***

Food painting artwork

30 x 30cm oil on canvas. Another painting inspired both by a wandering through the artwork (not the cartoons) of Australia's much loved Michael Leunig, and the repeated suggestion from a friend to give other-handed drawing a go.

***

The meatless meals recipe - French Toast

Once upon a time, it may have been when I was first introduced to the heaven that is French Toast, I cooked this up for breakfast, oh, every morning for at least a week. Or two. Or more? I can attest that even for a skinny someone with a crazy metabolism, this such a breakfast regime will put weight on you.
Moderation is key. Not too often. Not too much.
Unfortunately.

2 slices bread
1 egg
2 tablespoons milk
1 teaspoon butter
honey or similar to top

In a flat bottomed container (large enough to lie a slice of bread flat), beat the egg and milk together to blend thoroughly.
Heat the frypan up and melt the butter.
When the pan is quite hot, quickly dip each slice of bread in the egg/milk mix long enough to thoroughly coat each side.  There should be just enough mix for two slices of bread.
Fry immediately in the pan until golden and a little crispy (it will still be soft but should not be soggy).

Top with honey or maple syrup to serve.

Tickles 1 tummy.

Cheesy. Easy. Homely. Quick.

***

Food painting artwork

30 x 30cm oil on canvas. A nod to the fairy tale of Goldilocks and the three bears and the bowl of 'just right'.

***

The meatless meals recipe - Super Easy Goldilocks Mac and Cheese

Once upon a time I used to make a roux to thicken the cheese sauce of my mac and cheese. Now, I am not fond of unnecessary steps or waiting about for my food and so at some point I tried 'cheating' using a judicious amount of cornflour to thicken the sauce. It's much quicker and no, I could not tell the difference.

After trialling many many variations, this is my version of 'just right' mac and cheese. The thickness of the sauce is 'just right'. The cheesiness is 'just right'. The amount of sauce for the quantity of pasta is 'just right'. And it's quick, which is just right for me.


200g uncooked pasta (macaroni!)
1 1/2 teaspoons butter
1 cup milk
1 1/4 cups grated tasty cheese (88g) For extra cheesyness, use 1 1/2 cups cheese (105g) but I think this is a bit strong
1 tablespoon cornflour
salt and pepper to taste


Cook pasta, drain and set aside.
Melt butter in a pan on low-medium heat.
Add most of the milk to the butter. Reserve some for mixing with the cornflour later.
Add cheese to the pot as well. Mix.
In a cup or small bowl, blend or whisk the cornflour and reserved milk.
When most of the cheese has melted, add the cornflour mix to the pot and whisk until thickened.
Take off the heat, add drained pasta into the cheese sauce and mix well.

Serve. Salt and pepper to taste.

The sauce takes 5 minutes to make. Mac and Cheese takes 5 minutes to eat.

 

 

For 2 

Fresh. Easy. Quick. Aromatic.

***

Food painting artwork

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

***

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.

Unusual. Easy. Light. Leisurely.

Food painting artwork

30 x 30cm oil on linen.  The spaghetti squash is, to me, a cartoon of a vegetable. It always makes me giggle. It's an amusing absurdity, a cheeky poke at serious food. In Japan it's name translates as golden thread melon, which is a supurb description. Here the golden thread melon has cheekily unspurled itself in squiggles all over this painting.

Original artwork can be purchased in the Official Art Store. This particular piece is currently drying and will be available shortly for $AU150. You are welcome to arrange to come and look at paintings, just contact me.

***

The meatless meals recipe

A small example of a spaghetti squash or vegetable spaghetti. They are usually around 20cm or 8" long.

Vegetable spaghetti was big in the 1970's. If you've never cooked it before, the flesh falls apart into spaghetti strands as it comes out of the shell with no coaxing needed at all. It can just be boiled and served as a gluten free or paleo diet spaghetti, but.... well, it doesn't have a strong flavour and boiling it doesn't do it any real favours. Like tofu, it soaks up the taste (and juices) of whatever it's cooked with, so I prefer tomato juice and spices over water. Stuffing the spaghetti squash makes use of this tendency. Serving it with plenty of sauce would work too. This particular stuffing is Lebanese inspired, mild and fresh, with a satisfying 'every mouthful is different' blend of rough chopped ingredients.

