Food and Artists

I have an ongoing interest in Food Art. Food Artists continue to redefine the relationship between Art and Food. It is not just about the plate and the table anymore. Or even the advertising business. It seems like a culture shift. We are looking at food itself in new ways.

I thank Providence for visually oriented folks like Ms. Alice Yoo who created Fine Art of Food.  Go there for more images that will startle and amaze.

Fantastic Food Photo Manipulations by Jean Francois De Witte

Incredible Food Landscapes by Carl Warner

Hyperrealistic Food Paintings by Tjalf Sparnaay

English Cottage Pie

This is another recipe from Sadie Dell. She writes:

 “Proper English Cottage Pie is a delicious, very traditional mince pie topped with mashed Potato. Serve with garden or mushy peas.”

Ingredients

1 pound lean ground Beef

1 Onion, diced

3 Carrots, diced

2 tablespoons all-purpose Flour

½ teaspoon ground Nutmeg 

1 tablespoon Italian Seasoning

2 tablespoons chopped fresh Parsley

1 ½ cups Beef Broth

1 tablespoon Tomato Paste

Salt and Pepper to taste

4 Potatoes, peeled and diced

¼ cup Butter, softened

1 cup Milk

Salt and Pepper to taste

¼ pound shredded Cheddar Cheese

Directions

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Place a large skillet over medium heat. Crumble in ground Beef and saute one minute. Add Onion and Carrot and continue to saute until Meat is no longer pink and Onion begins to brown, about 5 minutes.

Mix in Flour, Nutmeg, mixed Herbs and Parsley. In a small bowl, combine Beef Broth and Tomato Paste. Mix together and then add to the Beef mixture. Add Salt and Pepper to taste. Lower heat and simmer for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally, until almost all of liquid has been absorbed. Spoon the mixture into a 9 inch pie plate.

Place diced potatoes in a medium saucepan. Cover with water and boil until potatoes are tender. Drain. Mash Potatoes until smooth, and then add Butter and Milk. Whip until fluffy. Add Salt and Pepper to taste. Spread potatoes over Beef filling. Sprinkle with Cheddar Cheese. Bake for 25 minutes until top is browned and Cheese is bubbly.

Beautiful Soup So Rich and Green

BEAUTIFUL Soup, so rich and green,
Waiting in a hot tureen!
Who for such dainties would not stoop?
Soup of the evening, beautiful Soup!
Soup of the evening, beautiful Soup!
- by Lewis Carroll

January is National Soup Month. I love soup both hot and cold. The soup recipe below had its start with a recipe by Poppy Cannon in Eating European at Home and Abroad published by Doubleday in 1961. I altered it to suit our family. Poppy Cannon (August 2, 1905 - April 1975) was at various times the food editor of the Ladies Home Journal and House Beautiful.

Perhaps best known for her books on food, Miss Cannon was also the author of 2,000 magazine articles on a variety of topics, and wrote newspaper columns ranging from fashion and travel to race relations as well as poetry and fiction. Read more...

Emeril LaGasse makes this Portugese soup with linguica sausage added. I have tried that and my children like this Vegan version better.

Ingredients for Caldo Verde Soup:

6 Potatoes
4 tablespoons Olive Oil
¼ teaspoon Black Pepper
1 tablespoon Salt
1 Dried Hot Pepper (optional)
4 cups shredded Greens (Kale or Turnip are especially good)
2-6 cloves fresh Garlic
2 quarts Water

Wakame finely shredded with scissors (optional and to taste)

Peel and slice the potatoes. Cover with water and add olive oil and peeled garlic cloves, and cook until tender. Remove the Hot Pepper. Mash the potatoes and garlic in the broth. Add salt and pepper. Then add 4 cups shredded fresh greens or one large package of frozen greens and the wakame if using it. I almost always use frozen because it’s faster than shredding fresh greens and the results are good. Cook for an hour or until the greens are tender.

