***

Food painting artwork

30 x 30cm oil on linen. It should be fairly obvious that this painting is strongly influenced by Japanese printmaking. In case you're wondering, the greenery is mizuna and the water pattern is common to Japanese art.

By the way, all the food painting artwork is available to own in the Official Art Store.

***

The meatless meals recipe

There are four styles of ramen and all of them rely heavily on the quality of the stock to taste great. When you look into recipes for ramen stock it becomes pretty clear pretty quickly the extraordinary lengths many chefs go to for flavouring their stocks. Think multiple animal carcasses simmered for days! I'm yet to come across another vegetarian stock that looks worth trying or one that is so quick to make from scratch. I assure you, this tastes great, and I am pleased to prove (at least in my mind!) that it is not necessary to cook with fish/chicken/pork to make a succulent ramen stock. The key is to use TWO stocks. Go veges!

Vege stock:

85g (2 handfuls) of finely shredded chinese cabbage

1/2 onion, finely sliced

4 sticks celery, chopped

Put all these in a pot with 3 1/2 cups water and boil for 20 minutes with the lid on. Discard the veg at the end. This will make 3 cups of vege stock.

Shoyu ramen:

2 cups seaweed stock

3 cups vege stock

ramen noodles for two (140-160g dry)

1 teaspoon sherry

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon sugar

1 tablespoon soy sauce

Suggested toppings: 

1 spring onion, chopped

2 handfuls spinach

cracked black pepper to taste

bamboo shoots

2 hard boiled eggs in slices

tempeh slices

So begin by preparing the stocks and cooking the noodles so they are ready to eat.

Hard boil the eggs if you are having these as toppings and get all your toppings ready.

When the stocks are done, saute the ginger and garlic in a big pot in the sesame oil to take the edge off them.

Add both stocks and the sherry, salt, sugar and soy sauce to the big pot, mix and bring back to the boil.

Put the cooked noodles in the serving bowls.

Add the stock mix.

Add toppings and serve.

This recipe feeds 2.

Easy. Satisfying. Creamy. Delicate.

***

Food painting artwork

30 x 30cm acrylic on canvas. Inspiration? Stroganoff is meant to originally hail from Russia. While perusing all things Russian for clues to drop into the idea pot, I predictably came across pictures of the very photogenic Saint Basil's Cathedral (1555-61). Apparently it is a showcase of medieval Russian architecture. So they say, but try and tell me that this famous building does not resemble a clump of brightly coloured fairytale mushrooms? Go on. Is it just me?

By the way, all the food painting artwork is available to own in the Official Art Store.

***

The meatless meals recipe

My Russian friend is adamant that her country's cuisine is meat only. That does seem to be true for genuine and authentic Russian recipes. For dishes like this one and the Borscht of a few weeks months ago, that are in the spirit of Russian cuisine but with not a scrap of meat in sight, I say stand back and let the Russian flavours into the land of the vegetarians.


1 1/2 tablespoons butter
1/2 onion, diced
375g assorted mushrooms, in slices or chunks. Go wild & have fun with your mushroom varieties, or not, as you prefer
1 teaspoon flour
30ml red wine
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
1/3 cup sour cream
1/4 cup thick cream
1/4 cup strong stock
3/4 tablespoon fresh chopped parsley
2 tablespoons fresh chopped coriander - optional
In autumn while there is still fresh dill around, skip the coriander and use 3/4 tablespoon fresh chopped dill. It's quite special if you like the flavour of dill.

Melt the butter and saute the onion until soft.
Add the mushrooms and cook gently for 20 minutes to caramelise, stirring often.
Sprinkle flour on and keep stirring and cooking for a minute or three.
Add stock, red wine, cream, sour cream and mustard.
Simmer on low to meld the flavours and thicken for 5 minutes.
Stir in the herbs and adjust salt and pepper to taste.
Serve over pasta, rice, mashed potatoes or frites, depending on your preferred regional variation!

