best illustrated food blog

Bonjour Kale Gimlet!

A few weeks ago, I got to tell my long story about how I ended up in Paris on my favourite podcast Radio Cherry Bombe. Although it really is like any other coming-of-age story set to a slightly soundstage-y backdrop, I talked about the moment where I finally decided I would move back to Paris for good and commit to the complicated life of being a professional illustrator. And I would not look back, doing whatever I could to manifest that dream. Luckily Paris has introduced me to many other wonderful women who have moved to this difficult city and have created and pursued their own projects with great zeal and grace.

My great friend Kristen Beddard of The Kale Project’s new book Bonjour Kale: A Memoir of Paris, Love, and Recipes (Sourcebooks) is a heartfelt story of starting over in a freakishly foreign place like Paris, sans job, sans projects. The biggest cultural difference was she couldn’t even find her ideal comfort food, kale. Kale in France had disappeared throughout the decades as it become an unpalatable taste of wartimes. In the meantime, it had even become a decorative plant. When I moved to Paris 8 years ago, I chuckled seeing kale cozied in next to the pansies in my neighborhood flower garden. (Foraging for Dummies, right up my ally!)

I can truly say that Kristen was one of the courageous people who brought a new wave of eating to the French plate. Three years ago, I tried and tried to pitch veggie-based cookbooks to editors and it was firmly always “too soon”. But now there is cashew cream served in carnivorous restaurants, organic grocery stores outnumbering their contemporaries, a general curiosity about things like chia seeds and how to eat better to feel better. And that’s no small feat in a country steeped in tradition like France.

In honor of the release of Bonjour Kale today, Kristen let me illustrate one of her favorite recipes from her book, a kale gimlet. It’s a sweet and spicy ode to her single days before her monumental move to Paris.

Order Bonjour Kale HERE.

Oh, and I also illustrated the cover, too! 🙂

Kale and Tequila Gimlet (from Bonjour Kale by Kristen Beddard, Sourcebooks)

Ingredients:
1/2 bunch kale
1/2-1 inch piece fresh ginger
1 1/2 shots lime juice
1 shot tequila
1/2 shot Grand Marnier
Agave syrup, to taste
1 handful cilantro
6 ice cubes

Preparation:
Juice the kale and ginger in a juicer. Measure out one shot of the juice. Pour the kale-ginger juice, lime juice, tequila, Grand Marnier, agave syrup and cilantro into a shaker with the ice. Shake vigorously. Pour and enjoy!

Yield: 1 drink

6 insider tips for beautiful coloring!

Yes, I published a coloring book, Edible Paradise: A Coloring Book of Seasonal Fruits and Vegetables (Universe). But what do I actually know about coloring? To fully embrace the experience from black and white to color, I took on the looming task of coloring in 3 copies of my book (And they’re almost finished. To be continued soon…) I not only noted that the many ladybugs on each page begin to move around by the time I started the third copy, I also compiled 6 tips for effective and beautiful coloring.

Pick an engaging topic. Coloring books are like relationships. A good part of it just needs to click. Since you’ll be spending an exorbitant amount of time getting to know your coloring book, pick an engaging topic that ignites your need to color. Whether that’s Ryan Gosling, 4-letter words or seasonal fruits and veg, hold out for the right one.
Know the paper and medium. There’s nothing worse than opening the first page of a coloring book with “first-day-of-school” anticipation, only to find out that the markers you are using bleed through several pages at once. Try out your desired medium on the last page of the book. The paper will cue you in if it will hold up to whatever you want to color with.
Think about light. For a realistic final product, pick a direction from the where the imagined light source is coming from. This will act as a global guide for the where the highlights and shadows will be placed. This is especially important when coloring in my book Edible Paradise. Don’t be afraid to leave white on the page, a very important thing I learned using watercolors. It gives the page volume and lightness.
Edit! This is a lot like cooking. Sure there is the execution and technique that transforms brut ingredients into a meal. But it’s the drizzle of extra-virgin olive oil, the pinch of sea salt and the touch of lemon zest that takes a dish from dinner to degustation. The same goes for coloring, a lot comes out of the final touches. Once I think I’m done with a page, I revisit it a few hours or days later. If it looks flat, I’ll add more shadows and contrast. If it is way overdone, I’ll consider using more white space in my next pages.
Use color as highlights. Take a look at the example above. Yes, a strawberry is identifiable just when in red, but when it has a slight touch of orange in the mix, it sings. Don’t be afraid to mix colors.
Have fun! Sure I just compiled some “rules” for coloring, but there shouldn’t be any. Coloring is all about experience. Sure, something may not work out mid-book, but it doesn’t mean you’ll have to scrap the whole thing. Don’t think about the subject so literally. Pick a totally crazy color scheme and go nuts. Or color in everything using opposite colors on the color wheel. It’s all up to you!

