Until I came across this intriguing post on how recipes are routinely dumbed down today, as compared to 30 years ago, I had no idea this was going on. What do I mean? Apparently, there are many people frightened off cooking by the specialist terms used, such as saute. So instead of writing, 'saute the onions until soft', food authors now write something like, 'cook the onions on a medium to high heat in melted butter or oil while continuously stirring, until soft'. Fascinating.

Fresh. Quick. Versatile. Easy.

A quick and easy stirfry for when you want a giant al dente vegetable fix. Did you know we've been eating this dish for over 2000 years? Here's today's version:

3 tablespoons sesame oil

125g firm tofu, cut into bite size pieces

1/4 teaspoon salt

4 pinches white pepper

1 1/2 tablespoons sherry

1/2 red capsicum, cut into strips

1 to 1 1/2 cups chopped vegetable such as carrot, mushroom, corn, green beans, snowpeas, zucchini, broccoli

6 spring onions, chopped

1-3 cloves garlic, minced

2 teaspoons minced ginger

3 tablespoons Chinese black bean sauce

1/2 cup cashews or almonds

Heat the oil and fry the tofu with the salt, pepper and sherry until golden and firm.

Add all the veges, garlic, ginger and spring onions.

Stir fry for a few minutes.

Add the black bean sauce and nuts.

Cook for 5-10 minutes until vegetables are done, sauce is heated through and flavours have developed.

Serve on rice.

Chunky. Fresh. Warm. Unusual.

***

Food painting artwork

30 x 30cm ink and graphite 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. 

When I was perusing the gallery shop at the Tate Britain one time I stumbled across a neat little book of amusing gardening quotes accompanied by quirky, thoughtful illustrations. Their style was the very distinct work of the much lauded Laura Stoddart. The book in question is Up the Garden Path: a Little Anthology which I promptly bought. It really is a lovely piece of work and most gardeners would appreciate it. Anyway, this painting is inspired by the distinct flowers of the fennel plant colliding with the elongated, gentle and watery style of Laura Stoddart.

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

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Baked Fennel and Walnut salad - the vegetarian dinner recipe

Fresh fennel is a strong flavour that people are usually black and white about. It's a love or hate reaction. However, baked fennel is much, much, much milder and although it still has hints of anise, most people are quite happy to chow down on it.

about 800g fennel
1 large red capsicum, cut into big chunks of about 2 inches

several tablespoons olive oil

juice of 1 lemon

salt

1/2 cup dried puy lentils

2 bay leaves

1/8 onion, very finely sliced

75g walnuts, broken into pieces

1 cup roughly chopped parsley leaves, about 15g

parmesan to taste

Remove the stalks from the fennel and discard. They tend to be quite tough and stalky. Cut the fennel bulb into quarters like an apple and then cut out the core and discard. Chop the remaining bulb pieces into big chunks of about 2 inches. Separate the layers of the fennel chunks.

Put the fennel and capsicum chunks into a baking dish with the lemon juice, a sprinkling of salt and a few tablespoons of olive oil. Mix thoroughly.

Bake at 200C for 40 minutes and remember to stir at half time.

Meanwhile, boil the lentils in lightly salted water with the bay leaves. They take around 20 minutes.

When done, drain and rinse thoroughly under warm water and discard the bay leaves.

Combine the baked fennel and capsicum, cooked lentils, raw onion, fresh parsley and walnuts in a big bowl.

Serve with parmesan to taste.

Makes a meal for 2 and goes really well with crusty bread slathered in butter.

A go-to guide for you to get a clear speedy summary of why, what, how and how long.

Do acrylic paintings really need to be varnished?

If you want them to last in good condition for as long as possible; if you are professional and aim for the best quality in your artwork; if you want your paintings to be protected from light knocks and accumulated dirt over time; then yes, they do need to be varnished. 

How long do I have to wait to varnish an acrylic painting? 

Until it is dry, is the short answer. To dry and cure fully, acrylics take about a year. If you can wait that long, then that is ideal. They can, however, be varnished after about a month if needs be. And what if the painting is touch dry, sold and needs to be shipped? Varnish is better than no protection. Just remember that this final coat is meant to be thin! A thick coat on a fully cured painting may not cause any problems apart from raising a learned eyebrow, but on a touch dry painting it will significantly retard or even prevent the drying and curing process, with unpredictable consequences.

