Wickedfood Cooking School, SUNNINGHILL

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

Hi all,

This sudden cold snap has certainly reminded us that winter is still here, and in winter we should be eating hearty warming stews and roasts. Winter is also a time for venison and in celebration of this, on  Sunday 22 August, we’ll be running a very special event – working with venison, in conjunction with Slow Food. It is a radically discounted event, only R250pp, and we only have a few spaces still available, so see below, or 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 15 August at 4pm – Thai master class (R390pp). A Thai cooking class with classic Thai flavours and a 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.
• Monday 16 August at 6pm – 30 minute meals (R380pp). Quick and easy meals for two. Dishes include vegetarian stir-fry, red chicken curry, pepper steak, sun-dried tomato pesto, fish with almonds, and pizza.
• Sunday 22 August at 5.30pm – Working with venison (R250pp), in conjunction with Slow Food. This is a gourmet, 5 course dinner, looking at 4 very different venison preparations, and pairing them with some very unique wines.
• Monday 23 August at 6pm – Jamie’s Ministry of Food – Easy curries, salads and soups (R370pp). 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 29 August at 4pm – Classic French cooking (R390pp). French cooking class, an introduction to French cuisine with some classic seafood dishes including quiche Lorraine, bouillabaisse, sole meunière, salad niçoise and flourless chocolate cake.

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

Lemons don’t just perk up meals and desserts with their citrus vim and vigour, they can also help your cookery. Adding a few drops of lemon juice to egg whites before whisking them for meringues helps stabilise the proteins and prevents the whites turning into clumps of cotton-woolly foam, should you get overzealous with the electric beaters.

Cookbook of the week

Bourke Street Bakery

One of the rising stars of Australia’s baking scene is Bourke Street Bakery, situated in the hip foodie enclave of Sydney’s Surry Hills, selling artisanal baked goods of the highest order.  Fortunately for those of us who are not able to visit the bakery, we can now recreate many of their delicious offerings from the inspiring cookbook of the same name. … Click Here for more.

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

Food quote of the week

“Cooking is like love. It should be entered into with abandon or not at all.” – Harriet Van Horne.

Recipe of the week:

Carrot cake
Carrot cake is one of the all time favourites, found on nearly every coffeehouse menu.  Apart from being full of flavour, carrot cake also has a relatively long shelf life. … 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 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 6pm – Sweet 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.

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.

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.

Wickedfood Cooking School, SUNNINGHILL

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

Hi all,

If you have been listening to the radio, reading newspapers or watching television, you are no doubt aware that Gordan Ramsay is in town (at a reputed fee of around R1 million a day – who said cooking doesn’t pay?).  This week’s recipe comes from his latest book.

In the last newsletter we talked about growing your own vegetables, and had a great response – click here for some tips.

What do you think of our new  website – Wickedfood. Please also give us feedback.

For those who are not particularly interested in soccer, but still want to get into the spirit of things, we have developed our own 2010 Culinary World Cup, a great way for your company to entertain staff or clients, or do teambuilding with a difference, during this period. 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 programme May and June.

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 24 May at 6pm – Gordon Ramsay – Cooking for Friends (R390 pp). This class is based on the Gordon Ramsay 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, including broccoli blue cheese and pear soup, mushroom and barley risotto, poached fish fillets, roast rib-eye of beef, and pear and frangipane tart. – The class is fully booked and we have a waiting list, but should there be enough demand we will run a further class in June, contact the school if you are interested.
  

• Sunday 30 May at 4pm – Thai master class (R350pp). Part of our Thai cooking class series, where we teach students the secrets of authentic Thai cooking. In this class dishes include shrimp paste dipping sauce, Massaman curry, bean salad, stir fried egg noodles and steamed banana cake.

• Monday 31 May at 6pm – 30 minute meals (R370 pp). Quick and easy low-fat meals for two including honeyed stir-fry chicken, grilled pork chops, creamy mushroom pasta and toasted muesli.
• Monday 07 June at 6pm – Making pasta, basic shapes and sauces (R370pp). Pasta cooking class, using different pasta shapes, make sauces, and make pasta – farfalle with chicken and cherry tomatoes, salad Florentine, gorgonzola cream sauce, cheese and tomato filled cannelloni, and delicious sweet noodle cake.
• Sunday 13 June at 4pm – Vegetarian Indian (R360pp). Authentic Indian cooking class making vegetarian dishes including curd cheese with spinach, chickpeas and mushroom curry, fragrant rice with soya, spicy brown lentils, savoury pancakes, coconut chutney and coconut milk pudding.

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.

Cookbook of the week

Gordon Ramsay’s Great Escape

Gordon embarks on a culinary journey around India, discovering the breadth and depth of cooking of the country. This new cookbook from him is packed with the best recipes from his travels to India, where he had never been to until now … Click Here for more.

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

On food

Autumn has broadsided us this year, turning up unannounced while we were still coatless and plunging us back into the world of soups and hot toddies. Wrap yourself up in soothing autumn fare . … Click Here for some delicious ideas and recipes.

Food quote of the week :

“Autumn is a second spring where every leaf is a flower.” – Albert Camus

Did you know?

The liquid inside a coconut is the coconut juice, not the milk. Coconut milk is produced by steeping grated coconut meat in boiling water, leaving the mixture to cool, then straining it. Coconut cream is produced by the same method but using less water.

Recipe of the week:

Butter chicken

Butter chicken, or murgh makhani, can be traced back to Mogul times, but the dish and its history is most closely associated with Delhi’s famous Moti Mahal restaurant. Over time, numerous chefs have attempted to emulate the rich buttery sauce, and flavours vary slightly between restaurants. This is Gordon Ramsay’s version of the classic 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.