By the way, if you can grow pumpkins, you can grow vegetable spaghetti. Same family, same vigorous and prolific tendencies. Just save the seed from one before you cook it.

one spaghetti squash approximately 20cm long and 12cm in diameter

dash of oil

To make the filling:
2 tablespoons olive oil
1/4 large onion, minced or sliced fine
200g tomato, finely diced
1 3/4 cups cooked lentils
2 tablespoons crushed nuts
1/2 teaspoon treacle or honey
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon powder
1/2 teaspoon allspice powder
salt and pepper to taste
2 teaspoons finely chopped fresh dill
2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
2 tablespoons chopped fresh mint
optional squeeze of lemon juice

Cut the ends off the spaghetti squash, then cut it in half, down the middle of it's longest side.

Scoop out the seeds.

Place both halves face down on an oiled oven tray and bake at 190C / 375F for 40 minutes.

To make the filling, soften the onion in a frypan with a little oil.

Then also soften the tomato in with the onion.

When these are done, put the lentils, nuts, honey, cinnamon, allspice, salt and pepper in a large mixing bowl with the softened onion and tomato. 

After 40 minutes of baking, remove the spaghetti squash from the oven, scrape all the flesh out into a large mixing bowl, making sure to keep the shell intact.

Mix the vegetable spaghetti and the stuffing together.

Put this mix back into the shells of the spaghetti squash.

Continue baking at the same temperature for another 20 minutes.

Top with dill, parsley and mint before serving (and a squeeze of lemon juice if you please).

This will make a meal for 4 with the addition of a salad or roast potatoes or similar side dish. It looks like a lot of food but it's quite light and not quite enough to be filling on it's own.

Warming. Aromatic. Robust. Easy.

***

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.

***

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.

Moreish. Satisfying. Easy. Unusual.

***

Food painting artwork

30 x 30cm oil on linen. A dancing pattern of eggs, capsicum, tomato and peas, with plenty of painterly texture which you should be able to see in the close up photos below.








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 shortly for $150. To find out exactly when that is, get on the mailing list, yellow box top left.

***

The meatless meals recipe

This meal is of Spanish origin, I believe. It's simple. It's tasty. And it celebrates eggs. I've been making this on and off for about 10 years, and every time I wonder why I left it so long since the last time. It's a subtle good one.

For 4.

Chunky. Versatile. Homely. Easy.

***

Food painting artwork

is 30 x 30cm acrylic with oil transfer drawing on Saunders Waterford 100% cotton archival paper. Exploring the decorative, flourish filled style of Alfonse Mucha, the much loved and celebrated artist of the Art Nouveau era. Many of his pictures make a show of long swirling hair, and repeated circular patterns. I could 'see' that the wispy tendrils of the sweetcorn husk and the circular corn kernals would fit right in to a wistful Mucha-like design.


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 shortly. To find out exactly when that is, get on the mailing list, yellow box top left.

***

The meatless meals recipe

I have a bit more than tinkered with the family recipe I had for corn patties. Now there is much more corn flavour and the tinge of glue has been banished. These are light and fluffy and simple to make. I find they are awesome as a satisfying and light summer meal with roast tomatoes, lettuce and onion jam (recipe coming soon) or salsa (recipe coming soon), or as part of a veggie breakfast fryup. They can be used as a vege burger too. Yes, they are versatile.


