Moonrise Kingdom and Corn-on-the-Cob with Harissa Butter and Cojita

I love quirky things.  I love quirky and eccentric stores and shops, humorous quirky books, and almost any movie by Wes Anderson.

Moonrise Kingdom is the August Food ‘n Flix feature, hosted by Literature and Limes.  You can read the announcement post here .

Quirky characters abound here from the dysfunctional family that Suzy wants to escape to the pseudo scout camp/military encampment that really is Sam’s only home.  This film is so hard to categorize, except just to say it’s typical Wes Anderson.

Although you might have to use binoculars to spot some of the food in the film, I was surprised by what I found:

• Breakfast (toast and bacon) at Summer’s End
• Canned goods in pantry (homemade)
• Breakfast at the Camp Ivanhoe (bacon, bread, eggs) 
• Coffee (at police station)
• Ten pounds of sundry (stolen goods from Ivanhoe)
• Sandwich at police station (switchboard operator)
• Chocolate cake in the Billingsley kitchen
• Brandy
• Tang
• Camp out dinner (nicely set table but food indistinguishable)
• Fried fish
• Dinner at the Bishop’s–casserole (probably)
• Corn on the cob
• Bottle of wine, an axe and a tree to chop down
• Grilled cheese, sausage, milk and beer
• Wheat-paste
• Gumballs
• Biscuits and sausages on the grill at camp
• Coffee and sandwiches at the shelter
• Extraordinary corn harvest

I almost made grilled cheese and sausages from the “home cooked” meal Captain Sharp makes for Sam.   Instead, I went with plain old grilled corn-on-the cob with harissa butter and cojita.   Corn shows up a couple of times in the film and especially at the ending when our narrator reminds the audience of an “extraordinary harvest” while standing in a corn field.

There’s no recipe for this dish.   Shuck and wash the corn, slather with olive oil and ground pepper, grill until done.

Remove from grill and top with harissa butter.   (I took about 4 T. of softened butter and stirred in some homemade harrissa that I recently canned from our tomato harvest.)

Homemade harissa on the left. Harissa butter on the right.

I then added some cojita sprinkles and more black pepper.

The harissa butter was a hit and we also topped some grilled chicken with it.

As a total aside, I had a nostalgic experience with Noye’s Fludde, the Benjamin Britten one-act opera, featured in the film.  I kept thinking I had seen this production somewhere.   After a call from my sister, it was confirmed.  Her college choral group performed it, however I don’t think they had as inventive of costumes.   I told her she must see the film but I’m not sure she will appreciate the quirkiness.  🙂

For September, Wendy from A Day in the Life on the Farm is hosting  Words on Bathroom Walls.    Please grab a seat, stream the film and join us.