Absolutely fascinating the amount of food blogs out there.  Delish.com recently published their tastiest, most delectable, most must-read food blogs, with recipes, kitchen stories, and mouthwatering photos – all 5 pages of them.

In South Africa there are a number of annual awards acknowledging  food bloggers in our own country.

• Food and the fabulous was voted best food blog for 2011  in the annual SA Blog Awards, a great site lots of interesting snippets and recipes and some very good photo’s.

• This year Eat In DStv Food Network Produce Awards will recognize for the first time the role that local food bloggers play in growing the local food industry. They have the shortest of what they regard to be the 10 best food blogs in South Africa on their website, together with links to each site.

Wickedfood cooking school subscribes to a number of food websites to keep abreast of food trends from around the world. All those websites listed below have a newsletter that you can subscribe to, as well as mouth-watering recipes and food ideas. Our favorite sites include:

• BBC Food – With the selection of easy-to-prepare recipes, many of them from featured celebrity chefs.  Each week the newsletter carries a pertinent theme, this week it is Valentine’s recipes, including a great selection of cocktails.  See our recipe of the week.

• Saveur - Regarded by Wickedfood cooking school as the best food magazine and web site in the world.  Apart from a wide selection of scrumptious recipes, the web site also has interesting articles on cooking techniques and food travel.
• JamieOliver.com – Jamie’s official web site, again with a superb selection of easy to prepare recipes and food tips.  See is delicious romantic  dinner for two menu ideas for a special valentines feast.

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.

This is a simple, yet truly delicious way of preparing pork.  Serve it simply with some boiled potatoes or crusty bread and a big side salad.

Taken from our cookbook of the week, MoVida Rustica chef and author Frank Camorra explains the recipe as follows .

“I have always wondered why — apart from the fact that it tastes so good — the Spanish eat so much pork. Perhaps it originated as a knee-jerk reaction during the post-Moor period when the Spanish Inquisitors were roaming the country torturing anyone who didn’t conform to their particular brand of monotheism. Jews and Muslims who had converted to Christianity often lived in fear and proclaimed their new faith by publicly eating pork. The more enthusiastic converts would hang a ham or sausages above their door. Every time my dad goes back home he heads down to the old town and seeks out his favourite grill, just near the Mezquita (great mosque). There he sits and orders a great plate of sliced grilled pork loin served with two lively sauces: a fresh oregano and raw garlic sauce, and a red sauce made from piquillo peppers and chilli. I now find myself following in my father’s footsteps.”

2 handfuls of oregano leaves
4 garlic cloves, chopped
a handful of parsley
± 1 cup extra virgin olive oil
2T  fennel seeds, toasted and ground
1/2 lemon, juice of

Salsa de piquillo

250g jar of piquillo peppers, drained
2 red bullet or other medium-hot chillies, seeded
2 garlic cloves
1t  smoked paprika
1T  ground cumin
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil

To serve

4 pork loin fillets, about 350g  each
Oil, for frying
Fine sea salt

Salsa verde

• Put all the ingredients in a food processor and blend for 1–2 minutes, or until smooth. Season to taste, pour into a serving bowl, then cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate.

Salsa de piquillo

• Put all the  ingredients in a food processor and blend for 1–2 minutes, or until smooth. Season to taste, pour into a serving bowl, then cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate.

To serve

• The pork loins can be chargrilled or pan-fried. To chargrill the pork, heat some barbecue coals so that you can only hold your hand 12 cmabove them for no longer than 3 seconds. Season the fillets well and grill each of the four sides for 3 minutes each, then turn and cook each side again for 1 minute. Remove from the heat and allow to rest in a warm place for 5 minutes.
• To pan-fry the pork loins, preheat the oven to 200ºC.
• Place ±1/4 cup olive oil in a large, heavy-based, ovenproof frying pan over medium–high heat until very hot.
• Add the pork fillets and cook each of the four sides for 1 minute each, sprinkling each side with fine sea salt as you go. Transfer the pan to the oven and cook the pork for 5 minutes, then remove from the oven and allow to rest in a warm place for 5 minutes.
• Cut the fillets into slices 2 cm thick and enjoy with the two salsas.

Serves 6

For more delicious recipes from the book, MoVida Rustica:

• Chocolate with sweet olive oil
• Artichokes with jamón
• Nougat
• Spanish tomato, egg and cumin soup
• and more
  

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.

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.