Makes a tasty meal for 2.

Warming. Spiced. Rich. Moreish.

***

Food painting artwork

30 x 30cm oil on linen. According to Wikipedia: "in contrast to European dragons that are considered evil, Chinese dragons traditionally symbolize potent and auspicious powers, particularly control over water, rainfall, and floods. The dragon is also a symbol of power, strength, and good luck." This particular dragon is symbolizing the potency and power of the hot and numbing sichuan pepper integral to this dish. Consider yourself warned!

By the way, all the food painting artwork is available to own in the Official Art Store.

***

The meatless meals recipe

Chunky. Satisfying. Creamy. Filling.

***

Food painting artwork

30 x 30cm oil on linen. This textural image of rolling creamy wintery hills is exactly the kind of landscape that is perfect for stuffing your belly with a warming carb-fest such as this dish. I love printmaking but often find myself wishing prints had a more textural element to them. You may detect a Japanese influence here. Think of this painting as a textural Japanesque print of winter hills.

By the way, all the food painting artwork is available to own in the Official Art Store.

***

The meatless meals recipe

Most pasta bakes that I've come across require you to cook all the ingredients and then bake them together in the sauce. I'm not a fan of this method. It's too fiddly for my liking, takes longer than it needs to and makes a mess of several pans. Surely it's possible to cook everything together in one go? After a flurry of experimentation, I can confirm that yes, it is indeed possible to make a wonderful pasta bake in one easy step:

400g penne or similar, uncooked

500g pumpkin, julienned

200g chard, finely sliced

1/2 cup or 55g slivered almond

3 cups stock

1/2 cup white wine

600ml cream or milk

1 cup mozzarella, grated

2 tablespoons flour

1/2 onion, chopped fine

Put all ingredients in a lidded oven dish and stir together well. 

Bake for 1 1/2 hours at 170 degrees C. 

Stir every 30 minutes.

Serve with parmesan cheese.

Fills 4.

Easy. Versatile. Thrifty. Fingerfood.

***

Food painting artwork

30 x 30cm acrylic on paper. The paper is no ordinary paper, it is textured Hahnemuhle 300 gsm 100% alpha cellulose which is acid-free fibre of vegetable origin.

In perusing the interwebs for inspiration of the parsnippy variety I wandered across this Irish saying which involves said vegetable; "Soft words butter no parsnips". It's supposed to mean that kind words will not put food on the table, hence the empty bowl in the painting. The full saying is, "soft words butter no parsnips but they won't harden the heart of the cabbage either", which I interpret as, although kind words won't put food in your bowl, they won't do any harm either. I'm happy to be corrected. Style-wise this piece is after Irish artist Anji Allen who specialises in the beauty of everyday objects, often related to food.

By the way, all the food painting artwork is available to own in the Official Art Store.

***

The meatless meals recipe

I first came across parsnip chips in Scotland. They arrived on my plate along with a vegetarian haggis that I was trying in a cafe. I think it might have been the wonderful 'Lost Sock Diner' of Edinburgh which was helpfully attached to a laundromat. A useful, no genius, setup. Anyway, back to the food. The haggis wasn't bad, really. The Scots have had hundreds of years perfecting cooking with oatmeal, turnip, salt, pepper and not a lot else in the vege department. However it was the sweetish, crunchy parsnip chips that really grabbed my attention. And then my friends mentioned how unimpressed they were as parsnips chips were so easy to make at home. What?! Of course I had to try making them myself.

Note well that like tomatoes, organic parsnips have a LOT more flavour than their supermarket cousins.

parsnips, chopped into 1cm thick matchsticks (400g equals a snack for 2)

olive oil

salt

pepper

Heat your oven to around 215 C. I have found 200 C to be too low - the chips end up oily and soggy - and 230 C to be too hot - the chips burn as they cook. You will have to experiment a little because all ovens vary.

Figure out how many trays you need by test-placing the chips on trays in a single layer only.

