The Corkless Mind

Tag: food styling

  • Turmeric and lemon muffins

    Turmeric and lemon muffins

    I love baking on weekends, having said so, I haven’t done so in a while. Yesterday, I spotted a recipe from a renowned blogger and someone I admire for her beautiful food photography, the Displaced housewife . This recipe is adapted from her original recipe for the mouthwatering Meyer lemon and Chamomile muffins 
    What drew me to making these delicious looking muffins, were the fact they contained Chamomile. Chamomile being a natural sleep and relaxation aid. On a personal note, in recent years I have been suffering from Insomnia, which makes my polymyalgia worse. I find that moderate exercise and eating healthy seems to help with the symptoms, I don’t care too much for medication and carefully watch what goes into my body.

    A dear aunt of mine, gave me some great advice to drink first thing in the morning, a cup of hot water with a teaspoon of Turmeric. The turmeric is a wonderful anti inflammatory with so many healthy benefits. I’ve only just taken her advice this morning, and will report back to you, if there are any dramatic changes.

    These muffins are so dense and lemony in flavour, I love how the earthiness of the turmeric shines through also picking up on the floral notes of the chamomile.So with that said, I give you turmeric, lemon with a hint of chamomile muffins.


    Ingredients:

    For the Muffins

    -250g granulated sugar

    -2 teaspoons of loose chamomile tea

    -170g canola oil

    -2 large eggs (room temperature)

    -170g buttermilk (room temperature)

    – 50ml milk, room temperature

    -50ml fresh squeezed lemon juice

    -2 tablespoon lemon zest

    – 1 tablespoon of ground turmeric

    -500g of all-purpose flour

    – 2 teaspoon baking powder

    – 1 teaspoon baking soda

    -1/2 teaspoon sea salt

    -Pinch of cinnamon
    For the glaze:

    -1 ½ cup powdered sugar

    -2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

    – 1 tablespoon lemon zest

    -1 tablespoon milk
    Method:
    Preheat oven to 180 degrees C. Place a rack in the top third of the oven. Line a muffin tin with muffin liners or spray with nonstick cooking spray or lightly grease with butter or canola oil. Place the sugar and 2 teaspoons of chamomile tea in a blender( I used my NutriBullet with the grinding blades) and grind until the chamomile is reduced to small flecks.

    In a large bowl whisk together your granulated sugar, vegetable oil, sour cream, milk, lemon juice and eggs until well blended.In a medium bowl whisk together the all-purpose flour, baking powder, baking soda, sea salt, cinnamon, cardamom and nutmeg. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix until barely blended.

    Pour the batter into the muffin tray filling until just barely ¾ full. Squeeze some lemon over the top and sprinkle with sugar + cinnamon. Let the muffins sit for 15 minutes before putting in the oven…this will help them get a nice crown. Bake for 15 minutes in the top third of the oven or until a toothpick comes out clean. You want the tops to be puffed up and slightly golden.Let cool in the muffin tin for 10 minutes, then use a butter knife to help get them out to finish cooling on a rack. In a separate bowl, whisk together powdered sugar, lemon juice and milk. Drizzle the glaze over the muffins. In my photos you will notice I added a dash of turmeric to my muffins, I did this for dramatic colour contrast, of course, you don’t have to do this, to avoid a yellow mouth and hands 🙂

    Happy weekend baking!

    Dominique x

  • Honey and Mustard Pork meatballs with pumpkin tagliatelle.

    Honey and Mustard Pork meatballs with pumpkin tagliatelle.

    The pairing of pork with flavours like honey, mustard and sage not only enhance the natural sweet flavour of pork but celebrate its umami undertones. This week’s midweek meal is a budget buster, super easy to make and best of all it takes only 20 minutes to magically whip up!
    Like many others, I constantly find myself stuck in a rut when it comes to weekly meals and making the same things for convenience sake. Each week, usually as a mid week meal, I make pork and sage bangers, using one of my jars I recycle to use as salad dressing jars(a tip I picked up from Siba from Siba’s Table) I mix some honey, mustard, olive oil and a squeeze of lemon juice and give it a vigorous shake to combine I then proceed to drizzle over the bangers then roast in the oven for 20 minutes to achieve a crisp and golden brown banger. The perfect accompaniment for me is runny polenta studded with butter of course, placing the bangers on top of the polenta and using the pan juices to dress the dish. This for me, is the ultimate comfort food dish.