300g assorted chocolate bars, including dark chocolate, milk chocolate and raisin and nut chocolate, broken into pieces

30g  unsalted butter

250ml  double cream

pinch salt (and chili, if desired)

100g  chopped mixed nuts, such as pecan nuts, roasted hazelnuts and almonds

1. Bring a little water to a simmer in a pot that will hold a large bowl over the water without touching the water. Place the chocolate and butter the bowl, then set the bowl over the simmering water. Stir until melted and glossy.Heat the cream in a separate saucepan until almost boiling (but do not allow the cream to reach boiling point).
2. Pour the hot cream over the melted chocolate and mix together until smooth and well combined. Stir in a pinch of salt (and chili, if desired).
3. Line a roasting tray with greaseproof paper and pour in the melted chocolate. Set aside to cool, then chill in the fridge until set.
4. Once the chocolate mixture has cooled and set, mix the chopped nuts together and sprinkle onto a baking tray.
5. Quickly, so as not to allow chopped two melt,  roll the chilled chocolate mixture into small balls using your hands, then roll each ball in the chopped nuts until completely coated. Place the truffles onto a baking tray or plate and chill until ready to serve.

For more delicious chocolate truffle recipe ideas, click here

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.

Q: I can not get my fishcakes right . I’ve tried different recipes but they are always soft ,even if I leave the mixture in the fridge for a few hours,but the bigest problem, they absorb a lot of oil although I use very little oil to fry them . They are very nice and tasty but not easy to handle.

A: There are a number of techniques to use when making fish cakes.  These include:

1. Ensure that you have a good wet/dry mix.  You need a binding agent such as egg and a starch for binding,  such as cooked potato, flour  or breadcrumbs.
2. Work the mixture when mixing, so that it becomes sticky.
3. Once the fish cakes have been shaped, chill in the fridge for approximately 30 minutes so that the firm up.

At Wickedfood Cooking School we make delicious fish cakes in our Thai cooking class.  Fish cakes are a popular snack, found throughout Thailand, and are an ideal starter or appetizer. Every chef has his own secret recipe, and we found this one at Pat’s Home Thai Cooking School in Phuket, especially delicious. What makes them special is that they have no flour or baking powder, which when added, tends to make the cakes rather stodgy. When making the cakes make double quantities and freeze any leftovers. Always bring back to room temperature and heat through before serving as they are best eaten warm. These cakes can also be made using chicken, pork, beef, lamb or prawns, but then blend the meat in a food processor until almost pasty in consistency.

500g fine flesh white fish fillets (hake, cob), skin on

1 egg

¹/2 cup string or French beans, sliced fine

3T kaffir lime leaves (or basil), shredded

1t sugar

1t salt or 1T fish sauce

1-3T red curry paste

±3 cups oil for flying

1. Using a fork, scrape the meat off the skin, a little at the time, which will give the meat the appearance of having been ground.
2. Place the fish in a large bowl, together with the remaining ingredients, except the oil, and knead with the hands until sticky. Then continue to mix, aerating by taking spoonfuls and forcefully dropping back into the bowl.
3. Heat the oil in a wok or frying pan. Dampen the hands with a little cold water, and then working with approximately a tablespoonful at a time, form into approximately 3cm x 1cm diameter cakes, and drop into the hot oil, taking care not to splash. Fry for about 3 minutes on either side, or until golden brown and crispy, then drain on paper towel.
4. Serve with cucumber dipping sauce

Serves 4-6

Wickedfood Cooking School

Sunninghill – (011) 234-3252 sunninghill@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.

You may remember Katie from the TV series which chronicled the couple’s trip to Tuscany to rediscover Giancarlo, her husband’s, culinary roots, and set up a cooking school.

In The Italian Cookery Course she has collated recipes, techniques and ingredients to create a unique compendium of Italian food. The book will guide you through the vast collection of famous recipes and lesser-known regional dishes, with clear instruction on how to replicate them at home. Each chapter contains ‘masterclasses’ on technique, revealing the practical secrets of Italian cooking and giving the reader new confidence in the kitchen. It has some great sections including:

• Italian breads – how to make your own starter dough, perfect ciabatta, Focaccia, and pizza;
• a great chapter on antipasti, including a guide on Italian cold meats cuts, demystifying various hams from Italy and even how to make your own Bresaola;
• Making pasta – adding colour and filling, as well as some mouthwatering sauces;
• a good section on Italian cheeses and how to use them; and
• An formative section on preserving.

Even if you have a host of other Italian cookery books, this book is well worth the purchase.

Wickedfood Cooking School

Sunninghill – (011) 234-3252 sunninghill@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.