Can an acrylic medium be used as a varnish? I've got one that's really clear and nice and glossy.

Absolutely not. A medium and a varnish are formulated with totally different aims. A medium binds with the paint and should not be soluble. Mediums are not made to protect a painting from damage, they are made to change the working properties of the paint for your convenience. If a medium is used as a final layer, it binds intimately with the paint and is not possible to remove without accidentally removing paint at the same time, which obviously damages your painting. Clearly this is the opposite of your intention.

Varnishes are designed to be durable, but they’re also formulated to be removable (or at least they should be). Solubility is one of the characteristics that distinguishes a varnish from a medium. When your painting needs a really good clean, it's the varnish that comes off and is actually replaced with a fresh coat. This top coat of varnish is available in matte, satin or gloss and is designed to be tough enough to give some physical protection against knocks, something that a medium is not designed to do.

So the varnish just goes on top of the painting, right?

No!!! Slow down. For acrylic paintings there's actually a step inbetween.

First it's best to apply a slightly thinned coating of a gel medium prior to varnishing. This will protect the paint in case the varnish needs to be removed in the future. Why don't oil paintings require a layer between the paint and varnish? Because oil paints have much harder surfaces than even well dried acrylic paints, and the acrylic paint surfaces are very vulnerable to solvent penetration and even water penetration. Oil paint surfaces are vulnerable too, but much less so than acrylic paints. Why would the varnish need to be removed? Well part of the point of varnishing is to provide a dispensable layer that can be easily removed when it becomes too dirty to clean properly. A layer in between the paint and the varnish means that when the varnish is being taken off, it makes the conservators job that much easier in avoiding taking part of the painting off too.

And what varnish to use? Well there are many suitable varnishes out there for acrylic paints. According to current best practice from a conservation point of view, choose an acrylic solution varnish or the one acrylic dispersion varnish made by Golden. As to how to varnish, you can't go past the instructions from AMIEN, available via the link below.
 

Linky goodness

An excellent thread on varnishing on a top forum.

More art technique articles

This article is one in an ongoing series of technical articles for artists, all archived together and accessible from here. The topics range from details on materials, to the business of art, to specific art techniques. Please make use of this resource.

Tangy. Chunky. Light. Satisfying.

***

Food painting artwork

30 x 30cm acrylic on canvas. A French dish calls for a bit of a fleur de lis flourish and elegantly simple whitewashed shabby chic to show off the fresh vegetables, don't you think?

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

***

The meatless meals recipe

Another bastardised staple, this time of French origin. Ratatoille is a bugger to spell but well easy to cook.

oil for sauting

1/2 onion, chopped into chunks

3 tomatoes, roughly chopped

3/4 (about 15cm) zucchini, chopped

1/2 eggplant (150g), cubed

1/2 cup, or more if you like, cooked kidney beans

3 tablespoons wine or balsamic vinegar

3 tablespoons water

1 teaspoon seeded mustard

1/2 teaspoon salt

lots and lots of cracked black pepper to taste

optional 1/2 teaspoon honey per serve if you find the vinegar flavour too strong

The veges work best when chopped into large bite size chunks.

Heat the oil and saute the onion.

When the onion is softened, add everything else.

Cook slowly for 20 minutes or more at a simmer or less. Make sure the eggplant is nice and soft before serving.

Looks like a lot but it's actually quite light and serves just 2.

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

Joe Sorren is a US based artist actually only a few years older than me, but who has a head start in painting by, oh, 20 years or something. I've admired his work for a number years on a number of different points, which I'll get to shortly.

But first I want to mention lowbrow art and pop surrealism. If you've come across either Juxtapoz or Hi-Fructose magazine, you'll know what I'm referring to. This lowbrow genre of contemporary art is their specialty. It's very influenced by pop and street culture. Go check it out. From Wikipedia, "lowbrow art describes an underground visual art movement that arose in the Los Angeles, California, area in the late 1970s. Lowbrow is a widespread populist art movement with origins in the underground comix world, punk music, hot-rod street culture, and other subcultures."