1/2 cup plain flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 teaspoons bicarb soda (this makes the patties rise. Leave it out if you want corn doorstops. Add extra in if you like the taste of bleurgh.)
2 eggs, beaten
2 1/2 cups corn kernals (about 3 large cobs of corn)
2 spring onions, chopped
optional 1/2 medium red capsicum diced into pieces 1cm or smaller so they cook through
butter for frying

Mix flour, salt and bicarb.
Add the eggs and mix until smooth.
Add the corn, spring onion (and capsicum).
Mix thoroughly. It will be quite thick and there will seem to be very little to hold it all together. That's ok.
Fry in butter like pancakes on a medium to high heat. I find 2 dessertspoons makes a good sized pattie. This amount of mix makes 8-10 patties of this size. Try to only turn these once. Like pancakes, watch for the bubbles appearing on the surface before attempting to flip them as this turn can be a bit delicate. Be patient.

Gobble down on 8-10 patties. I find 2 or 3 patties per person (depending on their starvation level) works well when served with salad and condiments as suggested above. So that means this serves 3-4 people.

Delicate. Easy. Quick. Creamy.

***

Food painting artwork

30 x 30cm oil and graphite on linen. I have a soft spot for Victorian era or olde worlde looking botannical illustrations. Now this painting is not strictly in that vintage style as I've aimed to loosen it up a bit with watercolour inspired brushwork. The result is rightly a bit more modern, while harking back to an older era where cucumbers were routinely eaten as a sole sandwich filling, and held in much higher regard than they seem to be today.

Did you know that all the food painting artwork is available to own in the Official Art Store?  If you want to get your mitts on the original, it is drying and awaiting it's professional photoshoot before being allowed in the shop.

To be kept updated on available paintings, get on the mailing list, yellow box top left.

***

The meatless meals recipe

It can be somewhat odd making soups in high summer, but sometimes that's exactly what you want to eat. Some people enjoy cold soups at this time of year. I don't enjoy cold soup at any time of year. I did, however, try this soup both cold and warm and I can say that it works either way. So if chilled soup is your thing then you can make this and put it in the fridge. If warm (not hot) soup is your preference, this is delightful. It also uses a good quantity of cucumber which I have discovered grows as prolifically as zucchini. Just so you know, not deseeding or peeling the cucumbers turns this into an entirely different and rather ordinary dish. I am generally not in favour of peeling and deseeding vegetables or of creating extra work in the kitchen. In this recipe it is essential. Peel, deseed then weigh your cucumber. It is absolutely worth it.

1 Tbl olive oil

700g cucumber that has already been peeled and deseeded (about 1.4kg whole cucumber), sliced or grated

4 spring onions, chopped

1 tablespoon lemon juice

2 cups stock

2 teaspoons fresh chopped dill

2 avocados

1 teaspoon white wine vinegar

black pepper to taste

Soften the spring onion in oil.
Add grated/sliced cucumber, lemon juice, stock and dill.
Heat until the cucumber is warmed through and softened. It doesn't need to be 'cooked'.
Add avocado and white wine vinegar and puree until velvety smooth.
Serve and garnish with more dill.
Add salt and pepper to taste. A generous amount of pepper works well.

Serves 4.

Easy. Fresh. Satisfying. Chunky.

***

Food painting artwork

30 x 30cm oil on linen. Making use of the square brush technique I talked about in my previous post, a summery rendition of this jewel studded dish all plated up and ready to gormandise. The real meal is pretty much as colourful as the painting is.

Did you know that all the food painting artwork is available to own in the Official Art Store?  If you want to get your mitts on the original, it is drying and awaiting it's professional photoshoot before being allowed in the shop.

To be kept updated on available paintings, get on the mailing list, yellow box top left.

***

The meatless meals recipe

I enjoy the freshness of salads but often find them not filling enough. And so I have a tendency to tinker with them until they become full main meals. This is one of those tinkerings. One hot London evening (an oxymoron most of the time), I felt inspired to feast on the well known Italian tricolore or caprese salad of fresh tomato slices, fresh basil leaves and fresh mozzarella slices. Lacking those ingredients, and being hungry enough for a full meal, this is basically what I came up with. It's been refined over the years into a jewel studded crown of a summer meal.

Big thanks to Mari and Catriona in helping me give this recipe an appropriate name!

