cooks profile
ROCKIN’ IN THE KITCHEN
Incline Village resident Cindy Coverdale compiles recipes from intriguing subjects.
WRITTEN BY MARNIE MCARTHUR
PHOTOS BY JACI GOODMAN
“You have to have music! You have to have fun!” says Cindy Coverdale.
The wife of legendary rock musician David Coverdale lists the following ingredients for a good life: family, friends, food, fitness, and music, of course! A cookbook author (Food That Rocks with food writer Margie Lapanja); a business owner (Incline Village’s Vertical Fitness); and mom to Jasper, a high-school sophomore, Coverdale exudes a positive energy that’s contagious.
Everyday cooking is a thing of the past in the Coverdales’ Incline Village home, but the couple has many friends in the music business who know their way around a kitchen. David Coverdale is a former member of Deep Purple and the creator/singer/songwriter of the international band Whitesnake. So it was no surprise that Cindy Coverdale said, “Yes!” when Lapanja presented the idea to write a rockin’ fun cookbook together.
“Both of us needed to be inspired to be in the kitchen,” Coverdale says.
“We wanted something to flip through that’s fun to read while you’re cooking,” Lapanja adds.
Cookbook Congregation
Together they sent hundreds of requests and assembled a contributor’s list of some 68 musicians, rockers who owned restaurants, music writers, and chefs. Food That Rocks was published in 2004 by Conari Press.
The book is arranged in the format of a rock concert with recipes, notes, and anecdotes presented in the musicians’ voices — some thoughtful, some wacky. The personalities pop off the page.
“Most of the musicians I’ve met over the years do cook,” Coverdale says. “Cooking brings out their creative sides and helps them relax.”
Adrian Vandenberg, a good friend and former Whitesnake guitarist of long standing, sometimes visits the Coverdales from his home in the Netherlands.
“When he was working with David, we used to have cooking contests,” Coverdale says. “Now I beg him to prepare his signature ‘Sizzling Penne & Double Truffle’ Blues Gratin.”
Rock ‘n’ Roll Food
Food That Rocks is a crash course in rock ‘n’ roll history and the food rockers love. Familiar names such as Patti LaBelle, Shania Twain, Brian May, Bob Weir, David Coverdale (of course!), Mike Love of the Beach Boys (another Incline Village local), and Reno DJ Max Volume of KOZZ-FM are all part of the mix.
Many outstanding session musicians, a lot of them British, who aren’t household names but have worked with well-known bands and artists that everyone knows, make appearances in the book. Read while you cook, Coverdale says. You’ll learn a lot and make really good meals in the process.
“Every recipe in the book is someone’s favorite,” Coverdale says.
Some recipes come from “mums” and grandmas while others are from famous restaurants owned by rockers. There are also suggestions of music to groove with while cooking.
Order a copy of Food That Rocks from Foodthatrocks.com and the authors will donate a portion of the proceeds to Freedom From Hunger (Freedomfromhunger.org).
Though Lapanja has written several cookbooks, “This one was a challenge and an adventure in faith,” says the energetic writer and mother of 17-year-old Lila Lapanja, a member of the U.S. Ski Team and an aspiring Olympian.
To sum up the collaborative project, Coverdale says, “It was a wild adventure. And we still like each other!”
Freelance writer Marnie McArthur loves to have fun with food, music, and friends. She had great fun flipping through the pages of rock ‘n’ roll history and chatting with the two vibrant women who created Food That Rocks!
RECIPES
Mama’s Ceviche
(Recipe from Food That Rocks, by Margie Lapanja and Cindy Coverdale. Courtesy of Marco Mendoza, past member of Whitesnake, who says, “This goes very well with Soulful Shrimp Soup. This recipe has been in the family for generations. It was passed on to me by my mom, H.C. Ridley.” Serves 4)
2 pounds white fish, such as sole or red snapper (you can also use shrimp, lobster, crab, and scallops if you like the combo)
Lemon juice, freshly squeezed (enough to completely cover fish)
4 tomatoes, chopped
6 to 7 chiles (Mom prefers canned jalapeños), chopped
1 bunch green onions, chopped
1 bunch cilantro, chopped
7 garlic cloves, crushed and chopped
3 avocados, chopped
2 teaspoons oregano
Salt and pepper to taste
Cut fish into small pieces and place in medium-size bowl. Then pour lemon juice over fish (cover fish completely). Set aside and let fish marinate in lemon juice for about 1 hour or until it changes to a white color. While waiting for the fish, chop tomatoes, chiles, onions, cilantro, garlic, and avocado (you will add avocado just before serving). Drain lemon juice from fish, add all ingredients, including oregano and salt and pepper to taste, and mix. Each serving should be placed on a chilled leaf of lettuce. Presto ceviche! Enjoy! Add Tapatio hot sauce (usually found in the international food section of the grocery store) if you like to spice it up even more.
