THIS MONTH'S CHEF: BOB WISEMAN

Bob Wiseman loves his food dehydrator so much that he wrote a song about it. He is also, I was told, an avid sprouter. So in my quest to wrest away the secret recipes of our local music stahhhs, I call up Bob and arrange a sprouting workshop.

His place is in the middle of being turned into a recording studio, so Friday afternoon he comes over chez moi. He takes a look at my kitchen, and decides that we need something to eat with the sprouts. Off we go to the Price Chopper, talking many m.p.h. all the while. I confirm that I've got chickpeas, olive oil, and cornmeal at home. He says he can bring rice paper wraps the next day, and we load up my green canvas shopping bag with everything else we'll need. We are making Pink Polenta, Vietnamese-style Fresh Rolls, and chickpea sprouts.

We're making things that need a lot of prep time, so we get the first steps out of the way on Friday, and Bob comes back Saturday for cooking, eating, and anecdotes. Much Can-rock gossip was shared; we swapped recipes and cooking tips, and Bob told me all about how great sprouts are. Sprouts, it seems, are absolutely concentrated goodness-of-vegetables. You fool the seed or bean into thinking you're going to plant it, so it erupts into super-nutrition state. 'œIt's like waking the mummy!'? says Bob.

Sprouting chickpeas turns out to be pretty simple '” it's a matter of daily soakings and waiting. But as my housemates and I agree that the finished result tastes like, well, mummy-flesh, I'd probably better share with y'all the recipes for Pink Polenta and Eggplant Fresh Rolls, both smashing successes in the field of vegan finger food.

Pink Polenta
Any bag of cornmeal you buy in the store will have polenta instructions on the side. Make it pink with beets! Boil a few cut-up beets till they're mushy, blender up the beets in the cooking water, and use this as some/most of the water in the polenta. Let the polenta sit overnight, then bake (or fry) slices of it the next day. Extra-tasty with that melty soy cheese on top.

Eggplant and Tofu Fresh Rolls:
The first day, we sliced up a pound of firm tofu and left it to soak in a baking tray in a mix of about 1/3 cup ketchup, 1/2 cup olive oil, and a cup of coffee. That night I baked the tofu, sauce and all, for about half an hour at 400°, then turned off the oven and left the tofu in there to slowly cook overnight. Come Saturday morning, we had tofu steaks, brown and chewy. Bob cooked some rice noodles. We opened a jar of marinated eggplant, and then went to work on the fresh rolls.

Making my own fresh rolls had always kind of intimidated me, but, 'œI will show you the secret!'? said Bob, and indeed he did. He filled a large pot with very warm water, and put a couple of dry rice paper sheets in it to moisten. The secret, you see, is to use two sheets at once; this prevents ripping, and makes the roll more substantial. It takes a minute or two for the rice paper to be ready. (It's faster with warmer water, but lukewarm will do.) Bob took the rice paper sheets out and laid them down on the counter. In the very middle of the circle of rice paper, he dolloped a pinch of rice noodles, a slice of tofu steak, and a few pieces of oily marinated eggplant. (Delicious, and very cheap from the supermarket.) He then showed me how to roll it up. Bob, my capable assistant ,Scott, and I made lots of little fresh rolls till the tofu ran out. The rolls looked like they might fall apart, but after a few minutes the rice paper had kind of set, holding everything in place.

Wary of praise and fame, Bob Wiseman will nonetheless admit to being a genius cook. No, really. He said so. And he's right. We'll have to agree to disagree on the sprouts.

ROCK'N'ROLL COOKING SHOW WILL BE A MONTHLY COLUMN BY EMILY ZIMMERMAN, FEATURING KITCHEN CONCOCTIONS BY TORONTO MUSICAL PERSONALITIES. TO PARTICIPATE, EMAIL EMILY@WAVELENGTHTORONTO.COM