The Corkless Mind

Author: Dominique Solomon

  • Berry spritz 

    Berry spritz 

     September in South Africa, means Spring is here, there are many debates and theories as to the actual official start of Spring. With the arrival of a new family member last week, I do feel there is much to celebrate and what better way with wine! I saw the recipe from Donna Hay and immediately felt inclined to recreate it. I used one of my favourite’s Pierre Jourdan Tranquille Blush from the Haute Cabriére wine estate and a lovely strawberry and mint syrup(store bought from Woolworths) with soda water and fresh berries and mint to garnish. Top tip: instead of ice which will water down your cocktails or wine spritz, freeze some grapes or berries and add to your drinks.


    Last week I took the practical experience gained recently from the workshop and put it to use doing what I love best, shooting food. I took some beautiful photos of the berries and whilst loading on to the laptop most of them somehow disappeared into (I’m assuming) an untouchable dark abyss. Feeling rather defeated and being rather busy, eventually picked myself up and dusted myself off and admitted to the rookie mistake and tried my hand again at another shoot, I really wanted to recreate the feel and mood of those I took last week. Moral of the story, don’t give up even if the task at hand seems monstrous or impossible. This does not just apply to my little faux pas last week, but to so many life lessons learnt along the way.

    Berries always signify a start of a new season ahead, a brighter more festive one. The photos of the berries were taken just before 13:00 yesterday. The photos of the berry spritz were taken last week round about the same time. And yes, that is a charger plate which I have repurposed and sprayed to use as a prop for my photography. I decided to try both moody shots and lighter ones, I love the juxtaposition of the light in the shots and how the berries and drinks are portrayed in different light. Personally I adore the darker, moodier shots, to me, it creates so much depth. But like many other things it’s all about the photographers preference and style.

    Happy Spring! x

  • Confit Duck Ravioli


    French, Italian, and of course South African are my absolute favourite types of cuisine that I love to cook,eat and enjoy! My name and love of food has a French origin, my soul Italian and my heart definitely belongs to my beloved home country. I feel like I must have been a nonna in my previous life, I simply adore making pasta, so much so that I make a batch once a week usually accompanied with pork mince and chicken liver meat balls (a favourite in my household) or a simple quick meal with sautéed mushrooms, garlic and cream with tagliatelle. This week I wanted to do something different and venture into uncharted territory and what better way to confit the duck legs for the very first time and make ravioli too! I made the pasta dough and chilled in the fridge to keep till I need to roll out and shape. For the duck legs, I removed from the packaging and pat dry to season with sea salt flakes and sprigs of thyme. Melt 600g of butter (I used half butter and half duck fat) pour over the duck legs and place in a 160 degree C preheated oven for 2 hours. Once the duck has finished cooking, shred the meat and using a ravioli round cutter or if you don’t have one like me you can use a round cookie cutter place the meat in the middle of the circles(I added a few chunks of goat’s cheese to some of the ravioli before closing, brush the edges of all circles with eggwash(this acts as a glue to help the ravioli stick together and not leak filling whilst being boiled) place in salted water with a a few glugs of olive oil and bring to a boil. Place ravioli in the boiling water and cook for 2-3 minutes until the ravioli starts to float. Drain on a paper towel and serve with extra virgin olive oil. The recipe for the confit duck itself I borrowed from Woolworths Taste, the rest I improvised and used my own discretion. 
    For this post I shredded only what I needed for those ravioli and served the rest of the duck legs on polenta, because it was my first time eating confit duck I wanted to get the full experience. As life changing the meal was, I feel I need a good run for every glorious morsel consumed. But no regrets here! I will definitely be making this for guests soon. Over the weekend, I went and snatched up some bargains at the Weylandts sale for my props and am I glad I went! The plate and kitchen towel in the photos above are just some of a few beautiful items I bought there. Keep an eye out for some new props popping up in my up and coming photos. 

    The photos were taken just before 17:00pm, I know it was a bit late, but notice how it’s stays lighter for longer in the evenings, a sign Spring is almost upon us! 

