Last weekend I participated in a bit of a crazy art competition. In the spirit of fun and setting myself a challenge I entered this year's Art Blitz, run by Kingston City Council in Melbourne.

Fun? Challenge? Indeed! With just 24 hours to create and deliver an artwork to an announced theme, it may not be everyone's idea of fun, but it's certainly a challenge!

Easy. Satisfying. Creamy. Delicate.

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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.

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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.

Tangy. Chunky. Light. Satisfying.

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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.

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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.

Creamy. Easy. Light. Cheesy.

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Food painting artwork

30 x 30 cm acrylic on canvas. Surreal and slightly magical childrens book interpretation involving a spinach forest on a stormy night overlooked by bright cheese stars. I did say surreal didn't I?

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

This is an aromatic Indian spinach and cheese dish. Many versions of palak paneer include tomatoes but this one is a tomato free zone. Although I am somewhat over Indian cuisine after ODing on it while living in the UK, this is one that I'll happily eat anytime. It does help that it's not arseburningly hot and not overstuffed with onions.

250g spinach, washed thoroughly and chopped fine

1/2 cup stock

1 large bay leaf

3 teaspoons garam masala

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon powder

a pinch to 1/4 teaspoon chilli powder, or just enough to give a hint of warmth for you

2 cloves garlic, chopped fine

1 1/2 teaspoons cummin seeds

1 tablespoon oil or butter

1 teaspoon grated ginger

100g haloumi or paneer cheese cut into 1 or 2 cm cubes

3 tablespoons creamed cottage cheese or cream

Simmer the spinach on medium heat with HALF the garam masala, all the cinnamon, bay leaf and stock for 20 minutes or until this has all broken down into a thick sauce. Puree this if you want.

In a separate frypan, lightly fry chilli, garlic and cummin seeds in the oil/butter just until the garlic begins to golden.

Add this fried mix, the rest of the garam masala, ginger, haloumi and cottage cheese to the spinach sauce and stir through.

Salt to taste.

That's it!

Serves 2 on rice.

Easy. Versatile. Filling. Thrifty.

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Food painting artwork

30 x 30cm acrylic on canvas. If you are already familiar with this dish you will recognise the telltale hoisin and mayo pattern. The rest of the painting is inspired by a Melbourne artist Rosetta Santucci. I love how she uses white overlaid paint. In this case it outlines the pancakes.

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

Okonomiyaki. It's a Japanese street food. Some call it a pizza, some call it a pancake. Personally I lean towards the pancake idea, as they are a batter with fillings not toppings and I just can't imagine these with cheese. But the name of this food basically means what you like, grilled. So if you want to add cheese, then go for it! Okonomi means what or as you like, and yaki means grilled or barbequed. I used to eat these a lot as a student. They can be really filling.

1/2 cup plain flour
1 egg
2 teaspoons soy sauce
4 tablespoons mirin (sweet rice wine vinegar) or sherry or stock, but mirin or sherry are best

Vegetable filling 1 (all veges go into the batter):
1 1/2 cups fine shredded cabbage
1/2 carrot cut into fine sticks
and choose one of the following:
    2 sticks celery, chopped fine
    4 shallots cut down the centre and then into 5-10cm pieces
    10cm zucchini cut into fine strips

Vegetable filling 2 (the cabbage goes into the batter while the rest go on top):
2 cups fine shredded cabbage
an extra egg
extras of choice such as tempeh strips

mayonnaise or salad creme
Hoisin sauce or soy sauce
seaweed flakes (optional)

Mix flour, egg, soy sauce and mirin together to make a batter.

Chop all the veges and mix into the batter.  Don't try saving time by throwing everything in a bowl and mixing.  The results are dodgy.  Mix the batter first, then add the veges.  And be sensible and don't add more veges than the batter can hold.  You want a pancake, not separate batter covered vegetable pieces.
Divide into two and cook in a frypan just like a pancake.  Use a lightly oiled pan on medium heat. Do not squash this so it remains light and fluffy.
If you are making option 2, crack the extra egg on top of the first cooked side and drop your extras of choice on top. Flip this again to cook the egg and extras when the underside is done. 

