Hi all,

Summer is certainly upon us, and with that has come the rains that we have all be waiting in anticipation for. During these dreary rainy days one of the best activities one can do is bake up a storm. The aromas of freshly baked cookies or a cake, takes the blues away from the rainy weather outside while we eagerly wait for the return of sunshine. Click here for some relaxing and tasty baking recipes.

This week we review Best of Bill – The Ultimate Collection of Bill Granger’s Recipes, which is a combination of over 130 of Bill Granger’s best loved recipes. We also share a Spaghetti with Asparagus, mint and chilli recipe with you taken from Best of Bill.

We also have a look at what has been happening at our Sunninghill School in the last few days.

Our classes for individuals is also up on the website, so click here to book now to ensure your spot in one of our great cooking classes.

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

Monday 28 October at 6pm – North African Morocco tagines (R430pp). North African recipes are the results of the blending of European, African, and Arabic cuisines. The exotic flavours of North Africa reach their full expression in the cooking of Morocco. Moroccan cuisine is known for its flavourful 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.

Sunday 03 November at 4pm – Easy Classic Pasta Dishes and Sauces (R430pp). In this Pasta cooking class we teach you the basics of making pasta, and some delicious accompanying sauces, including spaghetti carbonara, spaghetti with tuna sauce, fresh tomato sauce, a Bolognaise sauce and the perfect lasagne.

Monday 04 November at 6pm – Gordon Ramsay – Cooking for Friends (R430pp). This Gordon Ramsay cooking class is based on his 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 Shropshire Summer soup, farfalle with bacon, peas and sage, braised chicken thighs, new potato, pea and broad bean salad, spicy cauliflower stir-fry, and a peach, raspberry and ginger crumble.

Monday 11 November at 6pm – Informal festive entertaining (R430pp). Entertaining during Christmas time does not have to be laborious and stressful, our informal festive cooking class takes the stress out of Christmas food planning. Dishes include potato cakes, seafood salad, orange glazed baby chickens, Waldorf salad, mushroom and cheese pie and a quick microwave Christmas pudding and brandy cream sauce.

Monday 18 November at 6pm – Sweet Treats – Advanced Baking recipes (R430pp). Baking, versus cooking, definitely requires more patience, precision and overall adherence to recipes. The most successful bakers are the ones who truly enjoy the process – not just the end result. Baking can be a great joy and lots of fun, but not if you feel disorganized and stressed. And you can definitely “up” the enjoyment factor in your baking if your confidence is high. Build your baking confidence with these 6 treats, which include: macarons, marshmallows, licorice, fudge, honeycomb dipped in chocolate and koeksisters.

Sunninghill Corporate News

We have recently had the pleasure of hosting Robert Walters in a Traditional South African class, they had a great afternoon filled with competition and good food, and we look forward to seeing them again. Click here to see photos from that class.

Year end is upon us and with that comes the task of locating the perfect spot for your year-end function. Wickedfood Cooking School hosts a variety of fun and interactive cooking classes to add an element of fun and excitement to your year-end function. Click here for more information regarding our corporate cooking classes.

Wickedfood Earth Country Cooking School

At last, rain!!! We have had one of the driest springs in  living memory, with many areas already having been declared drought disaster areas. At Wickedfood Earth, over the last two weeks we:

  • Started planting maize, both yellow maize and white maize. We grind our own maize and will hopefully have a limited quantity of yellow maize for sale in the autumn. It  makes the most delicious polenta and couscous. We also use it in cooking classes at Wickedfood Earth Country Cooking School;
  • Harvested our garlic. Due to the relatively warm winter, our harvest was not as good as in previous years. The quality is however very good, and  we will have limited quantities available for sale at both cooking schools. This is totally naturally grown garlic that has not been irradiated or treated in any way.  
  • Over the past two weeks 8 of our sheep have lambed.  We farm with Pedi sheep,  indigenous to our area. They do not give as big a carcass as a commercial breed, but much more hardy and survive very well off the veld. They also have a fantastic flavour, as good, if not better than Karoo Lamb.
  • Last week we took 16 of our pigs to slaughter. They are destined for Braeside Meat Market.   This pork is totally free of antibiotics and growth hormones, and has lived a happy life, totally free in our forests. Should you wish to test this meat, it is available for sale at Braeside, contact Willem on 011 788-3613.
  •  On Saturday we ran our first workshop –  How to establish a food garden. The course was attended by 16 local youngsters, all of whom felt that the course was very beneficial and all left highly motivated to establish food gardens in their own communities. We plan to run these courses on a more regular basis, both for individuals and as corporate team building events.
Wickedfood Earth Country Cooking School has a purpose-built training kitchen, fully fitted-out lecture room, as well as a series of training food gardens for half and full day corporate functions. 

Click here for more information on Wickedfood Earth. Bookings are now open, for our corporate programme, contact Cilla on 076 236-2345 or cilla@wickedfood.co.za

Cookbook of the week

Bringing together more than 130 of Bill Granger’s best recipes, from Ham and Gruyere French Toast to Chocolate Self-saucing Pudding, Best of Bill captures the simple, joyful and no-fuss approach to cooking that has made him a household name. This collection provides a unique culinary journey that takes us from Bill’s early days as a fledgling chef, when he was known as the ‘Egg Master of Sydney’, to the more relaxed food of lazy holidays and weekends. Click here to read full review.

Click Here for reviews of all our cookbooks.

Food quote of the week

“You can’t just eat good food. You’ve got to talk about it too. And you’ve got to talk about it to somebody who understands that kind of food.”
― Kurt Vonnegut, Jailbird

Recipe of the week

Taken from Best of Bill – The ultimate collection of Bill Grangers recipes, this fresh and delicious spaghetti with asparagus, mint and chilli is perfect for a relaxing afternoon lunch with friends or family. Not only is this dish incredibly healthy it is tasty as well. One can substitute spaghetti for tagliatelle or farfalle.

Click here for full recipe.

Click Here for all our recipes.

Wickedfood Chef