The “Sizzling Penne & Double Truffle” Blues Gratin
(Recipe from Food That Rocks, by Margie Lapanja and Cindy Coverdale, Conari Press, an imprint of Red Wheel/Weiser LLC, 2004. A favorite of Cindy Coverdale, from Adrian Vandenberg, former long-standing Whitesnake guitarist. Serves 6)
7 ounces macaroni, uncooked
2¼ cups double or heavy cream
1 one-ounce bottled truffle, finely diced with its juice
½ cup Gruyere cheese, grated, divided
Pinch grated nutmeg
Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
2 tablespoons butter, for greasing the dish
Cook the macaroni al dente and preheat the broiler for 10 minutes. To make sauce, pour cream into a saucepan set over low heat and reduce by half, until it covers back of a spoon. Add truffle with its juice and cook for another 2 or 3 minutes. Still over low heat, gently stir in macaroni and half of Gruyere. Season to taste with nutmeg, salt, and pepper and give macaroni another stir. Grease a gratin dish with butter and pour in macaroni mixture. Sprinkle rest of Gruyere over top. Place dish under hot broiler until bubbling and golden. Serve piping hot!
Soulful Shrimp Soup
(Recipe from Food That Rocks, by Margie Lapanja and Cindy Coverdale, Conari Press, an imprint of Red Wheel/Weiser LLC, 2004. A favorite recipe of Cindy and David Coverdale, courtesy of family friend Laura Velasco, “who has cooked many a fine meal for us in our home. It is absolutely delicious and fresh tasting and goes very well with Mama’s Ceviche.” Serves 2)
1 pound large, uncooked shrimp, peeled and deveined
2 tomatoes, chopped
½ cucumber, peeled and chopped
½ avocado, chopped
4 tablespoons ketchup
3 tablespoons cilantro, finely chopped
2 tablespoons onion, chopped
Juice of ½ lime
Prepare shrimp and set aside. Combine tomatoes, cucumber, avocado, ketchup,
cilantro, onion, and lime juice in a bowl and set aside.
Purée
1 tomato
2 tablespoons onion
3 sprigs cilantro
2 cups water
¾ teaspoon salt
To make puree, combine all ingredients in a blender and blend until smooth. Transfer to a saucepan. Add shrimp and heat over moderate heat until boiling. Remove from heat and add remaining ingredients. Enjoy!
My Mum’s Blackberry Purée
(Recipe from Food That Rocks, by Margie Lapanja and Cindy Coverdale, Conari Press, an imprint of Red Wheel/Weiser LLC, 2004. Courtesy of Brian May (one of the creative forces behind the supergroup Queen). From May: “This is something very simple, yet to me, even now that I am (nearly) grown up, is still the most delicious substance known to man (and vegetarian, of course).” Warning: the blackberries stain everything they touch (wear a napkin) and it’s acidic (go gently if your stomach is sensitive). But the flavor — it’s a killer — is guaranteed to blast your taste buds into outer space! Makes 2 “luxury” helpings)
10 cups luscious, fat blackberries
1 teaspoon water
2 to 3 tablespoons sugar
2 Bramley apples, peeled and chopped (optional)
First, pick the blackberries while they are at their best, in late summer. Only use the ones that are ready to be picked (these are black all over and come off the plant with only a gentle pull). Wear covering on the hands and arms. The bramble bushes are vicious! About 200 luscious, fat berries is a good number to make enough purée for two luxury helpings, or to store in the fridge, to sip at for treats over a week or so.
Put the blackberries in a pan with a teaspoon of water to get them started, and 2 or 3 tablespoons sugar (this is where it gets naughty), though you can adjust this amount of sweetening to taste.
Gently bring to boiling point, stirring with a wooden spoon (that you don’t mind getting stained dark purple). Turn the flame to low and keep stirring and squashing the berries until the liquid becomes an even paste, not longer than 5 minutes or so, because vitamin C doesn’t survive long at 212 degrees F.
Now if you have a couple of freshly scrumped Bramley cooking apples, they could be chopped up and put in the pan with the berries, for an extra tang. But blackberries on their own give the purest flavor. Remove the pan from the heat and pour into a metal sieve, over a glass or china bowl. Use the wooden spoon to churn the paste around, squashing the juice through and leaving the seeds behind.
The pure, red elixir can now be eaten or put in the fridge. It tastes really fabulous poured over ice cream, or the “Junket” my mum used to make (a kind of vanilla blancmange), or as a sauce for fresh fruits, or just spooned slowly into the mouth as a wicked pleasure. My daughter also enjoys the purée frozen into a popsicle.