200-250g haloumi or paneer cheese, in slices about 1/2cm thick (both of these cheeses can be fried without melting out of shape)
around 310g zucchini, in slices about 1/2cm thick (using a long diagonal works well)
around 240g eggplant, in slices about 1/2cm thick
1 clove garlic
around 260g fresh tomato in slices about 1/2cm thick (about 3 medium tomatoes)
plenty of butter for frying

125g / 3/4 cup couscous
zest of 1/2 lemon
chopped parsley, about 25g
1 cup / 250ml boiling water
slosh of olive oil
optional 'clean out the fridge' veg, diced really fine - 1/2 cup

juice of 1/2 lemon

If you are using haloumi for this dish do not salt anything as it is frying. I repeat -DO NOT ADD SALT- Haloumi is very salty itself and any extra salt will make your tongue weep. Paneer, on the other hand, is usually not salty at all, so taste it first and go for your life.

Fry the zucchini slices in butter.
Fry the eggplant slices in butter. Mince the garlic and add to the frying eggplant. Once you have a bit of browning on the eggplant add some water to the pan. This speeds up the cooking time significantly and ensures the cooked eggplant is lovely and soft.
Fry the haloumi slices. It doesn't need much, just enough to be golden brown on the outside and heated through.
Meanwhile, put the couscous, lemon zest, parsley, olive oil, optional minced veg and boiling water in a container with a lid, cover and leave for 10 minutes. Your couscous is now cooked!
To serve, I like to make a ring (the crown!) around the outside of the plate with the zucchini, eggplant, haloumi and fresh tomato slices all alternating. Then I fill the middle with the couscous mix.
A squeeze of lemon juice all over finishes this off.


This makes a meal for two. Unless you are using a BBQ to fry the ingredients it's not really practical from a cooking space point of view to make this for more than two people.

Light. Satisfying. Easy. Moreish.

***

Food painting artwork

30 x 30cm acrylic on Saunders Waterford 100% cotton archival paper.

Another abstract exploration, this time it's my more usual fascination with combining colour, texture and pattern. This painting explores some of the transparent techniques of watercolour and is ruled by the essential corn kernals, the colours of the actual soup and the  tendrilly patterns of the egg in the broth.

Did you know that all the food painting artwork is available to own in the Official Art Store?  If you want to get your mitts on the original, mailing list subscribers get first dibs on new artwork. Yellow box top left.

***

The meatless meals recipe

A lifetime ago when I still ate meat, my super-favourite-must-have in every visit to a Chinese restaurant was Chinese Chicken and Sweetcorn soup (when I eventually discovered Hot and Sour soup there was decision chaos but that's another story). Some dishes just hit the spot every time. Obviously in this lifetime that dish has been off my menu. I finally got around to figuring out how to make a vegetarian version that is the equal in tastebud satisfaction, no fowl tactics required. This is it.

At least 20g dried shiitake mushroom (don't trust what the weight on the packet says, measure it yourself. I've been caught out, and not quite enough of this ingredient makes for a washed out soup)

1.8L water

2 teaspoons salt

2 cups corn kernals (2-3 cobs of corn), either whole (good) or partly crushed/blended (great)

2 large pinches ground white pepper
4 tablespoons dry or medium dry sherry
1 tablespoon sesame oil
2 tablespoons cornflour
2 beaten eggs
2 spring onions, chopped fine
up to 1 tablespoon sugar to taste, depending on the sweetness of the corn

Gently simmer together the water, dried shiitake mushroom, corn kernals and salt for at least 30 minutes. Be careful, if this is boiling it tends to boil over. Simmer gently.
Add pepper, sherry and sesame oil. Bring back to a simmer.
Mix the cornflour with just enough cold water to form a paste. Add this in a thin stream to the soup, stirring constantly. This will thicken the soup. If the cornflour is added slowly enough and the stirring is constant enough, lumps will be avoided.
When the soup has thickened, remove from the heat.
Stir in the beaten egg in a thin stream. It will cook instantly.
Sprinkle with spring onion.
Taste for sweetness. Sometimes the corn lacks sweetness if it is not at the height of it's season. If a pinch of sugar added to the pot improves/intensifies the taste, then cautiously add sugar until you are satisfied with the balance of flavour.

