Wickedfood Cooking School, SUNNINGHILL

Information & bookings (076) 236-2345  sunninghill@wickedfood.co.za

Hi all,

As the routine of our busy lives becomes more of a reality and the holiday more of a distant memory, we look back on those care free days of relaxation with family and friends with a longing to go back in time. But we can’t and therefore we buckle down and head towards late nights and early mornings, traffic, stress and the usual Monday night dinners. The monotony of cooking the same dish over and over can lead towards a non-satisfactory outlook towards food. So you either eat-to-live or live-to-eat and if its the latter, something needs to change for the better.

We have scheduled all our popular classes in the first quarter of this year. Our aim is to teach you new skills and cuisines so you have the confidence in replicating these dishes at home. Remember we teach you everything you would need to know regarding the dishes taught, so whether you are a beginner or accomplished cook wanting to learn a new skill or cuisine, come along and join us for a fun, informative class filled with like-minded people!

In February we have our regular and ever  popular Valentines classes.  Bookings are already open for these and we have quite a few bookings, so if you’re interested don’t delay, contact the school for more information or to reserve a place.

Find us on Facebook and Twitter – just search for Wickedfood and you will find us. We update the blog on a daily basis and publish it through Facebook and Twitter.

Looking for info on food?

If you have any food-related questions, or a dish that you just can’t get right or even a certain recipe that you are looking for, but just can’t seem to find, then contact us and we will do our best to answer it as soon as possible. Click Here for more information. Hope to hear from you soon.

Wickedfood Cooking School news

The new year sees an exciting selection of interesting and different cooking classes aimed at individuals.  The Cooking class programme for January and February are up on the internet. Wickedfood Cooking School runs cooking classes with a minimum of 8 participants and a maximum of 12 as this gives everyone hands-on experience and keeps the cooking class small enough for maximum learning. These cooking classes are conducted by our senior instructors who have extensive experience in the food industry and share a variety of additional cooking tips throughout the cooking class.

• Sunday 29 January at 4pm – Thai class (R370pp). Thai cuisine places emphasis on lightly prepared dishes with strong aromatic components. Thai cuisine is also known for being quite spicy as well as balancing the four fundamental taste senses in each dish or the overall meal: sour, sweet, salty, and (optional) bitter. Learn how to balance these tastes in this cooking class entitled ‘Easy dishes for a casual Thai dinner parties’ which includes dishes, fresh springrolls, sour and spicy fish soup, stir-fried beef curry, chicken salad with peanut sauce, stir-fried noodles and bananas in a sweet/salty coconut sauce.

• Monday 30 January at 6pm – Making filled pasta and accompanying sauces (R370pp). Making pasta is really easy, and fresh pasta tastes better too. Learn the secrets to making pasta from scratch in this pasta cooking class. We also include fillings and sauces for these unique pasta shapes. Dishes covered in the class include cheese and ham ravioli with a tomato sauce, meat filled Agnolotti, spinach and ricotta tortellini, cappelletti filled with sweet potatoe,s and ravioli with apple and pecan nut stuffing.

• Monday 06 February at 6pm – South African – A Taste of the Cape (R380pp). This South African cooking class has a strong Cape Malay flavour, showcasing the unique flavours that have become synonymous with South African cuisine including savoury pies, smoorsnoek, denningsvleis, tomato bredie, sousboontjies, yellow rice and milk tart.

• Saturday 11 February at 6pm  and Tuesday 14 February at 6pm – Romantic Valentine’s dinner, easy summer entertaining (R770 per couple). Join the staff at the Cooking School with the love of your life for a Valentine’s dinner with a difference. Not only will you get to enjoy a delicious 4-course dinner, but you will learn the secrets of how to cook it. Included in the price is a welcome glass of sparkling wine, house wine while preparing the food, and some specialist wines, complementing the food, with the meal. Space is limited to 30 students per class, so book early. The menu will be as follows:

Cookbook of the week

South African cuisine is a reflection of the immigrants who make up the population.  It is a melting pot of Afrikaner, Cape Malay, British, Indian, Jewish, Greek, Italian, Asian, Portuguese  and more recently, immigrants from across Africa. Each wave of immigrants, in their own particular way contributed towards the makeup of the mod and South African table.  It is the young yet vibrant culinary culture that started in the mid sixteen hundreds with the colonization of the Cape by the Dutch, who introduced the savoury spices of the east and the exotic fruits and vegetables from the Americas to the African continent… Click here to read more

Food quote of the week

“My kitchen is a mystical place, a kind of temple for me.  It is a place where the surfaces seem to have significance, where the sounds and odors carry meaning that transfers from the past and bridges to the future.” – Pearl Bailey

Recipes of the week:

Chraime – Fish cooked in a spicy tomato sauce

Chraime is considered to be the kings of Libyan food, and the dish that really characterizes the Libyan Jewish kitchen. There are many ways to prepare it and many versions. The fish must be firm and it must ‘float’ in the sauce – that is there must be plenty of sauce. It’s served with white bread and lemon is squeezed over it as you eat. This recipe is from our cookbook of the week – South Africa Eats. ….Click Here for all our recipes.