Serve brushed with Hoisin sauce, criss-crossed with mayonnaise and sprinkled with seaweed flakes.

This makes a light meal for 2.

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More vegetarian cookbook goodies

Need help with conversions? Download this handy dandy pdf of cooking conversion charts for every cooking measuring system I could find. It should make your life easier.

Want to check out more vegetarian dinner recipes? They're all in the Table of Contents.

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1 tablespoon oil
2 big (green cooking) apples, cored and sliced
1 onion, sliced
1/2 cup red split peas
1/2 cup barley
2 large/4 small tomatoes, roughly chopped
1 teaspoon sugar
4 -5 cups stock
salt to taste

Fry the onion and apple pieces in oil until the apple is quite soft.
Add all the other ingredients bar the salt.  Cook gently with the pan LID ON until the barley is soft and plump.  This will take at least an hour.  Watch that the soup does not catch on the bottom of the pan.  Add more stock or water if necessary.
Salt to taste.
Makes 4-5 bowls of very thick soup.  Some may insist that this is a stew.  I don't care what it's called.  It's one of my favorites.

Easy. Chunky. Quick. Versatile.

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Food painting artwork

30 x 30cm acrylic on canvas. Some time ago I experimented with a technique I'd noticed in Egon Schiele's work (warning - link NSFW). Transparent overpainting of the background. I really quite like it. Last time I toyed with white over black. This time I'm toying with chromatic black over gold.

And the theme this time? OK, suspend belief now - a potato moon in an alien sky. Yes, rather surreal. This is probably from watching too many cartoons and wacky anime. It's a surreal SciFi theme. At least I avoided adding any giant robots which seems to be de rigueur for anime.

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

There was a time when the only hash browns I had tried were the ones out at cafes that had actually come out of a packet and always seemed to ooze oil.  I was never impressed. And then there was a week (or was it two or three? I think I have deliberately erased that memory) where I found myself living on potatoes. Potato salads, baked potatoes, mash, potato gratin. Every meal. Desperate for some sort of a change I tried homemade hash browns. Converted!

This recipe can also be used to make many kinds of vege fritters. In hash browns the starch in the potato holds it all together. For other vegetables, a tablespoon of milk is often all you need to add as a binder. If you're worried, add an egg too.

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More vegetarian cookbook goodies

Need help with conversions? Download this handy dandy pdf of cooking conversion charts for every cooking measuring system I could find. It should make your life easier.

Want to check out more vegetarian dinner recipes? They're all in the Table of Contents.

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Hearty. Chunky. Satisfying. Warming. 

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Food painting artwork

30 x 30 cm acrylic on canvas. The Ukrainian folk art of egg decorating, known as Pysanky, interpreted as a bowl of soup.

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

As you may well be aware, Borscht is a Slavic recipe that celebrates beetroot. What's there to get excited about when it comes to beets? Well, the Oracle at Delphi (of Greek mythology, not of software companies) claimed that beetroot was second only in mystical potency to horseradish, and that it was worth its weight in silver. Beetroot contains betaine, which in other forms is used to help treat depression, and trytophan, which is that woohoo-feel-good chemical in chocolate. If these aren't enough, in many cultures there is the belief that if a man and a woman eat from the same beetroot they will fall in love... A pretty good outcome from a Meatless Monday? This recipe is my adaptation of the Borscht in The New Covent Garden Soup Company's Book of Soups.

500g raw washed beets, grated

500g red cabbage, finely shredded

360g potato, diced small

2 tablespoons red wine vinegar

3 tomatoes, pureed or diced fine

125g butter

1.2L strong stock

1 medium onion, grated

1 carrot, grated

salt and pepper to taste

1 tablespoon raw sugar

Put the beetroot, cabbage and potato in a large pan with the tomato, vinegar, HALF the butter and all the stock.