    “Everything in moderation…including moderation” – Julia Child. 

  • Food Photography Workshop by Hein van Tonder.

    Food Photography Workshop by Hein van Tonder.


    The photo above is of me taking an overhead shot.Photo taken by Hein van Tonder.

    I’m a big fan of Hein van Tonder’s work, he makes photographing food look effortless and oh so exquisite! So when I heard that he was doing a food photography workshop, I indeed jumped at the chance to book my spot. Before, the workshop was held at one of the collaborators’ house, Isabella Niehaus’ place off the West Coast. This one I attended was one of the first held in central Cape Town in the opulently trendy Inner city Ideas Cartel office space in Loop street. Walking towards the building is rather misleading, it’s quite an old building,as many other in the CBD. Taking the lift to the third floor, doors open and it immediately feels as though I’ve fallen down a completely trendy, opulent rabbit hole into a whole new dimension. Steampunk meets opulence that’s my humble opinion on the space. 

    This photo was taken by Hein himself and styled me.

    Most of you will know Hein from Heinstirred and having won numerous awards for his beautiful work, this year he has won Pink Lady awards for Food Photographer of the year in the Marks&Spencer category and Food Photographer of the year for the Food bloggers category. He constantly does freelance work for food magazine giants like Woolworths Taste and Food and Home magazine. Francois Pistorius, one of the other hosts at the workshop, like Hein, is also a renowned professional photographer and comes from a fashion and lifestyle background and also dabbles in food photography. I love his style of photography, he aims to take concise style photos that tells a story. Isabella Niehaus, the third host/collaborator also stems from a fashion background having worked for Sarie magazine. She is a professional food stylist and cook that has this amazing zest for life. We started off with an introduction into Hein’s style of shooting and capturing, followed by Francois doing the same and giving us an insider’s view into the photographing and styling of a cookbook they shot together http://www.quivertreepublications.com/books/the-story-of-a-house/ 


    Isabella gave us some sound advice regarding styling too! They all encouraged us to play around with the gorgeous produce they had purchased at a farmers market a day before and pair them with whichever prop we think goes best. The entire day was based purely on theory, practice,fun and of course food! 


    Isabella made us a scrumptious meal to sustain us hard workers, shared over bubbly and chatting with new friends. I couldn’t have asked for a better setting with better people. After lunch we headed back to our natural light setting, where the rain had stopped and the sun came out a bit. We got to practice some action shots, pouring of sauce and sieving of icing sugar. Just when I thought the day could not be more fun filled! 


    Much to my dismay, and just like that it was over and it was time to leave. Before the workshop I can attest to being an awkward photographer with not much confidence behind the lens. This workshop gives you the confidence to play around and explore your setting, styling and style and I definitely recommend this workshop to any budding and aspiring food photographers in Cape Town. 
    For more information on the workshop, please go to Hein’s website: http://heinstirred.com
    *this post was not sponsored. 

  • Roasted Vine Tomato and Goat’s Cheese Tart.

    Roasted Vine Tomato and Goat’s Cheese Tart.


    I love tomatoes! I can easily eat a whole raw one with a pinch of salt and a sprinkle of white pepper. If my esophagus didn’t loathe me for it I would consume copious amounts! I saw the most stunning vine tomatoes in store yesterday and knew that I had to play around with them in the kitchen. I roasted the tomatoes in Balsamic vinegar, extra virgin olive oil and a good pinch of sea salt for about 20 mins to macerate and caramelize. As a new found friend recently said, “life’s too short to be making your own pastry” I purchased store bought pastry. I love this particular variation of butter puff pastry, the results are light, buttery and a bit flakey too. I oiled the tart tin with a tiny amount of oil and lined with parchment paper and placed the pastry inside,that I cut to size for the round tin. Brush with eggwash and assemble with the tomatoes and goat’s cheese and drizzle with the left over balsamic vinegar, olive oil and a pinch or two of sea salt flakes. 

