Hearty. Thrifty. Leisurely. Easy.

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Food painting artwork

30 x 30cm oil on linen. Thanks to cold snowy nights and the possibly true or possibly fictitious history of shepherds pie being the dish of shepherds (as in tending a flock of sheep or indeed eating them!) when coming down from the mountains into the village. Also well and truly inspired by Chagall's 'I and the Village' shown below, thanks to the sheep, village and mountains shared by both the shepherds pie myth and the painting.

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

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The meatless meals recipe

Middle of winter. Lashings of mashed potato. Hearty filling beans. Veg and herbs all simmered together in beer until meltable. How good does this sound?

To cook this recipe you will need a lidded casserole dish that can hold more than 1.2L or 2 pints of liquid, or be prepared to clean the bottom of your oven of all the burnt on overflow.

Filling:
2 onions, diced
1 carrot, diced
1/2 cup diced celeriac or 2 stalks celery, sliced
1 tablespoon butter
2 teaspoons dried rosemary
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup dried lentils or split peas (not the little red ones as they just turn into mush)
1/2 cup grains, ie rice (barley is not ideal as it doesn't always cook in time)
2 tablespoons plain flour
2 teaspoons sugar

These liquids need to total 1L:
1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
around 330ml beer
stock

Topping:
800g potato
milk and butter to taste for mash

Melt the butter and sweat (lid on) the onion, carrot and celery/celeriac with the salt for around 10 minutes until these are all soft.
Take off the heat and add all the other filling ingredients and stir well.
Then add the liquids and stir well.
Bake in the oven for 1 hour at 160C with the lid on.
Meanwhile, boil, drain and mash the potato, adding milk and butter as you like.
Add the potato topping to the filling.
Place back in the oven minus the lid for another 30 minutes.

Serves 4.