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. Unusual. Creamy. Moreish.

***

Food painting artwork

30 x 30cm oil on linen. The idea of using corn cobs as stamps, similar to how I'd used apples as stamps in Apple and Barley Soup, did not go according to plan as the corn stamps were so indistinct. No matter, this didn't stop me creating the bright, bold and dreamy ode to corn in a once-was-seafood dish, that I'd had in mind.


 





Original paintings for you.

Like the artwork? Tell a friend! And if you already have, THANK YOU.

Original artwork can be purchased in the Official Art Store. This particular piece is currently drying and will be available shortly for $AU150. To find out exactly when that is, get on the mailing list, yellow box top left, or email me (fi at wherefishsing dot com) to express your interest.

***

The meatless meals recipe

Chowder is a very American dish (from the New England area), surprisingly uncommon here in Australia. Luckily, there is was a terrific cafe not far from me, run by an American chef, called the Chowder House. Guess what they serve? So it was there that I was introduced to this versatile and satisfying meal in a bowl. After being so impressed with chowder, I voraciously read up on ingredients and variations and methods and got all experimental in the kitchen. Most chowders are seafood based, even the corn ones. Not this one, the synthesis of all that cerebral and experimental research. 

2 tablespoons butter
1/2 large onion, chopped
2 tablespoons flour
2 3/4 cups HOT stock
kernals from 2 corn cobs (200-240g corn kernals)
around 120g sweet potato or pumpkin cut into bite size chunks
2 small capsicums, in small pieces or chunks
1/2 large carrot, in small pieces or chunks
around 300g potato, cut into bite size chunks
3/4 teaspoon dried thyme
2 pinches turmeric
3 pinches white pepper
1 cup milk
1 1/2 teaspoons fresh finely chopped dill
chilli, to taste

Melt butter in a big pot.
Cook the onion on low heat in the butter until softened and clear.
Add flour and cook until the flour is brown, stirring frequently. This takes about 10 minutes.
Gradually add the HOT stock, stirring to prevent lumps (using hot stock makes it MUCH easier to avoid lumps than using cold).
Add in everything else except chilli.
Put the lid on the pot to keep the liquid from evaporating. Cook at a simmer for at least 30 minutes until the potato is done. If this boils it will boil over - lid or no lid. Be careful.
Add the chilli, take the lid off and cook for another 5 minutes.

Makes a meal for 2.

Zesty. Fresh. Hearty. Moreish.

***

Food painting artwork

30 x 30cm oil on linen. Celebrating the squiggliness of linguini and the zing and pop of fresh summer ingredients. An oodley botannical inspired ode.

Interior photo by rogue-designs

Original art for you. Yes, 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 shortly for $AU150. To find out exactly when that is, get on the mailing list, yellow box top left. Or email me (fi at wherefishsing.com) to let me know you're interested.

***

The meatless meals recipe

If you grow zucchinis you know that the biggest 'problem' with them is finding enough homes for the sheer quantity of zucchinis that appear. They are nothing if not prolific. And so summer can become a quest for ways to make use of all these zucchinis. I'm not going to add to the cornicopia of recipes out there for soups and baked goodies that manage to inventively squirral away filler zucchini. No, this one celebrates them and makes them a centrepiece, and uses them up promptly at the same time.

Per serve:

100g pasta (linguini!)
300g zucchini (about 1 large or 1 1/2 medium) cut into thin flexible fingers or matchsticks
2 or more tablespoons olive oil
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 or more tablespoons water
juice and zest of 1/4 of a large lemon
1 teaspoon balsamic vinegar
1 tablespoon finely chopped chives
1 tablespoon finely chopped mint
cracked black pepper to taste

Fry zucchini fingers in 1 tablespoon of olive oil and all the salt.
When appealingly browned (and probably beginning to stick) add water to ensure they are steamed all the way through. Keep cooking until all the water is gone to ensure the zucchini are lusciously soft. Add more water and keep cooking if necessary.
Meanwhile, cook pasta and drain.
Toss the pasta with the other tablespoon of olive oil to coat it well.
Combine the pasta, cooked zucchini, chives and mint. Add the lemon juice, zest and balsamic and mix everything together well.
Add pepper to taste.

Remember, this amount is per person.

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.

Fresh. Moreish. Satisfying. Versatile.

***

Food painting artwork

30 x 30cm oil on board. Marine plywood, to be precise. It's a most excellent substrate for oil paint, being both light, sturdy and dimensionally stable. Yes, it has been treated and prepared professionally for maximum longevity.