    Place in a pre-heated oven on 180 degrees C for 10 minutes and leave to cool on a wire rack. 


    This past Sunday I attended a food photography workshop hosted by professional and renowned food photographer, Hein van Tonder from The Heinstirred blog, Francois Pistorius also a professional photographer and Isabella Niehaus a renowned stylist. I picked up so many nifty tricks and tools of the trade, I can’t wait to experiment and hopefully showcase everything I have learnt! To give you a little behind the scenes sneak peak I will be doing a full post on the workshop later in the week. So keep your eyes glued to Off Beet Blog 🙂 

    I took the above photos just before 12:00 today. I love the warmth of the red vine tomatoes against the crisp green micro herbs. I love a good colour contrast! 

    This week I’m on a prop and background sourcing mission, and with no such luck! I think I need to venture out to Cape Town soon! 

  • Lobster roll with a Sriracha and Lobster mayonnaise.

    Lobster roll with a Sriracha and Lobster mayonnaise.

    Lobster roll with a Sriracha and Lobster mayonnaise.

    As you might have noticed with recent posts I tend to lean more towards food that is associated with summer and festivity and what a more fitting day than with such gorgeous weather while on the brink of Spring in South Africa. 
    Here in South Africa, we have rock lobster called Crayfish. For some time now the Crayfish population have been under immense pressure and extreme danger of extinction with many overfishing and exploiting the rock lobster. I love crayfish, my mom makes a mean crayfish curry and if had my way I would indulge frequently but I would much rather be responsible and try to save the population by not doing so. I see it as our duty to protect a species that is so loved and vulnerable.

    The partially cooked crayfish was purchased at Woolworths fish counter and was imported. 


    I poached the crayfish in an emulsion of butter, garlic and a squeeze of lime juice for 5 minutes on a medium heat. Keeping in mind the crayfish was already parboiled. I heated the buns in the oven and for the Sriracha lobster mayonnaise I prepared the mayonnaise, which is store bought normal mayonnaise mixed with Sriracha, lime juice, and the juice of the carcass of the rock lobster roasted in the oven to caramelize with olive oil to make a lobster oil, stir until combined. To assemble, cut the buns down the middle, slather with the flavoured mayonnaise, then place pieces of the avocado on each side along with the butter lettuce and top with the crayfish and mayonnaise and a squeeze of lime juice. Serve with a good icy cold craft beer. 



    Lobster roll with Sriracha and Lobster mayonnaise.
    The photos were taken around 13:00 on a perfect sunny Cape Town day. 

    I used the newspaper in the background to create a little ambience for a pub crub seafood meal. I love how the cobalt blue of my board creates a perfect colour juxtaposition in my photos, especially for this shoot. 

    This post was collated whilst listening to the soundtrack of Whiplash. My favourite song on the upbeat jazzy soundtrack is you guessed it, Whiplash. 

  • Nigella’s Chocolate Chip Cookie Pots.

    Nigella’s Chocolate Chip Cookie Pots.

    Naturally I love cooking and baking things that I love to eat, I think that is one of very few secrets of good cooking, that and simplicity. I love Nigella Lawson’s style of cooking it’s quick and no fuss, humbling yet soulful. I don’t think anyone could resist a ‘straight out of the oven’ freshly baked Chocolate chip cookie, never mind eating the raw cookie dough out of the mixing bowl. 

    This recipe is from Nigella’s latest cookbook titled ‘Simply Nigella’ there are so many recipes I simply must try when I gift myself this aesthetically inviting book! I’ve read that the book is something of a celebration of life. 


    Lying in bed dreamily yearning for summer and listening to Nigella’s latest series of podcasts(Summer Sound Bites) all I can think of is entertaining this summer. The thought of laughter together with cocktails and good food shared with family and friends, definitely excites me and makes my heart smile. 


    As always, I added a little something extra, a touch of Nutella in the middle to make the cookie that more gooey and indulgent. The recipe for the Chocolate chip cookie pots is up on Nigella’s website.