Remove the chips and lightly cover the tray with oil. Put it in the oven when the oven has reached temperature. Leave it long enough to heat the oil up. Clue - if it's smoking it's definitely hot enough!

Meanwhile, put all the chips in a bowl, drizzle with olive oil  and season generously with salt and pepper. Toss to coat all over.

When the oiled tray is hot enough, tip and spread the chips out on the tray.

Roast for 15 minutes.

Stir and turn over.

Cook up to another 15 minutes. They may take less time as parsnips burn easily on account of their high sugar content so keep an eye on them.

Enjoy as a snack or side dish as a variation on potato chips. By the way, most root vegetables can be chipped successfully. Have a play! Imagine a mixed potato, carrot, parsnip chip adventure...

Warming. Easy. Satisfying. Chunky.

***

Food painting artwork

30 x 30cm acrylic on paper. The paper is no ordinary paper, it is textured Hahnemuhle 300 gsm 100% alpha cellulose which is acid-free fibre of vegetable origin.

Inspired by the style of Gus Leunig which absolutely makes me swoon and the symbols of Mexican folk art and pre Columbian petraglyphs.

By the way, all the food painting artwork is available to own in the Official Art Store.

***

The meatless meals recipe

Apparently the correct title for this would actually be 'chilli sin carne'. However, 'chilli non carne' makes sense to those of us who don't speak Spanish and is probably understandable to those who do as well. This recipe is a vegetarian adaptation of my mother-in-law's recipe for chilli con carne which hubby insisted we had to make into a vege version as it had been a childhood favourite. I can see why.

1 medium to large onion, diced fine

2 cloves garlic, minced

100g stuffed green olives, sliced

1/2 cup white wine

400g tomato puree

1 3/4 cups or around 270g (400g tin) cooked red kidney beans

1/2 teaspoon dried oregano

1 teaspoon ground cumin

1/2 teaspoon chilli powder, or to taste

1/2 cup red lentils

1/2 cup TVP

1 to 1 1/2 cups stock

Fry onion until softened.

Add all the other ingredients. 

Cover and cook for 25 minutes.

Serves 4 on rice or mashed potato.

Artist inspiration and artist influences. No biographies, dates or scholarly research here - this is a personal response to the work of Thelwell by Australian artist Fiona Morgan.

Once upon a time I was a horse mad girl without a horse. That changed, as in I got a horse, and then changed again to bring you up to now where I have neither horse nor huge interest in horses anymore, though I am still fond of them. So back to the horse mad era. While I was afflicted with this madness and still horseless I read every single book on horses and ponies that our local library had. Every. Single. One. Many of them were awful. Some of them were pure gold. Thelwell's books probably gave me more insight into the horse world than any other source.  He really nailed the characters of ponies and their riders and he could really, truly draw.

While I began reading Thelwell's books from a horse mad perspective, I kept reading them because this was a person who really knew how to observe humans and animals and the zany things we get up to, and then tease out just how silly we are being so that we laugh at ourselves. It really stayed with me that he could capture the essence of a situation and tell a story with a few well placed lines and an observant, witty mind.

I think this is what I enjoy about cartooning. There is no human photocopier in sight (those artists who just copy slavishly and emotionlessly). There is no extraneous detail. What I learned from reading Thelwell is that expressions, movement, energy and imagination are the things to focus on capturing in art. It's your interpretation that people are looking for, and in Thelwell's case, humour was his interpretation of what he saw and people loved his work for this exact quality.

More Thelwell links

Official Thelwell site

Wikipedia on Thelwell

I couldn't put this better myself and just had to include it. From The Bloghorn:

Thelwell is best remembered for his fat ponies and their long-suffering young riders, but he was a wide-ranging artist, who tackled many subjects for many papers and magazines, including Punch, with which he developed a close relationship over 25 years.

He had a strong understanding of the British character, and may be considered the post-war heir to Pont of Punch. From estate agents to battery farmers, hunt protesters to harassed motorists, Thelwell chronicled the minutiae of our (British) lives.