This is another example of the oil transfer  technique that I am fond of. I like how it is a cross between painting and printmaking. While I love the results of etching, I find the process tedius and more frustrating than dealing with a recaltricant windows computer. You know what I mean!

The way that oil transfer mimics the effects of printmaking is perfect for this Japanese woodblock ukiyo-e style inspired image. All hail the mighty ramen!

And in the spirit of trying something new, which this project is all about, I have begun videoing the creation of some of the paintings. First up is Shio Ramen. I apologise for the extensive view you have of the back of my head. I shall reposition the camera for the next one! However, it gives you an idea of how these are created. Note all the wardrobe changes - oils take a while to dry. There's no audio. I'm chipmunked enough already! Without further ado - the first time lapse painting.

Did you know that 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 want to get your mitts on the original, it is drying and awaiting it's professional photoshoot before being allowed in the shop. If you love it and want to know as soon as it's available, get on the email list, yellow box top left.

***

The meatless meals recipe

There are four broad styles of ramen stocks. Shoyu (soy sauce) - you may remember this from the winter recipes-, Shio (salt), Miso and Tonkotsu (pork bone). No prizes for guessing which one I'm not even going to attempt vegetarianising! Shio ramen is generally the lightest of these styles and is most suitable for summer. Also it is most commonly served with sweetcorn, a summer vege treat. The sweetness of the corn is just addictive with the salty broth.

noodles for one (around 75g dried ramen noodles)

1 1/2 cups shitake mushroom stock (directions below)

1 cup seaweed stock (directions below)

2 teaspoons mirin or 1 teaspoon sherry

2 teaspoons salt

1 tablespoon butter

1 teaspoon untoasted sesame seeds

1/2 spring onion, chopped

1 boiled egg, peeled and sliced

versatile veges for filling: I recommend 1 cup corn kernals and 1 cup bean sprouts OR 1 cup finely shredded Chinese cabbage and 75g oyster mushrooms, 

extras such as spinach or mizuna, tofu or tempeh slices are good too.

Shitake mushroom stock

Take 2 cups of water and 25g dried shitake mushrooms. Lightly boil these together in a pot with the lid on for 20 minutes. Remove the mushrooms (they freeze well and can be used as is in other meals). This should leave you with 1 1/2 cups stock.

Seaweed stock

Take 1 1/2 cups water and an A4 or letter sized sheet of dried nori seaweed cut into strips. Lightly boil these together in a pot with the lid on for 20 minutes. This should leave you with 1 cup of stock.

Putting the ramen together:
Cook the noodles as the packet instructs and hardboil the egg. I often find this can be done together in the same pot.
Melt the butter in a pan and lightly saute the veges to soften them.
Season a little with pepper.
Pour in the two stocks. Bring to a rolling boil.
Add the salt and mirin/sherry and keep boiling for a few minutes to mix all these flavours together.
Put the drained noodles in your serving bowl.
Add the stock & vegetables mix.
Run the egg under cold water until it is cool enough to peel and slice.
Top the ramen dish with the egg slices, spring onion and any extras you want.
Sprinkle with sesame seeds.
Slurp away. The louder the slurps the more appreciation you are showing. Itadakimasu!

This recipe is per person. It makes a big meal.

This article is a guest post I wrote for the comprehensive vegetarian resource site, Savvy Vegetarian. It contains the secrets of knowing how to make moreish meatless meals.

For those of you dabbling with or newly committed to a plant based diet, you will probably be having this problem. To me, a lot of vegetarian dishes suffer a lack of flavour that doesn’t seem to be fixed with salt. They taste rather one dimensional. They lack depth or fullness in flavour. To be blunt, they are bland.

This can especially be a problem for new vegetarians and flexitarians and I shall explain why. If it just doesn’t taste as satisfying as you expect, then it’s probably missing that wonderful essence known as umami.

Umami?
...
to continue with this article, please head over to Savvy Vegetarian where it is published in full. It's worth your while, even if do I say so myself ;)

Tangy. Moreish. Thrifty. Easy.

***

Food painting artwork

30 x 30cm oil on linen. Hot and sour soup is all about achieving a balance of these two flavours. This piece is also all about the concept of balance, of getting multiple variables just right for your individual taste. A hair or balance spring represents this idea and I'm sure that you can figure out what the lemon and fire denote.