    So in rebellion of boring mid-week meals and costly healthy food, I’ve decided to pimp up the usual pork bangers and give it a lighter more fitting facelift for end of summer days.
    Honey and Mustard Pork Meatballs with Pumpkin Tagliatelle with crispy sage. 
    Ingredients:

    -350g pack of Pork bangers

    -2 Tablespoons of honey

    -2 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil

    -1 tablespoon of whole grain mustard

    -1 pack of pumpkin tagliatelle(or any spiralized veg for that matter)

    -a few sprigs of sage

    -a knob of butter or tablespoon of coconut oil

    -1 tablespoon of coconut oil to flash fry the pumpkin tagliatelle.
    Method:

    Preheat oven to 180 degrees C. Remove the meat from the bangers roll into balls and place in a oven tray/dish. In a jar or bowl, add the honey, mustard, olive oil and lemon juice mix or shake until incorporated. Place the pork meatballs in the tray and pour over the honey and mustard glaze and roast for 20 minutes until golden brown. In a pan, flash fry the pumpkin tagliatelle in the coconut oil for 1 minute on high, place in a separate bowl and set aside to serve with the meatballs. Using the same pan, add the knob of butter or more coconut oil and fry the sage leaves until crispy. Take off the heat and set aside. On a plate, place the pumpkin tagliatelle (I sprinkled a little dukkah and chilli flakes over the veg pasta) place the meatballs on top with the crispy sage leaves using the leftover pan juices drizzle over the dish and serve with grated Parmesan.

  • Gin & Tonic – three ways 

    Gin & Tonic – three ways 

    For some time Gin and Tonic has long been known as something of an ‘oldtimers drink’, this of course all changed when local distilleries started making artisanal gin, and of course all things artisanal are supposedly ‘cool’ however, this is one the time, I have to agree on this matter purely because I love supporting local. South Africa has such an amazing array of locally crafted gin, using nothing but what is available seasonally is the key to a great botanical gin. The gin I used in this post is one of my favourites, Wilderer Fynbos Gin, and as you can see from the photo above, they are an award winning distillery. 

    I made three different Gin and Tonic recipes, with three different syrups. The first is a rosebud and cardamom gin and tonic, a litchi and thyme, and the last one is a strawberry and basil G&T. The syrups are all super easy to make and can be made ahead of time before your New Year’s Eve bash! To make a syrup, just add two to four tablespoons of castor sugar(depending on how much you intend to make) with equal amounts of water and your fruit,spice or herb of choice and simmer until the sugar is dissolved and infused with the flavour of your choice of spice/fruit. Leave to cool before adding to a carafe with your favourite gin and try using a quality Tonic, this is said to truly complement the delicate flavours of the gin. 

    This recipe can of course be used to spruce up a mocktail too. If you’re thinking of enjoying this G&T recipe for New Year’s Eve, please do so responsibly and take an Uber if you need to get anywhere. 
    Wishing you all an amazing new year! 

    Dominique x

    ** This post was not sponsored**  

  • Roasted red grape and rosemary focaccia. 

    Roasted red grape and rosemary focaccia. 

    I’ve been struggling to come up with blog posts lately, mainly suffering from ‘writers block’, which to me is weird as I am immensely passionate about fare and find I can talk about food for hours on end if you pick my brain I will happily engage in conversation about my basic knowledge of food. However there’s just one little problem, you see I’m an introvert, and a rather shy one. But like an onion I have so many layers, if you peel me back… 

    I tend to compose posts and recreate recipes only when inspiration has struck. My kind of Inspiration, could be that instantaneous revelation of how ‘ugly’ distorted veg is hardly ever used these days, or asking myself questions, like “why can’t candy floss be savoury?” Yes, these are indeed the strange yet wondrous questions I ask myself. 

    (Cue the Oprah voice) I Love Bread! and thank god I am not gluten intolerant. I cannot imagine my life, I cannot imagine life in general without the sustenance which is bread. So as an ode to my great love of bread, I recreated a recipe adapted from BBC GoodFood , a no knead focaccia with an interesting twist. 

