Monday 28 June at 6pm – Classic French cooking (R370pp). French cooking class, an introduction to French cuisine including cheese soufflé, potato and leek soup, coq au vin, potato gratin, and tarte tatin.

•    Cheese soufflé- a classic soufflé.
•    Milk soup – with a potato, leek and onion base.
•    Coq au vin - chicken braised in red wine with baby onions and mushrooms.
•    Potato gratin – sliced potatoes baked with cream.
•    Green peas – with braised baby onions.
•    Salade Lyonnaise – a simple green salad with croutons and egg.
•    Tarte Tatin - upside down apple tart.

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.  We’ve taken a few of the recipes from the series and re-interpreted them to create a delicious South African inspired menu.

•    Spicy chicken livers – a delicious quick starter, inspired from Mozambique.
•    Three bean soup – a hearty soup with a vegetable and tomato base.
•    Venison stew – usually made in a potjie over a fire, with dumplings.
•    Green salad – the basics of a salad, with some different dressings.
•    Beer bread – a quick and easy bread, perfect for outdoor cooking and,
•    Malva Pudding – a South African golden oldie, hearty baked pudding with cream brandy glaze.

Monday 12 July at 6pm – Jamie’s Ministry of Food – quick meals and pastas (R350pp). We consider Jamie Oliver’s latest book his best. It is a perfect book for any beginner. Each month 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.

•    Spicy Moroccan stewed fish with couscous – quick and easy to cook and great tasting.
•    Chicken and leek stroganoff – a mix up of the classic.
•    Broccoli and pesto tagliatelle – with fresh herbs and tips on making different pestos.
•    Classic tomato spaghetti - easy to prepare tomato sauce with many alternative uses.
•    Macaroni cauliflower cheese bake – great for making in advance and freezing.
•    Banana tarte tatin - quick and easy, ideal with any fruit.

Sunday 18 July at 4pm – Entertaining Italian style (R350pp). Great dishes for entertaining with Italian flair including rice croquettes, Siena bread soup, semolina gnocchi, poached chicken with a caper/egg sauce and baked pears.

•    Rice croquettes - filled with Parmesan and mozzarella cheese.
•    Siena bread soup – A classic Tuscan soup, robust, with bread and tomato.
•    Semolina gnocchi - famous Roman dish, baked with cream and Parmesan, great to make ahead.
•    Poached whole chicken – with a delicious caper and egg sauce.
•    Fennel salad – simple yet satisfying.
•    Baked pears - with marsala and cinnamon.

Serve It Green
1.    If you must use disposable dishes and serving ware, use paper which can go into your compost, or look for post-consumer recycled materials.
2.    Using fewer dishes means washing fewer dishes – less energy needed for cleanup. There’s no need to dump vegetables from the cooking pot into a serving dish.
3.    Garnish food with edible fresh flowers and herbs from your own garden. Gardening is one way to reduce your carbon footprint by absorbing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.
4.    Serve food when it’s ready to avoid having to keep food warm.

Awesome website of the week: Being in the middle of the Fifa world cup I decided to bring peoples’ attention to a great website that focuses on the competition and everything there is to do regarding a world cup. Enjoy, I did. http://www.inspiredm.com/2010/06/06/2010-world-cup/

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.

Every day during the Football World Cup Delia Smith will add a recipe that reflects the cuisine of one of the teams playing. This is her take on the braai. The sauce is suitable for all meats – lamb cutlets, pork ribs or chicken drumsticks. The quantity is enough to glaze six of each, which makes a nice mixture of meats to serve to six people. One important point is that drumsticks need pre-baking in a pre-heated oven at gas mark 180°C, for 15 minutes just before braaiing. This recipe is taken from Delia Smith’s Summer Collection.

6 chicken drumsticks

6  lamb cutlets

6 pork ribs

For the apricot barbecue glaze:

6 dried apricots

2 T dark brown sugar

Few drops Tabasco sauce

¼ cup Worcestershire sauce

¼ cup light soy sauce

1T grated fresh ginger

1T ground ginger

2T tomato purée

1 clove garlic, minced

For the apricot barbecue glaze:

1. Begin by placing the apricots in a small saucepan with just enough water to cover them, then bring them up to simmering point and simmer for 5 minutes. Place them, with the leftover liquid,  in a blender or food processor together with all the other glaze ingredients. Whiz everything to a purée and the sauce is ready.
2. All you need to do now is arrange the meat in a shallow dish, pour the glaze over them – turning the pieces of meat so that each one gets a good coating – then cover and leave in a cool place until you’re ready to cook, preferably overnight. When you light the fire, pre-cook the chicken drumsticks as above, then cook with the other meat.
3. Scrape any sauce that’s left in the dish into a small saucepan, add a glass of white wine to it and bring it all up to simmering point to give some extra sauce.
4. Serve with oven-roasted potatoes, a crisp salad and some very robust red wine!

