Wickedfood Cooking School Newsletter 8 September 2010

Sunday, September 5th, 2010

Wickedfood Cooking School, SUNNINGHILL

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

Hi all,

Wickedfood Cooking School, in conjunction with Slow Food and Die Ou Pastorie restaurant in Skeerpoort, near Hartebeerspoort Dam, will be organizing a spring feast on Sunday, 19 September.  This will be a great opportunity  to meet some local producers and savour the delicious produce.  See below for more details.  Space is very limited, so book early to avoid disappointment.

And for all the wine lovers out there, don’t forget the Juliet Cullinan Wine Festival this week Wednesday and Thursday.  See below for more details.

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 September and October programmes .

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 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.
  • Monday 13 September at 6pm – Jamie’s America – … on Soul food (R360pp). Jamie Oliver cooking class, based on his latest book on his recent travels through the USA. We re-interpret some of the dishes, and put them together into a themed menu including red pepper summer soup, fried chicken, collard greens, grits, coleslaw and peach cobbler.
  • Monday 20 September at 6pm – Entertaining Turkish style (R370pp). Turkish cooking class – dishes include bulgur wheat patties, yoghurt soup, baked layered lamb pastry, stuffed aubergines, rice pilav and syrupy almond cake.
  • Sunday 26 September at 4pm – Easy Asian dishes with a Chinese flavour (R390pp). Chinese cooking class – perfect for entertaining, with most dishes prepared in advance including wonton soup with noodles, chilli prawns, master stock chicken, Mu shu pork and ginger pudding.
  • Monday 27 September at 6pm – Alfresco Italian dining (R380pp). Real Italian cooking class, tastes of al fresco summer dining and easy entertaining, including char grilled asparagus, affettati misti, insalata caprese, chicken involtini and Hanepoot semifreddo.

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

Slow Food Spring country feast

Wickedfood Cooking School, in conjunction with Slow Food and Die Ou Pastorie restaurant in Skeerpoort, near Hartebeerspoort Dam, will be hosting a spring feast on Sunday, 19 September. Come and meet some of the small producers, and sample their award-winning ingredients incorporated into a delicious 5-course menu prepared by Die Ou Pastorie (there is also a vegetarian option, please advise when booking):

  • Organic micro green salad with free range chicken locally smoked;
  • Soup  – incorporating the freshest of spring vegetables available on the day;
  • Spring lamb from the valley: roasted shoulder served with timbale of polenta cooked in a light smoked chicken stock with locally produced halloumi cheese, smoked bacon, and spring vegetables.
  • Local award-winning cheese platter with a selection of Die Ou Pastorie jellies and home made biscotti.
  • Pecan nut tiramisù.

The cost of the lunch is R250pp including a wine pairing with each course (other drinks for your own account).  To book contact: Tim tim@mutengo.co.za 011 442-5201 or 072 238-2790

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

You can tell whether a crab is male or female by the markings on the underside. A female has a pattern similar in shape to a dome, whereas a male’s markings resemble a rocket. Lovers of the delicate white crabmeat will find this useful as the male’s larger claws contain more of the prized flesh than the female’s do.

Cookbook of the week

Mexican Food Made Simple

When Thomasina Miers first visited  Mexico at the tender age of eighteen,  she fell so in love with its food that she went back to live there, opening up a cocktail bar and using her free time to travel the country. Returning to London, she entered and won  BBC’s MasterChef . She went on to open a  Mexican street food cantina, Wahaca, and has now opened three branches. Her latest book Mexican Food Made Simple is a really great introduction into Mexican food. Recipes are simple to follow, yet at the same time wholesome and full of Mexican flavour. … Click Here for more.

Click Here to see Wickedfood Cooking School’s top 10 food-related books for 2010.

Food quote of the week

“Lettuce is like conversation: It must be fresh and crisp, and so sparkling that you scarcely notice the bitter in it” – Charles Dudley Warner, essayist

Recipe of the week:

Steak Burritos

This recipe is from Thomasina Miers latest book Mexican Food Made Simple. A great casual party dish or for a quick healthy meal. …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.

Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,
Posted in Newsletters | 2 Comments »

  The Altenate Newsletter – 2 September 2010

Thursday, September 2nd, 2010

Click on the orange RSS feed above to get this newsletter delivered to your email

Wickedfood Cooking School, SUNNINGHILL

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

Hi all,

In this week’s newsletter we look at the first 5 of 10, green eating tips. The emphasis is to showcase the simplicity in what one can do to reduce one’s carbon footprint. We focus on Organic food, Local food, Fair trade fare food, Packaging and composting leftovers. In our Website of the Week we look at the site giving you the world’s top restaurants which include 2 South African restaurants. Well done!

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

Our September individual cooking class programmes are up on the internet – click on the month for the programme - September.

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

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.

  • Making pasta – filled pasta.
  • Cheese and ham ravioli with a tomato sauce – tasty southern Italian dish.
  • Meat filled agnolotti – served with a cream and blue cheese vodka sauce.
  • Spinach and ricotta tortellini – with a herb and Parmesan sauce.
  • Cappelletti filled with sweet potatoes – an interesting blend, with parsley.
  • Ravioli with apple and pecan nut stuffing – served with an orange Grand Marnier sauce.

Sunday 12 September at 4pm – Easy Entertaining Indian style (R380pp).

