SUNNINGHILL – Information & bookings (011) 234-3252 sunninghill@wickedfood.co.za

Hi all,

We are delighted that there  seem to be so many aspirant cooks out there. Our first 5 individual classes have all been over subscribed.  Classes over the next few weeks are also filling up fast, so book early to avoid disappointment. Also do not forget that Valentine’s day is only two weeks away,  if you have no plans yet, book for our ever popular cooking class, see below. Hope to see you at one of the classes.

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Wickedfood Cooking School news

Our February individual cooking class programmes is up on the internet.

Johannesburg Cooking School, Wickedfood runs classes with a minimum of 8 participants and a maximum of 12 as this gives everyone hands-on experience  and keeps the class small enough for maximum learning.

• Monday 1 February at 6pm – The tastes of Spain (R370 for the class). An introduction to Spanish cuisine including tortilla Espanola, salt cod fritters, gazpacho, paella, and almond tart.
• Monday 8 February at 6pm – Cookbook of the month – Madhur Jaffrey’s Ultimate Curry Bible (R390pp). Billed as the definitive curry book, by arguably the world authority on Indian food, this book looks at the very best curry recipes from India as well as around the world. Students will learn the secrets of cooking 7 of the most interesting dishes from the book, including chicken-coconut soup, squid in a tomato-chilli sauce, red beef curry, mixed vegetable curry, red bean curry and how to make chapattis.
• Saturday 13 February at 6pm or Sunday 14 February at 4pm – Romantic Valentine’s dinner, easy summer entertaining (R720 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.

Please contact the school should you wish to make a booking:

Looking for info on food?

The Wickedfood blog took off in a big way in 2009, with lots of questions coming in from our readers.  If you have any  food-related question, 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.

Cookbook of the week

Rick Stein’s Far Eastern Odyssey is an epic culinary journey along rivers, through jungles and around coastlines in South East Asia. Apart from a wide variety of flavours,  what really stands out in the book is the vast array of mouth- watering curries.  Many of these curries will appeal to vegetarians.  We will definitely be using this book at Wickedfood Cooking School as a reference for some exciting new curry cooking classes we are planning for later in the year. Click Here for more on the book.

Click Here to see Wickedfood Cooking School’s top 10 food-related books for 2009.

Food quote of the week:

“The only real stumbling block is fear of failure. In cooking you’ve got to have a what-the-hell attitude.” – Julia Child.

Our favourite ingredient:

Watermelon

An unadorned slice of watermelon may rate as a perfect refreshment the world over, but this versatile melon also lends itself to a surprising number of delicious pairings and prepared dishes, both fresh and cooked.

Traditional Thai and Indian culinary repertoires, for example, include a range of curries that unite cooked watermelon with pungent spices. In Mexico, it’s common to find slices sprinkled with a tangy lime–chilli salt called tajín, which boosts the intensity of the fruit’s sweetness.

In Italy and, increasingly, the United States, chefs drizzle aged balsamic vinegar over watermelon and serve it as a simple first course.

Others wrap chunks of the fruit in thin slices of prosciutto or country ham, in another take on the salty-sweet juxtaposition.

Pickled watermelon rinds emerged in various cuisines in eastern Europe.

Centuries later, Mennonite émigrés from the Ukraine, among others, brought pickled rinds to the States, along with another favourite: watermelon syrup; boiled down with a bit of sugar, the melon’s juice becomes thick and lustrous, perfect for drizzling over pancakes or ice cream.

Oil-rich watermelon seeds are prized in many parts of the world: Nigerians ferment them to make a seasoning called ogiri, and throughout Asia and the Middle East they’re hulled, toasted, and eaten as a snack. In India, as in parts of Africa, the seeds are dried and then ground into a flour for baking.

Watermelon is also puréed and strained to make drinks, like Mexico’s popular agua fresca de sandía, a cooling combination of watermelon, lime juice, sugar, and water.

In the southern African nation of Namibia and in parts of the U.S., watermelon juice is fermented for making watermelon wine, and watermelon beer has become a cult favourite of some American craft brewers.

Click here for a recipe for a delicious watermelon Margarita.

Recipe of the week

Shawkats steamed fish with mustard masala

The Wickedfood Team

Johannesburg Cooking School, Wickedfood runs cooking classes throughout the year at its purpose-built 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 – team building cooking classes, birthdays, kitchen teas, and dinner parties with a difference.

Our cooking lessons s 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. Great teambuilding ideas.

Rick Stein’s Far Eastern Odyssey is our cookbook of the week.  It offers a wide variety of mouth watering dishes from Southeast Asia and the Indian subcontinent. If you want more recipes from this book, click here.