Serves 6

For more Fifa World Cup recipes from Delia Smith, … click here

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,

Well  the World Cup Tournament is here.  For those who want to get into the spirit, but not necessarily go to the games, Wickedfood Cooking School has some exciting alternatives:

• Cooking classes for individuals- based around menus from those countries participating in the World Cup, that we feel have the most interesting culinary traditions – on Monday night, we kicked off with a delicious South African cooking class which was fully subscribed … click here for more information on other cooking classes available during the Soccer World Cup.
• Cooking classes for a group of friends – Wickedfood Cooking School has identified the 10 participating soccer teams with the most interesting cuisine and drawn up a representative 6-dish menu cooking class for each national team. Bring a group of 12 or 24 friends for fun night out @ R390pp and we will give you one place per twelve people free ie book for 12 and pay for 11.   Contact the school for more details.
• 2010 Culinary World Cup Challenge – a great way for your company to entertain staff or clients, or do a teambuilding cooking class with a difference, during the Soccer World Cup period.  Click here 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, we have some great cooking classes to coincide with the Soccer World Cup – see above, or click the relevant month for the June and July programme .

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 21 June at 6pm – Flavours of Brazil (R380 pp). Brazilian cooking class, showcasing the country’s unique flavours including savoury pumpkin soup, Feijoada, fried Brazilian-style greens, rice cooked with onion, toasted manioc flour and an orange flan.
• Sunday 27June at 4pm – Classic Japanese dishes (R380pp). Classic Japanese cooking class with dishes from the Japanese kitchen including yakitori grilled chicken, tofu and vegetable soup, poached fish with miso, chicken cakes, spinach rolls with bonito flakes and caramelised sweet potatoes.
• Monday 28 June at 6pm – Classic French cooking (R370pp). French cooking class, an introduction to French cuisine including cheese soufflé, potato and leek soup, coq au vin, potato gratin, and tarte tatin.
• 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.  We’ve taken a few of the recipes from the series and re-interpreted them to create a delicious South African cooking 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.

Cookbook of the week

Delia Smith – Complete How To Cook

In 2009 Delia’s How to Cook was released as a single book of over 700 pages, with 350 recipes and step-by-step photography, covering every technique you will ever need from how to boil an egg to Risotto Carbonara. Truly a great book for both a beginner and someone who wants to brush up on both basics and more involved cooking. … Click Here for more.

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

Food quote of the week :

“My doctor told me to stop having intimate dinners for four, … unless there are three other people.” – Orson Welles

Recipe of the week:

Mixed Grill with Apricot Barbecue Glaze

Every day during the |Football World Cup Delia Smith will add a recipe that reflects the cuisine of one of the teams playing. This is her take on the braai. The sauce is suitable for all meats – lamb cutlets, pork ribs or chicken.

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.

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.

Wickedfood Cooking School, SUNNINGHILL

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

Hi all,

To my mind there is nothing more relaxing than growing your own vegetables.  You do not have to be farmer Joe, just a couple of hours a week will give you more than enough vegetables to be sustainable – see our book of the week.

We have just launched our  new improved website – Wickedfood. It’s fresh, clean and incredibly easy to navigate, implementing many of the suggestions received from a recent survey.  So bookmark the new site and visit often to see what’s new. Please also give us feedback.

Re the 2010 Soccer World Cup. 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 companies to entertain the 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 10 May at 6pm – Alfresco Italian dining (R360pp). Six classic dishes from the Italian kitchen, all easy to make in advance, ideal for a 6-course summer buffet meal – stuffed tomatoes, cheese mould, potato gnocchi with a gorgonzola sauce, cold sliced pork and tuna sauce, and zuccotto.
• Sunday 16 May at 4pm – Outdoor Cooking – seafood (R390pp). Part of the master class series. In conjunction with our head instructor, and leading fishmonger, learn the secrets of cooking seafood with confidence on kettlebraais and gas barbecues. Dishes covered in this class include seared tuna carpaccio, grilled whole fish, baked fish fillets, and spicy grilled squid salad.

• Monday 17 May at 6pm – 30 minute meals (R370pp). Learn how to prepare 6 nutritious quick and easy meals for two. Includes honeyed stir-fry chicken, grilled pork chops, creamy mushroom pasta and toasted muesli.
• 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.
• Sunday 30 May at 4pm – Thai master class (R350pp). Part of our Thai master 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.

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

Grow to live by Pat Featherstone

There is surely nothing more satisfying than growing your own vegetables.  With just a couple of hours working each week in the garden, you could be supplying your household with all the vegetables required.  If you do not know where to start, a really worthwhile book is  Pat Featherstone’s Grow to live. She’s extremely knowledgeable on all aspects of vegetable gardening … Click Here for more.

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

On food

Making a roux :

A roux is a slow-cooked mixture of flour and fat that’s used to thicken and flavour a soup, stew, or sauce. It is the foundation of many Cajun and Creole dishes, including gumbo and  étouffée. Depending on how long you cook it, a roux can be light brown and faintly nutty in taste to dark chocolate brown and strong.

Click Here for more information.

Food quote of the week :

“I like a cook who smiles out loud when he tastes his own work. Let God worry about your modesty; I want to see your enthusiasm.” - Robert Farrar Capon

Recipe of the week:

Roast beef with Yorkshire pudding

A roast served with Yorkshire pudding, could be called the quintessential British Sunday dinner. With the wet cold weather this weekend, I made roast beef, served with roast potatoes, mashed butternut,  Jerusalem artichokes, and the delicious onion gravy.. .… 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.