Baklava is one of the most famous of all Middle-Eastern sweets (and is the ancestor of strudel, brought to Hungary by Turkish invaders in the 16th century). Traditionally there were 40 layers of pastry, 20 below and 20 above symbolising the 40 days of Lent. This dessert was classically eaten on Easter Sunday to break the Lenten fast. This recipe is based on a Wickedfood Cooking School recipe from our Middle Eastern cooking class.  Almost any nuts apart from peanuts (which are not really nuts but legumes) can be used, although in the classic recipes, walnuts, pistachios and pecans are the nuts of choice. The shapes also vary greatly from cigars and florets to diamonds.

Syrup

1. Preheat the oven to 220°C. Make the syrup first (see below) and chill.
2. Choose a baking dish as close to 20cm x 25cm, at least 3cm deep, that you have. Brush it liberally with melted butter and cut the filo pastry sheets to fit the dish (offcuts can also be used for patching).
3. Divide the sheets into 3. Working with the first third (5-8 sheets), layer them into the baking dish, brushing each sheet with butter.
4. Spread half the nuts evenly over the pastry and then continue layering the next third pastry, remaining nuts, and then the final third pastry, brushing every sheet with butter – do not butter the top sheet yet.
5. With a sharp knife, cut the baklava into shapes, through to the base as follows:
   • Parallel with the shortest side ±3cm apart;
   • Diagonally from corner to corner and then again in parallel lines ±3cm apart, to form diamond shapes.
6. Now brush the top with melted butter.
7. Bake for 10 minutes at 220°C, then reduce the heat to 180°C and bake for a further 30 minutes or until golden brown.

Syrup

1. Place the sugar, water and lemon juice in a pot and bring to the boil. Stir until the sugar has dissolved, reduce the heat and boil for 20 minutes, until the syrup is thick.
2. Stir in the rosewater, remove from the heat and cool. Store in the fridge until required.
3. Once the baklava are golden brown, remove from the oven and pour over the cooled syrup. Allow to cool completely before removing. Store in an airtight container (Baklava also freeze well if not baked, and can be baked from frozen.)

Serves 6-8.

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,

Winter is definitely here, cold frosty mornings, but perfect days for outdoor entertaining. In our recipe archives, we have some great outdoor cooking ideas, click here for the recipes. It is also pumpkin time at the moment, click here for some great pumpkin ideas. And if you want some more great cooking ideas don’t forget that we run public cooking classes every Monday and every second Sunday.  For June we take a real trip around the world, starting off with our Portuguese cooking class, with special emphasis on the South African-inspired Portuguese table, followed by the Vietnamese cooking class, looking at this healthy cuisine with its fresh flavours, and then our Lebanese cooking class, where we look at the classics (our head instructor for this class  is part Lebanese and has grown up eating and cooking this delicious food).

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  June and July 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 05 June at 4pm – Flavours of the South African Portuguese Table (R360pp). In this Portuguese cooking class we blend a mix of traditional and contemporary Portuguese food which has been adapted to a South African palate which includes trinchado, chicken livers, caldo verde, chicken peri-peri, Portuguese salad and crème caramel.
• Monday 06 June at 6pm – Healthy flavours of Vietnam (R370 per person per class). For an example of how to eat healthfully, simply, and well every day, look to Vietnam. Vietnam has one of the leanest and freshest cuisines imaginable. In this Vietnamese cooking class we cook classic Vietnamese dishes, including fried springrolls, Vietnamese hot and sour fish soup, caramel chicken, squid salad, and coconut crème caramel.
• Monday 13 June at 6pm – Classic Lebanese dishes (R380pp). The cuisine of Lebanon epitomizes the best of the Mediterranean diet, which is highly regarded for its positive health benefits. This Lebanese cooking class shows a selection of the most popular Lebanese party food including hummous with ground lamb, kibbi naye and deep-fried kibbi balls, Lebanese salad, bread pies and osmaliyah, a delicious Lebanese sweet pastry.
• Sunday 19 June at 4pm – 30 minute meals (R380pp).  In this cooking class we show you how to prepare 6 nutritious quick and easy dishes which include Thai vegetable curry, chicken breast with feta and pasta, chilli steak wraps, penne with a rich tomato vodka cream sauce, Fried fish with oven chips and homemade burgers.