An accomplished landscape painter, Thelwell produced detailed, naturalistic settings for lively, comic figures that represent what he called, “the endearing lunacy of human behaviour”.

The Creative Cauldron series of posts explores and showcases the visual styles, techniques, attitudes, ideas, artists and paintings that have had the most impact on me. 

The rest of the series is accessible via the Creative Cauldron page. Have a meander if you please, and remember to check out my artworks on Flickr, and have an insider peek at life as an artist on Facebook.

Unusual. Chunky. Spiced. Moreish.

***

Food painting artwork

30 x 30cm acrylic on linen. In looking into Ecuadorian art I was delighted to find a style of artwork which stems from rock art. Rock art rocks my socks off, so I was pretty happy with this but I had no luck in finding culturally appropriate symbols. The symbol in this piece is from a petroglyph (rock carving) in the Mojave Desert in the USA. Try as I might (and I really did) I couldn't find much in the way of icons of any sort, even deities, much less potato or avocado or plant related from Ecuador. Peru, yes; Mexico, yes; American Indian, yes; Ecuador, ah ah. This one was chosen because it looks like a plant and I was wanting to celebrate the Ecuadorian plant staples of potato and avocado which still manage to grow high up in the Ecuadorian Andes in winter.

By the way, all the food painting artwork is available to own in the Official Art Store.

***

The meatless meals recipe

In the hunt for ethnic inspiration for tasty winter soup I stumbled across the notion of an Ecuadorian potato and cheese soup with avocado. It sounded a lot more appetizing than anything I could possibly do with turnip, celeriac, onion or brussel sprouts. I checked it out and immediately began salivating. Then I dashed up to the shop, grabbed all the ingredients and made possibly the most addictive soup I have ever had. It helps that I could happily make a meal of any of the main ingredients on their own, so put them together and as far as I am concerned, magic happens. This is adapted from the recipe by Laylita on her blog, Laylita's recipes and is filling enough to qualify as a main meal.

1.5kg potato (about 10 medium sized), chopped
2 tablespoons butter
1 onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 teaspoons cumin powder
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper or hot paprika or chilli powder
7 cups weak stock
1 cup milk
300g white or chinese cabbage, finely shredded
1 cup cottage cheese
50g fresh coriander, chopped fine
200g feta cheese, crumbled
3 avocados, sliced or diced
hot sauce (or chilli sauce/powder to taste mixed in 1/2 teaspoon apple cider vinegar per bowl)

Melt butter and soften onion with garlic, cumin and cayenne.
Add potato pieces and stock and boil until potatoes are very well done.
Roughly mash the soup.
Reduce the heat to prevent this boiling over then add the milk and cabbage.
Cook gently until the cabbage is done to your liking.
Add cottage cheese and coriander. Mix thoroughly.
Remove from the heat.
Serve with half an avocado and a handful of feta in each bowl.
Add hot sauce to taste.

Makes 6 chunky, filling bowlfuls.

Warming. Easy. Thrifty. Aromatic.

***

Food painting artwork

30 x 30cm acrylic on paper. The paper is no ordinary paper, it is textured Hahnemuhle 300 gsm 100% alpha cellulose which is acid-free fibre of vegetable origin.

Although the basic ingredients for this soup are ones that I think are very English, the added spices send the end result to a different part of the world. When I made this for friends the consensus was 'South American'. And so in looking for painting inspiration I researched the patterns and folk art of South America. If it looks rather 70's to you, it may be because that was the time that orange in designs and Mexican folk art were popular.

By the way, all the food painting artwork is available to own in the Official Art Store.

***

The meatless meals recipe

We used to be fed a mash of carrot and parsnip as a side when I was a kid. It was an unusual change from our staples of boiled or roast veges and one of the few ways I actually enjoy the taste of carrot. In trying to concoct a recipe that has carrot as a main flavour (I was thrown down a challenge!) I remembered this parsnip and carrot mash and thought it would make a great soup. Yep. It does. And it's another way I can stomach carrots which are close to my least favourite vegetable.

