One of the lasting impressions from the movie Julie & Julia was Julie’s frustration and eventual triumph over boeuf bourguignon from Julia Child’s book, Mastering the Art of French Cooking. This hearty beef stew is a centerpiece of one of the movie’s more appetizing food scenes. Here is the recipe, as it appears in the book:

As is the case with most famous dishes, there are more ways than one to arrive at a good boeuf bourguignon. Carefully done, and perfectly flavoured, it is certainly one of the most delicious beef dishes concocted by man, and can well be the main course for a buffet dinner. Fortunately you can prepare it completely ahead, even a day in advance, and it only gains in flavour when reheated.

Vegetable and Wine Suggestions
Boiled potatoes are traditionally served with this dish. Buttered noodles or steamed rice may be substituted. If you also wish a green vegetable, buttered peas would be your best choice. Serve with the beef a fairly full-bodied, young red wine, such as Beaujolais, Côtes du Rhône, Bordeaux-St. Émilion, or Burgundy.

1. Remove rind from bacon, and cut bacon into lardons (sticks, 3mm wide and 3cm long). Simmer rind and bacon for 10 minutes in 1L of water. Drain and dry.
2. Preheat oven to 220°C .
3. Sauté the bacon in the oil over moderate heat for 2 to 3 minutes to brown lightly. Remove to a side dish with a slotted spoon. Set casserole aside. Reheat until fat is almost smoking before you sauté the beef.
4. Dry the stewing beef in paper towels; it will not brown if it is damp. Sauté it, a few pieces at a time, in the hot oil and bacon fat until nicely browned on all sides. Add it to the bacon.
5. In the same fat, brown the sliced vegetables. Pour out the sautéing fat.
6. Return the beef and bacon to the casserole and toss with the salt and pepper. Then sprinkle on the flour and toss again to coat the beef lightly with the flour. Set casserole uncovered in middle position of preheated oven for 4 minutes. Toss the meat and return to oven for 4 minutes more. (This browns the flour and covers the meat with a light crust.) Remove casserole, and turn oven down to 180°C .
7. Stir in the wine, and enough stock or bouillon so that the meat is barely covered. Add the tomato paste, garlic, herbs, and bacon rind. Bring to simmer on top of the stove. Then cover the casserole and set in lower third of preheated oven. Regulate heat so liquid simmers very slowly for 2 1/2 to 3 hours. The meat is done when a fork pierces it easily.
8. While the beef is cooking, prepare the onions and mushrooms. Set them aside until needed.
9. When the meat is tender, pour the contents of the casserole into a sieve set over a saucepan. Wash out the casserole and return the beef and bacon to it. Distribute the cooked onions and mushrooms over the meat.
10. Skim fat off the sauce. Simmer sauce for a minute or two, skimming off additional fat as it rises. You should have about 2 1/2 cups of sauce thick enough to coat a spoon lightly. If too thin, boil it down rapidly. If too thick, mix in a few tablespoons of stock or canned bouillon. Taste carefully for seasoning. Pour the sauce over the meat and vegetables. Recipe may be completed in advance to this point.

For immediate serving: Cover the casserole and simmer for 2 to 3 minutes, basting the meat and vegetables with the sauce several times. Serve in its casserole, or arrange the stew on a platter surrounded with potatoes, noodles, or rice, and decorated with parsley.

For later serving: When cold, cover and refrigerate. About 15 to 20 minutes before serving, bring to the simmer, cover, and simmer very slowly for 10 minutes, occasionally basting the meat and vegetables with the sauce.

Serves 6

Wickedfood Cooking School, Sunninghill – (011) 234-3252 sunninghill@wickedfood.co.za

Wickedfood Cooking School runs cooking classes throughout the year at its purpose-built cooking studios. 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 classes 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.

Remember the movie Julie & Julia, starring Meryl Streep as Julia Child, partially based on Julia Child’s memoir, My Life in France. In the movie Julie set herself the task of  cooking every dish from Julia Child’s book, Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Vol. 1 originally published more than 40 years ago. Fortunately the book has recently been re-printed, with all 524 recipes.  It leaves nothing to chance, packed with sumptuous recipes, detailed instructions, and precise line drawings.  Some of the instructions look daunting, but as Julia herself says in the introduction, “If you can read, you can cook”.

The book is aimed at both the seasoned cooks and beginners who love good food and long to reproduce at home the savoury delights of classic French  cuisine, from the historic Gallic masterpieces to the seemingly artless perfection of a dish of spring-green peas. This beautiful book, with more than 100 instructive illustrations, was in its time revolutionary in its approach because it:

• leads the cook infallibly from the buying and handling of raw ingredients, through each essential step of a recipe, to the final creation of a delicate confection;
• breaks down the classic cuisine into a logical sequence of themes and variations rather than presenting an endless and diffuse catalogue of recipes; the focus is on key recipes that form the backbone of French cookery;
• adapts classical techniques, wherever possible, to modern  conveniences;
• offers suggestions for just the right accompaniment to each dish, including proper wines.