This makes enough soup for 4.

Easy. Versatile. Thrifty. Moreish.

***

Food painting artwork

30 x 30cm oil on linen. Thanks to Pia, Mimi and Sara for helping out with identifying the essence of roast tomatoes.

Here are some pointers:
squishy
intense
red
charred
bursts.

Can you feel it?

Did you know that all the food painting artwork is available to own in the Official Art Store?  If you want to get your mitts on the original, it is drying and awaiting it's professional photoshoot before being allowed in the shop.

To be kept updated on available paintings, get on the mailing list, yellow box top left.

***

The meatless meals recipe

Both of these roast vegetables taste heaps better than they sound and are dead easy to make. They're also good with some mediterranean herbs sprinkled on them. The roasting brings out the flavour of the vegetable and intensifies it in a really moreish way.

Roast Tomatoes

Use as many or few tomatoes as you have or like. It's wonderful to make a large batch of these and keep them in the fridge to use in salads, or on the side of a main meal or whenever they take your fancy.

Chop tomatoes into 1/8ths and put on a baking tray in a single layer. 

Sprinkle with salt. Use the same amount of salt coverage as you would for a tomato sandwich, plus a little more.

If you like, smear the tomatoes with pesto or basil infused oil.

Bake in a 180C / 350F oven for 30-60 minutes.

Remove from the oven just as bits on the tomatoes begin to go black.

Roast Capsicum (Peppers)

As with the roast tomatoes, it's superb to do a large batch of these and have them to hand whenever you feel like a hit of their intensified flavour in your meal.

Place whole red capsicums on a baking tray in a single layer and bake in a 180C / 350F oven until the skin bubbles and starts to burn.

Remove and place in a lidded container (tongs!) so the skin is steamed off.

When cook, peel and de-seed.

Add to any salad or dish as you see fit!

Easy. Versatile. Thrifty. Quick.

***

Food painting artwork

30 x 30cm oil on linen. I was really trying to get the texture of icecream into this painting.

Imagine a summer sky filled with fluffy white clouds. Now add a flock of birds. And now also a craving for icecream. It is really hot. You are lying on the grass looking up, squinting, and making shapes out of the clouds. You know your mind can play tricks on you when you do this. That's part of the fun of this game. You see what you are thinking about in the clouds and birds above. Banana icecream.

All artwork is available to own in the Official Art Store. There are prints and originals. This particular painting is drying and will be made available soon for $150. To find out the instant it's ready, get on the collectors list, yellow box top left.

***

The meatless meals recipe

Due to all the floods that happened in Queensland this summer, Australia is suffering a banana shortage. Or not, if you are prepared to pay $13 a kilo! I can only dream of this at the moment. Luckily it's the middle of winter here which tends to keep icecream cravings in check.

This has to be the most astoundingly easy, super healthy and tasty icecream ever. Apparently it's done the rounds online, most often called one ingredient icecream. I first stumbled across it over at thekitchen.com and couldn't believe what I read.

It's so simple to make that it barely counts as cooking and the results are superbly creamy. This icecream is indistinguishable from the real commercial variety minus the weird food additives, and is actually good for you. It's cheap, fast, vegan, no fat, sugar free and stunning.

So how do you make this summer treat?

Take one frozen banana (peeled and chopped and placed in a container before freezing makes life a bit easier at the next step)
Put said frozen banana, peeled and chopped, into a blender.
Whizz madly until it reaches icecream consistency. It starts off slow so have patience.
You may like to add a little vanilla essence to enhance the flavour. Or perhaps some cocoa powder or peanut butter or honey or fresh mint...
What toppings would you like? Chopped nuts, sesame seeds, chocolate syrup, maple syrup, strawberries, au naturale....

