Jerusalem artichokes, a root vegetable,  are now coming into season.  To prepare, do not over season as they have a very delicate flavor.  This simple recipe, developed at Wickedfood Cooking School test kitchen could not be any easier. Add just enough seasoning to bring out the flavour.

± 800g Jerusalem Artichoke, scrubed and peeled

Milk to cover

Pinch sugar

Squirt lemon juice

Salt, pepper, and nutmeg to season

1T finely chopped chives

• Place Jerusalem artichokes in a pot, and just cover with milk.  Bring to boil and simmer on a very low heat until tender.
• Puree with the blender until smooth and pass through a sieve.
• Return the Jerusalem artichoke soup to the pot, season to taste and add a little more milk if necessary, to thin it down.
• Reheat just before serving, and garnish with chopped chives.

Serves 4

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.

At Wickedfood Cooking School we teach our students a variety of southeast Asian inspired soups in our Thai cooking classes.   A laksa is the closest one will get to a hearty warming Southeast Asian soup.  It comes in many guises, this one is an adaption from Reuben Cooks, our cookbook of the week.  In his recipe he uses salmon fillets, but we find them a little rich and prefer whitefish such as hake or gurnard. Once you have mastered this recipe substitute the seafood for chunky vegetables or chicken breasts.

1L chicken or vegetable stock
1 tin coconut milk
Salt and black pepper
20 steamed, shelled mussels
400g salmon, cut into chunks (see introduction)
Juice of 1 lime (about 2 tablespoons)
2 red bird’s eye chillies, chopped (optional)
350g rice vermicelli noodles, cooked
1 handful of coriander or basil or mint leaves, to garnish
Onion sprouts, to garnish

Laksa paste
1T whole coriander seeds
3 stalks lemon grass
1/2 cup canola oil
1/4 cup picked fresh coriander leaves
1T curry powder
1T turmeric
6 lime leaves
1/2 cup grated palm sugar
1/2 cup Thai fish sauce
3 green chillies, chopped
3 red chillies, chopped

• Heat the stock in a large pot. When hot, add the laksa paste. Simmer for a few minutes and add the coconut milk. Continue to simmer for 5 minutes, stirring frequently. Taste and adjust the seasoning.
• Add the steamed, shelled mussels and simmer for 1 minute.
• Add the fish and simmer for 2 minutes.
• Add the lime juice and chillies, if using. Bring the soup almost to boiling point, cover the pan and turn off the heat.
• Serve as soon as the noodles are ready. Reheat the rice vermicelli noodles, drain well and transfer to a large bowl. Moisten the noodles with a little of the soup from the seafood pot. Serve the noodles, soup and seafood in 4 large bowls, garnished with herbs and onion sprouts.

Laksa paste

• Blend all the ingredients together to make a fine paste.

Serves 4

Try these other Asian inspired soups:

Chinese corn and chicken soup

Tom yum kung

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.

Wickedfood Cooking School, SUNNINGHILL

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

Hi all,

In this cold weather, what better way to warm up, than with a tasty stew or hearty soup  – see our feature below for some great soup ideas, or search through our recipe section on the blog (We have 29 pages of delicious recipes).

The August  programme of Johannesburg cooking classes for individuals is now up on our website.  We have a mouthwatering selection of classes on offer, including a French cooking class, and a baking class, specializing in chocolate – see our recipe of the week to whet your appetite.

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 July and August 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.

• Monday 05 July at 6pm – Cooked in Africa (R380pp). Justin Bonello has become a cult hero in the South African culinary world. Through his quirky television series, and accompanying book, Cooked In Africa, he has taken a bunch of friends on a culinary road trip through southern Africa. In this Justin Bonello cooking class, we’ve taken a few of the recipes from the series and re-interpreted them to create a delicious South African cooking class.

• Monday 12 July at 6pm – Jamie’s Ministry of Food – quick meals and pastas (R350pp). This Jamie Oliver cooking class is inspired by Jamie’s book Ministry of Food, at Wickedfood Cooking School we regard it as his best. It is a perfect book for any beginner. We take six recipes from the book and re-interpret them, with plenty of tips along the way. Learning the secrets to successful  easy cooking, including spicy Moroccan stewed fish with couscous, chicken and leek stroganoff, broccoli and pesto tagliatelle, classic tomato spaghetti, macaroni cauliflower cheese bake and banana tarte tatin, with a wicked twist.
• Sunday 18 July at 4pm – Entertaining Italian style (R350pp). Great Italian cooking class, with dishes for entertaining with Italian flair including rice croquettes, Siena bread soup, semolina gnocchi, poached chicken with a caper/egg sauce and baked pears.

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

Soup

It’s so easy to make delicious, homemade soups, which are especially hearty in this cold winter weather.  But what is a soup?

