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  individual cooking class programmes are up on the internet. Click the link for the appropriate month – September or October

Week 3 – 17 to 23 September

Monday 17 September at 6pm – Simply Asian with Neil Perry (R420pp). Revered as one of Australia’s foremost chefs and international TV food celebrity, Neil Perry’s first love is Asian food, with a strong Chinese leaning. In this Asian cooking class we explore some of his favourite dishes, taken from his book, Simply Asian. Dishes include fried sweet corn cakes, steamed fish, tangerine beef and stir-fried vegetables with noodles.

Sunday 23 September at 4pm – North African Morocco tagines (R430pp). North African recipes are the results of the blending of European, African, and Arabic cuisines. The exotic flavors of North Africa reach their full expression in the cooking of Morocco. Moroccan cuisine is known for its flavorful stews, called tagines. In this cooking class we cover the following dishes, which include harira; lamb, chicken and pumpkin tagines; couscous; and coiled almond pastry.

Week 4 – 24 to 30 September

Monday 24 September at 6pm – Jamie’s Kitchen (R430pp). Jamie Oliver’s fourth book is packed with clear, no-nonsense advice and inspiration. It’s a cookbook in which he hopes you become ‘the boss in your own kitchen’. In our Jamie Oliver cooking class, we teach you all these hints and tips on how to be inspired when shopping – spotting what’s good, what’s in season and what’s good value. The dishes in which to teach you these tips are: chicken liver pâté, minted pea soup, ricotta gnocchi, pot roast deboned lamb shoulder, squid salad, and baked pears.

Week 1 – 01 to 07 October

Monday 01 October at 6pm – Thai Class 1/4 (R430pp). Thai cuisine places emphasis on lightly prepared dishes with strong aromatic components. Thai cuisine is also known for being quite spicy as well as balancing the four fundamental taste senses in each dish or the overall meal: sour, sweet, salty, and (optional) bitter. Learn how to balance these tastes in this Thai cooking class. Dishes include fish cakes chicken and coconut milk soup, spicy grilled squid salad and Thai-fried rice.

Sunday 07 October at 4pm  – Outdoor Cooking – beef class (R430pp). Outdoor cooking is a South African heritage, learn the delicious secrets for cooking beef on kettlebraais and gas barbecues. Dishes covered in this class include spicy beef burgers, secret of cooking the ultimate steak, prime rib roast, and Béarnaise sauce.

Week 2 – 08 to 14 October

Monday 08 October at 6pm – Making pasta sauces (R430pp). You can never have too many pasta sauces in your repertoire. Learn how to cook these delicious sauces in our pasta cooking class which also includes how to pair the right pasta shape for the right sauce. Dishes include raw tomato sauce with ricotta cheese, rocket pesto, vodka tomato cream, ham and mascarpone, and ragù with nuts and mushrooms.

Green ideas for your Home:

http://www.greenfan.co.za/

Food tip of the week

BASIL

(Ocymum basilicum)

Basil is characteristically tea-like, with green/grassy, hay-like and minty notes. It is slightly bitter and musty.

As one of the most popular herbs, basil is widely used throughout the world. While there are many different types of basil, sweet basil is the most common. Sweet basil plants have large, oval, bright green leaves with small white flower clusters. The aroma is a complex mix of sweet and spicy with a strong and fresh clove-like scent. Much like its aroma, sweet basil’s flavor is warm and peppery, with a hint of clove and undertones of mint and anise.

Culinary Uses
Basil tastes great in tomato and pasta dishes but it also gives a sweet-scented, minty aroma when crumbled over baked chicken, lamb or seafood. When making pesto or its French cousin pistou, sweet basil will yield the best results. Basil turns black when cooked in an acid medium like tomato sauce. Adding basil towards the end of cooking will serve to retain its aroma and flavor. It blends well with garlic, thyme and oregano. Basil leaves can be torn, chopped or shredded; however, cutting will bruise the leaf and cause it to darken quickly.

Other Uses
Some people believe putting whole basil plants on a window sill will deter flies. Basil is also used in aroma-therapy products, as a landscape plant, and it is even dried and pressed as a part of homemade paper.

Storing
Fresh basil, kept loosely wrapped in a plastic bag, will last about one week in the refrigerator, provided the leaves are not wet.

 

Interesting places in Joburg

Taste of Joburg is celebrating its 6th Anniversary this year!

The Pick n Pay Taste of Joburg in association with Orbit Sugarfree Chewing Gum makes its way back to Montecasino. Yet again this remarkable festival will bring together the city’s most acclaimed restaurants and carefully selected exhibitors to attract Gauteng’s most dedicated and sophisticated foodies. Happening from the 27th – 30th September at the Montecasino Outdoor Event  Area, this year’s Taste of Joburg brings together the city’s finest restaurants, award- winning wineries, premium drink brands, artisan producers, boutique exhibitors and fantastic entertainment.

Restaurants will fashion special menus of starter sized dishes for the occasion, including signature dishes created by chefs to specially reflect their philosophy and showcase seasonal and premium ingredients. If you love eating out, this is an opportunity too good to miss!

EVENT DATES:
Thursday 27 to Sunday 30 September 2012

The Wickedfood Team

.

Wickedfood Cooking School runs classes throughout the year at its purpose-built Johannesburg cooking school. 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. Great Team building ideas.