Wickedfood Cooking School Newsletter 25 January 2012
Wickedfood Cooking School, SUNNINGHILL
Information & bookings (076) 236-2345 sunninghill@wickedfood.co.za
Hi all,
As the routine of our busy lives becomes more of a reality and the holiday more of a distant memory, we look back on those care free days of relaxation with family and friends with a longing to go back in time. But we can't and therefore we buckle down and head towards late nights and early mornings, traffic, stress and the usual Monday night dinners. The monotony of cooking the same dish over and over can lead towards a non-satisfactory outlook towards food. So you either eat-to-live or live-to-eat and if its the latter, something needs to change for the better.
We have scheduled all our popular classes in the first quarter of this year. Our aim is to teach you new skills and cuisines so you have the confidence in replicating these dishes at home. Remember we teach you everything you would need to know regarding the dishes taught, so whether you are a beginner or accomplished cook wanting to learn a new skill or cuisine, come along and join us for a fun, informative class filled with like-minded people!
In February we have our regular and ever popular Valentines classes. Bookings are already open for these and we have quite a few bookings, so if you're interested don't delay, contact the school for more information or to reserve a place.
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 new year sees an exciting selection of interesting and different cooking classes aimed at individuals. The Cooking class programme for January and February are up on the internet. 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.
- Sunday 29 January at 4pm – Thai class (R370pp). 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 entitled ‘Easy dishes for a casual Thai dinner parties’ which includes dishes, 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.
- Monday 30 January at 6pm – Making filled pasta and accompanying sauces (R370pp). Making pasta is really easy, and fresh pasta tastes better too. Learn the secrets to making pasta from scratch in this pasta cooking class. We also include fillings and sauces for these unique pasta shapes. Dishes covered in the class include cheese and ham ravioli with a tomato sauce, meat filled Agnolotti, spinach and ricotta tortellini, cappelletti filled with s
weet potatoe,s and ravioli with apple and pecan nut stuffing.
- Monday 06 February at 6pm – South African – A Taste of the Cape (R380pp). This South African cooking class has a strong Cape Malay flavour, showcasing the unique flavours that have become synonymous with South African cuisine including savoury pies, smoorsnoek, denningsvleis, tomato bredie, sousboontjies, yellow rice and milk tart.
- Saturday 11 February at 6pm and Tuesday 14 February at 6pm – Romantic Valentine’s dinner, easy summer entertaining (R770 per couple). Join the staff at the Cooking School with the love of your life for a Valentine’s dinner with a difference. Not only will you get to enjoy a delicious 4-course dinner, but you will learn the secrets of how to cook it. Included in the price is a welcome glass of sparkling wine, house wine while preparing the food, and some specialist wines, complementing the food, with the meal. Space is limited to 30 students per class, so book early.
Cookbook of the week
South African cuisine is a reflection of the immigrants who make up the population. It is a melting pot of Afrikaner, Cape Malay, British, Indian, Jewish, Greek, Italian, Asian, Portuguese and more recently, immigrants from across Africa. Each wave of immigrants, in their own particular way contributed towards the makeup of the mod and South African table. It is the young yet vibrant culinary culture that started in the mid sixteen hundreds with the colonization of the Cape by the Dutch, who introduced the savoury spices of the east and the exotic fruits and vegetables from the Americas to the African continent… Click here to read more
Food quote of the week
“My kitchen is a mystical place, a kind of temple for me. It is a place where the surfaces seem to have significance, where the sounds and odors carry meaning that transfers from the past and bridges to the future.” – Pearl Bailey
Recipes of the week:
Chraime – Fish cooked in a spicy tomato sauce
Chraime is considered to be the kings of Libyan food, and the dish that really characterizes the Libyan Jewish kitchen. There are many ways to prepare it and many versions. The fish must be firm and it must ‘float’ in the sauce – that is there must be plenty of sauce. It’s served with white bread and lemon is squeezed over it as you eat. This recipe is from our cookbook of the week – South Africa Eats. ….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.