Because of Toast

Pop surrealism is related to lowbrow, but separate from it.  While obviously taking some influence from surrealism and the idea of dreamscapes and the unconscious, pop surrealism seems somehow more accessible to me. More endearing. Often sweet with a dash of the creepies. The mood seems to tend to be ethereal. Perhaps I find it attractive because the style is from artists my own age with similar backgrounds.

The Mushroom Hunter

So the diversion into talking about these style is to put a little bit of context around Joe Sorren's work. His art often considered to be in the pop surrealism genre, but, but, but, at the same time he is often considered to have a one-of-a-kind style. This may be due to the fact that he doesn't take much notice of the art world around him. Something I quite admire.

How does he work then? "I usually enter a painting with no ideas, and just begin applying paint to see what arrives. I find art to be most engaging when I am surprising myself. As long as I stay open for whatever to arrive, anything can show up for dinner." Thanks SpearTalks for the interview quote. Sounds like the unconscious at work to me, which is one way that I too enjoy working.

Lilley Anne and the Fish Parade

And what else do I see in these artworks? On a technical note, I love his colour and brushwork. Even if the scenes weren't as interesting as they are, there is so much going on to be mesmerised by for someone who loves texture and colour. Oh, have you noticed the luminosity? Good grief I want to learn how to do that!

Of course there is the crazy wee characters. Unique and enjoyable. However the final element I enjoy in Joe Sorren's art is the sense of slowed time. To me, each painting just quietly holds an intimate internal moment. There's no shouting or easy explanations, just a mood to imbibe.

Cats in Space

 

More Joe Sorren links

If you like the pix you see here, I highly recommend getting this book on Joe Sorren's art:

In Celebration of Balance & Opposable Thumbs

It's a few years old now, but it's one of my personal favourites on the art shelf.

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

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.

Versatile. Leisurely. Easy. Moreish.

***

Food painting artwork

30 x 30cm oil on canvas. Again inspired by the paintings of Paul Klee. This time it's his paintings from about 1915 to about 1925 which are purely abstract and composed of coloured rectangles. According to Wikipedia, 'The colored rectangle became his basic building block, what some scholars associate with a musical note, which Klee combined with other colored blocks to create a color harmony analogous to a musical composition. His selection of a particular color palette emulates a musical key. Sometimes he uses complementary pairs of colors, and other times “dissonant” colors, again reflecting his connection with musicality.'

Well I'm not connecting this artwork to music. As you know, it's connected to food. In particular, the rectangular strips of tofu and their tasty golden brown tones of this recipe.

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

***

The meatless meals recipe

When I was living in London I became friends with a lovely South Korean by the name of So-Young. When I went to visit her in her home outside London where she was studying, this is one of the dishes she had prepared. It made quite an impression on me and for a year or so I was asking for the recipe. I gather that this was seen as a bit strange as this dish for Koreans is a bit like cooking toast for Westerners. It's just something you do all the time, no recipe required. Anyway, we did end up doing a little recipe swap. Yay - tofu strips for chocolate cake! This is So-Young's recipe with quantities added and put into my words.

I'm not sure what the Korean name for this dish is. I call it tofu strips which is not the most imaginative title, but it does describe it in a 'call a spade a spade' sort of way. So-Young has recently posted me an absolute gem of a book called 'Invitation to Korean Cuisine' by Han Youngsil. In there is a recipe for Braised Pan Fried Bean Curd. It's basically the same dish! Use whichever name you prefer.

250g firm tofu
1/2 small to medium onion, sliced fine
3 cloves garlic, chopped fine
1-2 teaspoons sugar, to taste
a sprinkling of salt, to taste (remember that soy sauce is quite salty)
about 1 1/2 tablespoons soy sauce
3 spring onions, chopped
1-2 tablespoons peanut or sesame oil
chilli to taste

Slice tofu into your favourite shape. Pieces about 1/2 to 1cm thick are good.
Use the oil and lightly fry the tofu pieces until gold but not brown on both sides with a sprinkling of salt.
Remove the tofu from the pan.
Turn the heat right down low.
Lay the onion in the bottom of the pan and place the tofu on top.
Sprinkle with the sugar, garlic and chilli and cover with the spring onion.
Carefully drizzle the tofu pieces with soy sauce. Get as much on the tofu, as opposed to in the pan, as possible.
Cook long and slow until the spring onion begins to wilt.
Taste test and adjust the sugar, salt, soy sauce and chilli to your preference.
Keep cooking slowly until the spring onion has fully wilted.

