Chunky. Thrifty. Homely. Filling.

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Food painting artwork

30 x 30cm oil on board. England is known for it's dreary grey days. The greyest and foggiest of these days are called pea soupers, when the fog is so settled and thick that you can barely see a few feet in front of you. This painting is an interpretation of a 'pea souper', with a nod to the lovely misty and ethereal tree paintings of Melbourne's Kathryn Ryan.

Original artwork for Autumn and Winter paintings can be purchased in the Official Art Store. To be kept updated on the availablity of Spring and Summer paintings, get on the mailing list, yellow box top left.

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The meatless meals recipe

This recipe is an inspired conglomeration of several pea soups I have known and enjoyed. The first was a family recipe for your bog standard Pea and Ham soup. Very flavouful, somewhat missed once I stopped eating meat. The second was another family recipe for a Pea and Mint soup which was interesting for it's enormous use of mint, but not outstanding in itself. And finally there was the Ainsley Harriet cup-o-soup version of Shropshire Minted Pea Soup from when I was working in London. Drinkable in a cup-o-soup kind of a way, it caught my attention with it's unusual spice and tang. Unfortunately this was due to the inclusion of the world famous Worstershire Sauce which contains anchovies and I stopped drinking this once I realised.  But then it was game on to create my own Pea soup which was flavourful like the Pea and Ham, super minty like the Pea and Mint, and tangy and spicy minus the anchovies like the Shropshire soup. Success below!


1 onion, chopped
1 tablespoon butter
a few cracks of pepper and salt
500g dried green split peas
7 cups weak stock
2-3 small bay leaves
up to 1 teaspoon hot paprika
1/4 - 1/2 cup balsamic vinegar
2 cups roughly chopped fresh mint (this is about 36g of leaves or 4 cups unchopped) - err on the generous side

Saute the onion in butter until soft with a little pepper and salt.
Add stock, split peas, bay leaves, 1/4 cup balsamic vinegar, and two big pinches of hot paprika.
Simmer gently with the lid on until the peas are completely broken down. This means at least for one hour, and preferably, for two hours.
Taste test. Check for heat/spiciness and cautiously add more hot paprika to suit. It's heat will vary depending on it's age (less heat with age). Also check for tartness/tang. Depending on the balsamic vinegar and your tastes, you may want to add more to suit.
Finally, stir in all the roughly chopped mint.


Makes 4 rather hearty bowls.

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.

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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.

Fresh. Easy. Chunky. Filling.

***

Food painting artwork

30 x 30cm oil on linen. Inspired by that feeling of thinking everything is grey and barren and the same and then suddenly realising there's a super tasty option that you've been overlooking. That's how I feel about salads in winter. All this focus on creamy starchyness, which is great, but gets a bit monotonous after a while, and then the realisation that a fireworks of freshness would be perfect.

By the way, all the food painting artwork is available to own in the Official Art Store. A very limited edition reproduction print is available right now. If you want to get your hands on the original, then either keep a close eye on the store yourself, or sign up to my newsletter for collectors to conveniently have a note drop into your inbox when it's available to own. It's the yellow box, top left.

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The meatless meals recipe

We all crave a break from the starch routine in the depths of winter. Well most people do anyhow. Actually if I’m honest even I do, noodle queen that I am. It’s not easy to make a filling warm salad from winter ingredients, which is why  a recipe like this one is so welcome. Eat some fresh stuff, get a load of vitamins, warm up on a roast, feel satisfied. All rolled into one.

500g pumpkin

50g snowpeas, sliced

½ cup roughly chopped nuts (walnut and almond work well)

1 avocado, sliced

1 cup cooked chickpeas

2 spring onions, sliced finely

50g rocket

½ apple, diced finely

parmesan cheese (optional)

Dressing:

1 teaspoon Dijon mustard

juice of half a lemon

3 tablespoons olive oil

Chop pumpkin into roughly one inch cubes, season with salt and pepper and roast for 45 minutes at 180 C.

Prepare the remaining ingredients and the dressing. Remember that apple and avocado will go brown if left to sit for too long so leave these until the last minute.

When the pumpkin is nicely roasted, divide it into two serving bowls.

Mix the rest of the salad ingredients and top onto the pumpkin.

Finish with the dressing and a sprinkling of parmesan if you want.

A meal for 2.

Fresh. Versatile. Filling. Zesty.

***

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.

Inspired by bowls of swirling tangled noodles, Chinese 'auspicious clouds' and the jaw dropping mirror mosaic 'Under the Sea'' 2007 by Iranian artist Monir Shahroudy Farmanfarmaian, seen here in b&w.

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

***

The meatless meals recipe

A warming and filling meal of fresh, uncooked ingredients in the middle of winter can be somewhat of a challenge. Sesame noodles to the rescue! As long as you julienne all your veg, this is the dish for getting a dose of raw vege vitamin power to pep you up and smash the winter carb fest routine. All the chopping does take a bit of time, but hey, that's why you gather everyone around to help out.