    The photos were taken yesterday early noon as soon as the bread came out of the oven. I started making the dough Monday evening already to ensure successful proving. The red grapes were really sweet, strangely enough not only did they look like cherries but they had the same sort of sweet taste too. These grapes are great for snacking without all the guilt of crisps or sweets. I’m a notorious snacker and I’m trying to make a real effort to snack healthier these days, more for health reasons than anything else. 
    A tad off topic, this time of year Cape Town gets very busy, the craziness lasts till mid-end of January, I do love that fact that people continue to visit our unique country and city. There are many times I feel incredibly privileged to live around such beauty and authenticity. The crazy traffic on the roads and in the shopping centres is something you learn to tolerate and avoid if you’re lucky, but there’s no place I’d rather be this time of year, than right here in my home city. 
    Dominique x

  • Aubergine fries with a honey balsamic drizzle.

    Aubergine fries with a honey balsamic drizzle.

    I’ve recently started to  broaden my food magazine perusing to international territory, reading online is one thing but I’m a sucker for good old paging through an actual book/magazine. Yes, I know not very Eco-friendly, but I’m tradionalist at heart! Sadly, we don’t have much of a wide selection of food magazines here in South Africa, so because I scour Delicious Australia’s site on a weekly basis, I spotted the UK version and rushed home to immediately page through it( I do love the smell of fresh magazines) I am quite proud of our food mag scene in S.A but there are so many fresh ideas in the international ones  I am so excited to try out all before reading the entire magazine, my excitement seems to get the better of me sometimes… 

    This recipe comes straight out of the September issue of Delicious UK, chosen and submitted by a reader, she described the fries as ‘light, crisp, but not greasy’. 

    Ingredients: 

    • 3 medium aubergines/eggplants sliced into batons
    • 1Tbsp of Salt
    • 1 medium free-range egg
    • 250ml iced water
    • 90g plain flour
    • 1/2 tsp baking powder
    • 1 litre sunflower/canola oil for deep frying
    • Balsamic glaze to drizzle 

    Method: 

    Place aubergines batons in a colander and sprinkle over salt.set over a bowl, then place in a fridge for 1-2 hours so the aubergines can release some of their juices and firm up. When ready, lay out on a kitchen towel/paper, and blot firmly and rub to remove excess salt, then set aside.For the batter, whisk the egg and iced water until frothy. Sift the flour and baking powder into a mixing bowl with a pinch of salt, then slowly add the egg mixture in a thin stream into the flour, whisking to combine. Immediately stop whisking when combined.Heat the oil in a deep large pan, the oil should be approximately 180 degrees Celsius, reduce heat to keep at this temperature. In batches, dip the batons in the batter, and with a slotted spoon lift out to place gently in the oil(always away from you) and fry for 4-5 minutes until golden and crisp. Drain on kitchen paper. Serve with balsamic glaze, or like me, you can mix a little balsamic vinegar with honey and drizzle over the fries. As an extra special touch I finely grated Grana Padano Parmesan cheese over the fries, because why not, right? 

    These fries are life-changing, and such a great substitute to potato fries. The crunch on these fries are incredible, the flavour is that of a natural umami coupled with a sweet twist! I’m hooked! And definitely making these  for when I have friends or family over. 

    Let’s all make Meat-free Monday’s exciting again! 

    Dominique x

  • Apple Crumble Semifreddo.

    Apple Crumble Semifreddo.

    Semifreddo, is Italian meaning ‘semi cold’ dessert. Unlike its cousin,Ice cream, this frozen delight does not include churning or tempering of eggs in its process of making, but whipping and lots of it, best be sure you have an electric handheld beater for this one.
    The recipe comes straight from one of my regular inspirations, Donna Hay. I’ve never made Semifreddo before, this seemed an interesting recipe to try out and experiment with, and what better time than right now, being on the precipice of summer! The recipe is super easy to recreate at home, with little effort and or need for any other equipment.
    While I’m on the topic of frozen dessert, it’s no secret that my obsession with ice cream is, well, an unhealthy one. There’s a new ice cream parlour that has opened its doors not too long ago in Cape Town central, that I absolutely have to check out soon. But more on that later! I went sourcing for backdrops and background material yesterday and found these lovely gems at my local tile store. I love the texture it lends to the overall look and feel of the shot. For now I’m leaning towards a more rustic style in my photos. I am completely enamoured with the depth and character it adds to shots.

    Remember that exciting bit of news I mentioned a while back? I’m counting the days till all can be revealed! 🙂

    Dominique xo