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The Artful Kitchen: Julian Merrow-Smith

Lemons on a French Cloth

Inspired by A Painting A Day pioneer Duane Keiser, Julian Merrow-Smith has quietly and successfully been maintaining Postcard from Provence since 2004-- the year that high-speed internet access became available to Crillon-le-Brave.

Julian bought a one way ticket to Provence ten years ago, having taken redundancy from a job running art cinemas in London. Once there an old friend, writer Joseph Geary, who was living near Bedoin with his French wife, quickly found him somewhere to live. Julian started selling paintings soon after he arrived and has never looked back.

Still Life with Cup, Cherries and Apricot

I first found Merrow-Smith's work as I was surfing around the many, many Painting A Day blogs looking for paintings of food, as is my habit (and addiction). I was immediately taken with all of his work, which includes landscapes and portraits, and commissioned works, as well as the lovely postcard-size still life paintings included here. Julian tends toward still life because he loves the control he can exercise in setting up the composition, but adds that he likes painting landscapes for the opposite reason.

Fig Half and Goat's Cheese

When asked about selling over the internet as an alternative to gallery representation, Julian explained that the ease and universality of access is the main advantage, adding that it costs very little to build a web presence. He added that his ideal situation would still be a good dealer and/or galleries, but acknowledges that bypassing them gives some real freedom.

Green Bowl and Provencal Vegetables

Julian and his wife, Ruth, both love cooking, as is reflected in the lovely paintings included here and in Ruth's blog-- often featuring posts on the local food and markets-- as well as by their social life. They had Paul Levy and wife here to dinner last summer (a little scary, Julian admitted) and went to Lydie Marshall's Christmas party in Nyons (also Patricia Wells' home town) last month. Julian and Ruth count Jo Killeen and George Germon of Al Forno, in Rhode Island, as two of their closest friends and spent most of 2006 testing recipes for their new book. With credentials like these, of course I asked Julian for a favorite recipe, which is included at the end of this post. I certainly intend to try it!

Sleeping Kitten

Julian and Ruth share their home with three cats-- Oscar, Manon and a new kitten (as yet unnamed and known as "baby").

Most of the paintings in this post are available as prints. You can view more paintings at Postcard from Provence by category, from the Archives page. You can also subscribe and receive a postcard daily by email. And finally, if you find one of Julian's paintings irresistible you can register to bid at auction.

For a delicious pasta recipe, click the link.

What Should Jack Bring Back?

Jack leaves for the Italian Alps in a few days for his annual ski holiday. Then he'll be in London to check on our flat and just enjoy being back in England for a little while. I have already given him a list of basics (and a few luxuries) I want him to bring back:

1) The new Gordon Ramsay cookbook
2) McVities Chocolate Digestives
3) Fleur de sel
4) Tea
5) The Champagne Truffles I love so much from Harvey Nichols

But I'm sure there are items I am not thinking of. So, dear readers, what else should I add to Jack's list?

Daring Bakers: Lemon Meringue Pie

I joined Daring Bakers just in time for the December Challenge, which was a Christmas Yule Log and which required three components, two of which I had never made before in my life. I was scared, but it went surprisingly well. This month's challenge was chosen by Jen of The Canadian Baker. Her choice was to make Lemon Meringue Pie, which once again, I had never made before in my life.

For those of you unfamiliar with the Daring Bakers concept, it's an ever-growing group of food bloggers who commit each month to making and posting about the same exact recipe on the same exact day (which will explain why you have been seeing dozens and dozens of Lemon Meringue Pies today all around food blogland).

We were given the choice of making one large pie or making small free-form tartlets or mini pies. Naturally, being a true Mini Pie Revolutionary, I went with the last option. I'm happy to say that I had no trouble with any of the components. I loved the crust-- it was, as another DB-er observed, almost cookie-like. The filling came together like a charm, and tasted velvety and sweetly tart. My meringue behaved itself perfectly, but I did cheat here. Instead of putting the pies back into the oven to brown the meringue I put them under the broiler. I am convinced this kept the filling nice and stable.

The little tarts kept quite well, too. I made them on a Thursday and then stored them in a tightly sealed container in the refrigerator until my kids arrived to snarf them up on Friday and Saturday.

Thanks Jen, for a great challenge!

You can read the recipe if you click the link.

Proxy Taggee!

So Anne of Annechovie tagged Ann, and Ann (are there enough Ann/Annes going on here yet?), having already been tagged quite recently, decided to pass the tagging on to me. I am therefore the proxy taggee of the title. For those of you who have no idea what I am babbling about and who are probably thinking, "time to get the doctor to change the dosage, Jack", allow me to explain what it means to be tagged.

Here are the rules:
1. Link to your tagger and post these rules on your blog.
2. Share 5 facts about yourself on your blog, some random, some weird.
3. Tag 5 people at the end of your post by leaving their names as well as links to their blogs.
4. Let them know they are tagged by leaving a comment on their blog

So here goes...

5 Weird/random facts about me

I was a head chorister, and attended the 1970 RSCM festival in the Royal Albert Hall, where I sang as part of a choir of approximately 800 people from around the UK. Liz was in attendance.

