The alternate newsletter – 15 September 2010

Wednesday, September 15th, 2010

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Wickedfood Cooking School, SUNNINGHILL

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

Hi all,

In this week’s newsletter we discuss the second part of our top green eating tips which include growing your own, buying local, having just enough, eating your food raw and easing up on the meat. We also look at a non-profit, eco-gastronomic member-supported organization which is Slow Food and how to get involved. Enjoy and keep it green.

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 October individual cooking class programmes are up on the internet – click on the month for the programme - October.

Wickedfood Cooking School runs classes with a minimum of 8 participants and a maximum of 12, this gives everyone hands-on experience  and keeps the class small enough for maximum learning.

Monday 20 September at 6pmEntertaining Turkish style (R370pp). Turkish cooking class – dishes include bulgur wheat patties, yoghurt soup, baked layered lamb pastry, stuffed aubergines, rice pilav and syrupy almond cake.

Sunday 26 September at 4pmEasy Asian dishes with a Chinese flavour (R390pp). Chinese cooking class – perfect for entertaining, with most dishes prepared in advance including wonton soup with noodles, chilli prawns, master stock chicken, Mu shu pork and ginger pudding.

Monday 27 September at 6pmAlfresco Italian dining (R380pp). Real Italian cooking class, tastes of al fresco summer dining and easy entertaining, including char grilled asparagus, affettati misti, insalata caprese, chicken involtini and Hanepoot semifreddo.

Please contact us should you wish to make a booking:

Green ideas for your kitchen? Top Green Eating Tips

6.    Grow your own
 – In the garden, in the greenhouse, in the window box, or something fancier. Even urbanites can get quite a bit of good eats from not much space.

7.    To and from – 
Just as buying locally grown food cuts on “miles per calorie,” buying from local sellers cuts back on emissions, fuel consumption, and unnecessary traffic.

8.    Just enough – Putting some extra planning into the amount of food you cook will cut back on waste. If it’s something that will spoil quickly, try to avoid making more than you or your family can eat. If you’ve got extra, make a friend happy with a home-cooked surprise. If it’s a bigger affair, give the leftovers to those who may need it more.

9.    Eat it raw – 
Many people swear by the benefits of eating raw. Whatever the health advantages may be, preparing raw food consumes less energy and because raw food is usually fresh by definition, it is more likely to be locally grown.

10.    Ease up on the meat – 
Meat is the most resource-intensive food on the table and eating less of it can be the single most green move a person makes. Producing meat requires huge amounts of water, grain, land, and other inputs including hormones and antibiotics, and leads to pollution of soil, air, and water. A 500g piece of beef requires around 45 000L of water to produce, compared to 230L  for 500g of potatoes. If you’re a meat eater, for starters, try cutting out a serving of meat each week. Going vegetarian or vegan is a profoundly meaningful environmental choice, and it’s done wonders for Chris Martin and Prince…

Awesome website of the week: http://www.slowfood.com/ Slow Food is a non-profit, eco-gastronomic member-supported international organization that was founded in 1989 to counteract fast food and fast life, the disappearance of local food traditions and people’s dwindling interest in the food they eat, where it comes from, how it tastes and how our food choices affect the rest of the world.
To do that, Slow Food brings together pleasure and responsibility, and makes them inseparable.
Today, we have over 100,000 members in 132 countries.

Slow Food philosophy:

We believe that everyone has a fundamental right to pleasure and consequently the responsibility to protect the heritage of food, tradition and culture that make this pleasure possible. Our movement is founded upon this concept of eco-gastronomy – a recognition of the strong connections between plate and planet.

Slow Food is good, clean and fair food. We believe that the food we eat should taste good; that it should be produced in a clean way that does not harm the environment, animal welfare or our health; and that food producers should receive fair compensation for their work.

We consider ourselves co-producers, not consumers, because by being informed about how our food is produced and actively supporting those who produce it, we become a part of and a partner in the production process.

Visit the Johannesburg website to see how you can get involved.http://slowfoodjoburg.blogspot.com/

Food Joke: “I told my doctor I get very tired when I go on a diet, so he gave me pep pills. Know what happened? I ate faster.” — Joe E. Lewis

The Wickedfood Team


Wickedfood Cooking School runs  classes throughout the year at its purpose-built Johannesburg cooking studio. Cooking lessons 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 courses 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.

  The Altenate Newsletter – 2 September 2010

Thursday, September 2nd, 2010

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Wickedfood Cooking School, SUNNINGHILL

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

Hi all,

In this week’s newsletter we look at the first 5 of 10, green eating tips. The emphasis is to showcase the simplicity in what one can do to reduce one’s carbon footprint. We focus on Organic food, Local food, Fair trade fare food, Packaging and composting leftovers. In our Website of the Week we look at the site giving you the world’s top restaurants which include 2 South African restaurants. Well done!

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 September individual cooking class programmes are up on the internet – click on the month for the programme - September.

Wickedfood Cooking School runs classes with a minimum of 8 participants and a maximum of 12, this gives everyone hands-on experience  and keeps the class small enough for maximum learning.

Monday 06 September at 6pmMaking filled pasta and accompanying sauces (R390pp). Dishes covered in this pasta making cooking class include cheese and ham ravioli with a tomato sauce, meat filled agnolotti, spinach and ricotta tortellini, cappelletti filled with sweet potatoes and ravioli with apple and pecan nut stuffing.

  • Making pasta – filled pasta.
  • Cheese and ham ravioli with a tomato sauce – tasty southern Italian dish.
  • Meat filled agnolotti – served with a cream and blue cheese vodka sauce.
  • Spinach and ricotta tortellini – with a herb and Parmesan sauce.
  • Cappelletti filled with sweet potatoes – an interesting blend, with parsley.
  • Ravioli with apple and pecan nut stuffing – served with an orange Grand Marnier sauce.