1 large onion, chopped

1 tablespoon butter or oil

1 teaspoon cumin powder

2 teaspoons coriander powder

5 cups stock

4 pinches hot paprika

1 pinch dried thyme

1 bay leaf

about 185g carrot, diced

about 185g parsnip, diced

1 3/4 cups or 270g cooked chickpeas

Melt butter. Soften onion with cumin and coriander.
Add all the other ingredients.
Simmer on low, lid ON, until everything is nice and soft.
Remove the bay leaf. Puree.

Warms 4.

Easy. Versatile. Tangy. Moreish.

***

Food painting artwork

30 x 30cm oil on canvas. Here we have a pickled eggplant. Figuratively. Thanks to Joe Sorren for his wonderfully quirky, gentle characters in somewhat surreal and intimate moments. And his lush colours and brushwork. I'm quite a fan.

By the way, all the food painting artwork is available to own in the Official Art Store.

***

The meatless meals recipe

This recipe originated with some family friends of my husband. He insisted on making it for me to show me how good it was and that it should go in the recipe book. I was skeptical. Pickled eggplant did not sound like something I wanted to try, let alone let into my collection of kick arse recipes. Well I was wrong. So wrong, in fact, that friends who came to stay ate an entire half a jar in one sitting. And that was before we'd tweaked it into shape!

1 large eggplant

2 tablespoons salt

3/4 cup white wine vinegar (quite tart) or apple cider vinegar (quite mild) according to your taste preferences.

1/4 cup water

1 teaspoon salt

up to 500ml olive oil

3-6 garlic cloves (optional)

1 cup fresh basil leaves (optional)

a couple of dried chillies (optional)

Cut the eggplant into pencil sized strips and put into a bowl with 2 tablespoons of salt. Place a small plate on top with a weight.

Leave for 12 hours or overnight.

Tip off the juice and then rinse off the eggplant, otherwise it ends up extremely salty.

Cover with vinegar and water. Weight the eggplant down again and leave for another 12 hours.

Drain and pat the eggplant dry.

Sprinkle with just one teaspoon of salt.

Put in a sterilized jar and layer with your chosen flavourings such as garlic, basil and chilli. Fill the jar with the olive oil and squeeze on the lid.

Keep in the fridge and try not to nibble at it for at least several weeks. The flavours really develop over time. It's super good after 3 months.

Makes one 500ml jar of pickled deliciousness.
Goes well on sandwiches or in salads.

Creamy. Delicate. Quick. Easy.

***

Food painting artwork

30 x 30cm oil on canvas. In this piece I was aiming for a modern damask style arrangement that celebrates the crazy patterns of the walnut which is the centrepiece of this dish.

By the way, all the food painting artwork is available to own in the Official Art Store.

***

The meatless meals recipe

Hooray, another yummy pasta dish that does not involve tomatoes! This is so easy it almost doesn't count as cooking.

pasta for 4, something like spinach and ricotta ravioli is ideal

200g shelled walnuts

3 tablespoons olive oil

2 slices bread, no crust, soaked in milk

2/3 cup grated parmesan cheese

1 tablespoon butter

1 cup of the water used to cook the pasta (or other very hot water)

salt to taste ( this may be up to 1/2 teaspoon)

1 tablespoon fresh thyme

Cook the pasta.

Put the walnuts, olive oil, milk-soaked bread, parmesan and butter in a blender and whizz until smooth.

Taste and adjust for salt and mix thoroughly.

Pour onto cooked pasta and top with the fresh thyme.

Feeds 4.

After a day wrangling with code - whoever thinks a modern artist can be a luddite has not seen my average day - that included various webby upgrades, module installs, sql patches, cron jobs and other geekery, some of which went smoothly and some that, ah, didn't, I am back in the studio and thought perhaps you'd like a wee tour?

