National Nutrition Week – Healthy Eating for Children:

Breakfast is a necessity! Breakfast is the most important meal of the day, especially for children. Breakfast provides us with the energy to keep active through the day. Skipping breakfast can cause a drop in blood glucose levels, resulting in irritability, headaches, shaking and lack of concentration.

Skipping meals may also cause the metabolism to slow down which could result is weight gain at a later stage. A good healthy breakfast can provide up to 30% of daily requirements so its a good idea to make sure it is nutritious and substantial. A few examples of breakfasts include:

• 1 small bowl of All Bran flakes and low fat milk
• 1 small bowl of cooked oats porridge, ½ handful of raisins and low fat milk
• 1 small bowl of fruit salad and low fat yoghurt with 1 handful of muesli
• 1 slice of whole wheat toast and strawberry jam with a banana

Louise Bembridge (RD)

Louise.diet@iburst.co.za

0832601842

Wickedfood Cooking School

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

Boksburg – (011) 823-5365 boksburg@wickedfood.co.za

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.

Q: I would like to know how to make my own pasta. How long can i keep the pasta dough in the fridge?

A: We make fresh pasta at least once a week at Wickedfood cooking school and once people taste the difference they often wonder why they haven’t learn’t to make it sooner. As far as keeping it in the fridge i wouldnt keep it in its raw form for longer than 2-3days, If filling or rolling it does freeze very well for ±3 months just make sure to use enough flour to prevent them from sticking to one another. I have added the following recipe which we do in our corporate team building class and its always a hit.
Factory made pasta is made with flour and water, whereas in homemade pasta, eggs generally take the place of water, giving a much richer product. Homemade pasta keeps well so long as it is properly dried. It also freezes well.

As a basic recipe, to make ±500g of pasta, enough for 4 standard servings, use:

300g flour
3 large eggs
1/2t salt (optional)

There are four steps to making egg dough:

1.    Combining eggs and flour – Make a well in the flour, pour the liquid into the well and slowly fold the flour into the liquid until a dough is formed (add 1-2T water if the dough seems too dry and does not want to bind together, but do not add too much!!)

2.    Kneading the dough – Empty the dough onto a clean work surface and knead with your hands until it is well blended. Allow the dough to rest in the fridge for ±20 minutes, wrapped in plastic.

Rolling the dough
Divide the dough into 4 equal balls. Work with one ball at a time and keep the others covered.
Sprinkle the work surface liberally with flour. Flatten the ball, and then begin to roll it out, working quickly so that it does not dry out. After each roll, give it a quarter turn and flip it, dusting with more flour if necessary (do not use too much flour, as is also tends to dry the dough).
Try and roll it into a rectangle to approximately 2mm thick.

4.    Shaping – Allow the pasta to rest, covered with a tea towel on a flour-dusted surface for a few minutes before cutting it into the desired shapes – for flat pasta there are 3 basic thicknesses:
Pappardelle ±4cm wide;
Tagliatelle ±2cm wide; and
Taglierini ±1cm wide;
To cut the pasta, flour it well, fold it along its length into ±7cm sections to create a square, then cut into the desired widths.

Click here to see a great mushroom sauce to go with this fresh pasta

Q: I had a very easy recipe for an apple cake – using fresh apples and equal parts of flour/sugar/milk, some eggs etc. Basically just thrown everything together. Do you have a recipe that i could try out?

A: We Have this recipe that we do at Wickedfood Cooking School in our Kitchen Skills Class, from this basic recipe, by adding a few simple ingredients, flavoured cakes can be made. This mixture is also ideal for cup cakes – spray the cup cake containers, place in muffin pans and fill each cup cake container three quarters. For an apple cake try slicing the apple’s very thin and line the bottom of a greased cake tin with them and once the cake is cooked turn it out, Or try grating the apples and mix them into the batter.

Basic hot milk sponge cake recipe

This basic sponge cake is quick and easy to make, but remember to measure your ingredients accurately. Ingredients below are for a 20cm round cake.