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

***

The meatless meals recipe

Hot and sour soup is a staple on Chinese restaurant menus around here and I love it. However, it is not very filling, being little more than a tasty broth. For a hungry person this is bad. Apparently it is often flavoured with blood. For a vegetarian or anyone squeamish this is super bad. Due to both of these issues I devised, long ago in my student days, this cheap, quick, filling and animal friendly version that I could make at home in a gigantic pot and live on for days. I hope you like it as much as I do.

6 cups water

a coriander plant (at least 15g including leaves, stalks and clean roots)

3cm / 10g fresh ginger, sliced

2 teaspoons salt

1 carrot, chopped or sliced

8 closed cup button mushrooms, halved or quartered
about 180g tofu, cubed
2 teaspoons fresh grated ginger
1 tablespoon cornflour
2 tablespoons soy sauce
2 tablespoons sesame oil
about 230g bamboo shoots
approx 125g dry asian noodles
3 spring onions, chopped
3 tablespoons white wine vinegar, to taste
1 1/2 teaspoons white pepper powder, to taste

Put the water, coriander, salt, carrot and ginger slices in a large pot and simmer, lid on, for 20 minutes.
Remove ginger and coriander roots.
Add mushroom, tofu, bamboo shoots, grated ginger and simmer until mushrooms are cooked.
Add your choice of noodles and keep simmering until these are cooked.
In a mug or similar, mix cornflour, soy sauce and sesame oil until all the lumps are gone.
Add this to the soup. Stir until it thickens.
Add spring onions.
Add the pepper and vinegar a little at a time, until the dish suits your taste. I recommend adding the vinegar first until it is pleasantly sour, and then adding the pepper until the heat is right for you.


This feeds 3.

***

Food painting artwork

30 x 30cm oil on canvas. This is one of those artworks where straightaway I had a really strong idea of what I wanted to do. Trying to get that idea to actually freaking work was really, really hard. I now know all sorts of ways not to try and take a print from a halved cabbage. Sometimes it's best to keep pushing at an idea until it resolves. Sometimes it's best to let it go and simmer in the unconscious for a while. After spending an entire day trying to take a print from a cabbage and sketching out variation upon variation on my idea, I decided to let it sit. In the meantime, it dawned on me where the idea was stemming from, and knowing this, the image resolved itself.  So a shoutout to cartoonist Hugh MacLeod of Gaping Void for the inspiration for this rather abstract line based piece and no cabbage print in sight after all.

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

***

The meatless meals recipe

Cabbage rolls are a common and very popular dish throughout eastern europe. This recipe is  adapted from a cabbage rolls recipe I used to make quite often, until I became fed up with the finicky rolling process. So now I make unrolls. Basically the same ingredients. Very similar method. No effort required. And way more flavour than you would expect from cabbage.

After a bit of sleuthing I believe this recipe to be of Turkish origin. I'm pretty sure I copied the ingredients list on the grounds the recipe 'looked interesting' from a library book I borrowed at least 10 years ago. I didn't note the details of this book at the time. The recipe has gone through quite a few changes to end up in this form - it's now vegetarian, the rice flavourings have been added and it's been adjusted to work as 'unrolls'. However the spice combinations which work so well are exactly as I found them, and I would like to be able to give credit to the author of that book I borrowed all that time ago. Consider it done if I do manage to track that book down.

2 teaspoons butter

1/2 onion, diced

1 clove garlic, minced

1 1/4 cups frozen vege mince OR 3/4 cup dried TVP plus 3/4 cup water OR 1 1/2 cups cooked lentils

1 1/2 cups stock

1/2 teaspoon oregano

1/4 teaspoon thyme

3 pinches clove powder

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon powder

2 big pinches ground black pepper

1 bay leaf

2 tablespoons raisens or sultanas or currants

2 tablespoons / 45g slivered almonds

225g cabbage, finely sliced

440g tomato, chopped or pureed (perfect for excess tomatoes bottled in Autumn)

2 cups rice

4 tablespoons chopped fresh coriander - about 24g

zest and juice of 1/2 a lemon

Fry the onion and garlic in butter until golden.

Add mince/tvp/lentils, any extra water as directed and the stock. Then add the oregano, thyme, cloves, cinnamon, black pepper, bay leaf, raisens/sultanas/currants and almonds.

Stir well and simmer with the lid off until the liquid is gone, around 20 minutes.