Note: If you are cooking for dedicated hot food haters, make Caldo Verde without the hot pepper and serve Louisiana hot sauce or Tabasco as a condiment. Ms. Cannon writes that this soup may be made with a combination of cabbage and spinach. I found that combination insipid. She also does not include garlic. I don’t think she would recognize my version but I must thank her for the fabulous start.

And to those who know and love Lewis Carroll as much as I, please forgive the poetic license and quotation wantonness. I know the soup spoken of was Turtle, Mock Turtle.

The Other French Onion Soup

It is icy and cold in Philadelphia. I want hot comforting soup. January is National Soup Month so I am republishing this easy Soup recipe.

This onion and cheese soup is simple to make, really tasty, and does not require any special cooking skill at all.  The quantity is infinitely expandable, just maintain the proportion of  equal weights of onion to potato. Serves 2 to 4 people.

3 large potatoes
3 large onions
8 ounces Swiss Cheese (quantity to taste)
Garnish of Minced Celery Tops

Peel onions and potatoes and place them in a deep soup pot. Be generous about removing outer layers of onion that are too tough to cook. Add enough water to cover the vegetables plus one inch above them. Bring water to a boil, then turn down and simmer until onions and potatoes are very soft. Grate the cheese. Mash the vegetables in their own broth when tender. Season with Salt and Pepper. Stir the cheese into the hot soup and serve. Garnish with minced celery tops.

Note: Do not overcook or it will be glue. Cook only until the vegetables can be pierced with a fork. You want some texture in your soup.

You may wish to substitute another cheese or garnish (minced parsley, bacon bits, etc.).  I prefer the combination above, as taught me by an elderly French woman whose surname I never learned. She was Madame Sophie always. A little green salad and some good bread and I feel a happy well fed person.

White Deviled Chicken

This dish is from Virginia and is of British origin. I found the recipe in Nika Hazelton's American Home Cooking. This out of print cookbook is a selection of recipes from all regions of the United States. I would never part with my copy.

Ms. Hazelton was an expatriate from England who married an American. This cookbook of hers is not just an exercise in ego. Every recipe works.

She published 30 books and they reflected her firm, no-nonsense taste in food. "American Home Cooking" (Bobbs Merrill, 1967), "French Home Cooking" (Viking Penguin, 1979,) "International Cookbook" (Harper & Row, 1967) and "The Italian Cookbook (Henry Holt, 1979) remain standards. Read more...

DEVILed Chicken

Here are the Ingredients - To Devil Four Servings:

3 cups 1/2 inch cooked chicken pieces, white meat only
1 1/2 cups heavy cream
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
1 teaspoon dry mustard
1/4 teaspoon Tabasco or to taste
salt
freshly ground pepper
hot buttered toast

Place the chicken in a generously buttered 1 1/2 quart baking dish, the dish should not be too deep. Whip the cream until stiff. Stir in the Worcestershire sauce, dry mustard, Tabasco, and a little salt and pepper. Spoon mixture over the chicken. Cook in a preheated hot oven (400 degrees) for ten minutes. Serve immediately on hot plates, with hot buttered toast.

Do this dish for company. So elegant. More than worth the trouble to whip the cream. It is divine. Even though it is also Deviled.

Date Pie

This Pie recipe comes from Simpson-Fletcher's Soul Food Recipes. Seems like the perfect Pie for Winter when there is no fresh native Fruit.

Dates have been a staple food of the Middle East and the Indus Valley for thousands of years. Date Palms are believed to have originated around Iraq, and have been cultivated since ancient times from Mesopotamia to prehistoric Egypt, possibly as early as 4000 BCE.

Miss Melvina Price's Date Pie

1 cup chopped Dates
3/4 cup of Sugar
2 Eggs, separated
1/2 cup chopped Pecans
1 cup Butter
1/4 cup Milk
1/2 teaspoon Nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon Salt
1 unbaked Pie Crust

Cream Butter and Sugar together until light and fluffy. Add beaten Egg Yolks. Blend in milk. Beat well. Stir in Pecans and Dates. Beat Egg Whites until stiff. and fold into the Date mixture. Bake at 350 degrees until set and browned. This Pie is good served with Whipped Cream, Ice Cream, or Custard Sauce.