The Corkless Mind

Tag: South Africa

  • White flesh Nectarine.

    White flesh Nectarine.

    Nectarines are one of many of Summer’s amazing bounty that it has to offer. 
    I always miss seasonal summer fruits when it’s out of season and long for all things tropical and sweet in the wet winter months. Nectarines are basically peaches without all the fuzz. This luscious fruit’s name means ‘of or like nectar’ because of its sweet taste. 

    This week I made nectarines the focal point of both dishes, and am I glad I did! Woolworths stocks the most tastiest nectarines, my favourite is the white flesh ones. They’re super juicy and so sweet. It’s just a no brainer to use these beauties in every dish imagined. I made two dishes for this post, a nectarine, feta and tomato salad and little nectarine puddings. 
    Nectarine, tomato and feta salad: 
    Ingredients: 
    – Two nectarines 

    – Handful of Cherry tomatoes 

    – A few chunks of feta 

    – Two tablespoons of Pumpkin seeds 

    – Basil leaves to garnish 

    – Olive oil to dress the salad 

    – Pinch of salt to season

    -Egyptian dukkah to sprinkle over

    Method: 

    Slice the nectarines as you wish and break up the feta into chunks and add to the plate. Half the cherry tomatoes and add to the plate. Lightly toast the pumpkin seeds and set aside. Add the basil, and scatter over the pumpkin seeds, season with a pinch of salt, the dukkah and dress with olive oil.

    Nectarine pudding: 
    Ingredients: 
    – Three nectarines 

    – 175g softened butter 

    – 175g castor sugar 

    – 175g self-raising flour

    – 3 free range eggs 

    – Fresh custard to serve. 
    Method: 

    Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C. Slice the nectarines into thin slices and place on the bottom of a greased muffin pan. In a bowl, beat together the softened butter and sugar until pale and fluffy. In a different bowl, whisk the eggs and add gradually to the butter sugar mixture with some of the flour to stop from curdling. Once all of the egg mixture has been added fold through the rest of the flour. Using a big spoon(I used my ice cream scoop) take a spoonful of batter and place into each hole of the muffin tin. Bake for 12-15 minutes, until a skewer inserted some out clean. Serve with fresh custard and a dusting of icing sugar of you will. 

    This recipe for the pudding is adapted from Delicious UKI’m going on a little holiday this week, and while I don’t really want to pack away my styling kit and shutdown my wordpress interface, I think I am in need of fresh sea breeze, sand between my toes and different scenery kind of downtime, if you know what I mean. I’ll be back again next week, refreshed and inspired. 

    Happy feasting! 

    Dominique x

  • Roasted Sunbutter with chocolate. 

    Roasted Sunbutter with chocolate. 

    I seem to have a healthy(excuse the pun) obsession with nut/seed butters these days. I could spread this luxurious paste on anything, from toast to dipping fruit into the nut/seed butter for a quick healthy snack option. This week I spotted a special on the sunflower seeds at my local supermarket and decided that I would experiment and make my very own homemade Sunbutter in my NutriBullet. I normally don’t have leftover chocolate, I think I might have forgotten about it and probably stashed it away for a rainy day… So with Sunbutter in mind I decided to use the leftover chocolate to give it a more dreamy luxurious feel.

    This recipe is modeled off of a general guideline to make nut butter. 
    Roasted Sunbutter with a hint of chocolate. 
    Ingredients: 
    250g of Sunflower seeds

    2 x Tablespoons of coconut oil 

    Two tablespoons of cocoa powder or four blocks of 70% dark Lindt Chocolate

    Pinch of salt 

    Two tablespoons of honey 
    Method: 
    Place the seeds on a baking tray with parchment on and roast in a preheated oven(180 degrees C) for 10-15 minutes(watch it carefully as you don’t want the seeds to burn) set aside to cool. 

    Once the sunflower seeds are completely cooled down, in a large NutriBullet cup, add only the seeds and blitz till the oils of the seeds are extracted and the grainy texture becomes oily and comes together, blitz every 30 seconds then scrape down the cup with a spoon. Once an almost paste like consistency is obtained, add the salt and coconut oil. Blitz for a further 30 seconds until a smooth consistency is achieved. Add the honey and melted chocolate/cocoa powder and blitz again for another 30 seconds. 

