Things I’m looking forward to tumblr discovering to when a Frankenstein book club eventually happens:
-Frankenstein not being a doctor -Frankenstein is just a huge alchemy dork -Frankenstein showed up at a fancy German university at age 17 carrying his alchemy books and wearing his “ASK ME ABOUT ALCHEMY” t-shirt and riding his car with a “HONK IF YOU LOVE CORNELIUS AGRIPPA” bumper sticker on it and his philosophy professor took one look at him and IMMEDIATELY told him to fuck off -Frankenstein went home in a huff mumbling about professor Krempe’s stupid voice and stupid face and stupid philosophy degree under his breath -the surprise incest subplot
Daily Dracula really reminds me of the good old days of the internet when I was in a yahoo group with a bunch of other Cary Grant fans and I would get a daily digest full of flailing emails when one of us watched one of his films for the first time or found a copy of an out of print rarity.
I’ve been threatening to make a vegetarian version of our mutual friend Jonathan’s favorite Hungarian dish for days now and today I finally did it. My wife and I are vegetarians and another member of our household is allergic to dairy and eggs, plus my wife doesn’t like sour cream in any way shape or form. So, some modifications to the recipes posted by @cinemaocdand@algorizmi(XandX) were in order. After studying the aforementioned recipes, I googled additional recipes and found a really good looking one by a Hungarian YouTuber that inspired some of my method. Thanks to @dramatic-dolphin (X) I knew that Hungarian chicken paprikash is made with sweet paprika and even if hot paprika is added, it’s still not very hot. I ended up using the recipe from @algorizmi because it didn’t require the sour cream to be cooked in with the rest of the dish at any point because I intended to separate the pot into two batches at the last minute, one of which would receive sour cream and one of which would remain plain. My household was pleased with the results!
Second photo shows prepped ingredients. Third photo shows a serving bowl of the paprikash without sour cream and a plated serving of the paprikash with sour cream over angel hair pasta.
3 lbs/3 blocks of firm tofu, pressed, cubed, and air fried or pan fried till lightly golden brown
1 huge onion, diced
2 large red bell peppers, diced
¼ c. paprika (the store didn’t have Hungarian so I made do with store-brand)
2 c. water + 1 Tbs. Better Than Bouillon Veggie stock base
2.5 Tbs. vegan butter
2 Tbs. flour
Kite Hill vegan sour cream
lemon juice
parsley (from my garden) for garnish
Press each tofu block in a tofu press or under a bowl/pot of water in a colander for at least 15 minutes– trust me, this step makes all the difference in the world! You could skip it but you shouldn’t, so start early because prepping the tofu is going to take a while. Pat dry with a clean towel then cut in cubes. Fry at 450F in an air fryer on one side for 10 min, flip then do same for 3. If you don’t have an air fryer, pan fry till lightly golden (and god rest your soul).
Sautee onion in butter till soft and just starting to brown. Add paprika and flour, a couple glubs of olive oil if it seems too dry, and stir over moderate heat for a minute or two.
Add water/stock by degrees, stirring till it’s smooth. The recipe suggested mushrooms as a variation. I didn’t have mushrooms plus my wife doesn’t like their texture, but I remembered I had a huge container of porcini powder so I added about a tablespoon of that for extra flavor.
Stir in gently tofu and peppers, along with a hearty amount of black pepper and about 2 tsp salt and simmer for 30-45 minutes.
Separate out the portion without sour cream. Let the pot cool just a tad then stir in a few dashes of lemon juice and about half the container of sour cream to the rest.
Pour over noodles, garnish with parsley, and serve. (I wanted to make traditional Hungarian dumplings to serve with it but eggs seem to be a truly crucial ingredient, which our allergic family member can’t eat). So I broke up a pound of dried angel hair pasta into short lengths and served the paprikash with pasta instead.