Sunday 12 September at 4pmEasy Entertaining Indian style (R380pp).

  • Bhel puri – savoury morsels with rice, potatoes and green mangoes.
  • Lamb korma – mild slow cooked curry in an almond yoghurt sauce.
  • Shredded greens – quick dish ideal for any curry meal.
  • Potato and cauliflower curry – with ripe tomatoes.
  • Chicken pulao – fragrant meal-in-one dish.
  • Puris – deep fried unleavened bread.
  • Cheese balls in syrup – popular Indian sweet with milk solids boiled in syrup.

Monday 13 September at 6pmJamie’s America – … on Soul food (R360pp). Jamie Oliver cooking class, based on his latest book on his recent travels through the USA. We re-interpret some of the dishes, and put them together into a themed menu including Red pepper summer soup, Fried chicken, Collard greens, Grits, Coleslaw and Peach cobbler.

  • Red pepper summer soup – classic cold soup from the south.
  • Fried chicken – crispy deep-fried, with a basic side salad.
  • Collard greens – with turnips and pork.
  • Coleslaw – perfect with barbecued meats or deep-fried chicken.
  • Grits – southern version of polenta, with delicious meaty sauce.
  • Peach cobbler – stewed peaches in syrup with scone-like dumplings.

Monday 20 September at 6pmEntertaining Turkish style (R370pp). Turkish cooking class – dishes include bulgur wheat patties, yoghurt soup, baked layered lamb pastry, stuffed aubergines, rice pilav and syrupy almond cake.

  • Kisir – Bulgur wheat patties, with chilli, parsley and mint, served with lettuce.
  • Yoghurt soup – a hot or cold soup with noodles/rice and meatballs/chickpeas, popular throughout Turkey.
  • Baked layered meat pastry – Turkish version of lasagne, with homemade pastry sheets and a spicy meat filling.
  • Stuffed aubergines – one of Turkey’s most renowned dishes, baked with onion, garlic and tomatoes.
  • Tomato salad – with spring onions and a tahini garlic dressing.
  • Rice pilav – with raisins and pinenuts, perfect with Turkish meat dishes.
  • Sponge cakes – with almonds, soaked in a sweet lemon syrup.
Please contact us should you wish to make a booking:

Green ideas for your kitchen? Top Green Eating Tips
1.    Indulge in the Big O – When you eat organic, don’t just picture the healthy food you are putting in your body, picture the healthy ecosystems which produced that food, the workers who are safer from chemicals, the land, water, and air that is being protected, and the wildlife that is being allowed to thrive. Organic vegetables, fruits, grains, juice, dairy, eggs, and meat (and don’t forget the organic wine and beer), are grown and processed in ways that support healthy people and a healthy planet. (While you may not be able to find or afford organic options for everything you need, certain fruits and vegetables are more pesticide free than others.)


2.    Feast on Fair Trade fare – 
Fair trade certified food ensures a proper wage and working conditions for those who harvest and handle it. But fair trade is green for the environment as well. Fair trade has strong environmental standards built into its certification process that protect watersheds and virgin forests, help prevent erosion, promote natural soil fertility and water conservation, and prohibit GMOs and many synthetic chemicals. TransFair claims that their environmental standards are the most stringent in the industry, second only to organic certification.


3.   Go local Buying seasonal, local food is a boon for the environment for a lot of reasons. Since most food travels many miles to reach your table, locally sourced food cuts back on the climate-change impacts of transportation. Local food also generally uses less packaging, is fresher and tastier, and comes in more varieties. It also supports small local growers and lets them get more for their produce by not having to spend so much on packing, processing, refrigeration, marketing, and shipping. The best way to track down local food is at farmers’ markets or through community supported agriculture (CSA), which often offer home delivery.


4.    Don’t follow the pack – 
Instead of buying foods that come in extensive packaging (most of which is petroleum-based plastics) look for unpackaged or minimally packaged foods, experiment with bringing your own containers and buying in bulk, or pick brands that use bio-based plastic packing. And of course try and re-cycle or re-use any packaging you end up with.


5.    Compost the leftovers
 – Greening your meals isn’t just about the food that winds up on the plate—it’s the entire process, the whole lifecycle shebang. Composting leftovers will ease the burden on the landfill, give you great soil, and keep your kitchen waste basket from smelling. Apartment dwellers and the yard less  can do it too! And yes, a composting toilet can be part of the miraculous cycle as well.

More to come in the next newsletter…

Awesome website of the week: The 50 Best Restaurants in the world

The World’s 50 Best Restaurants list was first dreamed up in 2002. The idea was born as a feature idea for a very youthful trade magazine aimed at chefs and restaurateurs in the UK – Restaurant Magazine.

Since 2002 the way in which the list is created has changed to reflect shifting trends, and in a quest to make it as fair and globally representative as possible.

Even now we’d be the first to admit that it’s not perfect. What the Academy aims to do, with its mix of critics, gourmands, chefs and restaurateurs, is create a list that has a fair weighting both geographically and in dining styles.

Organised by Restaurant Magazine, the S.Pellegrino World’s 50 Best Restaurants aims to get people talking about restaurants, and to shine a bright light on excellence and innovation in an exciting industry.

Nice to see 2 South African Restaurants in the top 50. La Colombe and Le Quartier Francais

http://www.theworlds50best.com/awards/1-50-winners

Food Joke: “I’ve been on a constant diet for the last two decades. I’ve lost a total of 789 pounds. By all accounts, I should be hanging from a charm bracelet.” — Erma Bombeck.

The Wickedfood Team

Wickedfood Cooking School runs  classes throughout the year at its purpose-built Johannesburg cooking studio. Cooking lessons 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 courses 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.