Posted on 08.08.11

Lunch-n-Learn 6: Sopes and GarageBand

by Jeff Livorsi

Mightybytes’ sixth Lunch-n-Learn fused Mexican street foods with songwriting. It brought color, taste, and sound to our weekly series.

Cesar prepared sopes, one of Mexico’s best known street foods. Filled with different ingredients and garnishes, sopes are easily eaten by hand. This time, Cesar prepared a guajillo and an ancho salsa, which you can learn how to make using the recipes at the end of this post. Conveniently, that allowed James to dive into some hands-on magic by showing our team how to use digital music-making software.

The majority of the ingredients were purchased from the Andersonville Farmer’s Market: crimini mushrooms (for the filling), tomatoes, onions, garlic, and fresh mozzarella. While we watched Cesar and Joy fry up the sopes James got ready for his presentation on GarageBand. When it was time to eat James began to take us on a musical journey. Here’s what went down…

Learn: Loop-based Music Production with GarageBand

James began by playing examples of the different pre-recorded sound and rhythm loops available in the program.  To our surprise the main percussion loop to Rihanna’s hit song “Umbrella” was one of the default loops available to all GarageBand users. James went on to show us how to modify the musical key, speed, and duration of the available sounds loops.

Next, using his guitar and midi keyboard with an Mbox, James walked us through how to import our own sounds and use GarageBand’s loops to help us create a song. Here’s what we learned:

• How real musicians can quickly capture ideas and turn them into real songs.
• Basic GarageBand techniques. James showed us the basics of how software instruments and other tools work inside GarageBand.
• Showed us how to construct a song using loops and a melody that Joy composed on the keyboard.

This was only part 1 of our GarageBand tutorial, however. Next week we will take the ideas we generated and use the software to create a full song.

Do we forecast a brand new Mightybytes theme song in our future?

Lunch: Sopes & Salsas

Here’s the skinny on Cesar’s culinary creations.

Guajillo Salsa

• 2 medium tomatoes
• 1 garlic clove
• 1 teaspoon of salt
• ½ a white onion
• 2 fresh serranos
• 1 large guajillo pepper

In the broiler, place the 2 tomatoes and garlic clove on high. Broil until the skins blacken and the flesh softens. Split the guajillo pepper, remove the seeds, vein and stem, and place on a comal on medium-low heat or dry hot pan, turning so that it browns but doesn’t char. Remove from the broiler and let cool.

In a blender, place the garlic clove, the onion, salt, the serranos and the guajillo skin. Add a third of a cup of water. Blend until completely smooth.  Next, remove and discard the charred skins from the tomatoes and place in the blender. Pulse the mixture until you obtain a smooth consistency without liquifying the salsa. Add more salt to taste. This keeps for about a week refrigerated and can be made spicier by increasing the number of serranos.

Ancho Salsa

• 2 medium tomatoes
• ½ a white onion
• 1 garlic clove
• 1 teaspoon of salt
• 6 ancho chilies

Set the broiler on medium or high, and place the 2 tomatoes and garlic clove on a pan or tray. Broil until the skins blacken and the flesh goes soft. Remove from the broiler and let cool. Slice the ancho peppers down the middle, remove the seeds, the vein and stems, and place on a comal or dry hot pan on medium heat, turning so that it browns but doesn’t char or smoke. If there are any burnt spots, rinse under the tap.

In a blender, place the garlic clove, the onion, salt, and the ancho peppers. Add a third of a cup of water. Blend until completely smooth. Next, remove and discard the charred skins from the tomatoes and place in the blender. Pulse the mixture until you obtain a smooth consistency without liquifying the salsa. Add more salt to taste. This keeps for a week refrigerated.

Sopes

You can buy pre-made sopes at any Mexican grocer, but you can also make them from scratch. Cesar used two fillings: refried beans and mushrooms. To prepare, lightly fry the sopes in vegetable oil, spread with filling and let your guests garnish with salsa, cilantro, onion or epazote.

Be sure to check back next week to see what we’ve cooked up for lunch and to discover if we can indeed create an entire song using only GarageBand and our personal musical abilities.

Lunch-N-Learn 7