Cooking Up a Storm

Storm Large improvises in the kitchen

The sexy singer who belted out rock anthems on the reality TV show “Rock Star: Supernova,” and wrote and starred in her autobiographical one-woman show, cannot color inside the lines.

“I’m kind of a dork — I don’t really measure anything,” says Storm Large, pouring water from a teakettle into a pan of crackling-hot quinoa grains. “I probably should.”

Instead, she riffs. Yams — one of her favorite vegetables — are simmered with shallots until soft, then puréed with blood orange juice. “God was drunk when he made blood oranges. And Megan Fox,” she says appreciatively, squeezing the fruit and watching its vermilion-colored juice drip into a bowl.

Minutes later she opens the blender jar, bends to smell the deep auburn soup, spoons out a taste and pauses to consider her creation. “It’s gonna be weird. It’s gonna be awesome. No — you’re gonna thank me.”

She moves to the stove to tend to Part II of the midday meal, a pan of simmering quinoa, cooked grains she will toss with roasted brussels sprouts and carrots, turkey bacon and mushrooms, and a garlicky vinaigrette. As Edith Piaf’s voice soars through the kitchen speakers, Large grabs a bottle of Bragg Liquid Aminos and pours a glug into the vinegar-oil mixture. The flavor booster, popular with vegetarians, adds a nice, fat mouth feel, she says, “like soy sauce but better for you.”

The 6-foot singer, barefoot and in yoga pants and a T-shirt, says she’s addicted to organic vegetables, loves salads and currently has a thing for Green & Black’s bittersweet chocolate. She started cooking school in Portland before being pulled away by a regular gig at Dante’s nightclub. So it makes sense that in her bungalow kitchen, shallots — not onions — sit on her cutting board, real (organic) butter is in the refrigerator, and black lava sea salt and reduced balsamic vinegar sit on the shelf. “I always add vinegar (to roasted vegetables) because it totally brings out the bright.”

There’s not a recipe in sight — just a few nice knives, some heavy-bottomed saucepans, lots of fresh vegetables.

That’s really all she needs.

Good ingredients. An appetite. And her imagination.

Read more at OregonLive.com

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