***

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.

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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.

Zesty. Rich. Satisfying. Leisurely.

***

Food painting artwork

30 x 30cm oil on marine ply panel - no framing required. A surreal sight floating past on a summers day.

Original painting on your wall.

Find out what this painting would look like on your wall before buying. Email me a photo of your space and I'll Photoshop it into size and place to help you decide if it's right for you.

Original artwork can be purchased in the Official Art Store. This particular piece is dry and available right now for $AU150. Email me (fi at wherefishsing dot com) to express your interest.

***

The recipe

Once upon a time I lived in a shared rented house with a friend whose recreation mostly consisted of drinking and whose friends were probably alcoholics. I was a student and seeing these guys drink a slab of beer each on the weekend and hearing about them getting their name engraved on the bar for some drinking feat or other was just normal. This particular house had a lemon tree in the backyard. One weekend, I'm telling the tale of how I had just chased some kid who was collecting lemons without asking, over the six foot fence and out of the yard. I would have said yes had he bothered with common courtesty and helped him gather them, but just hopping over the fence was outrageous to me. My friend becomes all fired up about the overload of lemons on the tree, and excitedly asks the little group of his drinking buddies and I, 'What do you do with loads of lemons?'. We all look at each other and say together, 'Tequila!'. Cue shocked expression and pure disappointment from our alcohol friendly questioner, 'Nooooo, LEMON MERIGUE PIE!!!!'.

LMP is one of those recipes that is far more susceptable than most to the experience and knack of the cook. Recipes are only ever guides or roadmaps due to variations in oven and stove temperatures, ambient temperatures, seasonality of the ingredients, the size and material of the cooking pot (and some might say which way the wind is blowing and what the cook ate for breakfast). Unfortunately this dish is renowned as a tricky one and for good reason. Your familiarity with your stove and oven will be tested and the more meringues you have whipped the better you will be at gauging when the foam is ready to cook. Rest assured, that no matter how many times you have to practice this to get it spot on, the tests that might look a little wonky will taste great.


1 pre-baked short crust pastry case of 9" diameter - the pastry needs to be cooked before the filling is added as there is not enough baking time or heat to cook it once the pie is assembled and in the oven.

4 tablespoons arrowroot / tapioca flour - use arrowroot instead of cornflour as it is stronger, has less taste and is transparent instead of cloudy.
3/4 cup / 180ml water
1/3 cup / 60g butter
1 cup sugar or more to taste
5 eggs, separated into yolks and whites - room temperature eggs are best as they whip up into meringue faster than cold ones. Also fresh eggs make a smaller but stable foam, while older ones (more than 3-4 days) make a large unstable foam. Take your pick.
3 medium sized lemons - you need all the zest and juice. Handy hint - zest first!
10 tablespoons castor sugar for the meringue - use castor sugar as it is a small sized grain and dissolves quickly into the meringue. Less sugar can be used but the meringue will be correspondingly less stable.
2 1/2 teaspoons cornflour or arrowroot - a tiny bit of this in the meringue traps moisture and reduces beading.
rounded 1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar - this strengthens the meringue foam and reduces the amount of  shrinking.


Pre-bake (bake blind) your pastry case and leave it in the baking tin.
Get/leave the oven on so it will be at 190C /325F when the pie is assembled.

For the lemon filling:
In a pot, blend the arrowroot and water.
Add the cup of sugar, egg YOLKS only, and the lemon zest and juice and mix together. A small whisk is really handy for this. Make sure the the yolks are well mixed in before the next step or you end up with eggy threads throughout the lemon filling (harmless but odd).
Then put the butter in the pot and begin heating. Once you start heating this mix do not pause or stop or it will not set. Stir frequently.
As soon as most of the sugar has dissolved, taste and add more sugar to this mix if you prefer it sweeter. I like this quite tart as the meringue is quite sweet.
Now, heat, stirring constantly, until the mixture boils. Again, a small whisk is ideal for the stirring.
Turn the heat down to medium and keep stirring while the mix cooks for one minute. It should become impossibly thick.
Take it off the heat and let it cool slightly for a few minutes, then pour the mix into the pre-baked pastry case.