  • Bhel puri – savoury morsels with rice, potatoes and green mangoes.
  • Lamb korma – mild slow cooked curry in an almond yoghurt sauce.
  • Shredded greens – quick dish ideal for any curry meal.
  • Potato and cauliflower curry – with ripe tomatoes.
  • Chicken pulao – fragrant meal-in-one dish.
  • Puris – deep fried unleavened bread.
  • Cheese balls in syrup – popular Indian sweet with milk solids boiled in syrup.

Monday 13 September at 6pm – Jamie’s America – … on Soul food (R360pp). Jamie Oliver cooking class, based on his latest book on his recent travels through the USA. We re-interpret some of the dishes, and put them together into a themed menu including Red pepper summer soup, Fried chicken, Collard greens, Grits, Coleslaw and Peach cobbler.

  • Red pepper summer soup – classic cold soup from the south.
  • Fried chicken – crispy deep-fried, with a basic side salad.
  • Collard greens – with turnips and pork.
  • Coleslaw – perfect with barbecued meats or deep-fried chicken.
  • Grits – southern version of polenta, with delicious meaty sauce.
  • Peach cobbler – stewed peaches in syrup with scone-like dumplings.

Monday 20 September at 6pm – Entertaining Turkish style (R370pp). Turkish cooking class – dishes include bulgur wheat patties, yoghurt soup, baked layered lamb pastry, stuffed aubergines, rice pilav and syrupy almond cake.

  • Kisir – Bulgur wheat patties, with chilli, parsley and mint, served with lettuce.
  • Yoghurt soup – a hot or cold soup with noodles/rice and meatballs/chickpeas, popular throughout Turkey.
  • Baked layered meat pastry – Turkish version of lasagne, with homemade pastry sheets and a spicy meat filling.
  • Stuffed aubergines – one of Turkey’s most renowned dishes, baked with onion, garlic and tomatoes.
  • Tomato salad – with spring onions and a tahini garlic dressing.
  • Rice pilav – with raisins and pinenuts, perfect with Turkish meat dishes.
  • Sponge cakes – with almonds, soaked in a sweet lemon syrup.
Please contact us should you wish to make a booking:

Green ideas for your kitchen? Top Green Eating Tips
1.    Indulge in the Big O – When you eat organic, don’t just picture the healthy food you are putting in your body, picture the healthy ecosystems which produced that food, the workers who are safer from chemicals, the land, water, and air that is being protected, and the wildlife that is being allowed to thrive. Organic vegetables, fruits, grains, juice, dairy, eggs, and meat (and don’t forget the organic wine and beer), are grown and processed in ways that support healthy people and a healthy planet. (While you may not be able to find or afford organic options for everything you need, certain fruits and vegetables are more pesticide free than others.)


2.    Feast on Fair Trade fare – 
Fair trade certified food ensures a proper wage and working conditions for those who harvest and handle it. But fair trade is green for the environment as well. Fair trade has strong environmental standards built into its certification process that protect watersheds and virgin forests, help prevent erosion, promote natural soil fertility and water conservation, and prohibit GMOs and many synthetic chemicals. TransFair claims that their environmental standards are the most stringent in the industry, second only to organic certification.


3.   Go local – Buying seasonal, local food is a boon for the environment for a lot of reasons. Since most food travels many miles to reach your table, locally sourced food cuts back on the climate-change impacts of transportation. Local food also generally uses less packaging, is fresher and tastier, and comes in more varieties. It also supports small local growers and lets them get more for their produce by not having to spend so much on packing, processing, refrigeration, marketing, and shipping. The best way to track down local food is at farmers’ markets or through community supported agriculture (CSA), which often offer home delivery.


4.    Don’t follow the pack – 
Instead of buying foods that come in extensive packaging (most of which is petroleum-based plastics) look for unpackaged or minimally packaged foods, experiment with bringing your own containers and buying in bulk, or pick brands that use bio-based plastic packing. And of course try and re-cycle or re-use any packaging you end up with.


5.    Compost the leftovers
 – Greening your meals isn’t just about the food that winds up on the plate—it’s the entire process, the whole lifecycle shebang. Composting leftovers will ease the burden on the landfill, give you great soil, and keep your kitchen waste basket from smelling. Apartment dwellers and the yard less  can do it too! And yes, a composting toilet can be part of the miraculous cycle as well.
More to come in the next newsletter…

Awesome website of the week: The 50 Best Restaurants in the world

The World’s 50 Best Restaurants list was first dreamed up in 2002. The idea was born as a feature idea for a very youthful trade magazine aimed at chefs and restaurateurs in the UK – Restaurant Magazine.

Since 2002 the way in which the list is created has changed to reflect shifting trends, and in a quest to make it as fair and globally representative as possible.

Even now we’d be the first to admit that it’s not perfect. What the Academy aims to do, with its mix of critics, gourmands, chefs and restaurateurs, is create a list that has a fair weighting both geographically and in dining styles.

Organised by Restaurant Magazine, the S.Pellegrino World’s 50 Best Restaurants aims to get people talking about restaurants, and to shine a bright light on excellence and innovation in an exciting industry.

Nice to see 2 South African Restaurants in the top 50. La Colombe and Le Quartier Francais

http://www.theworlds50best.com/awards/1-50-winners

Food Joke: “I’ve been on a constant diet for the last two decades. I’ve lost a total of 789 pounds. By all accounts, I should be hanging from a charm bracelet.” — Erma Bombeck.

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.

Tags: , , ,
Posted in Newsletters | No Comments »