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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.

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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.

Easy. Satisfying. Creamy. Delicate.

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Food painting artwork

30 x 30cm acrylic on canvas. Inspiration? Stroganoff is meant to originally hail from Russia. While perusing all things Russian for clues to drop into the idea pot, I predictably came across pictures of the very photogenic Saint Basil's Cathedral (1555-61). Apparently it is a showcase of medieval Russian architecture. So they say, but try and tell me that this famous building does not resemble a clump of brightly coloured fairytale mushrooms? Go on. Is it just me?

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

My Russian friend is adamant that her country's cuisine is meat only. That does seem to be true for genuine and authentic Russian recipes. For dishes like this one and the Borscht of a few weeks months ago, that are in the spirit of Russian cuisine but with not a scrap of meat in sight, I say stand back and let the Russian flavours into the land of the vegetarians.


1 1/2 tablespoons butter
1/2 onion, diced
375g assorted mushrooms, in slices or chunks. Go wild & have fun with your mushroom varieties, or not, as you prefer
1 teaspoon flour
30ml red wine
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
1/3 cup sour cream
1/4 cup thick cream
1/4 cup strong stock
3/4 tablespoon fresh chopped parsley
2 tablespoons fresh chopped coriander - optional
In autumn while there is still fresh dill around, skip the coriander and use 3/4 tablespoon fresh chopped dill. It's quite special if you like the flavour of dill.

Melt the butter and saute the onion until soft.
Add the mushrooms and cook gently for 20 minutes to caramelise, stirring often.
Sprinkle flour on and keep stirring and cooking for a minute or three.
Add stock, red wine, cream, sour cream and mustard.
Simmer on low to meld the flavours and thicken for 5 minutes.
Stir in the herbs and adjust salt and pepper to taste.
Serve over pasta, rice, mashed potatoes or frites, depending on your preferred regional variation!

Makes a tasty meal for 2.

Warming. Spiced. Rich. Moreish.

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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.

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The meatless meals recipe

Chunky. Satisfying. Creamy. Filling.

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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.

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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.

Easy. Versatile. Thrifty. Fingerfood.

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Food painting artwork

30 x 30cm acrylic on paper. The paper is no ordinary paper, it is textured Hahnemuhle 300 gsm 100% alpha cellulose which is acid-free fibre of vegetable origin.

In perusing the interwebs for inspiration of the parsnippy variety I wandered across this Irish saying which involves said vegetable; "Soft words butter no parsnips". It's supposed to mean that kind words will not put food on the table, hence the empty bowl in the painting. The full saying is, "soft words butter no parsnips but they won't harden the heart of the cabbage either", which I interpret as, although kind words won't put food in your bowl, they won't do any harm either. I'm happy to be corrected. Style-wise this piece is after Irish artist Anji Allen who specialises in the beauty of everyday objects, often related to food.

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

I first came across parsnip chips in Scotland. They arrived on my plate along with a vegetarian haggis that I was trying in a cafe. I think it might have been the wonderful 'Lost Sock Diner' of Edinburgh which was helpfully attached to a laundromat. A useful, no genius, setup. Anyway, back to the food. The haggis wasn't bad, really. The Scots have had hundreds of years perfecting cooking with oatmeal, turnip, salt, pepper and not a lot else in the vege department. However it was the sweetish, crunchy parsnip chips that really grabbed my attention. And then my friends mentioned how unimpressed they were as parsnips chips were so easy to make at home. What?! Of course I had to try making them myself.

Note well that like tomatoes, organic parsnips have a LOT more flavour than their supermarket cousins.

parsnips, chopped into 1cm thick matchsticks (400g equals a snack for 2)

olive oil

salt

pepper

Heat your oven to around 215 C. I have found 200 C to be too low - the chips end up oily and soggy - and 230 C to be too hot - the chips burn as they cook. You will have to experiment a little because all ovens vary.

Figure out how many trays you need by test-placing the chips on trays in a single layer only.

Remove the chips and lightly cover the tray with oil. Put it in the oven when the oven has reached temperature. Leave it long enough to heat the oil up. Clue - if it's smoking it's definitely hot enough!

Meanwhile, put all the chips in a bowl, drizzle with olive oil  and season generously with salt and pepper. Toss to coat all over.

When the oiled tray is hot enough, tip and spread the chips out on the tray.

Roast for 15 minutes.

Stir and turn over.

Cook up to another 15 minutes. They may take less time as parsnips burn easily on account of their high sugar content so keep an eye on them.

Enjoy as a snack or side dish as a variation on potato chips. By the way, most root vegetables can be chipped successfully. Have a play! Imagine a mixed potato, carrot, parsnip chip adventure...