Feasting on Art

Sometimes the lack of a complicated recipe puts a block on all of my writing efforts. I wonder if it is necessary to share a sandwich recipe so simple that essentially it reads, bread, butter and cucumber – assemble. These dainty finger sandwiches were first made by my friend Mel who lined them up on their edges to make a pattern of bread, bread, butter, cucumber, bread, bread, butter, cucumber…. The combination of fragrant butter and crunchy sour cucumbers was utter perfection. So simple yet so satisfying. I added flakes of sea salt to my sandwiches to give a bit more texture and found that if made in the evening and stored in the fridge overnight, become even better the next day.

Luis Meléndez, Still Life with Cucumbers and Tomatoes Together with a Knife and other Kitchen Utensils upon a Wooden Table, 35.5 x 48cm, oil on canvas, Private collection

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In the most basic sense, Egg and cauliflower still life by George Lambert is a study in texture. The bulging florets of cauliflower are offset by the smooth shell of the egg. In a memorable dish, the combination of texture is just as important as the fusion of flavour. Taking a cue from Lambert’s textural investigation, the recipe for pan-fried buttered cauliflower with a poached egg seeks to maintain the differences in texture in the resulting dish. By roughly chopping the cauliflower into a range of sizes, the contrast in shape allows the smaller fragments to become dark and crispy while the larger florets maintain their form and become soft to the tooth. The almonds add a bit more crunch and the poached egg provides a luxuriously smooth sauce. Cobbled together in less that twenty minutes, the dish works equally well as the centerpiece of a weekend brunch or a quick weeknight meal.

George Lambert, Egg and cauliflower still life, 1926
oil on canvas, 34.3 x 44.1 cm, Art Gallery of South Australia

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