Serving Up Summer.

If you can't handle the heat, get IN the kitchen.

Hello!

How are you holding up? It’s been a bit heatwave-y here at the KIOSK, so thought I’d try and lean into that theme, and take it easy.

Often in illustration, you’ll finish a project, but that doesn’t necessarily mean it will see the light of day straight away, or indeed, at all. I feel like I’ve worked on a fair few things this year that I can’t reveal, or for which, there simply isn’t anything to reveal. I can understand from an observer’s (your) point of view, it makes me look quite unproductive, and while that is sometimes true, I can assure you I have been working a few bits and pieces.

Anyway, my frustrations aside, there’ll be some exciting new stuff to show you soon, and for starters, here’s a series I did recently for The Believer magazine, illustrating an essay by Rafia Zakaria, about water and power in Karachi.

I enjoyed working in a slightly hotter colour palette for these, and the job comprised a full-page header image and three spots. You can see the full piece online, HERE.

Everyone seems to like a bit of process, so below are the very rough options I put together for the art director to choose from. For speed, I tend to favour doing my roughs digitally these days, then I get out the paper and drawing board to create the finals.

Cooked.

I recently wrote a newsletter on why I enjoy cooking, and a few of you asked why I didn’t include a recipe. This is probably out of my remit as an illustrator, but maybe as a kiosk proprietor I can just about shoehorn it in. So, here’s what I’m whipping up for lunch today; ‘aubergine pasta’.

Recently I’ve been very much enjoying making simple dishes, but trying to do them WELL. Or at least, to the best of my ability. So, here’s a nice super simple meal that I’ve been making this summer, and if you give it a little care an attention, I think you’ll like it too. I promise it’ll be fun to make and eat.

Right, let’s go!

1. Aubergine.

Slice up a couple of aubergines lengthways, lay in an oven tray and drizzle with olive oil. Season with salt and pepper, and put in the oven at about 200 degrees Celsius. About 30mins should do, but just check in on it.

2. Pasta.

Put some pasta on to boil with a good pinch of salt. Any will work, but I reckon rigatoni is best for this one.

3. Onion.

Finely dice up one decent sized onion and couple of cloves of garlic. Add to a large, high-sided frying pan with olive oil and soften slowly.

4. Sauce.

When the onion is nice and translucent, add a good tablespoon of tomato puree, 2-3 teaspoons of paprika, salt, pepper, and a couple of spoons of pasta water to get it all going. Take the cooked aubergine out the oven, chop it up and stir it in. You want it a little blackened, so you get that smoky flavour.

5. Cheese.

When the pasta is nearly cooked, add it to the frying pan, along with a glug or two of the pasta water. As it simmers, grate in a decent amount of parmesan, so it all comes together nicely.

6. Serve.

Take it off the heat and let it sit for a minute or two while you get some fresh basil leaves prepped, and then plate a portion. Grate a little extra parmesan over the top, scatter with the fresh basil, drizzle with olive oil, and pepper as you like it.

(Serving suggestion. Weird that it’s not spaghetti, isn’t it? But you get the idea.)

And that’s it! I had mine sat on my studio sofa whilst flicking through some maps, but it’s dealer’s choice on that.

Stay cool, and see you all soon.

Owen D. Pomery

ps. I wrote a newsletter about conveying ‘heat’ in comics recently, which seems quite appropriate right now, and you can see it HERE.