400g dry noodles such as soba, somen, ramen or similar
400g julienned veges such as cabbage, beetroot, snowpeas, broccoli, carrot, parsnip, leafy greens - these can either be raw or blanched

3 tablespoons sesame oil
1 clove garlic, minced
2 tablespoons sugar
1/4 cup soy sauce
splash of water - just enough to make the sauce mixable
3 tablespoons tahini
1 tablespoon peanut butter
1 pinch chilli powder
1/2 teaspoon grated fresh ginger
1/8 cup lime or lemon juice
zest of 1/2 an orange
2 spring onions, finely chopped
4 tablespoons toasted sesame seeds
30g fresh coriander, roughly chopped


Cook the noodles. Drain and rinse under cold water to cool them down a little.
Toast (dry roast) the sesame seeds if they are untoasted.
Put sesame oil, garlic, soy sauce, sugar, water, tahini, peanut butter, chilli powder and ginger in a small pot or frypan and heat gently to dissolve the sugar and take the edge off the garlic. Leave this sauce to cool.
Chop all the veges and blanch them if you don't want to eat them raw.
When all the above parts of the dish are ready, add the lime/lemon juice, orange zest and spring onion to the sauce and mix well.
Mix the noodles and sauce thoroughly.
Serve into bowls and top with the veges.  Sprinkle with sesame seeds and coriander.

Makes a lot of food for 4.

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Food painting artwork

30 x 30cm oil on linen. It should be fairly obvious that this painting is strongly influenced by Japanese printmaking. In case you're wondering, the greenery is mizuna and the water pattern is common to Japanese art.

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

***

The meatless meals recipe

There are four styles of ramen and all of them rely heavily on the quality of the stock to taste great. When you look into recipes for ramen stock it becomes pretty clear pretty quickly the extraordinary lengths many chefs go to for flavouring their stocks. Think multiple animal carcasses simmered for days! I'm yet to come across another vegetarian stock that looks worth trying or one that is so quick to make from scratch. I assure you, this tastes great, and I am pleased to prove (at least in my mind!) that it is not necessary to cook with fish/chicken/pork to make a succulent ramen stock. The key is to use TWO stocks. Go veges!

Vege stock:

85g (2 handfuls) of finely shredded chinese cabbage

1/2 onion, finely sliced

4 sticks celery, chopped

Put all these in a pot with 3 1/2 cups water and boil for 20 minutes with the lid on. Discard the veg at the end. This will make 3 cups of vege stock.

Shoyu ramen:

2 cups seaweed stock

3 cups vege stock

ramen noodles for two (140-160g dry)

1 teaspoon sherry

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon sugar

1 tablespoon soy sauce

Suggested toppings: 

1 spring onion, chopped

2 handfuls spinach

cracked black pepper to taste

bamboo shoots

2 hard boiled eggs in slices

tempeh slices

So begin by preparing the stocks and cooking the noodles so they are ready to eat.

Hard boil the eggs if you are having these as toppings and get all your toppings ready.

When the stocks are done, saute the ginger and garlic in a big pot in the sesame oil to take the edge off them.

Add both stocks and the sherry, salt, sugar and soy sauce to the big pot, mix and bring back to the boil.

Put the cooked noodles in the serving bowls.

Add the stock mix.

Add toppings and serve.

This recipe feeds 2.

Chunky. Satisfying. Creamy. Filling.

***

Food painting artwork

30 x 30cm oil on linen. This textural image of rolling creamy wintery hills is exactly the kind of landscape that is perfect for stuffing your belly with a warming carb-fest such as this dish. I love printmaking but often find myself wishing prints had a more textural element to them. You may detect a Japanese influence here. Think of this painting as a textural Japanesque print of winter hills.

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

***

The meatless meals recipe

Most pasta bakes that I've come across require you to cook all the ingredients and then bake them together in the sauce. I'm not a fan of this method. It's too fiddly for my liking, takes longer than it needs to and makes a mess of several pans. Surely it's possible to cook everything together in one go? After a flurry of experimentation, I can confirm that yes, it is indeed possible to make a wonderful pasta bake in one easy step:

400g penne or similar, uncooked

500g pumpkin, julienned

200g chard, finely sliced

1/2 cup or 55g slivered almond

3 cups stock

1/2 cup white wine

600ml cream or milk

1 cup mozzarella, grated

2 tablespoons flour

1/2 onion, chopped fine

Put all ingredients in a lidded oven dish and stir together well. 

Bake for 1 1/2 hours at 170 degrees C. 

Stir every 30 minutes.

Serve with parmesan cheese.

Fills 4.

Chunky. Filling. Moreish. Easy.