Wickedfood Cooking School runs cooking classes throughout the year at its purpose-built Johannesburg cooking studio. Cookery classes are run in the mornings and evenings 7 days a week (subject to a minimum of 12 people). The venue is also popular for corporate events and private functions – teambuilding cooking classes, birthdays, kitchen teas, and dinner parties with a difference. Our cooking lessons are hands-on, where every person gets to participate in the preparation of the dishes. They are also a lot of fun where you not only learn new skills, but get to meet people with similar interests. For corporate groups and team building cooking classes these events are a novel way of creating staff interaction or entertaining clients.

South African cuisine is a reflection of the immigrants who make up the population.  It is a melting pot of Afrikaner, Cape Malay, British, Indian, Jewish, Greek, Italian, Asian, Portuguese  and more recently, immigrants from across Africa. Each wave of immigrants, in their own particular way contributed towards the makeup of the mod and South African table.  It is the young yet vibrant culinary culture that started in the mid sixteen hundreds with the colonization of the Cape by the Dutch, who introduced the savoury spices of the east and the exotic fruits and vegetables from the Americas to the African continent.

In her book, South Africa Eats leading South African foodie and bestselling author Phillippa Cheifitz provides a tempting sampler of the rich variety of our culinary tradition. She has asked 13 of SA’s leading foodies, from Dorah Sitole to Mariana Esterhuizen, about their family history, roots and influences – and, most importantly, for a few of their favourite recipes – Chraime (see our recipe of the week), chicken pie, fish curry, Denningvleis, and Phutu, to name just a few.

The second half of the book expands on these flavours with a great selection of additional recipes.

The book reflects memories of our diverse cultural heritage and the many people that have formed South Africa’s culinary home. It is a great reference point, complemented by some stunning food photography.  A great gift, portraying SA’s rich and diverse cultural  heritage.

Interested in buying this book? Visit - Red Pepper Books – The South African online bookshop, is able to offer you great prices on any book you are looking for, and they deliver to your door. Pay only R282 for this book (Recommended Retail Price = R345)!  Red Pepper Books is offering Wickedfood Cooking School subscribers an EXTRA 10% off this book. Simply type in the promotional code WICKEDFOOD on the shipping page of the checkout process and your purchase will be reduced by a further 10%, a total saving of R63.

Wickedfood Cooking School runs cooking classes throughout the year at its purpose-built Johannesburg cooking studio. Cookery classes are run in the mornings and evenings 7 days a week (subject to a minimum of 12 people). The venue is also popular for corporate events and private functions – teambuilding cooking classes, birthdays, kitchen teas, and dinner parties with a difference.

Our cooking lessons are hands-on, where every person gets to participate in the preparation of the dishes. They are also a lot of fun where you not only learn new skills, but get to meet people with similar interests. For corporate groups and team building cooking classes these events are a novel way of creating staff interaction or entertaining clients.

Most of the Jewish immigrants came to South Africa from Lithuania and nearby Latvia, Poland, Russia and Belarus, home to the Ashkenazi Jews, in the late 19^th and early 20^th centuries. Sephardi Jews came later from North Africa, Rhode Island and Turkey – and from the 1950’s onwards from Egypt, the Belgian Congo and Zimbabwe. Sephardic food reflects the Mediterranean and Middle Eastern food of the countries Sephardi Jews had lived in.

One of the most respected Sephardic cooks in Cape Town was the late Donna Benatar. Born in Israel, a 10^th generation sabra, she came to Africa in 1954 to visit friends in Zimbabwe. There she met her husband-to-be, Egyptian-born Baruch, who at the time was living in the Belgian Congo. They married in 1955 and returned to the Congo, but had to leave in 1974. After a stay in Belgium, they chose to live in Cape Town.

Chraime is considered to be the kings of Libyan food, and the dish that really characterizes the Libyan Jewish kitchen. There are many ways to prepare it and many versions. The fish must be firm and it must ‘float’ in the sauce – that is there must be plenty of sauce. It’s served with white bread and lemon is squeezed over it as you eat. This recipe is from our cookbook of the week – South Africa Eats.

For the fish use kabeljou, Cape salmon or yellowtail, cut into cutlets on the bone, with the skin on, to about thumb thickness, either a smallish fish or the tail part of a bigger fish – this will give some small pieces which is perfect for those people who prefer a smaller portion.