To make the meringue topping:
Combine the castor sugar, cornflour/arrowroot and cream of tartar. 
In a scrupulously clean bowl (no oil or fats allowed or your egg whites just won't whip up into fluffy heaven), beat the egg whites into a coarse foam.
Once you start whipping the whites, do not pause or stop.
Now begin adding the sugar mix, one tablespoon at a time. Don't start with the sugar in with the whites or the whipping time will be doubled.
Cautiously add the sugar because if it's added too quickly it won't dissolve. A tablespoon at a time, whip until mostly dissolved, then add more. Rubbing the meringue between two fingers will tell you how much the sugar has dissolved. You can feel the grains.
Finally, whip the egg whites until they are stiff. You know they are stiff when you can make little mountains (peaks) and they stay standing up with no flopping over of their tips. Or when an upsidedown spoonful stays on the spoon. Or when tracks spooned through the meringue stay put indefinately. If the meringue starts to lose it's gloss while you are whipping, stop! That is the sign of over whipping.
When the meringue is ready - pile it on top of the hot lemon mix in the pastry case. The heat of the filling helps cook the meringue from the bottom and a properly cooked meringue does not weep and form a pool of liquid on top of the lemon filling leading to the meringue sliding off the lemon.
Also make sure the filling is entirely covered and the pastry meets the meringue all the way round to make a complete seal. This helps to stop the meringue shrinking.
Bake immediately to set the meringue at 190C for 25 minutes or until the meringue on top has browned lightly. A long baking at a low temperature means the meringue will hold up better, though all meringue will shrink a bit.

Resist eating instantly - LET THE PIE COOL FOR AT LEAST THREE HOURS, PREFERABLY FOUR, BEFORE CUTTING INTO IT OR ALL YOU WILL GET IS RUNAWAY LEMON SLUDGE. I know from sad experience.

Makes enough for you to be decadent with 5-7 friends.

***

Food painting artwork

30 x 30cm oil on linen. A literal interpretation of 'banana bread' - a banana which turns into a loaf- which inevitably has a touch of the surreal. Painted in a pop art icon style reminiscent of the 1960's and similar in style to a previous painting, Mushroom Burgers.

Interior photo by suzettesuzette

Original art on your wall.

Like this painting but having trouble picturing what this might look like on your wall? Email me a photo of your space and I'll Photoshop it into place (like I did with the picture above) so you can get an idea of it framed, hung and to scale.

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. Alternatively, email me to let me know you're interested (fi at wherefishsing dot com).

***

The meatless meals recipe

After you're done with making smoothies, banana splits, instant icecream and fruit salad, you could try this way of eating the cargo loads of summer bananas. As a bonus, it is easier to mash defrosted bananas than fresh ones, so you can just pop any older bananas in the freezer and pull them out when you're ready to use them up.

2 cups self raising flour

1/4 teaspoon bicarb soda (the banana is heavy, extra rising power is required)

1/2 teaspoon salt

3/4 cup sugar

3 eggs, beaten

1 cup mashed bananas (approximately 3 medium bananas) - frozen then defrosted is easiest

1/2 cup milk

Thoroughly mix dry ingredients together.
Gradually mix in the wet ingredients, one by one in the order given, into a well in the centre of the bowl.
Pour into a VERY well greased (get into those corners and thoroughly coat the bottom) loaf tin (rectangular, approx 10 x 22cm).
Bake at 220C for 10 minutes.
Reduce oven to 180C and continue baking for at least 50 minutes and until a dry knife stabbed into the centre comes out moist but clean.
Let it stand in the tin for 5-10 minutes before trying to turn it out. This greatly increases the likelihood of it coming out in one piece.
Sit on a wire rack to cool.

Serve slices as is, or lightly toasted and smothered with butter.

Makes one banana loaf.

Fun. Spiced. Homely. Robust.

***

Food painting artwork

30 x 30cm oil on linen. Ready to have some fun? Relive some happy childhood memories?  Dump your diary in the bin, clear the kitchen table, sit down with a bunch of friends and have an innocent child-at-heart partytime. 