Add tomato and cabbage and simmer for another 30 minutes (or more) until cabbage is nicely soft.

Meanwhile, cook the rice as you usually do. Drain and rinse if necessary.

Mix the coriander and lemon zest only (not juice) through the rice just before serving.

Serve the sauce on the rice and drizzle everything with the lemon juice.

Heartily feeds 4.

Warming. Spiced. Rich. Moreish.

***

Food painting artwork

30 x 30cm oil on linen. According to Wikipedia: "in contrast to European dragons that are considered evil, Chinese dragons traditionally symbolize potent and auspicious powers, particularly control over water, rainfall, and floods. The dragon is also a symbol of power, strength, and good luck." This particular dragon is symbolizing the potency and power of the hot and numbing sichuan pepper integral to this dish. Consider yourself warned!

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

***

The meatless meals recipe

Unusual. Chunky. Spiced. Moreish.

***

Food painting artwork

30 x 30cm acrylic on linen. In looking into Ecuadorian art I was delighted to find a style of artwork which stems from rock art. Rock art rocks my socks off, so I was pretty happy with this but I had no luck in finding culturally appropriate symbols. The symbol in this piece is from a petroglyph (rock carving) in the Mojave Desert in the USA. Try as I might (and I really did) I couldn't find much in the way of icons of any sort, even deities, much less potato or avocado or plant related from Ecuador. Peru, yes; Mexico, yes; American Indian, yes; Ecuador, ah ah. This one was chosen because it looks like a plant and I was wanting to celebrate the Ecuadorian plant staples of potato and avocado which still manage to grow high up in the Ecuadorian Andes in winter.

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

***

The meatless meals recipe

In the hunt for ethnic inspiration for tasty winter soup I stumbled across the notion of an Ecuadorian potato and cheese soup with avocado. It sounded a lot more appetizing than anything I could possibly do with turnip, celeriac, onion or brussel sprouts. I checked it out and immediately began salivating. Then I dashed up to the shop, grabbed all the ingredients and made possibly the most addictive soup I have ever had. It helps that I could happily make a meal of any of the main ingredients on their own, so put them together and as far as I am concerned, magic happens. This is adapted from the recipe by Laylita on her blog, Laylita's recipes and is filling enough to qualify as a main meal.

1.5kg potato (about 10 medium sized), chopped
2 tablespoons butter
1 onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 teaspoons cumin powder
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper or hot paprika or chilli powder
7 cups weak stock
1 cup milk
300g white or chinese cabbage, finely shredded
1 cup cottage cheese
50g fresh coriander, chopped fine
200g feta cheese, crumbled
3 avocados, sliced or diced
hot sauce (or chilli sauce/powder to taste mixed in 1/2 teaspoon apple cider vinegar per bowl)

Melt butter and soften onion with garlic, cumin and cayenne.
Add potato pieces and stock and boil until potatoes are very well done.
Roughly mash the soup.
Reduce the heat to prevent this boiling over then add the milk and cabbage.
Cook gently until the cabbage is done to your liking.
Add cottage cheese and coriander. Mix thoroughly.
Remove from the heat.
Serve with half an avocado and a handful of feta in each bowl.
Add hot sauce to taste.

Makes 6 chunky, filling bowlfuls.

Easy. Versatile. Tangy. Moreish.

***

Food painting artwork

30 x 30cm oil on canvas. Here we have a pickled eggplant. Figuratively. Thanks to Joe Sorren for his wonderfully quirky, gentle characters in somewhat surreal and intimate moments. And his lush colours and brushwork. I'm quite a fan.

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

***

The meatless meals recipe

This recipe originated with some family friends of my husband. He insisted on making it for me to show me how good it was and that it should go in the recipe book. I was skeptical. Pickled eggplant did not sound like something I wanted to try, let alone let into my collection of kick arse recipes. Well I was wrong. So wrong, in fact, that friends who came to stay ate an entire half a jar in one sitting. And that was before we'd tweaked it into shape!

1 large eggplant

2 tablespoons salt

3/4 cup white wine vinegar (quite tart) or apple cider vinegar (quite mild) according to your taste preferences.

1/4 cup water

1 teaspoon salt

up to 500ml olive oil

3-6 garlic cloves (optional)

1 cup fresh basil leaves (optional)

a couple of dried chillies (optional)

Cut the eggplant into pencil sized strips and put into a bowl with 2 tablespoons of salt. Place a small plate on top with a weight.

