Fresh. Easy. Quick. Aromatic.

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Food painting artwork

30 x 30cm oil on canvas. An early spring garden of fresh new plants, entangled with spaghetti.

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The meatless meals recipe - Pasta Primavera - Pasta with Spring Vegetables in Herb Sauce

The taste of early spring in a bowl in the time it takes to cook your favourite pasta shape.

 

pasta (papadelle is my favourite for this) for 2, about 200g
parmesan to taste
salt to taste
3 cups mixed spring veg, chopped into bite size pieces - recommended are:
peas, broadbeans, asparagus, broccoli, snap peas, snowpeas

Herb sauce:

1 cup chopped fresh parsley (about 10g)
about 7g finely chopped fresh chives
1/2 cup whole mint leaves (about 4g)
at least 1/4 cup olive oil

Cook pasta.
Pre cook mixed veg. Blanch, boil or steam as suits you. I find steaming the veg on top of the pasta or pouring the drained pasta water over the veg to blanch them both work well to save on washing up, water, energy and general effort!
Put the ingredients for the herb sauce in a blender and blend smooth.
To serve, pile pasta into bowls, then top with sauce then veges and parmesan and salt to taste. Be aware that mixing the pasta and sauce before transferring to the serving bowls leaves most of the sauce and flavour behind sticking to the pot or bowl in which they were mixed.

Warming. Aromatic. Robust. Easy.

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Food painting artwork

30 x 30cm acrylic on Saunders Waterford 100% cotton archival paper. A design in the style of the heraldic crests (kamon) of Japan. This is the strength, the shield, the warrior which protects against and wards off colds.

Original painting for you?

Did you know you can download images of the paintings for your own personal (not commercial) use? Computer wallpaper, Facebook profile picture, yes you can. Find your favourite painting on Flickr, go to actions, view all sizes, download the size you want to your device, set it as your wallpaper or profile. And tell your friends where it came from :)

Original artwork can be purchased in the Official Art Store. This particular piece is currently drying and will be available for $AU150 shortly. To find out exactly when that is, get on the mailing list, yellow box top left.

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The meatless meals recipe

All throughout asia there exists ginger tea as a warming, cold fighting drink. It's so common and popular that you can buy boxes of little sachets of it, ready at the addition of boiling water. They are very convenient, and also so very, very sweet and usually somewhat lacking in the robustness of fresh ginger. Here's how to make the real thing. It's much, much better.

50g fresh ginger, sliced. It can be peeled or unpeeled. Peeled will minimise any scum formation. Unpeeled will have more biting gingery warmth. It's up to you.

3 tablespoons honey

5 cups water.

Put all the ingredients in a pot together and simmer gently for half an hour.

This makes 4 mugs of fresh ginger tea.

The ginger can be reused once. It will still have it's ginger flavour, but no 'kick'. It may also require less honey. 2 tablespoons instead of 3 usually does the trick.

Warming. Easy. Thrifty. Aromatic.

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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.

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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.

Moreish. Satisfying. Aromatic. Warming.

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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.

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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.

 

Unusual. Easy. Minty. Aromatic.
 

Food painting artwork

30x30cm oil on canvas. I've explored and blended all the lovely purpley and other colours that the eggplant gives in soft light. There's two eggplants in this painting...

You know how sometimes you first hear of someone's favourite sandwich, say peanut butter, banana and honey. And your instant reaction is, 'YUK!' And somehow, you are convinced against your better judgement to try it. Just one incy wincy tiny bite. And it's nowhere near as bad as you imagined. In fact, it's quite good. Well that's a bit like seeing the ingredients for this recipe. They don't look promising. You're unlikely to have tried this combination before. But it's actually delicious. I promise.

2 tablespoons olive oil

2 onions, chopped, sliced or diced

1 large eggplant (aubergine), cut into small cubes

2 pinches salt

2 cups vege stock

1 cup arborio rice

3/4 cup or about 220g cooked chickpeas

4 tomatoes or about 200g, roughly chopped

1 teaspoon ground allspice

1 teaspoon brown or raw sugar (if you use white sugar make sure the teaspoon measure is a level not rounded one)

2 tablespoons chopped fresh mint

Saute onion in oil until appealingly edible.

Add the eggplant and salt and cook until softened. A few spoonfuls of the stock will help here too.

Stir in the rice until it is as coated with as much oil as possible.

Add all the other ingredients.

Cook just below a simmer with the lid on for 15-20 minutes or until the rice is done.

Serves 2. I think. Feel free to update me if necessary.

Aromatic. Easy. Warming. Spiced.

Food painting artwork

30x30cm gouache on canvas. My defining memories of chai tea involve sitting in a very hippy tent with a random shaped returnable mug of warming spicy chai and having equally random conversations with total strangers who each had a different shaped returnable mug. Hence all the various mugs in this picture.

If you love chai tea and always wanted a solid recipe to use at home instead of buying the stuff in the packets, here it is. And this one is free of caffeinated black tea, too.

Lightly boil together for about 20mins:

3 cups water

10cm cinnamon

8 cloves

4 cardamom pods

up to 2.5cm fresh ginger, sliced and peeled (peeling helps stop the scum that unpeeled ginger generates when boiled)

up to half a teaspoon grated nutmeg

Then add one cup of milk or soy milk and heat through.

Pour into mugs and sweeten with honey to taste.

The spices can be used up to 3 times. Obviously the tea is weaker each time.

Don't try and use ground spices. They just make a revolting sludge.

This will make enough for 2 cups.