Remember -  play with your food!


Original artwork can be purchased in the Official Art Store. To be kept updated on available paintings, get on the mailing list, yellow box top left.

***

The meatless meals recipe

This quote from a recipe tester says it all, "makes commercial gingerbread look like sweet sludge". 

This gingerbread has a real and robust flavour that you can actually taste. It's just as easy to make as any other gingerbread. The secret ingredient is glace ginger. 

1/2 cup golden syrup or similar
1/4 cup raw sugar
3 tablespoons butter
1 tablespoon milk
1 tablespoon ground ginger
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 1/2  tablespoons finely chopped glace ginger (the secret ingredient)
1/2 teaspoon bicarb soda
pinch ofsalt
2 cups plain flour
several tablespoons water as needed

Heat the golden syrup almost to the boil, then add sugar, butter and milk. Mix well until sugar is dissolved and butter melted then remove from the heat source.
Mix the dry ingredients together, including the glace ginger.
Slowly add dry to wet ingredients, mixing carefully to avoid lumps.  A few tablespoons of water may be needed to make a dough that will hold together and can be handled easily.
Roll out to 3/4 cm thick.  Cut out fun shapes.  Decorate with currants, sultanas and candied citrus peel if you want.
Bake for 5-7 mins in 180C/350F oven.
Eat straight away or cool on a wire rack if you can resist.

Makes about a dozen 10cm tall gingerbread people.

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.

Unusual. Delicate. Versatile. Thrifty.

***

Food painting artwork

30 x 30cm oil and graphite on linen. A modern botannical style representation of the rosehips essential to this recipe. Part oil painting and part drawing. Full of life. A mixed media experiment that worked rather well, don't you think?

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.

***

The meatless meals recipe

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.

Easy. Homely. Thrifty. Satisfying.

***

Food painting artwork

25 x 30cm 190?gsm watercolour paper collage. Inspired by the texture of the pudding itself, we have triangles of bread and pieces of dried fruit, all made from paper and overlayed with a semi transparent sheet of paper hand lettered in coloured pencil with the actual recipe in a bold and magazine-layout influenced style.

This piece is one of the original artworks from the first incarnation of the recipe book from around 10 years ago. The original concept was the same as the current one, with one important difference. Originally the entire book was going to be hand lettered and the artwork for each recipe was going to include the text as part of the design as you can see here. Clearly I didn't realise what a tremendous amount of painstaking work that was going to be. The project was abandoned. It's only now with a gentle shove from hubby and the more sensible separation of text and images that the cookbook is back and humming along.

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

***

The meatless meals recipe

This is our family bread and butter pudding. It's a traditional English recipe that I remember both my mother and grandmother making. Most memorable comment from a recipe tester guinea pig went something like, 'Fabbo. Cannot be beaten. Not even with a stick.'

6-8 slices (stale) bread

1 egg

1 1/2 cups dried fruit (and nuts and seeds - currants, raisins, sultanas, sunflower seeds, almonds)

1 teaspoon mixed spice (ground ginger, cinnamon, cardamom, cloves, nutmeg)

1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

1 teaspoon baking powder ( this can be left out if you don't mind the pudding being a bit flatter than it would otherwise)

2 tablespoons (brown) sugar

1 tablespoon butter

4-5 cups milk

Heat oven to 350-400 F

Grease a basin to cook the pudding in (approx 20x20x5cm)

Break the egg into a flat bottomed container/bowl and beat with 1-2 cups milk (the more bread slices used the more milk you'll need here).  Soak half the bread slices in this, squeezing the liquid in.  Cover the bottom of the basin with these slices. 

Top with the fruit/nuts/seeds.  Sprinkle the spices and baking powder on evenly all over. 

Soak and squeeze the remaining bread and use to cover the fruit.  Tip any excess egg & milk mix in too.  Top evenly with butter and sugar.  Fill the basin to the top of the bread with milk. 

Bake in the oven for 30-40 minutes until the top has browned and no running liquid is left.