Although the book has been written primarily for the American market, it is nonetheless highly informative.

Click on the links below for two delicious recipes inspired by the book:

Beef Bourguignon

Coq au Vin

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 cooking studios. 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 classes 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.

Wickedfood Cooking School, SUNNINGHILL

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

Hi all,

Over the weekend we had a very successful joint function with Slow Food, tasting five very different venison recipes and pairing them with some of the country’s top wines.  Due to its great success, we will repeat these type of functions on a quarterly basis.

Over the next two weeks, we once again have some fantastic individual classes.  Our French cooking class is always popular, so book soon.  In addition we have a class on quick and easy meals for two, as well as a cooking class on making pasta and an Indian cooking class.  Hope to see you at one of these cooking classes, see details below.

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.

Wickedfood Cooking School news

Cooking class programmes are up on the internet, click the relevant month for the August and September programme .

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 August at 4pm – Classic French cooking (R390pp). French cooking class, an introduction to French cuisine with some classic seafood dishes including quiche Lorraine, bouillabaisse, sole meunière, salad niçoise and flourless chocolate cake.
• Monday 30 August at 6pm – 30 minute meals (R370pp). In this class we will show participants how to produce quick and easy 30 minute meals that are delicious, and at the same time low in fat and well balanced.  Includes Tandoori chicken salad, penne with a tomato salsa and tuna, chilli seafood rice and apple and pear strudel.
• Monday 06 September at 6pm – Making filled pasta and accompanying sauces (R390pp). Dishes covered in this pasta making cooking class include cheese and ham ravioli with a tomato sauce, meat filled agnolotti, spinach and ricotta tortellini, cappelletti filled with sweet potatoes and ravioli with apple and pecan nut stuffing.
• Sunday 12 September at 4pm – Easy Entertaining Indian style (R380pp). Authentic Indian cooking class including bhel puri, lamb korma, potato and cauliflower curry, chicken pulao and cheese balls in syrup.

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

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.

Juliet Cullinan Wine Festival

The Juliet Cullinan Standard Bank Wine Festival 2010 takes place this year on 8 and 9 September from 17h30 to 21h00 at the Wanderer’s Club, 21 North Road, Illovo, Johannesburg. Cost per ticket is R100.

With only 60 exhibitors, this small, focused festival appeals to tasters looking for old and tested, or new and innovative wines, which are not available to the general trade and not easily available in retail outlets.  Each year the management at Wickedfood Cooking School visits this show to keep abreast of new trends and cultivars available on the market, a really worthwhile outing.

On food

Is your extra virgin olive oil top grade?

A University of California study on olive oil says many of the olive oils lining supermarket shelves in the United States are not the top-grade extra virgin oils that their labels declare (and for which we’re paying good money). I’m pretty sure that the situation in South Africa is very similar, especially  with regards to the imported oils.  The  study  found that more than two-thirds of samples failed to meet international and U.S. standards.

First, remember that all olive oils, regardless of the variety, are 100 percent fat and contain the same amount of calories!

So what should be we be looking for when buying olive oil?

• Extra virgin olive oil: The finest and fruitiest of olive oil grades. It is also the most expensive, with a colour ranging from deep gold or greenish gold to bright, grassy green. It should never be cooked with, only used as a garnish.
• Virgin olive oil: Is the second pressing.  Its acidity level can be up to 2 percent. It should also taste smooth and have a good aroma, flavour and colour.
• Olive oil: oil with flavour or an aroma that is less than perfect is refined to produce an odourless, colourless and tasteless oil. Virgin olive oil is then added to give it some flavour and colour. The flavour and, ultimately, price of olive oil varies depending on the amount of virgin olive oil added.

Don’t fry away your money. The flavour of higher priced extra virgin olive oil tends to break down at frying temperatures. Standard olive oil forms a crust on the surface of food when fried that impedes the penetration of oil and improves its flavour. As a result, less of the oil is actually absorbed in the food, resulting in a lower fat content than food fried in other oils. … Click Here to read more.

Cookbook of the week

Mastering the Art of French Cooking

Remember the movie Julie & Julia, starring Meryl Streep as Julia Child. In the movie Julie set herself the task of  cooking every dish from Julia Child’s book, Mastering the Art of French Cooking originally published more than 40 years ago. Fortunately the book has recently been re-printed, with all 524 recipes. … Click Here for more.

