Feasting on Art

Chili, garlic, lime and coriander; these four flavours crop up in my recipes more often than not. When combined, they yield a dish that is flavoursome and bright, and can be applied to almost anything. This recipe for roasted pumpkin first appeared on my Christmas table a couple of years ago, and it produced so much enthusiasm that it has become a standard side-dish for many dinner parties. The recipe is obscenely easy and as a side dish, the flavours work year round and can accompany a range of mains from beef to pork and shellfish.

Only 9 more days to submit an entry to the Feasting on Art Recipe Contest. Show some love for Feasting on Art and enter if you haven’t done so already! Also, the concept for Feasting on Art is in the running for a recipe redesign contest at GOOD so please hop on over and click ‘Megan Fizell’ to vote.

François Bonvin, Still life with a Pumpkin, Peaches and a Silver Goblet on a Table Top, 1858
oil on canvas, 38 x 46cm, Private collection

Read the rest of this entry »

The decadence of the holidays coupled with two weeks of vacation has taken a toll on my palette and appetite. Although there is a definite lack of cream and butter-heavy dishes here in the Southern Hemisphere, the oil and fat of barbecued meats and deep-fried delights had me gravitating towards recipes that were light, clean and nourishing. I have been a long-time glutton for the bright green seaweed salads sold at most take-away sushi shops. This version uses reconstituted wakame seaweed, deep green, salty and earthy. The smallest slick of sesame oil cuts through the rice wine vinegar and fresh lemon juice. The brightness of the acid is balanced with the rich umami flavour of the soy sauce and the subtle heat of the dried chili. To welcome the New Year and revitalise an overwhelmed palette wakame seaweed salad just might become an annual tradition.

Utagawa Kuniyoshi (歌川国芳), Toto meisho 東都名所 (Famous Places in Edo) / Omori 大森1830-35, woodblock printed by Kagaya Kichibel (加賀屋), 25.4 x 36.7 cm, The British Museum

Read the rest of this entry »

Dating all the way back to the 16th century, potato salad was brought by the Spanish from the Americas to Europe. Their version was made by boiling potatoes in vinegar or wine – giving the starchy and often stodgy food a light and sour twang. The German variety, also made with vinegar was Americanised in the early 20th century via a generous dressing of mayonnaise (1). With my recipe, I wanted to recall the original tart flavour of the dish layered with sweet and salty ingredients, taking this salad beyond typical cook-out fare. This is my go-to recipe, scrawled on a stained and creased recipe card, copied and saved years ago from a long-forgotten source. The use of fresh dill is a necessity – not only for the taste, but also the smell when it is tossed with the hot roasted spuds.

Cornelius Hankins, Still Life with Potatoes, 1902
oil on canvas, 50.8 x 76.2 cm, Cheekwood Museum of Art

Read the rest of this entry »

This guest post is by my mother, Julie Fizell.

I thought it would be so fun to walk in Megan’s shoes for a while, and she agreed to a guest post.  Her father Ed and I quickly decided to make blackberry jelly.  We had made strawberry jam several times together and managed to stay married, so we thought we were up for the challenge.  The difference between jelly and jam is that jelly does not contain seeds.  No big deal, right?

We picked our blackberries along a secret dirt road in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula.  I’d tell you where the secret road is but I wasn’t paying attention as we bounced along.  We wore jeans and heavy shirts despite the hot weather – protection from the vicious thorns attached to blackberry brambles.  The blackberries in Raphaelle Peale’s still life look misleadingly innocent draped over the silver platter, so unlike their counterparts in the wild.  We were scratched, poked, and tripped by thorny stalks that attacked us as we waded through the thicket.  But we were successful!  After nearly an hour, Ed and I picked about three cups of luscious berries.   One cup I devoured immediately; the last two made it into our bucket.

Raphaelle Peale, Blackberries, c.1813
oil on wood panel, 18.4 x 26 cm, de Young Fine Art Museum

Read the rest of this entry »

On August 5th, the exhibition Slow Burn – A century of Australian women artists from a private collection, will open at the S.H. Ervin Gallery. I have spent the past four months working very hard on the exhibition catalogue and am very proud to be a co-author on such an exciting and important project. Of the 102 artists from the collection, I researched and wrote 47 of the bios – the reason the Feasting on Art posts have been quite infrequent. The collection ranges “from the delicate pastels of Janet Cumbrae Stewart to the modernist prints of Margaret Preston through to the bio-techno sculptures of Patricia Piccinini. The works in the exhibition demonstrate the skill and versatility of women artists over the past hundred years” (S.H. Ervin Gallery). In honour of the exhibition I plan to do a mini-series featuring a few of the artists represented in the collection as well as one or two of the artworks that I did not write about for the book. The exhibition will be on view at the S.H. Ervin Gallery until the 19th of September.

Margaret Olley, Still life with mandarins, c.1975
oil on board, 76 x 122 cm, Private collection

Read the rest of this entry »