Q: Do you have a recipe for a tasty beef bolognese sauce?

A: Bolognese sauce is a meat based sauce mainly used for pasta dishes (lasagna and spaghetti Bolognese) originating form a small town in Italy named Bologna. It is best for the sauce to have a long cooking time (5-6 hours) this makes the meat become very tender and allows all the flavours to really develop into a wonderfully rich tasty sauce.

At Wickedfood Cooking School we have this tasty recipe in both our corporate and team building classes as well as our individual cooking classes. With the most popular being this fantastic one.

Bolognaise sauce

There are 4 important points to remember when making a Bolognaise (from Bologna) sauce.

1. Chop the vegetables to about 2mm squares. They should be of equal size, and a small as possible so as not to be identified once the sauce is cooked.
2. The meat must be sautéed just barely long enough to lose its raw colour. It must not brown or it will lose delicacy.
3. It must be cooked in milk before the tomatoes are added. This keeps the meat creamier and sweeter tasting.
4. It must cook at the merest simmer for a long, long time, up to 5 hours.

1 large onion, peeled and finely chopped
3T oil
3T (45g) butter
2 stalks celery, finely chopped

4 carrots, peeled and finely chopped
500g minced lean beef
Salt
1 cup (250ml) dry red or white wine
1/2 cup (125ml) milk
Pinch nutmeg
1 tin chopped tomatoes

1. In a heavy casserole dish or pot, the deepest one you have, melt the butter with the oil (oil prevents butter from burning). Sauté the onion briefly over medium heat, until just translucent. Add the celery and carrot and cook gently until fragrant and soft, over a low heat, taking care that the onions do not change colour.
2. Add the minced beef, crumbling it in the pot with a fork. Add salt to taste, stir, and cook only until the meat has lost its raw, red colour.
3. Add the wine; turn the heat up to medium high, and cook, stirring occasionally, until all the wine has evaporated.
4. Turn the heat down to medium, add the milk and the nutmeg, and cook until the milk has evaporated. Stir frequently.
5. When the milk has evaporated, add the tomatoes and stir thoroughly.
6. When the tomatoes have started to bubble, turn the heat down until the sauce cooks at the gentlest simmer, just an occasional bubble. Cook, covered, for a minimum of 31/2 to 5 hours, stirring occasionally (add water, a 1/2 cup at a time if it seems too dry). Taste and check seasoning. (If you cannot keep an eye on the sauce for such a long stretch, you can turn off the heat and resume cooking it later on. But do finish cooking it in one day).
7. Serve with short pastas as the Italians do, or with spaghetti as the Americans do, or use as a sauce for lasagne.

Serves 4, for 500g dried pasta

Note: The sauce can be kept in the fridge for up to 5 days, or frozen. Reheat and simmer for about 15 minutes before using.

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 classes are a novel way of creating staff interaction or entertaining clients.

At Wickedfood cookery school we use this basic red wine sauce in our cooking classes for many red meat roasts. It makes the base for a gravy for any game recipe. add a little extra ingredient here and there as for the different flavours.

1kg beef bones
2T tomato paste
1 large onion, chopped
2 large carrots, chopped
1/2 bunch celery, chopped
2 leeks, sliced
1 cup red wine
2 litres water
Bouquet garni – (thyme, bay leaves, parsley stalks etc.)
1/2t black peppercorns
Little flour to thicken
Salt and pepper to taste

1. Place bones in a baking tray and bake at 200°C for about 1 hour until browned.
2. Place bones (and any fat that was rendered) in a large stock pot.
3. Deglaze the baking tray with a little red wine.
4. Add it, together with the tomato paste to the stock pot and cook over high heat for 3-4 minutes.
5. Add vegetables and cook for a further 5-10 minutes.
6. Add water, bouquet garni, peppercorns and remaining red wine. Bring to the boil, turn heat down and simmer for 6-8 hours.
7. Strain and thicken sauce with a little flour. Season to taste before serving.

For more information on venison click here

Here are a few venison other recipes that the Wickedfood Cooking School team enjoyed tasting:

Fillet of venison

Roast kudu fillet

Roast venison

Ostrich neck casserole

Guineafowl

Venison pie

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 classes are a novel way of creating staff interaction or entertaining clients.

Q: Hi, I’m looking for a simple basil pesto recipe. All the recipes I’ve found so far seem to call for pine nuts – where does one buy pine nuts from?

A: Most of your larger store’s should stock pine nuts, if you have no luck there try a health specialist shop or deli. At a push, you can use peeled almonds, but the flavour and texture is not quite the same.

In our cooking classes at Wickedfood Cooking School have found that the best recipe for Basil Pesto is one that is kept fresh, simple and to a minimum so that the flavours can really come through on their own. The most common pestos are probably Pesto alla genovese (basil), Pesto alla siciliana (tomato and less basil), Pesto alla calabrese (grilled bell peppers and black pepper) and Arugula (rocket, black olives, lemon peel and coriander).

In a recent individual cookery class at Wickedfood Cooking School we used this recipe which came out as a firm favourite:

• 4 cups basil roughly torn (soft stalks can be added)
• 1-2 cloves garlic minced
• 1 cup toasted pine nuts
• ±1t sea salt
• ¼ cup Parmesan
• ±1 cup olive oil

1. Place the basil, pine nuts, garlic and salt in a mortar and pound until a smooth paste is reached.
2. Add the cheese and mix in well.
3. Slowly pour in the olive oil and mix until the desired consistency is reached.
4. Season with salt and pepper and store in an air-tight container for ±1 week.

Serve with fresh pastas for best results.

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 classes are a novel way of creating staff interaction or entertaining clients.

Traditional preserved Moroccan lemons, called hamad mraquade, have a mellow, edible rind and take a month to pickle. Here’s a way to get similar flavour in only a week..

2 ripe lemons
1⁄3 cup coarse salt
1/2 cup fresh lemon juice

1. Wash the lemons and dry well. Cut each into 8 wedges.
2. Toss with the coarse salt and place lemons in a jar that will just hold them, pressing them down to bring out juice.
3. Pour in more fresh lemon juice to cover and seal with a nonmetallic lid. Leave lemons at room temperature for 7 days, shaking jar daily to distribute salt and juice.
4. Add olive oil to cover, then refrigerate. Keeps 1 month.

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 classes are a novel way of creating staff interaction or entertaining clients.