My nickname at school was "Swot".

I have been interested in magic all my life and used to be pretty good at it.

At the age of 37 I voluntarily quit working for over a year, backpacked around Greece for three months with my ex-wife and...

...had a lot of fun playing guitar in a wholly unsuccessful but noisy and energetic rock band called Stink. That's us in the pic above. I am on the left, ably demonstrating the ancient art of "Guitar Face".

5 People I am tagging

Our adopted bloggers Psychgrad and Gizmar at Equal Opportunity Kitchen

Karyn at Hot Potato

Zenchef at Chefs Gone Wild

Ronell at My French Kitchen

Laurie Constantino at Mediterranean Cooking In Alaska

Looking forward to learning some more about you all!

 

Breakfast Couscous

Sweet couscous has a long history. In Tunisia it's called mesfouf and mixed with nuts, dates and spices for breakfast. In Morocco it's called seffa and served as a dessert combined with milk and orange blossom water.

We like this recipe, published in Cooking Light a while back. It was in a feature on easily portable healthy foods for camping and hiking, and has the advantage of allowing you to mix the dry ingredients ahead of time.

Breakfast Couscous
Cooking Light
3 servings

1 cup skim milk
¼ cup water
½ cup uncooked couscous
¼ cup dried cranberries
¼ cup raisins
¼ cup chopped walnuts
1 ½ tablespoon brown sugar
½ teaspoon cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon salt

Bring milk and water mixture to a simmer in a saucepan and then stir in the dry ingredients. Remove from heat, cover and let stand 10 minutes until thickened.

Our In-Box

Lately I've gotten several notes from readers here or over at The Mini Pie Revolution Headquarters. In December I received a cry for help from a grandfather getting ready to make mini pies with his two grand-daughters and recently received a follow-up letting me know  how it worked out.

Yesterday was a double pleasure, as my (snail) mail box contained a lovely little collection of favorite recipes sent to me by Anna, of Produce Stories. All of the recipes are vegetarian and I've already marked several to try, particularly her two risotto recipes (one with ramps and one with celariac and leeks). Thank you, Anna!

I also received an email from Shmuel in Israel, with a recipe and photos for Arbor Day (Mini) Pies (TU-B'Shvat cake). You can read Shmuel's first letter and learn about his Arbor Day Mini Pies over at The Mini Pie Revolution Headquarters.

As we were sending emails back and forth, Shmuel mentioned that he was very taken with the Tiny Pies video we posted and included some photos of his wife's work with miniatures (though not edible). How adorable is this tiny bakery?!

Of course I wrote back and asked for more detail. I received this very lovely response and permission to reprint it:

"My wife, for nearly 52 years already, Sarah is a fabulous, though very humble person. She is creative in so many ways that its difficult to know exectly where to begin. But concerning her work with miniatures has been going on for a long time. Some five years ago a small item in the newspaper caught her eye, about a miniaturist club that was being formed and anybody wishing to join, please contact Gloria. That was a great opportunity for her to develop her skills even more, each member showing and teaching the rest what could be done with materials at hand.

The general market for miniaturists supplies and materials in Israel being so limited don't encourage importers to stock even some of the basic materials so a lot of "McGuiver" methods have to be employed to make their wonderful items from scratch, some of which can be seen in the miniature bakery that I sent a photo of. That project took several months to complete. She used Fimo and other such clay-type materials to make breads, cakes, pizzas, cookies, and whatever it takes to stock a conditory, all within a 9" x 6" box with a depth of about 5".

The club has already exhibited many dozens of their creations at several shows but lately, whatever ways advancing age has of acting up, the club has sort of fallen apart. Now Sarah is working on a few projects simultaniously: "an archeological dig site" a "furniture emporium" and some other small scenes.

However her cooking abilities are "full sized" making it hard for me to keep up any successful diet. The mini-pies were my idea.

I'm sure shes not too keen on my telling all about her, she being so modest about herself, but I am proud of the many things she produced, including our three children."

Thank you, dear readers, for sharing a little bit of your life with me and for allowing me to share them on this blog. Shmuel, thank you especially for your glowing description of your wife and her work and congratulations on nearly 52 years of marriage!

Sugar High Friday: Baking with Candy

This month's Sugar High Friday (dreamed up by The Domestic Goddess) is being hosted by CandyRecapper and the theme is baking with candy. I immediately thought of peanut butter cups and banana, and turned to a recipe for Banana Cake I made a few weeks ago but didn't photograph. Yay! A chance to make it again with the addition of peanut butter cups!

Banana Peanut Butter Cupcakes

1/2 cup butter
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 cup mashed ripe banana (about 2 small to medium bananas)
3 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 cups sifted cake flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup soured milk or buttermilk
Reese's Peanut Butter Cups

Preheat the oven to 350 F. Use a muffin tin and paper liners, so that the candy doesn't stick to the bottom.

In a large mixing bowl cream butter and sugar. Add the mashed bananas and beat well, then add the eggs, one at a time, beating after each addition. Add the vanilla and chopped nuts.

Sift together the cake flour, baking powder, soda and salt and beat into the creamed mixture alternately with the buttermilk, beginning and ending with the dry ingredients. Beat for another minute or so.