Simmer for one hour.

In another pan, melt the remaining butter and saute the carrot and onion until golden.

Add to the beets.

Cover and simmer gently for 15 minutes.

Season with salt and pepper to taste and add the sugar.

Makes 6 very red bowls.

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More vegetarian cookbook goodies

Need help with conversions? Download this handy dandy pdf of cooking conversion charts for every cooking measuring system I could find. It should make your life easier.

Want to check out more vegetarian dinner recipes? They're all in the Table of Contents.

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Filling. Rich. Homely. Satisfying.

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Food painting artwork

30 x 30cm acrylic on canvas. Originally when I was sketching this out I had Norman Lindsay's famous Magic Pudding in mind. All pen and ink and lines and beautiful paper. And then I was distracted with Joe Sorren's painterly backgrounds on some of his older work around 2003 and began thinking of colourful jam explosions as the pudding is turned upsidedown and released from it's tin.

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

One of my English Grandma's sturdy winter pudding recipes. Goes rather well with mulled wine. Perfect for getting all your keep-warm sugar and carbs in one sweet and filling hit.

1/2 oz butter

1 oz sugar

Cream these together and press into the base of a greased 8" semi conical dish.

This 'lining' is not strictly necessary, but it does make sure the pudding is moist.

6 tablespoons jam

Now is your chance to use up that jam that's been sitting in the cupboard for as long as you can remember.

Press the jam on top of the butter/sugar.  Push it up the sides of the pan a little way too.  Just don't spread it too thin as it boils away.

3 oz butter

3 oz castor sugar

4 oz sr flour

2 eggs

1-2 tablespoons warm water

1/2 teaspoon vanilla essence

This is the actual cake part of the pudding.

Cream the fat and sugar well together.

Beat in the eggs one at a time. 

Add the sifted dry ingredients and the water and vanilla a little at a time. 

Turn into the prepared dish and bake 30 -35 minutes for a shallow dish and 40-45 minutes for a deeper one at 350-375F.

Turn the pudding out so the jam is on the top.

Great with icecream etc.

Upsidedown pudding here we come say 4 watering mouths!

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More vegetarian cookbook goodies

Need help with conversions? Download this handy dandy pdf of cooking conversion charts for every cooking measuring system I could find. It should make your life easier.

Want to check out more vegetarian dinner recipes? They're all in the Table of Contents.

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Food painting artwork

30 x 30cm acrylic on canvas. Joyfully influenced by the lovely artwork of Natasha Wescoat, a contemporary American pop artist who I'm a fan of, known best for her jewelled trees series.

By the way, all the food painting artwork is available to own in the Official Art Store and this particular image is also a free seasonal computer wallpaper. 800x600 1024x768 1280x1024 1600x1200

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Round up
Welcome to cool days and freezing nights, frosty mornings and toasty warm homes. Autumn has come and gone, Winter is here. This is the season of the hardy root vegetables and those few frost resistant above ground veg. It's the time to snuggle up with a hearty bowl of soup and the best time of year to get familiar with your oven. It heats the house AND it cooks your food.

The upcoming recipes will be celebrating those dishes that fuel your body and warm your home. There'll be pies, risottos, tarts, dumplings, puddings, casseroles and stews. We'll find uses for bread, broad beans, brussel sprouts, cabbage, carrot, lentils, apples and more (no, not all at once!) and they won't be soggy, tastleless or boring. In fact, they'll be rather appetising.

At the end of the season I'll collect together all the recipes for both Autumn and Winter and get them published for you in a real live physical book. Yes, the finalising of Autumn recipes is still going on. I have been somewhat overwhelmed and will be back-posting additional recipes as we go along. They may appear in your RSS feed reader and they will definitely show up in the Table of Contents.

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More vegetarian cookbook goodies

Need help with conversions? Download this handy dandy pdf of cooking conversion charts for every cooking measuring system I could find. It should make your life easier.

Where are the rest of the vegetarian dinner recipes? They're all in the Table of Contents.

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