Wickedfood Newsletter 17 February 2010

Monday, February 15th, 2010

Wickedfood Cooking School, SUNNINGHILL

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

Hi all,

Looking at the figures over the past two months, it is gratifying to note that our cooking classes for individuals now accounts for half of all the classes offered on a monthly basis from Wickedfood. Some of the classes are so popular that we are running a second one for all those on the waiting list, this is the case with a 30 minute meals class, which ran on Monday.  A follow-up class will be run next Tuesday.  We still have a few spaces open, so contact the school soon should you wish to make a booking. Hope to see you at one of our cooking classes.

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 February and March individual cooking class programmes are up on the internet – click the relevant month for the programme February/March.

Wickedfood Cooking School 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 22 February at 6pmAll you wanted to know about… beef (R390pp). Part of the master class series. In conjunction with our head instructor, one of Johannesburg’s leading butchers Caroline McCann from Braeside Butchery will give an in-depth hands-on demonstration in choosing and preparing beef for a variety of dishes. Students will learn the secrets of cooking a number of classic mouthwatering beef dishes.
  • Tuesday 23 February at 6pm30 minute meals (R380pp) How to prepare 6 nutritious quick and easy meals for two. Dishes include Thai vegetable curry, Chicken breast with feta and pasta, chilli steak wraps, penne with a rich tomato vodka cream sauce, fried fish with oven chips and homemade burgers.
  • Sunday 28 February at 4pm – North African feast (R370pp). How to prepare a delicious North African feast including a selection of salads, Moroccan frittata, chicken tagine, 7-vegetable couscous and roasted fig parcels.
  • Monday 1 March at 6pm Jamie’s America – … on Tex-Mex food (R370pp). Jamie Oliver’s latest book is based on his recent travels through the USA. We reinterpret some of the dishes, and put them together into a themed menu including green chilli, tortilla soup, chicken mole, courgette salad, chilli cheese cornbread, and pecan pie.

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

Looking for info on food?

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

Heston Blumenthal can certainly be considered one of the most influential chefs of the modern era.  With no formal training, he has moved serious dining to a new level with his restaurant, The Fat Duck, been voted as the best restaurants in the world on numerous occasions.  Expect to pay in excess of R3 000 for a meal here, with wines to match. But how did he get to where he is. The Fat Duck Cookbook is one of the most inspiring books that I have read Click Here for more.

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

Did you know:

The English name ‘allspice’ was given to the dried, unripe berry of the Pimenta dioica (a tropical American tree) because of its complex mixture of flavours that hint at cloves, black pepper, nutmeg and cinnamon. Spanish explorers in the 16th century likened them to black pepper, and thus named them ‘pimento’ (as in ‘pimenta’, the Spanish word for peppercorn) as well as ‘Jamaica pepper’.

Food quote of the week:

A mango cannot be eaten in one bite.”Jamaican saying

Click Here to find some great mango recipes.

Food tip of the week:

Potatoes are one of the most versatile ingredients there are. But not all potatoes are right for all dishes. When I first started looking into which spud was best for mashing and chip-making, I discovered that the key was the amount of “dry matter” the potato contained — what would be left if you removed the skin and the water content. Less than 18% dry matter, and the potatoes won’t give you a decent chip. …. Click Here to find out more.

Recipe of the week:

Heston’s Pommes Puree

With Heston Blumenthal, cooking is a science and within his inquisitive mind, he’s able to coax the absolute best of flavours from every ingredient.  Even the simple art of making mashed potatoes becomes an exercise in scientific extraction.  In his restaurant, he parboils the potatoes first, and then cooks them in a stock made from the peels.  The recipe-of-the-week  is a simplified version of this dish. Click Here for the recipe

The Wickedfood Team

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

  Wickedfood Newsletter 3 February 2010

Monday, February 1st, 2010

Wickedfood Cooking School, SUNNINGHILL

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

Hi all,

At Wickedfood Cooking School, we pride ourselves at staying current.  To this end, we continually develop new cooking classes, both for our classes for individuals, as well as a cooking classes for groups.  For the month of February, we are offering an exciting new Greek cooking class for groups, with an added incentive that if you book during February, you will get a 10% discount, see Wickedfood Cooking School news below.

Valentine’s day falls on Sunday.  This year we are offering two Valentine’s Day cooking classes, one on Saturday evening and the following on Sunday afternoon.  These classes are filling up fast so contact the school soon if you would like to make a booking.

Hope to see you at one of the classes

Find us on Facebook and Twitterjust 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

To stay current, we will be introducing a new cooking class for groups each month this year.  These classes are ideal for a variety of groups’ cooking classes including teambuilding, product launches, special birthday parties, kitchen teas, bachelor parties, or any other group  function, with cooking as a theme (click here to see our full programme).  And as an added incentive, if you book and pay for the class during the course of February, you will receive a 10% discount on the class’ published price (subject to our standard terms and conditions):

Greek group class (code Greek 3/1) – (R 4 310 per counter excluding VAT).

