The Corkless Mind

Tag: Food Photography

  • Unusual suspects – The Guava.

    Unusual suspects – The Guava.


    Winter is finally upon us, and with that comes the kind of comfort food that requires stretchy clothing to consume copious amounts of the heart warming genre of food. For me, the arrival of seasonal Fruit such as the Guava, signifies the start of winter.

    Being a single mom of three daughters, my mom never really had the time to stand over a hot stove for hours in a kitchen, but when she did, my mom made the most delicious yet inexpensive chocolate cakes and Swiss rolls with that yummy tinned caramel spread sandwiched in between. Watching her create such homemade masterpieces, I was in awe, I think this is where my love affair with food ignited . I recall we had a incredibly tall guava tree(which I used to climb all the way to the top) and whenever they were in season, we had an amazing bounty of Guavas that we gave away to neighbours/family or my all time favourite dessert would become of it, my mom stewed the tropical fruit in a syrup of water, sugar and spices, served with a generous dollop of box custard. To this day I am guilty of the ultimate sin, I love box custard, there I said it! Inspired by this memory, unusual suspects is all about Guavas this week.

     Instead of stewing or poaching the guavas, I roasted them with a 100g of sugar, juice of one fresh lime, a vanilla pod and star anise. Roasted until tender. I left the skins on the guavas as I find they are packed with flavour too. To accompany the roasted guavas I made a syrup cake, made with 85g of flour, 1 egg, 100g butter and 110g of castor sugar, beat butter and sugar till light and fluffy, add the egg and mix till fully incorporated, sift in flour and fold till just combined. Caveat: don’t over fold, you’ll end up with a stodgy crumb, to achieve a light and airy crumb, gently fold. Bake in a preheated oven (180 degrees Celsius) in a lightly greased muffin tin for 15-20 minutes. Pierce several times and pour syrup of roasted guavas over the cake. Allow to cool and soak up. 

    The photos were taken between 14:00 and 17:00 yesterday on my balcony, whilst the stormy clouds were rolling in. 

    “Cooking is about emotion, it’s about culture, it’s about love and memory” – Massimo Bottura. 

  • Unusual Suspects – Fennel. 

    Unusual Suspects – Fennel. 

     

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    Last week was a week of ‘firsts’. I made my first bit of Pasta from scratch with the new pasta machine, and I cooked up my first batch of Ricotta, something I thought was way too complicated it was actually dead easy and in all honesty much better than the store bought equivalent. Deriving from the Latin word faenum meaning hay.
    Fennel has a myriad of health benefits, including aiding digestion issues.

    Here in South Africa, fennel is not used very often in traditional home cooking. I went to the store last week and bought a bulb of fennel, much to the cashier’s embarrassment she had no idea what the star anise flavoured vegetable was called and had to ask a colleague so that she could correctly ring up the item(trying to do so without me noticing…) with that in mind, this little food faux pas automatically decided the feature food for unusual suspects. Reminding of my ‘Liquorice all sorts’ filled childhood, fennel does live very close to my heart. This week, I decided to make an ‘unusual pasta dish’ I wanted to do the exact opposite of tomato sauce drenched pastas with a meaty substance. In the spirit of being brave and experimenting, I made fresh Ricotta, which I added to the dish for a creamy texture.image
    Handy tip: take the fronds off of the fennel and save in a air tight container, add as garnish to salads, cheese boards, basically anything that needs a little spruce up in colour and taste!

    I roasted the fennel in the oven and then added it to the pan for ultimate flavour extraction into the dish. I find the fennel roasted, turns sweet rather than intensifying further in the Liquorice flavour it exudes in raw form.image

    Fennel and Ricotta pasta.

    If you really want to experiment, why not try your hand at a dessert that heroes fennel, like a Fennel sorbet, fennel panna cotta or Fennel tarte tatin.
    Either way, you can’t go wrong with this beauty.

  • Apple and Rhubarb Crumble 

    Apple and Rhubarb Crumble 

    As you know by now, there’s not much I love more than fresh and seasonal produce. I’m trying to be as experimental as can be, last week I bought a bunch of Rhubarb, having never before consumed it I was eager find out its flavour profile. I purchased the Rhubarb at Woolworths and found there was a handy little recipe for Apple and rhubarb crumble on the packaging. Fresh out of the oven served with a scoop of homemade ice cream, is possibly the best time to consume the tart dessert. 

    Apple and Rhubarb Crumble

    The crumble serves about 6-8, single serving above included. 


    The photographs were taken on a overcast and rainy day, the natural light was perfectly diffused by my north facing sliding door(where all of my photos are taken) because of the weather. 

  • Souper!

    Souper!

    This year, much to my delight, Winter has arrived a lot earlier than expected in Cape Town. My sister says, that being born in a particular season affects not only one’s personality but obviously how we take to the elements in that particular season, and me, being a Winter baby, I absolutely relish at the advent of Winter. Don’t get me wrong there’s nothing better than a perfect beach day with the sand in between your toes and ice cream melting everywhere. So to celebrate the start of Winter, today is such a lovely rainy and overcast day, and of course I crave something warm and comforting.

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    Pumpkin and Leek soup.

    The photo above, is a Pumpkin and Leek Soup with Chunky Croutons, pumpkin seeds and pomegranate seeds to garnish and drizzled with extra virgin olive oil with a pinch of salt.

    The recipe is developed by myself and is rather unconventional for a soup recipe, but in my kitchen there aren’t any rules.

    Recipe:

    1.5kg of Pumpkin cut into chunks
    2 leeks washed thoroughly and roughly chopped
    1 large onion
    4 cloves of garlic smashed and roughly chopped
    1.5 liters of water to cover contents in the pot
    500ml Vegetable or chicken stock(I find chicken stock makes the soup that much richer in flavour)

    Method:

    On a medium heat, sauté the onion and leek and then garlic in Extra Virgin Olive Oil. When the onion is translucent, add the pumpkin and leave to caramelize for 5-10 minutes. Add vegetable/chicken stock and water. Allow to simmer on a medium to low heat for 25-30 minutes or until the pumpkin has a really soft consistency. If you own a stick blender, blend to a smooth consistency or if like me, you like your soup chunky, serve with crisp croutons. To make the croutons, take a slice of bread and tear into chunks, heat olive oil in a pan on a medium to high heat to toast the croutons, once a toasty golden to brown colour is achieved, add to the soup and serve hot.

    Enjoy!

    Wishing you all a warm and wonderful winter x