4t black mustard seeds
6T mustard oil
75g onions, peeled, halved and thinly sliced
40g garlic, peeled, thinly sliced
1t  turmeric powder
2t chilli powder
1t  salt
4 x 175g fish steaks hake, gernard, or cob
50g red onion, peeled, thinly sliced
1 green chilli, thinly sliced

1. Place the mustard seeds into a spice grinder and grind to a fine powder.
2. Heat the mustard oil in a small frying pan, then add the onions, garlic, turmeric powder, chilli powder, mustard seed powder and salt. Gently fry for 3-4 minutes, or until the onions and garlic are softened and slightly browned.
3. Transfer the mixture into a food processor and blend to a smooth paste. Spread half of the paste over one side of each fish steak.
4. Tear off four 30cm squares of aluminium foil and place each fish steak, paste side down, into the centre of each piece. Spread the remaining spice paste over each fish steak.
5. Scatter the sliced red onion over the fish and sprinkle over the green chilli. Fold up the foil and crimp the edges to seal and make four parcels. Place the parcels into a steamer, cover and steam for 20 minutes, or until the fish is cooked through (the fish should be opaque and flake easily when gently pushed at the thickest part).
6. Unwrap each parcel and lift the fish onto warmed serving plates. Spoon over the juices from the parcels and serve.

Serves 4

Wickedfood Cooking School

Sunninghill – (011) 234-3252 sunninghill@wickedfood.co.za

Wickedfood Cooking School runs cooking classes throughout the year at its purpose-built Johannesburg cooking studios. 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 – team building 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 teambuilding cooking classes these events are a novel way of creating staff interaction or entertaining clients.

Rick Stein’s Far Eastern Odyssey is an epic culinary journey along rivers, through jungles and around coastlines in South East Asia. Along the way, Rick visits traditional family-run restaurants, street vendors, floating markets, night markets, fishing villages, and the local cinnamon and rice farmers to learn about the authentic food of the Far East, and to sample the delicious spectrum of exotic flavours.

With over 150 new recipes and breathtaking on-location photography, this book evokes the magic of bustling markets, exotic locations and exciting flavours. Apart from a wide variety of flavours,  what really stands out in the book is the vast array of mouth watering curries, especially those from Malaysia, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.  Many of these curries will appeal to vegetarians.  We will definitely be using this book at Wickedfood Cooking School as a reference for some exciting new curry cooking classes we are planning for later in the year.

The trip was also the basis for a new six part to division series, click here to read more about the series.

Our recipient of  the week  – steamed fish with mustard masala comes from this book .

Interested in buying this book? visit - Red Pepper Books – The South African online bookshop, they will be able to offer you great prices on any book you are looking for.

Wickedfood Cooking School

Sunninghill – (011) 234-3252 sunninghill@wickedfood.co.za

Wickedfood Cooking School runs cooking classes throughout the year at its purpose-built Johannesburg cooking studios. 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 – team building 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 teambuilding cooking classes these events are a novel way of creating staff interaction or entertaining clients.

A good chicken stock is the basis for most  sauces and soups in Chinese cooking, including Chinese corn and chicken soup.  At Wickedfood Cooking School,  we save all the offcuts from chicken carcasses that we use, in the freezer, and then once a month make a large quantity of stock which we then freeze in 500ml quantities.  It is important to boil the stock for a long time at very low heat, barely simmering.

±500g chicken carcasses/bones and/or necks

±500g pork spare ribs or meat bones

4 spring onions, each tied in a knot

12 slices ginger, crushed with a cleaver

4L water

¹/3 cup (80ml) rice wine

2t salt

1. Remove any excess fat from the bones and discard. Chop bones into large pieces.
2. Place bones into a stock pot with spring onions, ginger and water and bring to the boil. Reduce the heat to a mere simmer and cook for 3-4 hours. Skim to remove any impurities.
3. Strain through a fine strainer and discard the solids. Leave in the fridge overnight and then skim any remaining fat from the surface.
4. Return the stock to a pot add the rice wine and salt to taste. Bring to the boil and simmer for 5 minutes.
5. Store in the fridge for up to 3 days or freeze in small portions.

Makes ± 3L.

Q: Recipe for best Chinese corn soup please.

A: Cantonese chicken and corn soup is one of the most popular soups throughout China, and also very popular and Wickedfood Cooking School in our Chinese cooking class. We use tinned creamed corn, and for a smooth texture, whizz it in a food processor for a couple of seconds. For flavour it is very important to use home made chicken stock. Traditionally only egg whites are used for this dish, but the whole egg can also be used.

250g chicken breast fillet, minced or coarsely chopped

²/3 cup Shaoxing rice wine

400g tinned creamed sweet corn

1,5L chicken stock

1t salt

2T cornflour, dissolved in a ¹/4 cup of water

2 eggs (or whites, see introduction), lightly beaten with 2T water

2t roasted sesame oil

1. Place the chicken in a bowl together with 3T of the rice wine and combine. Set aside.
2. Place any remaining wine, sweet corn, chicken stock and salt in a large pot and bring to the boil, stirring continuously.
3. Once it comes to a boil, reduce to simmer, add the chicken and stir to separate the meat. Simmer for 5 minutes.
4. Add the dissolved cornflour, in a thin stream, stirring continuously, and simmer until thickened slightly.
5. Remove from heat and pour the egg in, in a thin stream to create long strands, mixing as you pour.
6. Stir in the sesame oil. Check the seasoning and serve immediately.

Serves 6