Want to take on Edible Paradise as your next coloring adventure? Order it here.

Color Me Seasonal: FEB 2016!

Color me seasonal February_2016_HD.jpg

Happy February! We are not just in the drudges of root vegetables season. We are one month closer to the release of my book Edible Paradise: A Coloring Book of Seasonal Fruits and Vegetables (Rizzoli’s Universe Imprint), to be released March 15th, 2o16! I know, I know. Although I don’t have children of my own, this whole Edible Paradise thing has become the relentless star of all my social media platforms. But humor me for a second because it’s not small feat releasing your first book with a major American editor. And every small feat is worth sharing, if you Instagram “like” it or not. So let me just share that I received my advance copies and itsjustsolovelyicantevenseparatemywords! But I’ll share the process of creating Edible Paradise from root to leaf sometime soon…

Whenever I get my hands on a book I have worked on, I always stare at it like the elephant in the room, not knowing if I really want to see what had become of my long hours and dedication. Will it be worth it? It usually gets a quick flip through and gets quickly put away with all the others. Although the final pdf of Edible Paradise had been validated for months now, seeing an accumulation of months of dedicated work can be emotional and fraught with anxiety. Is this a result of perfectionism? Or just the fact that I may be more stone fruit 1315 copy process than final product. Although I just got back from a few days in the Loire Valley, I trekked to my office at midnight on Friday night to pick up my advance copies. If I may just share with you truthfully, I am in awe of this beautiful book. It’s not just your basic, copy and pasted coloring book. It really is a joyous celebration of what a year of eating seasonally can be. Regardless if you eat seasonally or not, it artfully revisits the beauty fruits and vegetables (and friends! There are major ladybugs to be colored in!). Most importantly, how does it color? I quickly attacked my copy! I am creating a limited edition of Edible Paradise, all colored from front to back in watercolor, which quickly ate up my whole weekend in one voracious bite. It’s good. It’s real good.

So please take a moment to preorder a copy here. Or better yet, order two copies. As my grandfather used to say about handkerchiefs, “One for show and one for blow!”

In the meantime, warm up your coloring skills in the February coloring page above.

#colormeseasonal

MOUSSAKA to color & cook

Whenever I have a lull in my work, my first response is a backbreaking downward spiral of questioning my life choice of being a professional zucchini illustrator. My second is considering going back to school. Why wouldn’t I need a pastry certificate from Le Corden Bleu ? Sticker shock. Nevermind. Once the panic wears off, I am always reminded that slow moments have often been my most fruitful times. And probably some of my happiest. I have a free moment to impulsively hop on a silly illustration idea I have in the back of my head. Persimmons ? Pencils ? Get it ? Ok neither do I, but it has me thinking about abc books of fruits, vegetables and inanimate objects. Don’t steal that one, ok ?

On my to-do list has been creating an illustrated recipe for They Draw & Cook, a vast collection of illustrated recipes from all around the World. From a distance, it has been an encouraging presence on my Instagram feed seeing what other professional zucchini illustrators have their hands on. Nevertheless, I gave it a shot with my favorite moussaka recipe (from a previous post about an unbelievable, international flea market discovery). But I challenged myself to do it in the style of my forthcoming coloring book Edible Paradise : A Coloring Book of Seasonal Fruits and Vegetables (Universe)…

Preorder Edible Paradise here.