Leave for 12 hours or overnight.

Tip off the juice and then rinse off the eggplant, otherwise it ends up extremely salty.

Cover with vinegar and water. Weight the eggplant down again and leave for another 12 hours.

Drain and pat the eggplant dry.

Sprinkle with just one teaspoon of salt.

Put in a sterilized jar and layer with your chosen flavourings such as garlic, basil and chilli. Fill the jar with the olive oil and squeeze on the lid.

Keep in the fridge and try not to nibble at it for at least several weeks. The flavours really develop over time. It's super good after 3 months.

Makes one 500ml jar of pickled deliciousness.
Goes well on sandwiches or in salads.

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.

Versatile. Leisurely. Easy. Moreish.

***

Food painting artwork

30 x 30cm oil on canvas. Again inspired by the paintings of Paul Klee. This time it's his paintings from about 1915 to about 1925 which are purely abstract and composed of coloured rectangles. According to Wikipedia, 'The colored rectangle became his basic building block, what some scholars associate with a musical note, which Klee combined with other colored blocks to create a color harmony analogous to a musical composition. His selection of a particular color palette emulates a musical key. Sometimes he uses complementary pairs of colors, and other times “dissonant” colors, again reflecting his connection with musicality.'

Well I'm not connecting this artwork to music. As you know, it's connected to food. In particular, the rectangular strips of tofu and their tasty golden brown tones of this recipe.

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

***

The meatless meals recipe

When I was living in London I became friends with a lovely South Korean by the name of So-Young. When I went to visit her in her home outside London where she was studying, this is one of the dishes she had prepared. It made quite an impression on me and for a year or so I was asking for the recipe. I gather that this was seen as a bit strange as this dish for Koreans is a bit like cooking toast for Westerners. It's just something you do all the time, no recipe required. Anyway, we did end up doing a little recipe swap. Yay - tofu strips for chocolate cake! This is So-Young's recipe with quantities added and put into my words.

I'm not sure what the Korean name for this dish is. I call it tofu strips which is not the most imaginative title, but it does describe it in a 'call a spade a spade' sort of way. So-Young has recently posted me an absolute gem of a book called 'Invitation to Korean Cuisine' by Han Youngsil. In there is a recipe for Braised Pan Fried Bean Curd. It's basically the same dish! Use whichever name you prefer.

250g firm tofu
1/2 small to medium onion, sliced fine
3 cloves garlic, chopped fine
1-2 teaspoons sugar, to taste
a sprinkling of salt, to taste (remember that soy sauce is quite salty)
about 1 1/2 tablespoons soy sauce
3 spring onions, chopped
1-2 tablespoons peanut or sesame oil
chilli to taste

Slice tofu into your favourite shape. Pieces about 1/2 to 1cm thick are good.
Use the oil and lightly fry the tofu pieces until gold but not brown on both sides with a sprinkling of salt.
Remove the tofu from the pan.
Turn the heat right down low.
Lay the onion in the bottom of the pan and place the tofu on top.
Sprinkle with the sugar, garlic and chilli and cover with the spring onion.
Carefully drizzle the tofu pieces with soy sauce. Get as much on the tofu, as opposed to in the pan, as possible.
Cook long and slow until the spring onion begins to wilt.
Taste test and adjust the sugar, salt, soy sauce and chilli to your preference.
Keep cooking slowly until the spring onion has fully wilted.

Serve on top of stir fried veg and rice or noodles and it will make 4 meals. Or use as tofu burgers for 2. Or just snack on it by itself.

Moreish. Satisfying. Aromatic. Warming.

***

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.

***

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.

 

Warming. Spiced. Moreish. Easy.

***

Food painting artwork

30 x 24cm acrylic and pen on cotton. Heavily influenced by Medieval illuminated manuscripts which seemed rather appropriate for such an ancient and traditional winter potation.

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

***

The meatless meals recipe

What better way to kick off the season of winter but with the happy warm glow of a mug or two of mulled wine? This recipe was collected and refined during my Scottish years but actually reminds me of late December afternoon at work in London when the whole office would get mulled wine ingredients together and the pot would brew away ready for knock off time. 

2 bottles red wine (1.5 L)
1 1/2 teaspoons coriander seeds
5-7cm cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon grated nutmeg
4 tablespoons sugar
12 cloves
1/2 L orange juice or more to taste

Put all the ingredients in a pot and heat gently for at least an hour.  Do not simmer or boil.

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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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