12 pieces of a firm fish – see above

3 large lemons

oil for frying
1 large head of garlic, peeled and roughly chopped
2 tins (115 g) tomato paste
1T ground cumin
1T ground coriander
a generous pinch of cumin seeds
1t cayenne pepper (or chilli powder)
a pinch of salt
boiling water

To serve:

lemon wedges
kitke bread

1. Rinse the fish and lightly salt on both sides.
2. Marinate the fish in lemon juice for a while or at least for the time it takes to make the sauce. Have a colander and two plates ready. Place fish in a colander over the first plate and squeeze lemon juice over the fish. After a while move the colander to second plate and pour over the drained liquids from the first plate. Repeat by moving the colander back to the first plate and pouring over the drained liquids. Do this about three times while making the sauce. Discard the liquid that remains.
3. Cover the base of a wide frying pan or casserole, about 29 cm in diameter, with a 5 mm layer of oil. The casserole must be big enough to hold all the pieces of fish in a single layer. Over medium heat, sauté the chopped garlic.
4. Add the tomato paste in the centre of the pot, top with the spices and salt and mix. Cook for a minute or two.
5. Add enough boiling water to create a good sauce consistency.
6. Add the fish and cook on each side for 2 – 3 minutes. Remove fish to a serving dish and pour over the sauce. Serve at room temperature with a generous portion of sauce (to mop up with kitke) and with lemon wedges to squeeze over the fish.

Serves 8-12

Wickedfood Cooking School runs cooking classes throughout the year at its purpose-built Johannesburg cooking studio. Cookery classes are run in the mornings and evenings 7 days a week (subject to a minimum of 12 people). The venue is also popular for corporate events and private functions – teambuilding cooking classes, birthdays, kitchen teas, and dinner parties with a difference.

Our cooking lessons are hands-on, where every person gets to participate in the preparation of the dishes. They are also a lot of fun where you not only learn new skills, but get to meet people with similar interests. For corporate groups and team building cooking classes these events are a novel way of creating staff interaction or entertaining clients.

Wickedfood Cooking School, SUNNINGHILL

Information & bookings (076) 236-2345  sunninghill@wickedfood.co.za

Hi all,

Hope you all had a fantastic Christmas break and that this will be an exciting food year for you.  The School closed from 16 December to Monday 9 January 2012, and we’re now back and raring to go. It seems as though many of you have made it to your new year’s resolution to learn more about food, as of January classes are filling up quickly.  We have some very exciting cooking classes lined up for January and February, including Quick 30 minute meals; Easy curries, salads and soups; Easy Italian; Mexican Salsas, dips and filling; and Casual Thai dinner parties dishes - see below for more details.

In February we have our regular and ever  popular Valentines classes.  Bookings are already open for these and we have quite a few bookings, so if you’re interested don’t delay, contact the school for more information or to reserve a place.

Find us on Facebook and Twitter – just search for Wickedfood and you will find us. We update the blog on a daily basis and publish it through Facebook and Twitter.

Looking for info on food?

If you have any food-related questions, or a dish that you just can’t get right or even a certain recipe that you are looking for, but just can’t seem to find, then contact us and we will do our best to answer it as soon as possible. Click Here for more information. Hope to hear from you soon.

Wickedfood Cooking School news

The new year sees an exciting selection of interesting and different cooking classes aimed at individuals.  The Cooking class programme for January and February are up on the internet. Wickedfood Cooking School runs cooking classes with a minimum of 8 participants and a maximum of 12 as this gives everyone hands-on experience and keeps the cooking class small enough for maximum learning. These cooking classes are conducted by our senior instructors who have extensive experience in the food industry and share a variety of additional cooking tips throughout the cooking class.