Fill each muffin cup about 1/2 full and then place a peanut butter cup on top of the batter. Add enough batter to cover the candy and fill the muffin cup to just under the top. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes. Cool on wire racks for 10 minutes; remove from pans and cool thoroughly on racks.

Remove the paper from the cupcakes and place them on a rack (sit this on some foil or a baking sheet).  Melt good quality choclolate (I used bittersweet), and drizzle a little over the center of the cupcakes. Add a slice of banana and drizzle more chocolate.

They were very tasty, but I was hoping the candy would sit in the middle instead of sinking to the bottom. On the other hand, it's like having frosting on both ends!

Gotta Try That! MyFrenchKitchen's Lambshanks with Curried Sultana Sauce

I am constantly leaving comments on other people's blogs that say something along the lines of "I'm definitely going to try this!" or "This one is going on my 'must-try' list." But then I get caught up in all of the ideas I've already and never get around to it. So Jack and I resolved to pick at least one recipe from a blog post we've admired each month and re-create and/or re-interpret it.

Last week at the Union Square Greenmarket I lingered over some lovely lambshanks and then passed them by, as I wasn't feeling inspired.That same afternoon I found that Ronell, of MyFrenchKitchen, had just added a mouthwatering post about Lambshanks with Curried Sultana Sauce, and left her a comment stating that I'd trying her recipe soon.

Saturday was our weekly visit to the Greenmarket and we dropped by Catskill Merino and bought two lambshanks. On Sunday I re-interpreted Ronell's recipe for the slow cooker, and instead of rice I served it on couscous, as I feel the flavors are primarily Middle Eastern or Northern African. And we baked a sweet potato, scooping it piping hot from its skin, to go with it.

My photo doesn't do this dish justice, as Ronell's does (do go and have a look!), but we loved the dish. We knew it was going to be something special as soon as those classic, bright spice aromas started to fill the kitchen but the taste exceeded those expectations. Not only was this a subtle, scented delight but the texture of the sauce was seductively suave and silky; the meat had been delicately but not overpoweringly flavoured and it came off the bone with barely a brush of the fork. Superb. Thanks, Ronell!

Homegrown Gourmet: Cheese, Onion and Potato Bread

Gretchen Noelle at Canela & Comino is hosting an event featuring quick bread made from homegrown ingredients or having some sort of connection with your local area. As soon as I read the particulars of the event I remembered a quick bread I used to make many years ago: Cheese, Onion and Potato Bread. This is a very simple and tasty recipe which completely fits the bill except I couldn't really say that the ingredients are exactly New York specialities. However, on a recent Saturday morning stroll around the Union Square farmer's market I noticed that I could buy most of the ingredients there, from New York producers. So I decided to buy locally grown potato, thyme and spring onions, some eggs and a lovely-looking truncated pyramid of goats' cheese from a couple of upstate farms, and to make this my entry for the event.

Cheese, Onion and Potato Bread
Serves 4

4 oz firm goats' cheese (feta works too), cut into fairly small cubes (about 1/4")
5 spring onions, trimmed and sliced
1 red potato, grated
1 large egg
1 heaped tsp fresh thyme
2 tbsp milk
1 tsp salt
6 oz (1.5 cups) self-raising flour (or plain + 1 tbsp baking powder and 1/2 tsp salt)
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
1 tsp grain mustard

Heat your oven to 375 degrees. Put the grated potato into a mixing bowl and sift the flour, salt and cayenne pepper onto it. Add the onions, thyme and 2/3 of the cheese. Mix thoroughly. Beat the egg with the milk and mustard, add it to the bowl and mix everything together thoroughly until you have a moist, rough dough. Be aware that this won't look or feel like regular dough: it will be much stickier. Fear not, this is normal. Get plenty of flour on your hands to stop sticking, then transfer the dough to a well-greased baking sheet and form into a rough round. Push the remaining cubes of cheese into the surface, evenly spaced, dust lightly with flour then bake in the centre of the oven for 40 - 45 minutes.

The result should be a small loaf with a rugged exterior and a soft, savoury interior, and it should taste wonderful. Fortunately this one did, even though it'd been something like twelve years since I last made this.

Fresh Greenmarket Ravioli With Browned Butter and Thyme

Our bags just aren't as heavy anymore when we make our way home from the Union Square Greenmarket on Saturdays. We're getting a little tired of root vegetables and apples, to be honest, and I've noticed that we're mainly buying non-produce products, like organic meats and eggs or baked goods and cheeses, or NYC roof-top honey (the crystalized stuff is pure heaven on toast!).

I wouldn't mind so much if the weather would just settle into something approximating winter. We've really only had a few truly cold days and when it's unseasonably warm I find myself wanting warm-weather produce and feeling reluctant to spend the day creating a braise of meat with winter veggies or a pot of chili or stew.

Yesterday we did buy some lambshanks and I will spend today making something wonderful with them, but we were also seduced by fresh cheese ravioli, and had them for dinner last night. Serve with browned butter and thyme along with a green salad for a lazy but delicious meal that's ready in just five minutes.