Wikipedia defines soup as “...a food that is made by combining ingredients such as meat and vegetables with stock, juice, water or another liquid. Hot soups are additionally characterized by boiling solid ingredients in liquids in a pot until the flavour is extracted, forming a broth. Traditionally, soups are classified into two main groups: clear soups and thick soups. The established French classifications of clear soups are bouillon and consommé. Thick soups are classified depending upon the type of thickening agent used: purées are vegetable soups thickened with starch; bisques are made from puréed shellfish or vegetables thickened with cream;the  cream soups may be thickened with béchamel sauce; and veloutés are thickened with eggs, butter and cream. Other ingredients commonly used to thicken soups and broths include rice, flour and grains.“

Basic soups are very easy to make, as we constantly remind our cooking class students at Wickedfood Cooking School.  Chop equal quantities of onion, celery and carrots, and fry in a little butter or oil until the flavour is released.  Add a few chicken thighs and wings, slices of lamb neck, or some beef bones, cover with water or homemade stock and boil until the meat falls off the bone.  Add a handful of pulses such as lentils, barley or chickpeas, at the beginning of the cooking process, for more body.  Season to taste and serve.  See links to other websites in this article for some delicious soup recipes.

Soup as a figure of speech:

• Alphabet soup – a term often used to describe a large amount of acronyms used by an administration.
• Pea soup describes a thick or dense fog.
• Word soup refers to any collection of words that is ostensibly incomprehensible.
• Tag soup further refers to poorly coded HTML.

Click Here for some delicious soups from Jamie Oliver.

Book of the week

A Greener Life - Clarissa Dickson Wright and Johnny Scott

You may well remember Clarissa from the TV series Two Fat Ladies. In her more recent publications, A Greener Life, Clarissa and Johnny Scott look at how to live a more natural and self-sufficient life. They explore  issues from growing your own vegetables to using alternative energies, so that you have the knowledge to start living  greener.

In … Click Here for more.

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

Recipe of the week:

Chocolate brownies

This recipe is based on one that we use at Wickedfood Cooking School in our baking class, specializing in chocolate .  Chewy chocolate squares, one of the best brownie recipes around, and quick and easy to make. They use cocoa powder instead of chocolate.

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.

A great healthy soup that is quick to make with little effort and works well as a warm hearty winter soup or cold summer alternative.

Oil for frying
2 carrots peeled and roughly sliced
2 celery stalks sliced
2 medium onions chopped
2 cloves garlic sliced
2L vegetable stock
800g frozen peas
1 cup fresh mint leaves
Sea salt and pepper

1 ciabatta for serving (optional)
125ml crème fraîche (optional)

1. Heat 2T oil in a large pot and add the carrots, celery, onions and garlic and fry until carrots are soft and onion is golden brown ±10 minutes.
2. Pour in the stock and mix in well soaking up any flavours that have stuck to the bottom of the pot.
3. Add the peas, stir well and bring up to a boil and then allow to simmer for until peas are soft.
4. Take off the heat and add mint leaves and liquidize until smooth.
5. To serve
6. Divide into bowls and serve with fresh or toasted bread and crème fraîche.

Wickedfood Cooking School

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

Wickedfood Cooking school runs cooking classes throughout the year at its purpose-built Johannesburg cooking studios. 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 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.

The soup can be served either hot or chilled, with sour cream. It is perfect made a day or 2 in advance, and leftovers are delicious the following day. It is important to purée the soup and pass it through a sieve to get rid of the spice kernels.

60ml olive oil
3 cloves garlic, crushed
1 small chilli, cut in half
3t cumin seeds
2t coriander seeds
750g carrots, peeled and cut into large chunks
2 large onions, peeled and cut into large chunks
4 sticks celery, washed and cut into chunks
1 medium fennel bulb, washed and sliced
±700ml water
2t salt
1 large bunch coriander, washed, and leaves separated from stalks
1 handful of leaves retained for garnish

120ml soured cream (optional)

1. Over a medium heat in a heavy-based pot warm the olive oil with the garlic, chilli, cumin and coriander seeds until the spices begin to sizzle and the aroma is released.
2. Turn up the heat, add the vegetables and stir well to coat each piece with the flavoured oil.
3. Cover with a lid and cook without colouring for 4-5 minutes, stirring occasionally.
4. Add water to barely cover, add salt and the coriander stalks. Bring to the boil, cover and simmer until all the vegetables are soft, ±20 minutes. Strain the vegetables, retaining the stock (the water that the vegetables were boiled in).
5. In a food processor or liquidiser, purée the vegetables. Push the soup through a sieve into a clean pot. Mix the stock into the puréed vegetables to your desired consistency (more stock for a thinner soup) and re-heat (or place in fridge until required).
6. Chop the coriander leaves and stir into the soup, taste and adjust the seasoning.
7. To serve
8. Serve hot or chilled with a scoop of soured cream, a sprig of fresh coriander and focaccia or other crusty bread.

Serves 6

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