Notes:The Kite Hill vegan sour cream thinned the sauce down more than I would ideally have wanted. If I make this again I will blend a little flour in with the sour cream, thin it a bit with the sauce, then add to the pot by degrees and simmer on very low heat till it all thickens. You need to add flour to the sour cream to stabilize it so it doesn’t curdle (break) when heated through– or at least, that’s true for dairy sour cream. TBH I don’t use enough vegan sour cream to really know what its properties are. I just know a little extra flour before you heat it through won’t hurt it at all. The porcini mushroom powder probably made the sauce look less brightly red than it should be. But I did love the extra flavor.
I would do exactly the same thing as Jonathan harker and I know that about myself. Like ok, spooky castle, locals warning me against it, absolutely warning signs! That being said, traveling all the way back to England after I JUST got promoted and telling my boss that I didn’t do this really lucrative job because “the vibes were weird” would honestly be worse than getting eaten by a vampire. You can only die once but humiliation is Forever
I was so confused during today’s Drac Daily about this part in particular
Because that??? Bro, that ain’t Hamlet.
I went digging and found someone attempting to explain it:
If it isreferencing this scene then it’s the part in the play where Hamlet says he’s going to throw everything off the table of his mind and focus only on revenge (this does…not work out for him).
BUT THEN
SO BASICALLY
B A S I C A L L Y
Stoker’s dumb acting friend MISQUOTED SHAKESPEARE loudly and often enough that it wound up in this novel????????
I wanna add some potential illumination to this:
as a bunch of folks in the notes have already mentioned, Stoker and Irving were quite close. Quite Close, even. Irving was famous for championing non-traditional relationship & family structures, and Stoker became good friends with Oscar Wilde after the latter’s conviction & imprisonment. Stoker was… almost certainly not straight, I can say that much.
The other thing, though, that contemporary audiences were apparently quite well aware of, is that the description we get of Dracula himself matches almost exactly the appearance of Henry Irving.
What I’m saying is, if this book smacks of “teen girl’s Forbidden Romance self-insert fanfic,” it isn’t just some random Strong Vampire Man menacing gothic heroine Jonathan Harker. It’s a Strong Vampire Man who looks exactly like Bram Stoker’s… Very Good Friend.
I have no idea what Dracula’s purpose is leaving the castle but I choose to believe that he was holding those letters in his mouth like a dog while he shimmied down the wall and he’s just off to the post office
Dracula, climbing the walls like a lizard: Jonathan my good human friend Jonathan, on a scale of 1-10 how would you rate my normal human behavior?
Jonathan, clutching a crucifix and shaking like a wet rabbit: *holds up 10 card*
Dracula: Thank you human friend Jonathan, I expected as much, as I am also a normal human. Please excuse me I must take this squirming sack to the locked wing for normal reasons, write your friends some letters about how happy and not about to be eaten you are while I’m gone.
In the light of Dracula’s three wives propably being more his one (1) wife and 2 daughters I propose he is not leaving for London for nefarious purpose, but because of a bad divorce
The most important reminder I’ve gotten from Dracula Daily is that media, especially classic literature, can be much more enjoyable when there’s no pressure to get through it as fast as possible.
In high school, I had to squeeze time into my busy homework schedule to skim through chapters and chapters of assigned reading each night. But the only thing I got out of those books was good grades, and that really damaged my relationship with reading for fun.
I’m not a fan of binge watching, but I always feel pressured to get through entire seasons of TV shows the day they’re released just to avoid spoilers or be the first person to post about a particular observation or headcanon.
It makes me sad that the latest trends and fandoms and memes are only relevant for a short time before they’re deemed dead and everyone has moved onto the next big thing that will also lose its sparkle in a span of weeks.
In a society where we’re encouraged to rush through everything, even things that are meant to be fun, it’s nice to have one thing like this to enjoy in small doses over a longer period of time.
The second most important reminder I’ve gotten from Dracula Daily is that Dracula has a mustache.
I like to think the count didn’t needhis solicitor to extend his stay and this wasn’t part of the original plan but when he picked Jon up in the caléche he was just like