To begin the tour, I work in a spare bedroom that was agreed would be my art studio I commandeered. My works are currently quite a managable size, so there is no need for a big space. I've learned how to paint without toxic fumes so there is also no need for a super extraction exhaust setup. This means I am able to work at home with my dog and destructopuppy and can take regular breaks out in the vege garden or whip up food when I feel hungry. I really enjoy the flexibility.

First off, it's a wonderful freedom to have all the books that inspire me to hand. And the filing too. 

This here is the office section of my studio, but you figured that out. Yes, this is a bit unusual. I find chairs really uncomfortable. You should see the wriggling and perching and contortions I get into in an effort to get comfy on a chair. But sitting on the floor on a cushion, Japanese style? I can focus without moving for hours at a time. 

I pride myself on figuring out lateral thinking solutions that are dead easy to implement. These are my drying racks. They are wire clothes airers turned into shelves. The blue box is a metal fire proof box for storing the oil paints and mediums. You know, just in case destructopuppy figures out matches.

And finally we have where the magic painting happens.  If it looks pretty basic, let me walk you through the whys and maybe you'll see how it fits me so well.

You might be able to see a few more sideways solutions if you look carefully. Forget fancy brush holders - huge instant coffee jars are perfect! And did you spot the giant plastic serving tray used as a palette for acrylics and the fridge egg holder used as a palette for inks and watercolour (icecube trays also work well)?

There you have it. An artist's studio revealed!

So artists, what's your studio look like? Pop a link to pix in the comments. I'm sure every creativity studio is unique.

Chunky. Filling. Moreish. Easy.

***

Food painting artwork

30 x 30cm oil on canvas. Influenced by the magical realism of Vietnamese born US artist Duy Huynh (pronounced yee wun), my ever present interest in cartoons, and the kid's song, ten green bottles. Now add these all together and shake, shake shake... and mind the hiccups.

By the way, all the food painting artwork is available to own in the Official Art Store.

***

The meatless meals recipe

A South American standard that I recreated after watching a former El Salvadorean housemate make it. So I've probably unintentionally bastardised it, but it tastes fantastic, is quick, easy, satisfying and involves finishing off the bottle of beer while you wait for it to cook involves cooking with beer. I'm going to be really sexist and say that cooking with beer is a sure fire way to make a guy say something like, 'mmm, this is really tasty, what's the secret ingredient?'. Only it does almost always happen when I serve a beer cooked meal to guys. Connection? I think so. Sorry guys!

oil or butter for sauting

1 medium onion

2 very large cloves garlic

1 small red chilli

400g tomato, roughly chopped

375ml / 1 1/2 cups beer, preferably a dark beer

520g / 4 cups cooked beans such as kidney, pinto, chickpeas

1 tablespoon salt

up to 2 cups of other vegetables chopped into bean sized pieces (carrot, green beans, capsicum, celery, potato, mushroom)

Makes 6 bowls.

Artist inspiration and artist influences. No biographies, dates or scholarly research here - this is a personal response to the work of musician Trent Reznor by Australian artist Fiona Morgan.

In these Creative Cauldron posts I talk about my influences. For the most part, these are visual artists. However, there are others. I mean, you wouldn't expect me to be one dimensional now would you? But would you expect me to be taking marketing notes from a musician? Maybe not, so let me show you why.

I think we are all more familiar with the idea of musicians making a living by making music, selling it and touring. Now that CD's are dead in the water and digital downloads of both the paid and illegal variety are rife, how do musicians make their money? And if musicians can and still do generate huge fan bases (collectors), go on sellout tours (exhibitions) and sell their work (originals) despite digital copies everywhere, why not visual artists? Admittedly, not every musician is able to do this, which is why I take notes from watching those that can.

I think it's easier for musicians to gain fans than visual artists, because music is so portable, social and consumable. But I think it's harder for the muso's to make a living from their art than a visual artist. It's easy to rip off a music file and rather tricky with a four foot square painting.  But so much of what these bands are doing can be translated to visual artists. This path is not for those wanting the traditional route to fame and fortune.