    Serve on toast, with fruit on the side or seed crackers. 
    *the melted chocolate I heated up the microwave with 10 second blasts in between and add a little milk in at the end to make the mixture runny. 
    There are so many things you can do with nut/seed butters. I am an avid smoothie drinker and maker, so it’s only natural that I add some of the Sunbutter to a smoothie. I made a Banana, Whey protein, honey, coconut milk and Sunbutter power up smoothie. Just add all the ingredients to the cup and blitz, easy as that! For best results, freeze banana slices, this will give your smoothie a smooth and creamy texture whilst keeping the smoothie really cold too. 
    If you own a NutriBullet and love the nifty little gadget as much as I do, then please share some other ways you best utilize yours. 
    Dominique x 

  • Rooibos Tea smoked Trout with a Buckwheat salad 

    Rooibos Tea smoked Trout with a Buckwheat salad 

    For me, there’s nothing quite like a piping hot cup of Rooibos tea. The sweet fragrant taste makes it one of my favourite teas, best enjoyed with two national heroes, a slice of Milk Tart or a few Eat Some Mores!(shortbread cookies) 

    National Rooibos day was celebrated on the 16th of January, and is the very first year of establishment. Rooibos is part of our diverse Fynbos kingdom and is native to the Cedarberg mountains in the Western Cape of South Africa. It has so many health benefits, from lowering blood pressure to preventing heart disease and strokes. This powerhouse is packed with flavonoids and antioxidants. 
    So in celebration of this week’s past national Rooibos day I wanted to share with you something that is truly a national treasure in South Africa. A while back I tried out a recipe of smoking Angelfish fillets with Rooibos tea leaves and judging from the success of it by how much my partner loves it, I knew I had to up my game and try an entire dish around Rooibos and maybe even trying it with a different type of fish. I had fun developing this recipe, all those Masterchef Australia episodes watching George plate up finally paid off! I’m not quite there yet, but there are a few techniques I am happy about. 

    Like all things that take time perfecting, practice makes perfect! 

    Rooibos tea smoked Trout with a Buckwheat salad. 

    Equipment: 

    *Blowtorch 

    *2x roasting trays with rack. 

    *Pin Bone tweezers 
    Ingredients: 

    -Trout fillet 

    -4 Rooibos tea bags(torn and bags discarded) or four tablespoons of Rooibos tea leaves

    – 100g buckwheat(thoroughly rinsed) 

    – Half of an avocado 

    – Smoked sea salt to season (I used Maldon Smoked Sea Salt) 

    – Olive oil 

    – Sliced mini rosa/exotic tomatoes 

    – Pomegranate rubies

    – 4 rainbow carrots(peeled using a vegetable peeler 

    – Mini cucumber (peeled using a vegetable peeler) 

    – 4 radishes finely sliced 

    – Microherbs to garnish. 
    Method: 
    Bring 500ml of water to a rapid boil in a large saucepan, add the rinsed Buckwheat to the boiling water and reduce to a simmer for 20 minutes(keep stirring throughout) until all water has been absorbed. Take off the heat and leave aside to cool, once slightly cooled, using a fork separate the grains until a fluffy texture is obtained. 

    To prepare the trout, using a pin bone pair of tweezers, carefully feel along the fillet for bones and extract.(be patient and respectful of the ingredient, as you don’t want to be in too much of a hurry as to destroy the piece of fish)

    Carefully peel back the skin of the trout , using a sharp knife to help with the process, season the skin and place between two baking trays lined with baking parchment both under and over the skin. Bake in a preheated oven at 200 degrees C for 10-15 minutes. Set aside until assembly. 

    Season the fillet with a pinch of smoked sea salt and rub a little olive oil on the trout and place on a wire rack. 
    Break open the Rooibos tea bags discarding the bags and add to the bottom of a roasting tray,taking a blowtorch, torch the tea leaves until smoking, be careful not to torch in one place for too long. Place the rack with the trout in the tray and cover with another tray to insulate the smoke. Lifting the lid every now and then to torch the leaves every few minutes until desired smokiness is achieved. Seeing this cool technique on Neill Anthony’s Private Chef show, I used the blowtorch again, I lightly torched the trout until light pink, for a few seconds. This gives the fish a little char and added texture. 
    Slice the radish, tomatoes, avocado and drizzle with a little fresh lemon juice. Clean and peel the carrots into thin strips, if you like my presentation, you could curl the carrot strips and place on top of the radish on the plate.Arrange and assemble as you like, I placed the buckwheat in the middle of the plate in a line and placed the trout on top of the buckwheat and place the crispy trout skin over the fillet or break into shards and scatter over plate. Season to taste and drizzle with olive oil. 
    *If you like, you cod make a simple dressing of a little olive oil, lemon juice, honey and mustard, just enough to dress the plate. I didn’t make a dressing as the buckwheat wasn’t dry to warrant it, also the avocado lends a creamy texture to the dish to counteract with the crispyness of the skin and smokiness of the fish. 

    *if you don’t own a blowtorch you could use your stove top to achieve the smoking of the trout, add the prepared roasting tray on two stove plates. And if you like, you could lightly sear the trout when smoking is done. 


    I had a lot of fun developing and shooting this recipe by only using what is in season as an inspiration for this dish. This was dinner last night, and what a sublime treat it was. 
    Try it for yourself and let me know what you think. 
    Happy weekend and happy feasting! 

    Dominique x 

  • Fudgey dark chocolate and tahini brownies. 

    Fudgey dark chocolate and tahini brownies. 