***

Food painting artwork

30 x 30cm oil on canvas. Influenced by the magical realism of Vietnamese born US artist Duy Huynh (pronounced yee wun), my ever present interest in cartoons, and the kid's song, ten green bottles. Now add these all together and shake, shake shake... and mind the hiccups.

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

***

The meatless meals recipe

A South American standard that I recreated after watching a former El Salvadorean housemate make it. So I've probably unintentionally bastardised it, but it tastes fantastic, is quick, easy, satisfying and involves finishing off the bottle of beer while you wait for it to cook involves cooking with beer. I'm going to be really sexist and say that cooking with beer is a sure fire way to make a guy say something like, 'mmm, this is really tasty, what's the secret ingredient?'. Only it does almost always happen when I serve a beer cooked meal to guys. Connection? I think so. Sorry guys!

oil or butter for sauting

1 medium onion

2 very large cloves garlic

1 small red chilli

400g tomato, roughly chopped

375ml / 1 1/2 cups beer, preferably a dark beer

520g / 4 cups cooked beans such as kidney, pinto, chickpeas

1 tablespoon salt

up to 2 cups of other vegetables chopped into bean sized pieces (carrot, green beans, capsicum, celery, potato, mushroom)

Makes 6 bowls.

***

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.

Filling. Rich. Homely. Sweet.

This is an ancient recipe in our family, too rarely trotted out. I have this in my recipe collection in my grandmothers handwriting on a faded and beaten up piece of paper. It makes a fabulous dessert for a group of people.  I remember eating it when I was a kid. I was fond of it then and still am now.

2 eggs, slightly beaten
1 1/2 cups mashed, sieved pumpkin
3/4 cup sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cup milk (or evaporated milk or light cream etc)
1 x 9" unbaked pastry shell (shortcrust)

Mix filling ingredients in order given.
Pour into pastry shell.
Bake in a hot oven (425F) for 12 mins (omit this step for a prebaked pastry shell)
Reduce temperature to moderate (350F) and continue baking for 45 minutes until filling is set.

Garnish the pie with whipped cream, toasted coconut , chopped nuts etc.

Serves at least 8.

Hearty. Easy. Thrifty. Filling.

***

Food painting artwork

30 x 30cm acrylic and oil pen on canvas. As the bay leaf is the key to this dish, it is also the subject of the artwork. If you have a bay tree you'll know that the leaves are so much richer, glossier and have far more character to their flavour than their dried equivalent. I wanted to try and capture the simplicity and depth of both the look and taste of the fresh bay leaf. A bit of pop fun seemed to be the best way to do this.

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

***

The meatless meals recipe

This recipe is actually a two for one deal! There's the base recipe and a delicious variation. Both are incredibly simple and I quote, 'bloody delicious'. The bay leaves are essential.

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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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Easy. Versatile. Filling. Thrifty.

***

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.

***

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.

+++

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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Easy. Versatile. Rich. Filling.

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Food painting artwork

30 x 30cm acrylic and pen on canvas. As this recipe is all about the flavour of peanuts, this painting depicts the mythical peanut tree. Now as you might know, peanuts grow underground on the roots of a small bush. A bit like potatoes grow on the roots of the potato plant. That is why peanuts are also known as groundnuts, and also explains why they are actually a legume, not a nut.

However, so many people think that peanuts grow on a tree that I decided to run with this as an artistic idea. The stylistic inspiration today is from the artist Jo Lynch who has a wonderfully fun and cheerful style that celebrates colour and the use of white negative space. I thought these two pictorial ideas could be ideal to explore for a mythical tree.

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

***

The meatless meals recipe

Many years ago now I gave this dish to a Scottish friend to make and test. He made it for himself and his housemates. It was reported back to me that his French housemate reckoned that this is the 'golo golo' mother of all sauces for stir fries. Apparently 'golo golo' is quite a compliment. My friend thought it was excellent too and very easy to make. So all of you peeps out there doing the Meatless Monday, this one's a good one for you.

2 tablespoons oil

6 cloves garlic

1 medium onion

1 tablespoon fresh grated ginger

1 small red chilli

2 tablespoons soy sauce

1 large tomato, diced

juice of 1/2 a lemon

2 cups coconut/soy milk/cow milk

2 cups peanut butter

handful peanuts

up to 1 cup of other chopped veges (carrot, mushrooms, beans)

Saute the garlic and onion in oil.  

When soft add the ginger too.  Keep sautéing.

Then add the chilli and then tomato (and other veges).  Mix well.  Cook until tomato collapses or until veges are basically done.

Stir in the soy sauce and the milk.

Then mix in the peanut butter.

When thoroughly mixed (it gets easier as it warms up), stir in the lemon juice.  Add extra milk if it is all too thick.

Throw in a handful of peanuts and make sure everything is heated through.

Serve over rice.

Makes 5 bowls.

+++

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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