Serves 4

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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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4 (cooking) apples
1 citrus fruit
1/2 cup dried fruit (sultanas/raisins/currants)
4 teaspoons honey
4 dobs butter (1 teaspoons total)
approx 1 cup water

Juice the citrus and soak the dried fruit in this, squeezing the juice through.
Grease a baking tray with sides or use a baking dish.
Core apples.  Score an equator around each one, just to break the skin so it doesn't burst (the skin contracts on cooking).  Place the apples on the tray.
Half stuff each apple firmly with the soaked fruit.  Put 1 teaspoon of honey in each and then complete stuffing them.  Top each with a dob of butter.
Tip any spare citrus juice into the tray and top up with water up to (max) 1/2 cm.  This creates a nice juice to serve with and prevents the apples from drying out.
Put in a 180 C/375F oven for 30 mins or until apples have started to brown.

Serves 4 with custard.

Filling. Rich. Homely. Satisfying.

***

Food painting artwork

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

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

***

The meatless meals recipe

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

1/2 oz butter

1 oz sugar

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

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

6 tablespoons jam

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

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

3 oz butter

3 oz castor sugar

4 oz sr flour

2 eggs

1-2 tablespoons warm water

1/2 teaspoon vanilla essence

This is the actual cake part of the pudding.

Cream the fat and sugar well together.

Beat in the eggs one at a time. 

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

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

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

Great with icecream etc.

Upsidedown pudding here we come say 4 watering mouths!

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More vegetarian cookbook goodies

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

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

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Easy. Versatile. Homely. Chunky.

Ever tried out a fancy complicated recipe that just did not live up to it's potential? And then tried out a really simple and quick recipe that knocked your socks off? This was like that. I had, and still have, a fancy recipe for stewed fruit that refuses to produce a result anything like this one. This one, which I threw together in a fit of disgust after yet another dull result from the fancy pants concoction. It was a winner. It's easy, repeatable, allows the fruit flavour to shine, always gets compliments and produces lovely stewed fruit from every fruit I've tried (apples, pears, quince, stonefruits). That fancy pants recipe is headed for the compost.

1kg chopped, deseeded etc fruit

juice of one juicy orange

2 generous tablespoons honey

1 teaspoon vanilla essence

up to 1 cup or 250ml water (start with 1/4 cup water as fruit gives out liquid so you need a lot less than you might think. Just add 1/4 cup at a time as necessary to prevent the fruit sticking)

Put all the ingredients in a pot and simmer gently with the lid off for at least 20 minutes until the fruit is soft.

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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.

+++

Chunky. Not too sweet. Unusual. Warm.

When I lived in Scotland was when I was introduced to the utter delight of green tomato jam. It was a drizzly day, cold but insulated somewhat by all the clouds. I was on Experience Week at Findhorn. We were out gardening in the drizzle. Covering various outside plants in the vegetable garden with straw as protection against the upcoming frosts. We broke for tea. We had hot mugs of weak tea with cold crunchy toast topped with green tomato jam. Partly due to being cold and damp and partly due to the marvelous jam, I was smitten. I failed to get the recipe from the kitchen and it's taken years to find a comparable version of this jam. Now here it is. Thanks to a touch of internet sleuthing and a large dollop of reverse engineering.

2 pounds (900g) of green tomatoes, after being washed, chopped into wedges and deseeded

up to 2 cups sugar / 385g

juice of 1 lemon

7cm stick of cinnamon

5cm piece of fresh ginger, grated or minced

After washing, chopping and deseeding the tomatoes, dice them.

Combine the tomato chunks, sugar, lemon juice and ginger in a pot. Cover, and leave overnight in the fridge.

Next day, add the cinnamon.

Put the pot on the stove and bring to the boil.

Then reduce to a low heat and cook for 10 minutes.

Cover and refrigerate again.

Next day, repeat.

Skim off any muck if necessary.

Check the set of the jam and cook on if it needs it.

Put in sterilized jars and seal.

This jam comes out thick, chunky and substantial, with a hint of warmth.

+++

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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