Wickedfood Cooking School Newsletter 9 February

Monday, February 7th, 2011

Wickedfood Cooking School, SUNNINGHILL

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

Hi all,

Because of  Valentines, we dedicate this issue of our newsletter to chocolate – the ultimate book on chocolate and confectionery as, how to work with chocolates, and a quick and easy chocolate truffle recipe  – enjoy.

We will be running our popular Valentines dinner -  two classes – one on Sunday 13 February and the other one on Monday evening 14 February. We have very limited space still available.   Click here for the more information.

The March cooking class program is now live. Apart from our regular evening and Sunday afternoon classes, we will also be running a Thursday morning course, consisting of four classes - Kitchen skills for beginners, ideal for  housekeepers, newlyweds, or anyone interested in cooking with more confidence.

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.

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.

Wickedfood Cooking School news

Cooking class programmes for the next two months are up on the internet, click the relevant month for the  February and March 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.

Course for March

Thursday 03, 10, 17 & 24 March at 9amKitchen skills for beginners (R1 400pp for the course of 4 classes or R380 per class). If you or your staff are complete kitchen novices, then this is a course for you.

As radio personality David Batzofin said after completing the course “… Wickedfood Cooking School has turned my kitchen from a war zone into a playground.”

In these hands-on kitchen skills cooking classes for beginners, we cover the use of basic kitchen equipment as well as equip the participants with the building blocks for putting together nutritious hearty meals with confidence. The course runs for 4 consecutive weeks, 1 day per week. Subjects covered include, the use and care of kitchen equipment and ingredients. Basic cooking techniques including sauces, cooking vegetables and starches, making salad, working with mince and chicken, puddings, and sponge cake.

Classes for February

  • Sunday 13 February at 4pm and Monday 14 February at 6pm Romantic Valentines dinner, easy summer entertaining (R760 per couple). Join the staff at the Cooking School with the love of your life for a Valentines 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 in a cooking class. 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.
  • Tuesday 22 February at 6pm – Sushi 1 – The basics of sushi making (R395pp – maximum 18, so book early) The basics of sushi making – cutting fish, making rice, California and maki rolls, nigirizushi (finger), and hand rolls.
  • Sunday 27 February at 4pm – Introduction to Indian cooking (R360pp for the class). This is a basic Indian Cooking class with an overview of ingredients for Indian cuisine and easy to cook dishes including deep-fried vegetable patties, Kashmir chicken, lentil and vegetable curry, dahl and rice pudding.
  • Monday 28 February at 6pm – Home-style Middle Eastern cooking (R360pp). A delicious Middle Eastern cooking lesson offering a combination of easy to prepare dishes with a strong Lebanese influence, includes baba ghanoush, h’reesy, bean stew, Lebanese rice, Lebanese bread salad, making pita breads and rice pudding with an apricot compote.

Cookbook of the week

Chocolates and Confections

Working with chocolates is undergoing a renaissance.  Specialist chocolate shops are springing up and at Wickedfood cooking school, chocolate cooking classes are extremely popular.  Master confectioner Peter Greweling, of The Culinary Institute of America, has at last produced the bible of artisan confectionery—a comprehensive guide to the ingredients, theory, techniques, and formulas needed to create every kind of Chocolates and Confection. … Click Here for more information .

Food quote of the week

“The preparation of good food is merely another expression of art, one of the joys of civilized living…” - Dione Lucas

On Food

Melting chocolateclick here to see a video and Chocolate recipes

Chocolate should be heated carefully to prevent it from seizing through overcooking. Melt the chocolate just before you intend to use it, as it’s difficult to re-melt it successfully.

  • Break the chocolate into small pieces and add to a heatproof bowl.
  • Add a little boiling water to a saucepan and heat until simmering.
  • Suspend the bowl over the simmering water, but do not allow the base of the bowl to touch the water. Heat the chocolate, stirring regularly, until almost completely melted, then remove from the heat; the residual heat of the bowl will melt any remaining lumps.

Recipe of the week:

chocolate truffles

These moreish chocolate truffles are extremely easy to make.  Once you have mastered the art of making them,  try your hand at some of the more complicated ones in the link at the end of the recipe, or in our book of the week  – Chocolates and Confections. Alternatively, contact Wickedfood cooking school to find out about our chocolate cooking class.. …Click Here for the recipe.

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.

  Wickedfood Cooking School Newsletter 28 July 2010

Monday, July 26th, 2010

Wickedfood Cooking School, SUNNINGHILL

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

Hi all,

Our newsletter goes out every second week, and in addition we publish an alternate newsletter every other week on the blog, click here to see last week’s issue.   In addition we can also RSS feed the newsletter  to your email, Click on the orange RSS feed above.

On Sunday 22 August, we’ll be running a very special event – working with venison, in conjunction with Slow Food. This is a gourmet, 5 course dinner, looking at 4 very different venison preparations.  Cost is R250pp, limited to 10 people. Contact the school 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 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  class.

  • Sunday 01 August at 4pm – Classic Indian dishes (R370pp). Authentic Indian cooking class, dishes including chicken mulligatawny, classic lamb buriyani, soya korma, spicy chick peas, naans and coconut pasties.
  • Monday 02 August at 6pm North African tagines (R390pp). Our Moroccan cooking class, with 3 classic North African stews, and accompaniments including crushed wheat soup. Dishes include fish tagine, lamb and fruit tagine, chicken and pumpkin couscous and couscous stuffed peppers.
  • Monday 09 August at 6pmSweet treats – working with Chocolate (R390pp). In this chocolate cooking class, learn the secrets of working with chocolate, including decadent chocolate cake, chocolate truffles, brownies, choc chip cookies and layered chocolate mousse.
  • Sunday 15 August at 4pm – Thai master class (R390pp). A Thai cooking class with classic Thai flavours and strong leaning towards seafood. Dishes include fried seafood pancake, chilli and tamarind soup, deep-fried fish, banana flower salad with prawns, crispy noodles and sweet sticky rice.