Cookbook of the week

One Perfect Ingredient

In One Perfect Ingredient top British chef, Marcus Wareing, takes a new approach to cookbooks, by grouping chapters around ingredients, rather than the conventional starters, main courses and desserts.  He guides the reader through 150 recipes to make tasty, enticing, imaginative food from the kind of basic ingredients to be found in any kitchen. All the ingredients are easy to come by, and the recipes are  chosen with the home cook in mind. … Click Here for the full story.

Food quote of the week

“Old people shouldn’t eat health foods. They need all the preservatives they can get.” – Robert Orben

Recipes of the week:

Custard tart with Garibaldi biscuits

In the first series of the Great British Menu competition on BBC Lifestyle, Marcus Wareing won the competition with his Custard tart recipe. This winning Custard tart was served as a dessert to the Queen and her guests at a banquet celebrating her 80th birthday. ….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.

If you’re into serious food and the latest food trends then you definitely should be watching the Great British Menu competition on BBC Lifestyle, where top chefs from the United Kingdom are cooking some of the most contemporary food around.  In the first series Marcus Wareing won the competition with his Custard tart recipe. This winning Custard tart was served as a dessert to the Queen and her guests at a banquet celebrating her 80th birthday.

Garibaldi biscuits

100g butter, melted in a saucepan

100g icing sugar, sifted

100g plain flour

100g egg whites

200g currants

Pastry

225g flour, plus extra for dusting

pinch of salt

1 lemon, zest only

150g butter

75g caster sugar

1 free-range egg yolk

1 free-range egg

Custard filling

9 free-range egg yolks

75g caster sugar

500ml whipping cream

freshly grated nutmeg

Garibaldi biscuits

• Preheat the oven to 180°C.
• Mix together the butter, icing sugar and flour until smooth. Slowly add the egg whites, stirring, until they are completely incorporated, then fold in the currants. The dough will be quite wet. Place in a small bowl and chill for at least one hour.
• Line a baking tray with greaseproof paper, and spread the mixture out. Chill in the fridge for 30 minutes.
• Bake the biscuits for 25-30 minutes or until golden brown. While soft cut into slices with a sharp knife. Leave to cool, then keep in an airtight tin.

Pastry

• Turn the oven down to 170°C.
• Rub together the flour, salt, lemon zest and butter until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs. Add the sugar.
• Beat together the egg yolk and whole egg and slowly add these to the flour mixture, mixing until the pastry forms a ball. Wrap tightly in cling film and refrigerate for two hours.
• Roll out the pastry on a lightly floured surface to 2mm thickness. Use to line an 18cm flan ring placed on a baking sheet. Line with greaseproof paper and fill with baking beans, then bake blind for about 10 minutes or until the pastry is starting to turn golden brown. Remove the paper and beans, and allow to cool.

Custard filling

• Turn the oven down to 130°C.
• Whisk together the yolks and sugar. Add the cream and mix well. Pass the mixture through a fine sieve into a saucepan and heat to blood temperature.
• Fill the pastry case with the custard, until 5mm from the top. Carefully place the Custard tart in the middle of the oven and bake for 30-40 minutes or until the custard appears set but not too firm. Remove the Custard tart from the oven and cover the surface liberally with grated nutmeg. Allow the Custard tart to cool to room temperature.
• Before serving, warm the biscuits through in the oven for 5 minutes. Cut the Custard tart with a sharp knife and serve with the biscuits.

For more Marcus Wareing recipes 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.

Food from Plenty is a weighty, beautiful book containing over 300 recipes. What really sets this cookbook apart is its  approach to recipes.  It starts where all good cookbooks should, with roasts, roast chicken to be more exact.  Once you have mastered the basics, author Diana Henry, gives the cook 9 additional recipe ideas for different flavours with roast chicken. Added to that are great ideas on what to do with leftovers.

And so the book goes on. Most chapters start with an  informative introduction: cuts of meat and a synopsis of how to use them, different grains and pulses, and how to cook with them , and cooking with bread.

Food from Plenty is divided into 11 chapters covering various foodstuffs and styles: the roast; vegetables; pulses;  grains; fish; choice cuts of pork, lamb and beef; soup; wild things; sweet fruit; crust and crumbs; and eggs.

