Wickedfood Cooking School, SUNNINGHILL

Information & bookings (076) 236-2345  sunninghill@wickedfood.co.za

Hi all,

When we started our Facebook page in April, we kicked off with an exciting competition to win cooking classes for a month.  From this newsletter on we’ll continue that tradition by running a competition every second week on our Facebook page, once again with some fantastic prizes.  You need to enter the competition on the Facebook page.  For this week you need to guess what the picture on the right is of, and post your answer in the comment section.  The first person to identify the picture correctly will win a gift voucher for a cooking class, valued at R430.

And to whet your appetite for classes for  individuals for the next two weeks  see below.

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

The Cooking class programmes for  October and November are up on the internet. Wickedfood Cooking School runs cooking classes with a minimum of 8 participants and a maximum of 12 giving everyone hands-on experience and keeping 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.

  • 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 braaiing cooking class include spicy beef burgers, secret of cooking the ultimate steak, prime rib roast, and Béarnaise sauce.
  • 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.
  • Tuesday 16 October at 6pm – Sushi 1 – The basics of sushi making (R450pp – maximum 18, so book early) The increasing popularity of sushi around the world has resulted in many more people wanting to learn the basics of sushi making, this Sushi cooking class shows you how to do the following – cutting fish, making rice, California and maki rolls, nigirizushi (finger), and hand rolls.
  • Sunday 21 October at 4pm – Classic Indian dishes (R430pp). Indian food is a diverse and extraordinary one, reflecting a complex layering of cultures through history and based on religious beliefs, geography, climate and availability of ingredients. India’s range of cuisine can amaze even a connoisseur. Different regions in India offer their own specialties with their very own taste, subtlety and aroma. The exotic tastes, hues and textures of Indian food have ensured a steady growth in popularity in the West. Join us in discovering these incredible dishes in our Indian cooking class cooking authentic Indian dishes including chicken mulligatawny, classic lamb buriyani, soya korma, spicy chick peas, naans and coconut pasties.
  • Monday 22 October at 6pm – Alfresco Italian dining (R430pp). Note that there is no such thing as ‘Italian cuisine’ with a unique nation-wide tradition of preparing food. Our Italian  cooking class showcases the best tastes of al fresco summer dining and easy entertaining, including char grilled asparagus, affettati misti, insalata caprese, chicken involtini and Hanepoot semifreddo.

Cookbook of the week

YOSHOKU

Japanese cuisine is most probably one of the most exotic and most difficult to get right. Yoshoku, is a style of traditional Japanese cooking where dishes were adapted from Western cuisine, many now classics. In our cookbook of the week, Yoshoku, author Jane Lawson draws on her own extensive understanding of Japanese flavours and ingredients to present an exciting collection of approachable Yoshoku dishes..

Click Here for reviews of all our cookbook reviews.

Food quote of the week

KEVIN KNOX AND JULIE SHELDON IN HUFFAKER


Brewing espresso… unlike other methods of brewing coffee… IS rocket science”

Recipe of the week:

VICTORIA SANDWICH CAKE

The Great British Bake Off is the latest cooking phenomenon to hit our screens. Our recipe of the week looks at one of the first challenge cakes that was baked in the series,  a traditional Victoria sandwich, a baking classic and a tasty tea-time treat..

4 free-range eggs
225g caster sugar, plus a little extra for dusting the finished cake
225g self-raising flour
2t baking powder
225g soft butter at room temperature, plus a little extra to grease the tins

To Serve:
good-quality strawberry or raspberry jam
whipped double cream (optional)

Preheat oven to 180°C.

Grease and line 2 x 20cm sandwich tins: use a piece of baking or silicone paper to rub a little butter around the inside of the tins until the sides and base are lightly coated. Line the bottom of the tins with a circle of baking or silicone paper (to do this, draw around the base of the tin onto the paper and cut out).

Break the eggs into a large mixing bowl, then add the sugar, flour, baking powder and butter.

Mix everything together until well combined. The easiest way to do this is with an electric hand mixer, but you can use a wooden spoon. Put a damp cloth under your bowl when you’re mixing to stop it moving around. Be careful not to over-mix – as soon as everything is blended you should stop. The finished mixture should be of a soft ‘dropping’ consistency – it should fall off a spoon easily.

Divide the mixture evenly between the tins: this doesn’t need to be exact, but you can weigh the filled tins if you want to check. Use a spatula to remove all of the mixture from the bowl and gently smooth the surface of the cakes.

Place the tins on the middle shelf of the oven and bake for 25 minutes. Don’t be tempted to open the door while they’re cooking, but after 20 minutes do look through the door to check them.

The cakes are done when they’re golden-brown and coming away from the edge of the tins. Press them gently to check – they should be springy to the touch. Remove them from the oven and set aside to cool in their tins for five minutes. Then run a palette or rounded butter knife around the inside edge of the tin and carefully turn the cakes out onto a cooling rack.

To take your cakes out of the tins without leaving a wire rack mark on the top, put the clean tea towel over the tin, put your hand onto the tea towel and turn the tin upside-down. The cake should come out onto your hand and the tea towel – then you can turn it from your hand onto the wire rack.

Set aside to cool completely.

To assemble the cake, place one cake upside down onto a plate and spread it with plenty of jam. If you want to, you can spread over whipped cream too.

Top with the second cake, top-side up. Dust the top with caster sugar.

Click Here for all our recipes.

 

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.