Guest Blog on Imagethink! /  by Abbie Zuidema

My good friend Heather Willems requested me to contribute to her blog, imagethink.net .  She asked me to make a painting in reflecting on a current event.  The Japanese map is in response to that.  Heather is one of two women behind the company Image Think, "they transform ideas into powerful visuals."  It’s due out later this week. I met her in Vermont a few years ago at my residency at the Vermont Studio Center. She rules. 

Map No.9~Japan

My map is of Japan.  The earthquake & the aftershocks are breaking my heart.

In my map research I came across Fugu, the Japanese pufferfish.  It is the only thing that the emperor of Japan is forbidden, by law, to eat.  Eating Fugu has been practiced for centuries. It can kill you if it's not prepared correctly.  It takes years of training to acquire certification to prepare Fugu. The poison, tetrodotoxin is concentrated in the liver, ovaries and skin. It is a neurotoxin, the victim remains conscious, but cannot move or speak.

In this painting Fugu represents the paralyzing affects of the tsunami on Japan. It is symbolic of Japanese culture & tradition that has existed for centuries. Fugu also represents nature, and with that, the promise that Japan will regrow with time.

Gelatin-The Myth Debunked /  by Abbie Zuidema

I was trying to think of a "how to" recipe that would be interesting.
Oddly it was gelatin that came to mind. Maybe I could bust the myth that gelatin was made of horse hooves. The actual process of making gelatin wasn't very appealing, so there had to be a delicious recipe as a follow-up. I was stumpted.

I asked Lindsay, thinking she would have some ideas.

"... what can you make with gelatin?"

Her reply, "Panna cotta." Of course!

Something sweet to follow a meat-heavy process. It was then we decided on a collaboration....

I called the Meat Hook and procured some pigs feet; gelatin is made from the bones and connective tissue of, namely, pigs and cows. Once home, we cooked the feet in the stock pot for 5 hours. When this is done you have to clarify the gelatin because it is clouded with impurities. This is when it got tricky for us. We thought we could simply clarify the gelatin using egg whites and shells. Seemingly simple enough? A dozen eggs later and the gelatin was still clouded and full of impurities. We poured through books, looked online, and asked friends and chefs. The one possible solution we kept hearing was in reference to making consomme, a clarified, nutritious meat broth. We would have to create a "raft." A "raft" is composed of ground meat, egg whites, and egg shells. By gradually heating the mixture, the cloudy impurities attach themselves to the meat/egg mixture where it floats to the top to be removed. Voila! Clear gelatin.

The recipe will be featured in the next Diner Journal. It's in the issue with "how-to's" and "collaborations." AZ