    Inspired by a visit to my new favourite ice cream parlour in the heart of Cape Town I felt compelled to recreate my flavour experience. For the past week all I could think and dream about is their mesmerizing Chocolate Tahini flavour with glorious nutty notes from the tahini paste and an unmistakable velvety smooth texture no ice cream I’ve ever had possesses. Feeling like I’ve been bewitched and in a chocolatey daze, I’ve taken the flavour combination and put my own twist on it. 

    I’ve tried the Lindt dark chocolate studded with toasted sesame seeds and is quite a favourite of mine, but never have I thought to pair chocolate with Tahini. It’s always those flavour pairings that we don’t expect to go together that end up blowing our minds and surprising our tastebuds. I tried making gluten-free chocolate cookies, a Nigella recipe using Buckwheat flour, dark chocolate and I added tahini. The recipe is from the book Simply Nigella, and seems rather interesting because of the toasty, nutty taste the buckwheat lends to the cookie against the tartness of the dark chocolate and the complementing nuttiness of the tahini too. The cookies were okay but didn’t quite get my stamp of approval to make the cut for a blog post( if you know what I mean) 

    The brownies are from a classic standard brownie recipe, of which I have tweaked a bit. 

    Ingredients: 

    -177 ml all purpose flour(I used cake flour as that was what I had on hand) 

    -177ml cocoa powder 

    -1 tablespoon instant coffee powder

    -1/4 teaspoon salt 

    -1/4 teaspoon baking powder

    -120g caster sugar 

    -2 tablespoons of tahini 

    -60ml Greek yogurt(plain yoghurt) 

    -2 tablespoons melted unsalted butter(cooled) 

    -2 beaten eggs 

    -1 teaspoon vanilla paste

    -1 punnet of fresh raspberries. 
    Method: 
    Preheat oven to 180 degrees C. Grease a baking pan and cover in baking parchment. In a bowl, whisk the flour, cocoa, instant coffee powder, baking powder and salt until combined. I used my stand mix for this step, using the flat beater attachment, mix together the yoghurt, sugar, butter, eggs and vanilla until just combined then fold in half of the raspberries. Pour into prepared pan and spread evenly. Add the tahini in blobs and swirl around in the pan. Place remaining raspberries on top press in slightly. Bake for 20-25 minutes until the edges are crisp and the middle is set. 


    * if you don’t have instant coffee powder, add the same amount of granulated coffee to hot water then add at the end of the mixing process of the batter just before adding the raspberries. 

    * Cool the brownies in the pan completely before taking them out to slice. 

    * Lastly serve with an ice cream of your choice or even a quenelle of marscapone for a more indulgent feel. 

    Treat yourself!  

    Dominique.

  • Buddha’s ganoush 

    Buddha’s ganoush 

    Happy 2017! Better late than never 🙂 we all set some goals before 2016 packed its bags and thankfully left us, and one of mine is to start eating mindfully, I do believe my body will reward me for my choice of nourishment.I don’t proclaim to be a complete healthy eater, but I think it’s important to start the year off on a healthy note, healthy body and healthy mind. 

    Okay, I have to admit I sometimes eat like a 10 year old that has been left alone at home for an evening of junk food eating and binge watching 80’s movies. However, I find as I’m getting older I feel my body needs more nutrition than those days after eating junk that I cram my body full of only to resume the junk eating the next week or so… Not very smart, I know. 

    As an avid Woolworths Taste magazine reader, I could not resist trying out this recipe for myself. This recipe is out of the book Plentiful by Paul Atkinson,Chris and Louis Van Loon and Angela Shaw.This recipe is ideal for snacking with flat breads, (my favourite) crunchy radishes, carrot sticks or some rice crackers. Serve as a dip at your next laid back lunch with family or friends, it’s something different and best of all it’s super easy to make at home. I used my trusty NutriBullet to blitz everything up in just one cup. The consistency is a velvety smooth dip texture and taste is reminiscent to its cousin hummus, because of the tahini paste, lemon juice, olive oil and garlic. 
    Buddha’s Ganoush recipe: 

    Ingredients: 

    -2 large aubergines/brinjals halved lengthways 

    -5T olive oil, plus extra 

    -2T toasted ground cumin 

    -2 cloves garlic

    -1T tahini paste 

    -1/2 bunch parsley 

    -3T Lemon juice 

    Sea salt and ground pepper to taste 

    Method: 

    Preheat oven to 180 degrees C. Halve the brinjals/aubergines lengthways and prick the aubergines all over using a fork, then rub with some olive oil. 

    Place aubergines in roasting dish and roast for 45 minutes turning them halfway through. Once cooked, remove from oven and allow to cool completely before scooping out all of the flesh from the aubergines with a spoon. Toast the cumin in a hot pan until fragrant and darker in colour but shouldn’t turn black(shake every few minutes when toasting to avoid burning) place all of the aubergines flesh into a food processor or NutriBullet with the olive oil, garlic, tahini, cumin and parsley, then blitz. Add the lemon juice a little at a time, so as to avoid the mixture becoming too runny. Season to taste and serve with chopped radishes or with some fresh flat breads. 
    Happy mindful eating! 

    Dominique x

  • 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**