Wickedfood Cooking School, SUNNINGHILL

Information & bookings (076) 236-2345  sunninghill@wickedfood.co.za

Hi all,

As the routine of our busy lives becomes more of a reality and the holiday more of a distant memory, we look back on those care free days of relaxation with family and friends with a longing to go back in time. But we can’t and therefore we buckle down and head towards late nights and early mornings, traffic, stress and the usual Monday night dinners. The monotony of cooking the same dish over and over can lead towards a non-satisfactory outlook towards food. So you either eat-to-live or live-to-eat and if its the latter, something needs to change for the better.

We have scheduled all our popular classes in the first quarter of this year. Our aim is to teach you new skills and cuisines so you have the confidence in replicating these dishes at home. Remember we teach you everything you would need to know regarding the dishes taught, so whether you are a beginner or accomplished cook wanting to learn a new skill or cuisine, come along and join us for a fun, informative class filled with like-minded people!

In February we have our regular and ever  popular Valentines classes.  Bookings are already open for these and we have quite a few bookings, so if you’re interested don’t delay, contact the school for more information or to reserve a place.

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

The new year sees an exciting selection of interesting and different cooking classes aimed at individuals.  The Cooking class programme for January and February are up on the internet. 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.

• Sunday 29 January at 4pm – Thai class (R370pp). Thai cuisine places emphasis on lightly prepared dishes with strong aromatic components. Thai cuisine is also known for being quite spicy as well as balancing the four fundamental taste senses in each dish or the overall meal: sour, sweet, salty, and (optional) bitter. Learn how to balance these tastes in this cooking class entitled ‘Easy dishes for a casual Thai dinner parties’ which includes dishes, fresh springrolls, sour and spicy fish soup, stir-fried beef curry, chicken salad with peanut sauce, stir-fried noodles and bananas in a sweet/salty coconut sauce.

• Monday 30 January at 6pm – Making filled pasta and accompanying sauces (R370pp). Making pasta is really easy, and fresh pasta tastes better too. Learn the secrets to making pasta from scratch in this pasta cooking class. We also include fillings and sauces for these unique pasta shapes. Dishes covered in the class include cheese and ham ravioli with a tomato sauce, meat filled Agnolotti, spinach and ricotta tortellini, cappelletti filled with sweet potatoe,s and ravioli with apple and pecan nut stuffing.

• Monday 06 February at 6pm – South African – A Taste of the Cape (R380pp). This South African cooking class has a strong Cape Malay flavour, showcasing the unique flavours that have become synonymous with South African cuisine including savoury pies, smoorsnoek, denningsvleis, tomato bredie, sousboontjies, yellow rice and milk tart.

• Saturday 11 February at 6pm  and Tuesday 14 February at 6pm – Romantic Valentine’s dinner, easy summer entertaining (R770 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. The menu will be as follows:

Cookbook of the week

South African cuisine is a reflection of the immigrants who make up the population.  It is a melting pot of Afrikaner, Cape Malay, British, Indian, Jewish, Greek, Italian, Asian, Portuguese  and more recently, immigrants from across Africa. Each wave of immigrants, in their own particular way contributed towards the makeup of the mod and South African table.  It is the young yet vibrant culinary culture that started in the mid sixteen hundreds with the colonization of the Cape by the Dutch, who introduced the savoury spices of the east and the exotic fruits and vegetables from the Americas to the African continent… Click here to read more

Food quote of the week

“My kitchen is a mystical place, a kind of temple for me.  It is a place where the surfaces seem to have significance, where the sounds and odors carry meaning that transfers from the past and bridges to the future.” – Pearl Bailey

Recipes of the week:

Chraime – Fish cooked in a spicy tomato sauce

Chraime is considered to be the kings of Libyan food, and the dish that really characterizes the Libyan Jewish kitchen. There are many ways to prepare it and many versions. The fish must be firm and it must ‘float’ in the sauce – that is there must be plenty of sauce. It’s served with white bread and lemon is squeezed over it as you eat. This recipe is from our cookbook of the week – South Africa Eats. ….Click Here for all our recipes.

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, SUNNINGHILL

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

Hi all,

It’s very interesting to note that our recipe of the week for the last newsletter, Slow roast shoulder of lamb, was our most visited recipe of all time in our recipe archive on the blog.   By the way, do you know that we have over 200 tried and tested recipes in the recipe section of the Wickedfood Blog. And if you can’t find a recipe, drop us a line and we will research the recipe for you.

In this week’s newsletter, we research the art of baking, and include a recipe for an absolutely out of this world carrot cake.

As usual, we also have a host of delicious cooking classes for the next two weeks, including a pasta cooking class and a French cooking class.  See the overview below for all the cooking classes for the next two months.

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  July and August 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.

