The Corkless Mind

Tag: Food

  • 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. 

  • 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. 

  • Prawn toast and Kimchi 

    Prawn toast and Kimchi 

    Prawn toast and kimchi 
    Inspired by a tapas meal I had a while ago at a Japanese inspired restaurant, we had all ordered a variety of different dim sum, some fried and some steamed. There was one stand out fried dim sum, Prawn toast that was insanely good, till this day I remember how beautifully balanced in umami and how crispy crunchy the dim sum was. In a mission to find out how to recreate this bite sized treat at home, I found a recipe on Good Food Australia that’s incredibly simple and looks amazing too! 


    Last week I made a batch of kimchi, recipe found on Woolworths Taste. This is by far some of the tastiest Kimchi I’ve had in a while and bonus for how quick and easy it is to make, here’s what you need: three hours of your life, cabbage, radish,fish sauce, salt, Sriracha, garlic,ginger, chillis, chili flakes, rice vinegar and sesame seeds, hmmm…leaving anything out?


    What better way to put the kimchi I made to use than as a condiment for these scrumptious prawn toast treats. 

  • 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

  • Unusual Suspects – Celeriac.

    Unusual Suspects – Celeriac.

    Every fortnight I will be doing a post on unusual yet highly underestimated and rarely used vegetables/fruit not usually used for everyday consumption in the everyday kitchen.This week is the first of the “unusual suspects” series, and kicking it off, I am inspired by the Root Vegetable, Celeriac. Much like it’s green, skinny cousin Celery, Celeriac is milder in flavour. Don’t be intimidated by its rugged and chunky exterior, there’s quite a bit one can do with this interesting vegetable. In the photo below, you will see I made Celeriac two ways, as a Slaw and cut up into wedges and roasted until golden and crisp. A few days ago, I was challenged by my partner to think up a different, and alternative to Coleslaw. The photo below shows the slaw I made, I roughly chopped the Celeriac and Apple into matchsticks and using a vegetable peeler with the stick of Rhubarb to create volume and texture in the slaw, for the garnish I added Coriander and toasted Sesame seeds, drizzled extra virgin olive oil and a squeeze of fresh lemon juice, so as to prevent the apple from oxidizing(that nasty brown colour chopped Apples turn when we leave them out too long).

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    Celeriac, Apple and Rhubarb Slaw.

    The slaw is but a fusion of flavours and texture,the side you can serve alongside a juicy rack of ribs or succulent Pork belly for a bit of freshness and tart to juxtapose the heavyness of the meat. Not keen on slaw? Why not try a Gratin of Celeriac or maybe cut into chips and roast in the oven.

    The wedges were roasted in extra virgin olive oil and sprinkled with my favourite Maldon Smoked salt. Keeping the flavour profile as simple, so as to let the true flavour of the root vegetable shine through.

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    Roasted Celeriac Wedges

    The wedges may not look very cheffy but it’s homemade and I quite like the rustic feel of them. To be quite honest, I’ve never really looked in this humble root vegetable’s way until one day, the thought crossed my mind, and wondered what they taste like and the kinds of dishes I can conjure up. I dare you to have a moment of experimentation of crazy looking veg or fruit, stop wondering and just taste!

    Time for an adventure? Go experiment!

  • Sunny side up!

    Sunny side up!

     

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    A twist on the classic Mexican dish Huevos Rancheros

    I could easily bore you with the clichéd saying, “breakfast is the most…” But I do feel that it deserves so much more than just a tribute to daily sustenance. Anyone who knows me, knows that I have an intense love affair with Bacon, for me breakfast is not complete without it! The ever so versatile first meal of the day, many these days are not just restricting it to just a meal shared at dawn. It’s no secret the humble egg has been making a major comeback, taking a simple sandwich making it next level or elevating an already droolworthy burger with golden deliciousness of sunny side up egg yolk dripping down the gorgeous edible tower. Without further ado, here are some of my favourite brekkie meals.

    I made the Huevos Rancheros for supper last night, I added chopped potatoes sprinkled with smoky sweet paprika, the salsa is rather spicy as opposed to the usual method, I toasted cumin, coriander and hot curry spice for the added kick.

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    For the most practical and accessible breakfast, I love a whole wheat cereal with chia seeds, pumpkin seeds, figs drizzled with honey.

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    Wholewheat cereal with Chia seeds, Pumpkin seeds, Figs with honey.

    And for my ultimate breakfast, a combination of some of my favourites.

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    Flapjack stack with Crispy Bacon, Passion fruit and lemon curd.

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    I’d love to know what your favourite brekkie meal is, tell me in the comments section.

    Happy eating!

    Dominique x