One frozen banana equals one serve of perfect icecream.

Easy. Versatile. Thrifty. Quick.

***

Food painting artwork

30 x 30cm oil on linen. If you think that the image is a bit bright on your monitor, let's just say that in real life this piece has a 'startling luminosity'.

Gobble gobble fun time. All hands diving in to grab a slice. I was wanting to catch that moment when a group of hungry friends are sharing food straight from the oven, when talking halts and an entanglement of arms descends - no hesitation . That snatched moment when the food is still on the plate before it is all devoured a split second later. Trails of stringy cheese mandatory. 

This is one of my all time favourites so far. Of course I like all the paintings I've done, but it's human to have favourites.

All the food painting artwork is available to own in the Official Art Store. Very limited edition reproduction prints are ready to go right now. If you love and want the original, it is drying and will be made available soon. To find out the moment it's ready, get on the email list, yellow box top left.

***

The meatless meals recipe

I have to admit that I am too lazy to make my own pizza dough. When I want pizza I want it now not in several hours time when the dough base has risen (or not! - what a story that was) and is finally ready to begin cooking. And I find the store bought pizza bases to be too thick and chewy and generally unpleasant. I doubt I'm alone.

There is a third way. Pita bread. If this is too dry for you, try a softer wrap bread such as the sort for souvlaki or burritos. The idea is the same. These flat breads come in packets of half a dozen or more and kick butt for taste over preprepared pizza bases.  They're usually much cheaper. And they offer unbeatable effortlessness. 

To go on the pita bread base I do make my own tomato sauce paste. It's really simple and really flavourful.

Tomato sauce paste
60g sundried tomato
1/2 medium onion
1 fresh tomato (around 100g)
1 teaspoon dried oregano

Put all of these in a blender and whizz until smooth.
This makes enough sauce for 3 pizzas of approximately 30cm diameter, which we find is just right for two people. Remember, the base is really thin and not that filling.

Vegetarian Toppings
Not sure what to put on your pizza? Here are two of my personal favourites and a list of ingredients to consider if you're a bit stuck.

'Mazing Margarita
tomato sauce on the pita bread base
sliced fresh tomato 160-200g
salt and pepper
a mix of grated cheese on top - 60g mozzarella and 30g tasty

Cook in the oven on a pizza stone for 20 minutes at 180C.
After it comes out of the oven, drizzle with olive oil, then spread 1 clove of minced fresh garlic all over the toppings and cover with fresh basil leaves (10-12g).

Mushroom & Olive
tomato sauce on the pita bread base
100g sliced fresh mushrooms (I know, not very seasonal)
40g sliced olives
salt and pepper
a mix of grated cheese on top - 60g mozzarella and 30g tasty
Cook in the oven on a pizza stone for 20 minutes at 180C.
After it comes out of the oven, drizzle with olive oil, then spread 1 clove of minced fresh garlic all over the toppings and cover with fresh rocket (around 25g).

Choices, choices, choices.
Marinated artichoke, mushroom, feta cheese, olives, spinach, onion, caramelised onion, fresh tomato, roast tomato, sundried tomato, capsicum, roast capsicum, fried eggplant, fried zucchini, avocado, fresh basil, rocket, egg (yes, just crack it on right before it goes in the oven), pineapple, corn, cooked potato slices, cooked pumpkin, cooked sweet potato, garlic, oregano, rosemary, thyme, pesto (in addition or replacing the tomato sauce)

What else would you add to this list?

Satisfying. Quick. Easy. Homely.

***

Food painting artwork

30 x 30cm oil on linen. Celebrating the distinctive white cracking pattern of the top of the winter shiitake mushroom. If you take a look at my previous post on the Edwardian photographer and professional gardener Charles Jones, you will see the inspiration for this painting. I wanted to do the painting equivalent of his gentle yet powerful moments with vegetables.

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

***

The meatless meals recipe

Chunky. Filling. Easy. Hearty.