• Sunday 31 July at 4pm - Making flavoured pasta, shapes and sauces (R370 pp). Adding flavour and colour to fresh hand-made pasta. Learn the secrets of making pasta from scratch and pairing it with a sauce in this pasta cooking class. Dishes include pepper fettuccini with an Alfredo sauce, chilli tagliatelle with a seafood cream, beef filled spinach ravioli and fried sweet pasta with grappa.
• Monday 01 August at 6pm – The tastes of France (R370pp) The French have an ongoing love affair with food, and in this French cooking class we teach home gourmets and enthusiasts alike how to create these wonderful foods with our introduction to French cuisine which includes chicken liver pâté, French onion soup, entrecote pommes frites, and crème caramel.
• Monday 08 August at 6pm – Easy to prepare Japanese (R380pp). The Japanese culinary art offers a huge diversity of food stuffs as well regional food preparations and is highly celebrated world wide for its quality and taste. The tourists to Japan find Japanese Cuisine as one of the major attractions in that country. In this Japanese cooking class learn the classic dishes from the Japanese kitchen including scattered rice sushi, prawn ball and egg knot soup, prawn and avocado salad, beef sashimi, tempura and green tea ice-cream.
• Sunday 14 August at 4pm – Quick & easy 30 minute meals for entertaining (R390 pp). This Gordon Ramsey cooking class is based on his book Cooking for Friends. Love him or hate him, he certainly knows his food. In this book, we see a very different side of him, more relaxed, cooking some best-loved versions of classic British dishes for family and friends. We reinterpret 6 of the dishes, all easy to make in under 30 and great for entertaining friends, chilled cucumber soup; linguine with lemon, feta and basil; poached fish; quick fish curry; pork fillet stroganoff; and baked berries.
• Monday 15 August at 6pm – North African Moroccan tagines. (R380pp). The exotic flavors of North Africa reach their full expression in the cooking of Morocco. Moroccan cuisine is known for its flavorful stews, called tagines. In this Moroccan cooking class we cover the following dishes, which include harira; lamb, chicken and pumpkin tagines; couscous; and coiled almond pastry.

Cookbook of the week

The Hummingbird Bakery Cake Days

With over 100 easy baking recipes for everything from classic layer cakes and cookies, to cheesecakes and pies, this is a great baking book. For cupcakes alone there are over 40 recipes. This beautifully designed, lavishly photographed book takes you through the year, offering simple baking recipes suited to favourite seasonal events and celebrations. At Wickedfood Cooking School we will use this book for inspiration when developing future baking classes.

Click Here for reviews of all our cookbook reviews.

Food quote of the week

“The next time you feel like complaining, remember that your garbage disposal probably eats better than 30 percent of the people in the world.” – Robert Orben

Food tip of the week

Baking is a science, and anyone who wishes to be successful needs to be precise.  At Wickedfood Cooking School, over the years we have ran many baking cooking classes.  Through these classes, we have gathered a wealth of information and for this week’s tip, we share some of the secrets  to the success of making … read more

New on the blog

We had a very interesting query from one of our readers this week – “What is the difference between capers and caper berries?”… click here for the answer, as well as for the delicious recipe that we developed for Chicken breasts with Caper Sauce

Recipes of the week:

Carrot and walnut cake

This delicious moist carrot cake, from the hummingbird bakery,  is made with walnuts and orange zest and is topped with light cream cheese frosting – it’s great for an indulgent dessert or as an adult birthday cake. ….Click Here for all our recipes.

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, SUNNINGHILL

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

Hi all,

As promised, due to the overwhelming response, we have decided to re-run the most popular classes of the year during November, so if you missed out during the year due to the classes being full, then this is a great opportunity. During the month of November we will also be running some festive entertaining menus which will be a big hit with the family, book early to avoid disappointment.

End-of-year Xmas functions

Over the years Wickedfood Cooking School has become a popular venue for end-of-year functions. We have once again developed two delicious festive menus specifically geared towards end-of-year celebrations. Both have a distinctive Christmas touch. These 4-course menus are ideal for groups, as they offer a great way for colleagues to interact with each other, and enjoy a relaxing meal. Bookings for these functions are starting to fill up. For more information, click here, or contact the school.

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 October and November 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.

• Monday 25 October at 6pm – Easy to prepare Spanish dishes (R380pp). Classic easy-to-prepare Spanish dishes. Included in this Spanish cooking class are chicken livers, stuffed tomatoes, white gazpacho, fish stew, virgin paella, and chocolate pudding.
• Sunday 31 October at 4pm – Indian class (R370pp). More advanced Indian cooking class, dishes including samoosas, vindaloo, spinach kofta, mushroom pulao and gulab jamons.
• Monday 01 November at 6pm – Formal traditional Christmas dinner 1/1 – (R380pp). Formal traditional Christmas dinner including Christmas tapas, prawn cocktail, rolled stuffed turkey breast, gammon and steamed Christmas pudding with a classic brandy cream sauce. Gamon dish, due to the length of the preparation, a hands-on demonstration of the preparation will be given, but the finished dish may not be sampled in the class.

