With the earthiness of mushrooms, black pepper, unsweetened cocoa, and ground coffee, these darkly delicious “Doom Cakes” will help you access the duende of any experience. For me, the culinary experimentation that resulted in this wicked concoction was directly related to Strauss’s Zarathustra, Kubrick’s 2001, the 9th century law code of King Alfred the Great, and the Chicago sushi café that my friends Dave Krump and Will Bulka took me to just before a showing of our stage production, Predator: The Musical but just after I drank a 16 oz. Red Bull and a bottle of champagne—all the same doom-y inspirations that led me to write my prose poem, “Doom,” published in North American Review.
Doom Cakes
Ingredients:
- 2 T butter
- 2 T olive oil
- 1 T dry red wine
- 16 oz. sliced button mushrooms
- 2 large portobello mushrooms
- 8 oz. shiitake mushrooms
- 2 garlic cloves, minced
- 2 eggs, beaten
- 2 T grated Parmesan
- 1 T ground coffee
- 1 T unsweetened cocoa
- 2 T basil, chopped
- 2 T parsley, chopped
- 1 T black pepper, coarsely ground
- 1 t salt
- 0.5 cup panko
Preparation:
Preheat oven to 300 degrees Fahrenheit. Melt butter with oil and wine in heavy large skillet, medium high heat. Add mushrooms, cook for 14 minutes. Add garlic, cook 1 min. Put mixture in processor. Add eggs, parm, herbs, coffee, cocoa, salt and pepper. Process to batter consistency, adding olive oil for fluidity if necessary. Transfer to large bowl, mix in 0.5 cup panko. Divide into 8 portions, shape them into cakes. Coat cakes with panko. Place on rimmed baking sheet. Melt more butter with oil in large skillet over medium heat. Add cakes. Cook 5 min per side. Transfer to baking sheet. Place in oven to keep warm.
Serve savory with a pesto, pepper sauce, or molé, or as a dessert with a dark chocolate ice cream topped with a dark porter beer. Play Zarathustra. Wear creepy masks. Hire Tom Cruise to come over in an ape suit and threaten you with a large bone. Don’t let the whole scene go too far. Notice the recipe calls for no bloodshed. But if things go just right, maybe some kind of apocalyptic group sex thing could be a good way to end your night of Doom.
William Stobb lives and works in La Crosse, Wisconsin, where he is Assistant Professor of English at University of Wisconsin La Crosse, Chair of the Wisconsin Poet Laureate Commission, and Associate Editor of Conduit. His five published collections include Nervous Systems and Absentia from Penguin Books, and three chapbooks, including a collection of desert fragments, Artifact Eleven, published by the Black Rock Press at the University of Nevada. “Doom,” published in North American Review, is from a book-length manuscript entitled “You Are Still Alive,” which is under review at Penguin Books. The first notes for “Doom” were drafted in a pocket notebook during work on Predator: The Musical, which Stobb co-wrote with Will Bulka and David Krump. The show had successful runs in Chicago in 2011 and 2012 and remains available to thespians. Other pieces like “Doom” appear in recent issues of Passages North and Hobart. Stobb also has work in recent issues of Kenyon Review and Colorado Review.
Daniel Zender is a full time freelance illustrator and designer and an adjunct professor of art and design at Queens College in Queens, NY. He is also the founder of an ongoing zine series entitled Hydrochloric, featuring many different artists and their works. He is a recipient of the 2015 Art Directors Club Young Guns award.