MOUSSAKA adapted from Greek Cooking for the Gods by Eva Zane

Ingredients

3 eggplants

2 pounds ground lamb or beef

2 onions, chopped

1 garlic clove, minced

1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

2 tablespoons parsley, chopped

1 can tomato sauce (8-ounce)

1/2 cup red wine

olive oil

salt and pepper

4 cups bechamel sauce

grated parmesan cheese

Peel and cut the eggplant lengthwise into 1/2-inch slices; sprinkle with salt and set aside on paper towers to absorb the moisture. Meanwhile prepare the meat sauce. Saute the ground meat in butter with salt, and pepper, onions and garlic, crumbling the meat with a fork. When the meat is evenly browned, add 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon, 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg, parsley and tomato sauce; stir, mix well, add wine, and simmer for 20 minutes. Wipe the salted eggplant; lightly oil a skillet with pastry brush and quick fry the eggplant over high heat; lay on paper towels to drain. In a greased 9×13×2” baking pan, place a layer of eggplant, top with meat mixture, sprinkle with grated cheese, cover with the remaining eggplant, sprinkle with grated cheese, and cover with bechamel sauce. (Add 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg to the bechamel, and for an exceedingly rich sauce, add 3 egg yolks to the sauce after it is cooked.) Top moussaka lavishly with grated cheese and bake at 350° F for 1 hour. Allow to cool, and then cut into 3-inch squares. Variations: Substitute 2 pounds zucchini, sliced lengthwise and fried, for the eggplant. Or, substitute 2 pounds potatoes, peeled, cut in 1/4-inch slices and fried, for the eggplant.

For 12 servings

DIY Fruit salads

Tourist at heart

I recently celebrated my 7-year Parisversaire! Yes, that is 7 years of morning boulangerie runs, nauseating boughts of cultural differences, and a bookshelf unapologetically filled with administrative proof that I do indeed live in this enchanted city of Paris, France. As much as I try to steer away from the Pretty Postcard Paris that is so much better captured by my blogging compatriots, I recently found myself in a giddy state when I saw there was a Ladurée in Megève where I am currently vacationing. Twice removed, Ladurée here has all the charm and appeal it did when I was just a young American navigating the cold cobblestoned streets of Paris. It was no little blue box, but the little green bag worked just as well. Scraping together a few hard-earned euro pieces promises a few glorious macarons and a few moments of pure pleasure. Yes, I am a tourist at heart.

Moussaka for the gods

In a resale shop on an American military base in the middle of Japan, I never thought I would stumble upon a family heirloom. Thumbing through the relics of 1970s food styling, including a chicken cacciatore on a nest of baby’s breath, I found a real gem Greek Cooking for the Gods by Eva Zane née Evoula Stamatoginnis. “My mom used to have that book!” my dad exclaimed when I showed him my new find.

The K in my last name is a dead giveaway that I am indeed Greek. (Maybe a Kardashian in my next life!) If family legend serves me well, my English grandmother didn’t have much of a hand at cooking for my Greek grandfather. Even the buttery, bechamel-topped Greek classic pastitsio became “dry as dirt!” left to her devices. Her galaktoboureko was spiked with both the zest and pith of the orange which had my dad hiding under the table the day I bought a citrus zester. And nervously meeting my grandparents the first time, my mom found an exceptionally chewy bit in her spanakopita, a green rubber band.

I’ve had a bit of a culinary learning curve here as well, learning to cook everyday French food with a very picky in-house critic, my husband. Having spent a day on end, slowly simmering away Julia Child’s boeuf bourguignon, it turned out “ok, but not a boeuf bourguignon”. With French classics stacked high against me, I thought I would delve into my culinary past, entrusting Greek Cooking for the Gods to take me back into the courageous shoes of my grandma…

Moussaka from Greek Cooking for the Gods by Eva Zane

For 12 servings

3 eggplants

2 pounds ground lamb or beef

2 onions, chopped

1 garlic clove, minced

1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

2 tablespoons parsley, chopped

1 can tomato sauce (8-ounce)

1/2 cup red wine

olive oil

salt and pepper

4 cups bechamel sauce

grated parmesan cheese

Juice. Blend. Taste.

Eat so much foie gras this Christmas, you sprouted a beak and a few extra tail feathers? Get the Vitamix humming and beat the bloated January blues with Rizzoli’s Juice. Blend. Taste. by Cindy Palusamy, founder of The Juicery. A tantalizing source of over 150 recipes for colorful juices, smoothies, soups and infusions by health aficionados and nutritionists from around the world. It is also illustrated with 75+ of my watercolors. Here is a taste!

If you are in Paris, Colette is hosting a signing of Juice. Blend. Taste. with Cindy on January 6th, 2015 from 4:30-6:30. I will be there too if you’d like to say hello. The Juicery‘s signature smoothies and juices can also be enjoyed at the Colette Water-bar.