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 – samphire

The sea vegetable samphire comes in two types – marsh and rock. Most of it is grown in tidal marshes, but rock samphire has a more pungent flavour and grows in high, tricky-to-get-to places. Risk-taking gathers of rock samphire are mentioned in Shakespeare’s King Lear: “Half-way down hangs one that gathers samphire; dreadful trade!”

Cookbook of the week

Jamie Does…

At Wickedfood Cooking School, we have used a number of Jamie Oliver books as inspiration for Jamie Oliver cooking classes, which have and continue to be a great success. In his latest book Jamie Does… , Jamie celebrates the amazing food from six very different countries.  … Click Here for more.

Food quote of the week

“The only thing that will make a soufflé fall is if it knows you are afraid of it.” - James Beard, American chef and food writer.

Recipe of the week:

Moorish pork chops

When the Moors invaded Spain they brought grapes and dried fruits with them. Their love of mixing dried fruits with meats definitely left its mark on Spanish cooking and this is Jamie Oliver’s nod to that time in Spain’s history. Cut into these big tender chops and you’ll get sweet juicy flavours inside perfectly cooked meat. …Click Here for the recipe.

The Wickedfood Team

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.

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

Hi all,

We are delighted that there  seem to be so many aspirant cooks out there. Our first 5 individual classes have all been over subscribed.  Classes over the next few weeks are also filling up fast, so book early to avoid disappointment. Also do not forget that Valentine’s day is only two weeks away,  if you have no plans yet, book for our ever popular cooking class, see below. Hope to see you at one of the 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 individual cooking class programmes is up on the internet.

Johannesburg Cooking School, Wickedfood 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 1 February at 6pm – The tastes of Spain (R370 for the class). An introduction to Spanish cuisine including tortilla Espanola, salt cod fritters, gazpacho, paella, and almond tart.
• 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 4pm – Romantic 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.

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

Rick Stein’s Far Eastern Odyssey is an epic culinary journey along rivers, through jungles and around coastlines in South East Asia. Apart from a wide variety of flavours,  what really stands out in the book is the vast array of mouth- watering curries.  Many of these curries will appeal to vegetarians.  We will definitely be using this book at Wickedfood Cooking School as a reference for some exciting new curry cooking classes we are planning for later in the year. Click Here for more on the book.

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

Food quote of the week:

“The only real stumbling block is fear of failure. In cooking you’ve got to have a what-the-hell attitude.” – Julia Child.

Our favourite ingredient:

Watermelon

An unadorned slice of watermelon may rate as a perfect refreshment the world over, but this versatile melon also lends itself to a surprising number of delicious pairings and prepared dishes, both fresh and cooked.

Traditional Thai and Indian culinary repertoires, for example, include a range of curries that unite cooked watermelon with pungent spices. In Mexico, it’s common to find slices sprinkled with a tangy lime–chilli salt called tajín, which boosts the intensity of the fruit’s sweetness.

In Italy and, increasingly, the United States, chefs drizzle aged balsamic vinegar over watermelon and serve it as a simple first course.

Others wrap chunks of the fruit in thin slices of prosciutto or country ham, in another take on the salty-sweet juxtaposition.

Pickled watermelon rinds emerged in various cuisines in eastern Europe.

Centuries later, Mennonite émigrés from the Ukraine, among others, brought pickled rinds to the States, along with another favourite: watermelon syrup; boiled down with a bit of sugar, the melon’s juice becomes thick and lustrous, perfect for drizzling over pancakes or ice cream.

Oil-rich watermelon seeds are prized in many parts of the world: Nigerians ferment them to make a seasoning called ogiri, and throughout Asia and the Middle East they’re hulled, toasted, and eaten as a snack. In India, as in parts of Africa, the seeds are dried and then ground into a flour for baking.

Watermelon is also puréed and strained to make drinks, like Mexico’s popular agua fresca de sandía, a cooling combination of watermelon, lime juice, sugar, and water.

In the southern African nation of Namibia and in parts of the U.S., watermelon juice is fermented for making watermelon wine, and watermelon beer has become a cult favourite of some American craft brewers.

Click here for a recipe for a delicious watermelon Margarita.

Recipe of the week

Shawkats steamed fish with mustard masala

The Wickedfood Team

Johannesburg Cooking School, Wickedfood runs cooking classes throughout the year at its purpose-built 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 – team building cooking classes, birthdays, kitchen teas, and dinner parties with a difference.

Our cooking lessons s 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. Great teambuilding ideas.

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

Hi all,

Welcome to our second newsletter of the year. Our first class for individuals will start  next week – Tuesday, 19 January.  See below for more information on the programmes for January and February. We are still getting a number of enquiries  from companies who have decided on a late Christmas party for the staff.  Again we have some fantastic  options – see our website 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.