juice. Process till smooth. Add enough water to make it just as thin and smooth as you like it. I tend to splash in a little more olive oil as well, at this point. Season with salt and pepper.