Hi all

In this weeks newsletter we highlight an awesome blog called Veggieful. Veggieful.com is a delightfully sweet cooking blog about all things vegan. Madison, the author of the blog, has compiled many thoughtful and interesting posts about the benefits of a vegan lifestyle through to egg substitutes and replacements. We also take a look at Hostex. The yearly exhibition is a must for people in the food and beverage industry. We also highlight Beets in this weeks Food Tip.

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 –  March and April

Week 2 – 11 March to 17 March

• Monday 11 March at 6pm – Classic French cooking (R430pp). The French have an ongoing love affair with food, and in this French cooking class we teach home gourmets and enthusiasts alike how to create these wonderful foods with our introduction to classic French cuisine which includes cheese soufflé, potato and leek soup, coq au vin, potato gratin, and tarte tatin.

• Sunday 17 March at 4pm – Desserts and cakes – The basics (R430pp). Dessert making holds a certain mystique and is often associated with disastrous stories. Unlike most areas of cooking where just a basic knowledge of food science is sufficient, dessert making requires a broader understanding of food chemistry and how and why dessert recipes work. Successful dessert making requires precision, patience, and strong attention span. Join us in our desserts and cakes cooking class, for an introduction into baking. Including Grilled fruit, Baked fruit pudding, hot milk sponge cake, chocolate cake and icing ideas.

Week 3 – 18 March to 24 March

• Monday 18 March at 6pm – Making pasta, basic shapes and sauces (R430pp). Making pasta is really easy, and fresh pasta tastes better too. Learn the secrets to making pasta from scratch in this pasta cooking class. Dishes include, farfalle with chicken and cherry tomatoes, salad Florentine,gorgonzola cream sauce,cheese and tomato filled cannelloni, and delicious sweet noodle cake.

Week 4 – 25 March to 31 March

• Monday 25 March at 6pm – Jamie’s America – … on Cajun food (R430pp). Jamie Oliver’s book is based on his travels through the USA. In this Cajun cooking class we reinterpret some of the dishes, and put them together into a themed menu which include Hush puppies, Blackened fish steaks, jambalaya, Spicy meat gumbo, Dirty Cajun rice and Bread pudding.

Awesome website of the week:

www.veggieful.com

Meet Madison. She runs a blog called Veggieful. Veggieful.com is a cute cooking blog containing delicious recipes and beautiful photos of everything veggie. She is a wonderful recipe-writer and cooking queen.

Madison says she was never a cooking-fanatic and tried to avoid the kitchen as much as possible until she turned Vegan in 2010. She had been a vegetarian for 1 year before that and decided to transition to veganism after being confronted with some horrific photos and videos about the dairy, egg and cosmetic industries. Since then, she has been a serious vegan and is loving it! She says, ‘I think it was a great turning point in my life as my body and mind feel 100% better and I have gained a passion for cooking and blogging.’

Food tip of the week

BEETS

To prevent red beets from turning pink or white when canning: Leave 5cm of the taproot and stem on the beets. Boil the beets until the skins slip off easily. Drain, remove skins and trim off the taproots and stems. The beets should now keep their red colour when canned.

The ability to metabolize the red pigment in beets, betacyanin, is a genetically controlled trait. People who inherit two recessive genes pass the pigment in their urine.

When buying fresh beets, choose small beets and cut the tops off right away leaving about 2 inches of the stem. The greens draw moisture from the root. Store unwashed in an open plastic bag or one with holes, for 7 to 10 days.

Beets are available year-round. Beets are sold both bunched with the tops attached, and by weight with the tops removed. It easier to tell the freshness with the tops attached, although even with wilted tops the roots may be alright if they are firm. Look for beets that are firm, round, with a slender tap root, a rich deep red color and smooth surface.

AVOID: elongated beets with round scaly areas around the top surface – they will be tough, fibrous and strong flavoured. Avoid wilted flabby beets, they have lost too much moisture.

Storage – Beets: Remove the tops 1 to 2 inches above the beet. Keep refrigerated in the vegetable crisper or in plastic bags or containers to prevent wilting due to to loss of moisture. Use beets within 1 to 2 weeks.

Interesting places in Joburg

Hostex

When: Sunday, 17 March 2013 to Wednesday, 20 March 2013
Where: Sandton
Categories: Exhibitions & Conferences / Food & Wine / Travel & Tourism

The South African tourism and hospitality industries are booming – on both domestic and international levels. South Africans are exploring their country more than ever and the international market continues to grow. Our hospitality industry knows that it needs to prepare itself so that it can be ready and waiting, and Hostex 2013 aims to enable industry members to do just this.

Exhibitions for Africa has identified a need to address the emerging market of offerings to the hospitality trade from the beverage industry. In response to this we have great pleasure in announcing that we will be expanding Hostex to incorporate a new initiative – a dedicated hall for the Liquor and Beverage trade. This exciting new section will also provide you with access to suppliers of bar accessories, bar furniture and other bar equipment.

This funky, vibey new area will be sponsored by Liquid Chefs and promises to be an experience you can’t afford to miss!! Situated in the Ballroom, the theatre will provide an exciting platform for interactive demos on cocktail making. Set against a background of live music to create the mood, you will be able to sit down and watch as Liquid Chefs demonstrate how to produce exotic cocktails – both alcoholic and non-alcoholic – with the utmost ease, right in front of your eyes. You will be actively encouraged to participate in the making and testing of these cocktails showcasing both old favourites as well as innovative new ideas.

In order to allow you to experience everything on offer at Hostex the new “Drinks Theatre” will open later than the other two halls and will remain open after the main exhibition closes – so you can pre-plan your visit to incorporate a visit to the new Drinks Theatre without missing out on the offerings from vendors in the other 2 halls!

The SA Chefs Association will once again be heavily involved demonstrating their culinary skills and cooking talents, and Home Grown will also form part of Hostex 2011.

The Hotelstuff / Greenstuff team have invited their subscribers to furnish a mini Greenstuff Eco Hotel in Hall 2. This is a not-for-gain educational project. Everything, right throughout the “hotel”, will be eco friendly: furniture, floors, lighting, appliances, bed, bedding, toiletries, chemicals, beverages, etc. Lorraine Jenks and her facilitators will take visitors on a guided tour of all the items to explain their green credentials and advise on obtaining a carbon audit and how easy it is to practice green procurement.

Venue: Sandton Convention Centre
Contact: +27 (0) 11 835 1565

 

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.