  • Tzatziki – cucumber and yoghurt dip.
  • Cannellini bean soup – one of Greece’s national dishes, a hearty vegetarian soup.
  • Moussaka – two classic ingredients, minced meat and aubergine, combined.
  • Savoury rice – popular throughout the Eastern Mediterranean for special occasions.
  • Greek salad - with tomatoes, cucumber, olives and feta cheese.
  • Baklava – layered pastry with nuts and syrup.

Our February and March individual cooking class programmes are up on the internet – click the relevant month for the programme February/March.

Wickedfood Cooking School 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 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 4pmRomantic 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.
  • Monday 15 February at 6pm 30 minute meals (R380pp). How to prepare 6 nutritious quick and easy meals for two. Dishes include Thai vegetable curry, Chicken breast with feta and pasta, Chilli steak wraps, penne with a rich tomato vodka cream sauce, Fried fish with oven chips and homemade burgers.

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

Over the last twenty years, Rose and Ruth have been at the helm of one of the iconic London restaurants, River Cafe, where a variety of the world’s top chefs and TV personalities have cut their teeth, including  Jamie Oliver and Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall.  Their latest book, River Cafe Classic Italian Cookbook, is Rose and Ruth’s personal interpretation of Italian home recipes…    Click Here for more.

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

Did you know:

Fish sauce (nam pla or nuoc mam) is widely known to be a firm staple in South-East Asian cooking, but did you know that a similar condiment, garum or liquamen, was just as ubiquitous in the Classical Greek and Roman kitchens? In both cases, its pungent aroma (as the sauce is derived from fermenting fish) belies the rich umami flavour that even the tiniest spoonful can add to food.

Food quote of the week:

The mere smell of cooking can evoke a whole civilizationFernand Braudel

Our favourite ingredient:

Chilli

As a general rule of thumb, the larger the chilli, the milder it is. Smaller chillies tend to be much hotter because they contain proportionally more seeds and veins than the larger varieties. Those seeds and veins can contain up to 80 per cent of a chilli’s potency in the form of capsaicin, the powerful compound that gives chillies their fiery nature …. Click Here for more.

Recipe of the week

Potatoes with Lemon

The recipe below is taken from one of Rose and Ruth’s earlier cookbooks, A Taste of the River Cafe.  These potatoes are delicious with any roast, or with grilled fish. …. Click Here for the recipe.

The Wickedfood Team

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

Beef Burgers

Tuesday, June 23rd, 2009

Q: I find that a lot of pre-made and fast food joints make burgers stuffed with all sorts of rubbish how can I make the best beef burger that doesn’t shrink and loose flavour?

A: Beef burgers are very easy to make at home and can also be much healthier as you know exactly whats going into them. When buying the mince buy the best quality lean mince you can afford, but with a little fat to keep it moist. The  jungle oats or breadcrumbs in the mix helps to retain moisture and keep the patties nice and juicy.

Next month at Wickedfood Cooking School we will be teaching a 30 minute meals class where we will be making these burgers along with Thai vegetable curry, chicken breast with feta and pasta, chilli steak wraps, penne with a rich tomato vodka cream sauce,and  fried fish with oven chips. A great class to introduce anyone into the kitchen or just to get new and exciting meals to make after a a long day at the office.

05520atMince patties
250g beef mince
1 egg
1/2 small onion, finely chopped
1/4 cup parsley, finely chopped
1/4 cup Jungle oats or breadcrumbs
1T tomato sauce
1/2T chutney
1t Worcestershire sauce
1t salt

1T grapeseed oil
4 round bread rolls
Tomato sauce (optional)
1 onion (preferably red), thinly sliced (optional)
1 large tomato, thinly sliced
4 salad leaves, washed and dried

Making the meat patties

  • Combine the meat patty ingredients together in a large bowl ensuring that they are well mixed.
  • Divide the meat patties into 4, place each portion of mince onto a board and mould into flat round shapes, about the size of the rolls.

Making the burgers

  • Slice the rolls open and spread the base with a thin layer of tomato sauce. Cover with a thin layer of onion and tomato.
    The patties can be either grilled or fried.

    • To fry – heat the oil in a pan, and then fry the patties, in two batches, on each side for about 4 minutes. Keep warm.
    • To grill – heat the grill, and once hot, place the patties on a grill pan, lined with foil, grilling each side for about 4 minutes, until done. Keep warm.
  • Place a meat patty into each roll, topped with a lettuce leaf.

Serves 2

Wickedfood Cooking School

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

Wickedfood Cooking School Johannesburg 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 team building cooking classes these classes are a novel way of creating staff interaction or entertaining clients.