2 cups (280g) cake flour
Pinch salt
1T baking powder

4 large eggs, at room temperature
1 cup + 3T (250g) castor sugar
1t vanilla essence

1 cup milk
100g butter

1/2 cup jam (smooth apricot and strawberry jams are the best)
Icing sugar for dusting

1. Heat the oven to 180°C (190°C). Grease 2 x 20cm x 4cm deep round cake tins and line the bases with wax paper.
2. Combine the milk and butter in a saucepan and heat to melt the butter (do not boil).
3. Place the eggs, sugar, vanilla essence into a bowl and beat very well until thick and pale.
4. Sift the flour, salt and baking powder into the egg mixture and fold in.
5. Stir the milk mixture into the egg/flour mixture.
6. Divide the mixture between the 2 tins and level out. Place in the centre of the oven and bake for ±25-30 minutes. Remember not to open the oven door for the first 20 minutes.
7. To test if the cake is cooked, touch the centre of each cake lightly with your finger, if it leaves no impression and springs back, they are ready, if not leave for another 5 minutes and test again.
8. Remove the cakes from the oven and leave them for 5 minutes in the pans to settle. Turn out onto a wire cooling rack and carefully peel off the wax paper. Leave the cakes to cool completely before adding fillings.
9. Spread the jam over one layer and carefully place the other layer on top. Dust with icing sugar.

Makes 1 cake

Wickedfood Cooking School

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

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

I love braais and everything to do with braaiing. If I had my own way I would sit by the pool with a beer in one hand and braai tongs in the other. In my opinion,  a braai isn’t complete without these few elements: beer, boerewors, bacon rashers, T-bone steak, garlic bread, a garden salad, and a potato bake. These are normally present at all braais but I started getting frustrated at the prices we are now paying for a simple “must” at any braai and that is garlic bread, I bought one the other day (I won’t name the shop) but it was dry and the lucky two people who grabbed from the middle were the only ones lucky enough to get the garlic butter mix. So I thought I’d give you the recipe and method on how to make your own great tasting personalized garlic bread.

Garlic-bread

1 French loaf (30cm)
±10 garlic cloves minced (depends on how much you like)
250g butter, softened
1 small bunch parsley, finely chopped
pepper

1. Start by slicing the garlic bread, in 1cm slices (don’t go all the way through as it needs to hold its shape).
2. Combine all the other ingredients in a bowl and mix well to form a paste.
3. Spread each slice with a thick layer of the butter mixture, don’t forget the end slices.
4. Once all the mixture is spread evenly among the slices wrap the bread tightly in tinfoil and place in the fridge for ±1 hour (can be left in the fridge for 1-2 days or frozen for up to 3 months).
5. When ready to cook do so as you would normally do with a store bought one.

This is a very basic recipe but there are endless possibilities on ways to improve the tastes and varieties of breads and here are some ideas on what to add to your garlic paste.

Chopped pepperdews,  grated mozzarella, blue cheese,  sweet chilli sauce,  chopped dry chillies, fresh herbs, coriander, basil, mint, origanum, thyme, biltong, chopped fried bacon, chopped chourizo sausage,

and the list goes on, so try it and let us know how it works out for you and if you have any flavours of your own I would be keen to try them out.

The Wickedfood chef.

Braaiing is part of our South African culture and now that the weather is warming up and summer is on the way, we will be finding ourselves having many weekends in the sun around the braai.

It is easy to make a braai day healthier by keeping these few tips in mind:

1. Always choose lean meats and cut off all visible fats BEFORE cooking
2. Use skinless chicken breasts and make your own kebabs with red peppers and oni on
3. Add fish to the braai for a healthy alternative rich in Omega 3 oils
4. Use raw veggies as snacks instead of the high fat chip alternative
5. Roast your potatoes in foil on the coals and dress them with low fat cottage cheese
6. Smoothies made with fresh fruits and fat free yogurt make for amazing healthy desserts
7. Remember to drink lots of water while being out in the sun

Louise Bembridge

Registered Dietician

For more healthy braai tips or nutritional information contact Louise on louise.diet@iburst.co.za