Wickedfood Cooking School Newsletter 12 January
Wickedfood Cooking School, SUNNINGHILL
Information & bookings (011) 234-3252 sunninghill@wickedfood.co.za
Hi all,
Welcome home. We hope you all had a relaxing and safe break, and hope to see you back at Wickedfood Cooking School refreshed and with a new desire to learn some exciting recipes in 2011. January and February are always popular for individual classes, and we have some exciting new classes on offer … click here for the programme.
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 January and February 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.
- Wednesday 12 January at 6pm – Thai dishes for easy entertaining (R390pp for the class). This Thai cooking class is a great introduction to some classic Thai dishes for a casual dinner party including fresh springrolls, sour and spicy fish soup, stir-fried beef curry, chicken salad with peanut sauce, stir-fried noodles and bananas in a sweet/salty coconut sauce.
- Sunday 16 January at 4pm – Easy classic pasta dishes and sauces (R370pp). 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, Bolognaise sauce and the perfect lasagne.
- Monday 17 January at 6pm – Low fat 30 minute meals (R370 per class). In this cooking class we show participants how to produce quick and easy 30 minute meals that are delicious, and at the same time low in fat and well balanced. Dishes include Moroccan spiced chickpea soup, orange spiced lamb stir-fry, and pasta and seafood casserole.
- Sunday 23 January at 4pm – Sweet treats – the art of baking (R360pp). In this baking class, learn the secrets of baking with confidence, including cupcakes, Black Forest chocolate cake, cheesecake, crunchies and quiche.
- Monday 24 January at 6pm – Italian classics (R380 per class). Our very popular Italian cooking class, dishes include cauliflower frittata, risotto with dried mushrooms, lamb chops fried in parmesan cheese batter and cassata.
- Sunday 30 January at 4pm – Classic Mexican dishes for entertaining (R380pp). A Mexican cooking class with an exotic blend of new world flavours, perfect for entertaining with a difference – guacamole, salsa Mexicana, burritas, tortilla soup, chicken chocolate, chilli sauce and white flan.
On food
Ice cream is a frozen dessert usually made from dairy products, such as milk and cream, and often combined with fruits or other ingredients and flavours. The mixture is stirred slowly while cooling to prevent large ice crystals from forming; the result is a smoothly textured ice cream.
The meaning of the term ice cream varies from one country to another. Terms like frozen custard, frozen yoghurt, sorbet, gelato and others are used to distinguish different varieties and styles. In some countries, like the USA, the term ice cream applies only to a specific variety. Alternatives made from soy milk, rice milk, and goat milk are available for those who are lactose intolerant or have an allergy to dairy protein, or in the case of soy and rice milk, for those who want to avoid animal products.
In the Persian Empire, people would pour grape juice concentrate over snow – in a bowl – and eat this as a treat. Snow would be saved in the cool-keeping underground chambers known as “yakhchal” or taken from fresh snow that may still have remained at the top of the mountains. In 400 BC, the Persians went further and invented a special chilled food, made of rose wa
ter and vermicelli which was served to royalty during summers. The ice was mixed with saffron, fruits, and various other flavours.
Ancient civilizations have served ice for cold foods for thousands of years. Frozen mixture of milk and rice was used in China around 200 BC. The Roman Emperor Nero (37–68) had ice brought from the mountains and combined with fruit toppings. These were some early chilled delicacies.
Arabs were the first to use milk as a major ingredient in its production, sweeten the ice cream with sugar rather than fruit juices, as well as perfect ways for its commercial production. As early as the 10th century, ice cream was widespread amongst many of the Arab world's major cities, such as Baghdad, Damascus and Cairo. … Click here for some delicious very different ice cream recipes.
Lannice Snyman was for many years one of the champions of the South African food industry. In this book she shares some of her favourite recipes that she has been using over time to entertain friends and family. If you're looking for one book that contains many of the classics, this is it. … Click Here for more.
Gardening
Not only are growing your own vegetables very rewarding, but they are also very healthy, and by growing your own vegetables you're doing your own little bit in decreasing your carbon footprint.
What to do in January
If you went away over the holidays your garden could be running a little wild. It is time to trim, cut and tidy.
- Cut back flowering herbs – it will encourage them to grow more leaves.
- Sow the last of the short season summer crops.
- Start sowing winter seeds and seedlings.
- Liquid feed and side dress flowering vegetables with potassium rich organic fertilisers.
- Regularly folio spray all vegetables, particularly curcubits and tomatoes, with seaweed.
- Keep ground well mulched.
- Sow green manure crops in between seedlings.
- Trellis tomatoes, and wind gemsquash and butternut up tripods.
- Regularly harvest whatever is ripe, particularly beans, tomatoes and squash.
Beans might attract aphids, if they are not too excessive, leave them. They won't harm the beans that have already developed and they will attract ladybirds. If new growth on the beans is thick with aphids, squirt them off with a blast of water.
If there is excessive rain in summer rainfall areas, keep an eye out for mildew. Cut off affected leaves and spray with an organic fungicide. Spray underneath the leaves too. Rambling squashes tend to develop mildew on their older leaves first. As long as there is good new growth happening, they don't mind these older leaves being trimmed off. This also clears out space for another plant
For more tips on month-to-month vegetable gardening see Month by month
Food quote of the week
“Food has replaced sex in my life, now I can't even get into my own pants” – Anonymous
This delicious pasta sauce recipe comes from our book of the week – Posh Nosh. Pumpkin doesn’t have to remain stuck in the foody doldrums forever; it may be flossied up in all manner of posh ways. This yummy pasta sauce recipe being just one of them. …Click Here for the recipe.
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.