***

Food painting artwork is 30 x 30cm oil on linen. Inspired by the colourful and happy landscapes of Ton Schulten, a Dutch artist whom I discovered by accident (always the way, really) while browsing through a gallery shop, probably the Tate Modern in London though I'm not sure. Anyway, I spied a very small diary about the size of my hand and it was filled, filled, with bright happy colourful landscapes. I bought it and now a lot of those pages are in my inspiration scrapbook. This is not a 'scrapbook' in the fancy designed memorial sense of 'scrapbooking', but a magpie collection of scraps of paper with images that grab me all glued haphazardly into one book.

The connection between Ton's landscape style and this roast vege salad is the chunks of colour he uses and of the veges in the bowl, and the bare yet not barren fields of winter that these mostly root veges have come from.

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

***

Another meatless meals recipe

1 carrot

1 parsnip

200g broccoli or cauliflower

200-250g pumpkin

3 medium potatoes

1 medium onion

90-100g haloumi cheese, cubed or sliced

4 tablespoons hommous - recipe for homemade hommous coming!

around 75g brazil nuts, roughly sliced

around 65g rocket

Preheat your oven to 200 C.

Chop all your veges (carrot, parsnip, broccoli, cauliflower, pumpkin, potato, onion) into pieces no larger than one inch cubes.

Roast on a lightly oiled tray for 45-60 minutes until the veg are nicely cooked. Go easy on any additional salt as haloumi is salty enough. In the end you probably won't need any more.

Remember to turn the veg from time to time. The roasting time will vary from oven to oven and depend on the size of the veg pieces too.

Divide the roasted veg across two bowls and top with haloumi, hommous, rocket and brazil nuts.

This makes a rather big meal for 2.

Thrifty. Creamy. Hearty. Easy.

***

Food painting artwork

30 x 30cm oil on linen. Inspired by a Twitter comment by the design minded @reese on the innocent quality of blind contour drawing. What's that? It's a drawing practice where you keep your eye on the subject and your pencil moving and you never look at what's appearing on the page. It improves hand-eye coordination and confidence.

I hooked on the idea of using that innocent quality of simple lines and shapes on the completely weird brussel sprout plant. And so we ended up with high brow oil painting meets low brow pencil cartooning. I'm liking this hybrid. For the unaware, the brussel sprout plant is the alien of the vegetable world. When harvested, they look like this (the leaves have been cut off those spikey stalks):

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

In the spirit of finding tasty, easy and hearty things to do with the blander winter veg, I challenged myself to ‘do something’ with brussels sprouts that wasn’t just a side dish. You would not believe how many different incarnations this concept went through before landing here. The original idea was to use chestnuts as they go so well with brussels. 

But. 

After shelling, about half of our chestnuts were rotten and they can be such a time consuming pain in the behind to prepare, that they were dumped. I know when I’m cold and hungry the last thing I want to do is sit down and peel an ingredient for half an hour before I can even get started on making the meal. I am quite sure I am not alone in this sentiment. What we have here is the exact opposite. Quick to prepare and made of humble ingredients. Filling and tasty.

Bingo. 

Oh, and it’s not actually a casserole as it never gets near the oven. Casserole just sounded tastier than stew, which rhymes with ‘ew’. Point taken?

1 tablespoon butter

1 onion, roughly diced

1 ½ green apples, chopped fine but rough

2 cups stock, possibly three

¼ cup split peas

¼ cup lentils

¼ cup rice

1 cup cooked mixed beans

125g mushrooms, chopped

350g brussel sprouts (in quarters) or cabbage (finely sliced)

½ teaspoon dried sage

300ml cream

375g potato in bite size pieces

Saute onion in butter until golden.

Add apple and a little stock, put the lid on the pot and cook the apple until it’s mashable.

Mash into a rough sauce.

Then add everything else and simmer, lid off, until all the ingredients are done. This will be around 30 minutes. Keep an eye on the amount of liquid and add extra stock to prevent sticking if necessary.

Serves 4. 

A generous amount of cracked black pepper works well on top.