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.

On food

100 year old eggs

As well as prizing them for being a symbol of fertility, the Chinese also make a rather curious preserve with their eggs. 100 year old eggs are traditionally made by curing fresh eggs in a paste of clay, ash, salt, lime, and rice hulls for three months, not 100 years, as the name might suggest. With its dark-green yolk, a mahogany-coloured jellified white and an aroma of sulphur and ammonia, this delicacy is definitely an acquired taste. they are however delicious, sliced into Asian dressed  salads.

Cookbook of the week

The New Complete Book of Self-Sufficiency

As with all Dorling Kindersley books, this one is not only highly informative, but also beautifully produced.  This new edition of an enduring classic from the founding father of modern self-sufficiency, is still the key reference to living off the land. Covering all the practicals from ploughing fields to milking cows as well as information on how to create an urban organic garden and harness natural energy, this is perfect for anyone aspiring to the self-sufficient lifestyle. Click Here for more.

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

Food quote of the week

“Cauliflower is nothing but cabbage with a college education.”Mark Twain, writer.

Recipe of the week:

Braised rabbit with mustard

Venison comes in a number of guises, from large antelope to birds and rabbits.  Now is a great time to be eating venison, and in honour of the season.  Rabbit is one of the healthiest meats to eat, it is very lean and extremely tasty if cooked correctly. 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 – teambuilding 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 19 June 09

Thursday, June 18th, 2009

SUNNINGHILL>> information & bookings (011) 234-3252 sunninghill@wickedfood.co.za

Hi

With the flash of summer thunderstorms, cricket and the rugby, we thought it would be great idea to look at barbecuing, just to remind us of summer in two months time – enjoy the rugby and a recipe of the week.
Over the next two weeks we also have some great cooking classes, including our decadent chocolate cooking class next Sunday, a Vietnamese cooking class the following Monday, and our ever popular 30 minutes meals class the following Sunday.  Hope to see you at one of these cooking classes.

Wickedfood Cooking School news

Our July individual cooking class programme is up on the Internet – click the relevant school for the July programme Sunninghill

Class highlights for the next two weeks include:

  • Monday 22 June at 6pmHome cooking – Dinner for two (R195pp). Learn to cook a healthy homestyle dinner for two, and take the fruits of your labour home to enjoy with your partner. These are quick classes starting promptly at 6pm and lasting 1 hour. You will get to make a main dish, with veg and a starch.
  • Sunday 28 June at 4pmAll you wanted to know about… Chocolate (R390pp). Part of the master class series. Our head instructor will give an indepth hands on demonstration on working with Chocolate, including cakes, glazes, Chocolate truffles, biscuits and chocolate mousse.
  • Monday 29 June at 6pmExotic tastes of Vietnam (R370 pp). Classic dishes from the Vietnamese table, including savoury mung bean crepes, beef noodle soup (pho), clay pot fish, fresh rice noodles and fried bananas.
  • Sunday 05 July at 4pm30 minute meals (R380 pp). How to prepare 6 nutritious quick and easy meals. 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:

Wickedfood Cooking School, Sunninghill

July individual class programme….. click here

Looking for info on food?
If you are looking for an answer to a food topic that has puzzled you, ask our online chefs for assistance on any food-related topic, including recipes, and our two resident chefs will strive to get an answer back to you as soon as possable – Click here for more information, hope to here from you..

Our food article of the week
Like many vegetables, iceberg lettuce begins to lose its moisture—and with it the crispness that is its cardinal appeal—the moment it is pulled from the ground. Our testing of a number of recipes calling for iceberg lettuce prompted us to wonder whether there was a way to turn back the clock and restore moisture that the lettuce may have lost during shipping or while sitting in the fridge. It seems there’s a tried-and-true method for doing just that: keeping the leaves immersed in a bowl of ice water for ten minutes or so. According to the food scientist Harold McGee, submerging the lettuce causes its cells to become engorged and rigid; the low temperature stiffens the cell walls and intensifies the snap that occurs when you bite into the leaf. The immersion method worked so well that we tried it with other raw vegetables, too, including the chilies and cucumbers. The result was salad as crisp and fresh as springtime itself…….. Click here fore more

Cookbook of the week
On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Kitchen by Harold McGee is the most widely quoted culinary work in English. It is a kitchen classic, hailed by Time magazine as “a minor masterpiece” when it first appeared in 1984. The book is the bible to which food lovers and professional chefs worldwide turn for an understanding of where our foods come from, what exactly they’re made of, and how cooking transforms them into something new and delicious.… Read more ….

Did you know – In Greek mythology, it is said that King Theseus had a meal of samphire before leaving to fight the Minotaur. Indeed, the allures of the plant are well documented: rock samphire was once so popular in England that men risked their lives to forage it from the seaside cliffs on which they grew. Nowadays, it’s as in demand as ever; you’ll find this ‘poor man’s asparagus’ in many fishmongers.’

Food quote of the week: – “There are few things so pleasant as a picnic eaten in perfect comfort.” – W Somerset Maugham

Food tip of the week: – To clean an electric kettle with calcium build-up on the heating element, boil a mixture of half white vinegar and half water, then empty.

Recipe of the week

Devil Style Chicken Click here for the recipe.

Look forward to hearing from you.

The Wickedfood Team

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.

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