Serve on top of stir fried veg and rice or noodles and it will make 4 meals. Or use as tofu burgers for 2. Or just snack on it by itself.

Moreish. Satisfying. Aromatic. Warming.

***

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. 

Let's celebrate sequins, Indian style! Dots and dangling glitter and sparkle and bright cheerfulness everywhere.

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

***

The meatless meals recipe

Just gobsmackingly amazing. If you have had some bad experiences with Indian food, this recipe will show you how good the cuisine can really be.

2 1/2 large tomatoes, pureed

around 250g cooked chickpeas

1 teaspoon salt

1 1/2 large tomatoes, diced

3 large bay leaves

5 large curry leaves

5cm stick of cinnamon

1 teaspoon ground cumin

3 teaspoons dried fenugreek leaves

Put the pureed tomato, salt, turmeric, chickpeas and 2 teaspoons of the garam masala in a pot with 1/4 cup water and bring to the boil.

After bringing to the boil, add the garlic, 1 teaspoon of the ginger, the chopped tomatoes, coconut milk, onion and more water if necessary to maintain a thick sauce and prevent sticking.

Simmer for 15 minutes, stirring regularly and adding water if needs be.

Then add the bay leaves, curry leaves, cinnamon, cumin, 2 teaspoons of the fenugreek leaves and the rest of the garam masala.

Simmer for 30 minutes, adding water as necessary. Do not skimp on the cooking time. Lots of time is the magic ingredient in this dish.

Take off the heat. Add the remaining ginger and fenugreek leaves.

Serve on rice.

This makes a large meal for 2 or a light meal for 4.

 

***

Food painting artwork

30 x 30cm oil on canvas. This piece is inspired by the artwork of another artist local to me, Dale Fort. His work is rich with layered marks and he often depicts landscapes, especially rolling hills. As this recipe is a layered mountain of food, the landscape analogy caught my eye.

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

***

The meatless meals recipe

Apparently eggplant parma (as it's known here in Australia) is almost always on the menu as a vegetarian option in Melbourne restaurants and is almost always hated by vegetarians at said restaurants, apparently due to it's overexposure. This is odd as there is only one time I've encountered it on a menu, and I was so impressed I went home and recreated it. This is a no-bake version, which is a lot less all-the-flavours-slopped-together, and quicker, than the baked version.

1200g potato

dash olive oil

1 onion, diced

400g tomato, pureed or diced

20g fresh basil, roughly chopped

1/4 cup red or white wine

500g spinach or 250g chard, chopped

1 or more tablespoons butter

500g eggplant, cut into 1cm thick slices

6 cloves garlic, minced

salt to taste

1/2 cup water

grated tasty or parmesan cheese for topping

Prepare the potatoes:

Boil and mash potato with milk and butter or as you like it.

Make the tomato sauce:

Soften onion in oil.

Add tomato, basil and wine. Simmer for as long as you dare without allowing it to catch on the bottom.

Prepare the spinach:

Steam it, boil it or blanch it. Whichever way you like it.

Fry the eggplant slices:

Melt butter in a large flat frypan.

Place eggplant slices in the pan cut side up if there is a choice.

Cover with minced garlic and salt generously. Do try and keep the garlic on the eggplant so it doesn't burn.

Fry eggplant until golden on the first side. Add more butter if needed.

Flip slices and add water to help soften and cook eggplant.

Continue cooking until all water has evaporated and the eggplant is soft all through and fried golden brown on both sides. Add more butter if needed.

To serve:

Make a ring of mash on each plate.

Fill the ring with spinach.

Cover with tomato sauce.

Place eggplant slices on top and sprinkle with cheese.

Makes 4 meals.