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

Food quote of the week

“Laughter is brightest where food is best.” – Irish Proverb.

Recipe of the week:

Boeuf bourguignon

As is the case with most famous dishes, there are more ways than one to arrive at a good boeuf bourguignon. Carefully done, and perfectly flavoured, it is certainly one of the most delicious beef dishes concocted by man. Fortunately you can prepare it completely ahead, even a day in advance, and it only gains in flavour when re-heated. …Click Here for the recipe.

The Wickedfood Team

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.

Awesome website of the week: http://www.recycling.co.za/

Recycling is an important part of integrated waste management and has the following benefits:

The Wickedfood Team

Wickedfood Cooking School runs  classes throughout the year at its purpose-built Johannesburg cooking studio. Cooking lessons 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 courses 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.

(Adapted from Bourke Street Bakery’s Cookbook, Picture from almostbourdain.blogspot)

This Carrot Cake is well worth worth the effort. The list of ingredients might be long, but they are all readily available in the supermarket and many of them should also be everyday items in a well stocked pantry.  At Wickedfood Cooking School we make a fairly similar carrot cake in our baking class.  As with all baking, it is important that you follow the recipe exactly, otherwise there is a strong possibility that the carrot cake will flop.

Bourke Street Bakery says – “It’s necessary to work quickly to make this carrot cake recipe succeed. Everything is whipped to incorporate a lot of air and the dry ingredients are quickly folded through at the end. The whipped egg whites result in a fantastic crisp meringue-like top on the cake. We have a number of mixers. So we can have everything mixing at one time, but for a home kitchen you will get the best results working in the order listed within the carrot cake recipe.”

70 g walnuts
150 g self-raising flour
1/8 tsp baking powder
1/8 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
1/8 tsp ground cloves
1/8 tsp ground nutmeg
1/4 tsp salt
55 ml (about 2) egg whites
1/4 cup sugar for egg whites
1 egg
1 egg yolk
3/4 cup sugar for egg yolks
2/3 cup extra light olive oil
125 g carrots, peeled and grated

Cream Cheese Frosting:

1T icing (confectioners’) sugar, plus extra, for dusting
1T butter, softened
145 g cream cheese
2T pouring (whipping) cream

1. Preheat the oven to 200°C . Grease an 18 cm round cake tin and line the base and side with baking paper – the paper should protrude about 3cm above the tin.
2. Place the walnuts on a baking tray and toast in the preheated oven for 4-5 minutes, or until lightly roasted (or in a dry frying pan). Cool and coarsely chop.
3. Sift the flour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda, spices and salt into a bowl. Repeat to ensure they are evenly mixed, and well aired.
4. Whisk the  egg whites in a very clean bowl on high speed until soft peaks start to form. Slowly pour in the sugar for the egg whites, while the motor is still running, being careful not to overmix – the meringue should reach soft peak stage.
5. Put the 1 egg and 1 egg yolk in a bowl together with the 3/4 cup of sugar for the egg yolks. Mix on high speed for 3-4 minutes, or until the mixture doubles in volume and is quite airy. With the motor still running, slowly pour in the oil in a thin stream being careful that it doesn’t split or deflate too much.
6. With a spatula, or metal spoon, gently fold in the flour mixture until combined. Fold in the carrots and walnuts. Quickly and lightly fold in the meringue (beaten egg whites) – do not fold it through completely, you should still be able to see streaks of meringue through the mix.
7. Pour into the prepared tin and bake for 1 hour 10 minutes, or until a skewer inserted into centre of the cake comes out clean. You may need to drop the oven temperature to 180°C  after the first 30 minutes if the top is browning too quickly).
8. Meanwhile, make the cream cheese frosting. Cream the icing sugar and butter in the bowl of an electric mixer until pale and smooth. Add the cream cheese in small amounts, allowing it to be completely incorporated before adding the rest. Scrape down the sides during the process to ensure even mixing. Add the cream and mix until smooth, being careful not to overmix at this stage or the cream may curdle and separate, you may need to add a little more cream – the frosting needs to be of a spreadable consistency but not at all runny.
9. Remove the cake from the oven and allow to cool in the tin for about 30 minutes before turning it out onto a wire rack to cool completely.
10. Using a serrated knife, slice horizontally through the centre of the cake to form two even-sized layers and fill with cream cheese frosting.
11. Dust the top of the cake with icing sugar to serve.

See almostbourdain.blogspot for more pictures on how to make the cake.

Click here for a Flourless Chocolate Cake Recipe from the book.

Wickedfood Cooking School, Sunninghill – – (011) 234-3252 sunninghill@wickedfood.co.za

Wickedfood Cooking School runs cooking classes throughout the year at its purpose-built cooking studios. 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 classes 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.