There are visual artists who thrive in this new online environment too. Natasha Wescoat, Hazel Dooney, and Val's Art Diary are the first three that influenced me when I realised that what every savvy young band is doing, visual artists can do too.

Before them I was watching the musicians. Especially this one who has always rallied against the big brother lockdown attitudes (snobbery) of record companies (art galleries) which are so last century.

You may have heard of Trent Reznor. He was partly responsible for the score for The Social Network which is doing the film circuit at the moment. Perhaps you know of Nine Inch Nails? If you don't follow electronic music and don't enjoy music that wallows in misery, probably not. I find his music unlistenable nowdays, though I was once a huge fan. I may have changed a bit in the last 20 years! Despite no longer enjoying the music, I still keep an eye on what this musician gets up to. His ideas on the changed landscape of music publishing, distribution, marketing and making living as a (recording) artist since the internet met digital music files are cutting edge, forward thinking, innovative, exploratory, uses social media and technology, includes the fans, you kinda getting the idea here?

The best concrete example of this forward thinking attitude that I know of can be seen in this Digg Dialogg interview. The part on marketing begins at the 10.45 mark.

The same content is also available in a written form here: http://forum.nin.com/bb/read.php?30,767183

After all, musicians are masters at getting rabid, screaming loyal fans. If visual artists could get a tenth of that fairy dust.....

More Trent Reznor links

Official site: http://www.nin.com/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trent_Reznor

The Creative Cauldron series of posts explores and showcases the visual styles, techniques, attitudes, ideas, artists and paintings that have had the most impact on me. 

The rest of the series is accessible via the Creative Cauldron page. Have a meander if you please, and remember to check out my artworks on Flickr, and have an insider peek at life as an artist on Facebook.

Well Sue surprised me this morning by putting up a part two of her Sunday Salon feature. Big thanks!

Thanks to the lovely Sue for featuring me and my work in her weekly Sunday Salon. I highly recommend you follow her blog for writings on art and creativity of a more accessible, thoughtful and relevent nature than the usual artistic bolderdash.

Chunky. Spiced. Easy. Versatile.

***

Food painting artwork

30 x 30cm acrylic on paper. The paper is no ordinary paper, it is textured Hahnemuhle 300 gsm 100% alpha cellulose which is acid-free fibre of vegetable origin. 

Befitting a Moroccan style dish, this piece is done in the Moroccan zouaq decorative style of painting. This is often used to cover furniture as well as doorways and walls. It's colourful and heavily based on pattern. It's finicky and requires patience. The results can be quite exquisite and delicate.

By the way, all the food painting artwork is available to own in the Official Art Store.

***

2 medium to large red capsicum

1 large eggplant

2 large zucchini

1 large red onion

1/4 butternut pumpkin

3 tablespoons olive oil

salt and pepper

3/4 tablespoon cumin seeds

1 1/2 tablespoons coriander seeds

200g green beans

around 260g cooked chickpeas

1 head garlic

350g/2 cups couscous

2 cups boiling water

juice and zest of 1 1/2 big lemons

Heat the oven to 220C/440F.

Chop the capsicum, eggplant, zucchini and pumpkin into large chunks of about 4cm. Chop the onion into large sized wedges.

Put these into a roasting tin and toss in the olive oil and salt and pepper.

Roast for 25 to 30 minutes.

Top and tail the beans and cut into bite sized lengths.

Add the beans, garlic, chickpeas, cumin seeds and coriander seeds to the roasting pan.

Mix well.

Roast for 10-15 minutes.

Remove from the oven and let stand while you cook the couscous.

Mix the couscous and boiling water, along with a little salt and pepper. Let stand for 5 minutes or so until all the water has been soaked up and the couscous tastes done.

Squeeze the lemon juice over the vegetables.

Serve up both veges and couscous together.

This feeds around 4 people.