The book promotes the virtue of buying good quality produce, locally if possible, to produce dishes you’d want to eat, aimed squarely at the home cook. Diana shows  how to save money by cooking ahead, using up gluts from the garden, and how to cook with respect for sustainability and resources. Recipes originate from all over the world – from Corfu to Vietnam, but at the heart of it are easy-to-achieve recipes, full of flavour .

Diana Henry was named Cookery Writer of the Year by The Guild of Food Writers in 2009 and 2007 for her work in The Sunday Telegraph’s Stella magazine. As well as writing a weekly column for Stella, Diana is the author of several cookbooks, including Crazy Water, Pickled Lemons, The Gastropub Cookbook and Cook Simple. She also writes for many magazines, including House and Garden, Sainsbury’s Magazine and Waitrose Food Illustrated.  Photographer Jonathan Lovekin is often referred to as the best food photographer in the business.

Click here for recipes from Diana Henry.

Interested in buying this book? For the next 2 weeks Red Pepper Books is offering a special discounted price for Food from Plenty. Visit - Red Pepper Books – The South African online bookshop, they are able to offer you great prices on any book you are looking for, and they deliver to your door.

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.

This Nigel Slater chocolate and chestnut terrine  is a seriously rich recipe to be enjoyed in thin slices, perfect as a decadent Easter treat, with chestnuts just coming into season. You will get a good 8 to 10 portions from the cake. This cake is very similar to one that we make at Wickedfood Cooking School in our chocolate cooking class. Chestnut purée is available from specialist delicatessens.

Photo: Jonathan Lovekin

Cake

250g butter
225g golden caster sugar
225g self-raising flour
2t baking powder
30g cocoa powder
4 eggs
80ml milk
3T hot espresso coffee

Chestnut and chocolate filling

250g dark chocolate (79 per cent cocoa solids)
125g butter
400g chestnut purée
2T caster sugar

To finish

10–12 cooked or candied chestnuts
250g dark chocolate

Cake

• You will need a 20cm sq cake tin lined with baking parchment, and a 20 x 9cm loaf tin or similar for shaping the cake (measurements are taken across the bottom of the tins).
• Set the oven at 160°C. Cut the butter into small pieces and put into a food mixer with the caster sugar. Beat until light and fluffy.
• Sift together the flour, baking powder and cocoa powder (don’t miss this step; it is really important that the dry ingredients are well mixed).
• Crack the eggs into a small bowl, beat them briefly to mix, then stir in the milk.
• Introduce the flour mixture and the eggs and milk to the butter and sugar, adding a little of each at a time, with the mixer going constantly till you have a smooth mixture. Finally mix in the coffee.
• Spoon the mixture into the lined square cake tin and smooth the top, then bake for 45-50 minutes, until risen and firm to the touch. Test with a metal skewer. If it comes out moist but clean, without any raw cake mixture stuck to it, then it is ready. Remove from the oven, leave to settle for 15 minutes, then run a palette knife around the edges and gently turn out on to a cooling rack. Peel off the baking parchment.

Chestnut and chocolate filling

• Break the chocolate into small pieces and melt it in a glass or china bowl set over a pan of simmering water. Do not stir, other than to push any unmelted chocolate down into the liquid chocolate. Turn the heat off as soon as the chocolate has melted.
• Cut the butter into small pieces and stir it gently into the chocolate until it has melted.
• Beat the chestnut purée with the sugar until well mixed, then fold gently into the melted chocolate and butter. Try not to over-mix. Set aside.
• Cut the cake in half to make two long pieces. Slice each half in two horizontally and trim to fit the loaf tin. Place a piece of cake in the base of the tin, add half the chocolate chestnut cream and smooth the top. Place a second piece of sponge on top, followed by the rest of the chestnut cream.
• Place a third and final piece of cake on top. (You will be left with one remaining piece, which I suggest you freeze for later or nibble at will.)
• Wrap the entire loaf tin in clingfilm, pressing down firmly to encourage the layers to stick together. Refrigerate for at least two hours.

To finish

• Remove the clingfilm, loosen the cake from the sides of the tin and turn it out on to a wire rack. Place the chestnuts along the top.
• Melt the chocolate as before, then pour it over the top of the cake, smoothing it over the sides. Leave to set before serving, sprinkled with cocoa powder if desired.

Makes 10 slices

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.