• Sunday 15 January at 4pm – Quick 30 minute meals (R370pp). Trying to juggle work and home commitments can be tough, and the statement of ‘who has time to cook these days’ is on the increase. In this ‘30 Minute meals’ cooking class we show participants how to produce quick and easy 30-minute meals that are delicious and well balanced. Dishes include, chickpea and pumpkin curry, grilled beef, grilled tuna and a rich chocolate self-saucing pudding with only 5g of fat!!
• Monday 16 January at 6pm – Jamie’s Ministry of Food – Easy curries, salads and soups (R380pp). We consider Jamie Oliver’s ‘Ministry of Food’ his best book yet. It’s the perfect book for any beginner. In this Jamie Oliver cooking class we take six recipes from the book and re-interpret them, with plenty of tips along the way. Learning the secrets to successful, easy cooking which includes, pea and mint soup, vegetable bhajis, chicken korma, lamb rogan josh, evolution potato salad and a vanilla cheesecake.
• Sunday 22 January at 4pm – Easy Italian (R380pp). Italian cuisine is noted for its regional diversity, abundance of difference in taste, and is known to be one of the most popular in the world. The main characteristics of Italian cuisine is its extreme simplicity. Dishes and recipes are often the creation of grandmothers rather than of chefs, and this makes many recipes ideally suited for home cooking. This is one of the main reasons behind the ever increasing popularity of this cuisine. Join us in this Italian cooking class for a more in-depth look at Italian cuisine which includes cauliflower frittata, risotto with dried mushrooms, lamb chops fried in Parmesan cheese batter and cassata.
• Monday 23 January at 6pm – Mexican Salsas, dips and fillings (R370pp). The history of traditional Mexican food is a long and complex one, and every bit of the complexity is reflected in the sheer variety of flavours in Mexican cuisine. Present day Mexican cuisine has evolved into something truly extraordinary. Join us in this Mexican cooking class as we blend the exotic flavours with that of the new world flavours which includes salsas, dips and fillings, for nachos, tostadas and tortillas, which are all perfect for al fresco dining.
• Sunday 29 January at 4pm -  Easy dishes for casual Thai dinner parties (R370pp). Thai cuisine places emphasis on lightly prepared dishes with strong aromatic components. Thai cuisine is also known for being quite spicy as well as balancing the four fundamental taste senses in each dish or the overall meal: sour, sweet, salty, and (optional) bitter. Learn how to balance these tastes in this Thai cooking class, which includes, fresh springrolls, sour and spicy fish soup, stir-fried beef curry, chicken salad with peanut sauce, stir-fried noodles and bananas in a sweet/salty coconut sauce.

Book of the week

Food quote of the week

“Garlic is as good as ten mothers.” – Les Blank

Recipes of the week:

Empire roast chicken

This recipe  is an adaptation from Jamie’s Great Britain, our recipe book for this week.  Jamie says of this roast chicken recipe in the introduction -  “Ask any British person what their two favourite meals are and I reckon most people would say their mum’s roast chicken, and a curry. Well, welcome to Empire roast chicken, a combination of both of those things. Your friends and family are going to love it. I love it. You will love it.” Certainly a delicious dish for a casual Sunday roast with friends. ….Click Here for all our recipes.

Wickedfood Cooking School runs cooking classes throughout the year at its purpose-built Johannesburg cooking studio. Cookery classes are run in the mornings and evenings 7 days a week (subject to a minimum of 12 people). The venue is also popular for corporate events and private functions – teambuilding cooking classes, birthdays, kitchen teas, and dinner parties with a difference. Our cooking lessons are hands-on, where every person gets to participate in the preparation of the dishes. They are also a lot of fun where you not only learn new skills, but get to meet people with similar interests. For corporate groups and team building cooking classes these events are a novel way of creating staff interaction or entertaining clients.

This recipe is an adaptation from Jamie’s Great Britain, our recipe book for this week.  Jamie says of this roast chicken recipe in the introduction -  “Ask any British person what their two favourite meals are and I reckon most people would say their mum’s roast chicken, and a curry. Well, welcome to Empire roast chicken, a combination of both of those things. Your friends and family are going to love it. I love it. You will love it.“

It is certainly a delicious dish for a casual Sunday roast with friends.  Instead of cooking in the oven, try the chicken roasted in a kettlebraai.  Smoking this is an added kick of flavour.

For the chicken and marinade

±1.4kg free-range chicken
1 heaped tablespoon each finely grated garlic, fresh ginger and fresh red chilli
1 T tomato purée
1 T each of ground coriander, turmeric, garam masala and ground cumin
2 t natural yoghurt
2 lemons
2 t sea salt

For the gravy

1 stick of cinnamon
3 small red onions, peeled
10 cloves
3 T each of white wine vinegar and Worcestershire sauce
3 T plain flour
1/2 chicken stock cube dissolved in 500ml warm water
2-4T plain yoghurt, to serve

For the Bombay-style potatoes

800g new potatoes
sea salt and ground pepper
1 lemon
±3T  olive oil
a knob of butter
1t each of black mustard seeds, cumin seeds, garam masala and turmeric
1 bulb of garlic
1 fresh red chilli, deseeded and finely sliced
2 tomatoes, roughly chopped
1 small bunch of fresh coriander

Serves 4 to 6

Recipe taken from Jamie’s Great Britain by Jamie Oliver ©Jamie Oliver 2011. All rights reserved. Photography © David Loftus 2011

Wickedfood Cooking School runs cooking classes throughout the year at its purpose-built Johannesburg cooking studio. Cookery classes are run in the mornings and evenings 7 days a week (subject to a minimum of 12 people). The venue is also popular for corporate events and private functions – teambuilding cooking classes, birthdays, kitchen teas, and dinner parties with a difference. Our cooking lessons are hands-on, where every person gets to participate in the preparation of the dishes. They are also a lot of fun where you not only learn new skills, but get to meet people with similar interests. For corporate groups and team building cooking classes these events are a novel way of creating staff interaction or entertaining clients.