Wickedfood Cooking School news

Our January and February individual cooking class programmes are up on the internet – click the relevant month  for the programme January / February.

Wickedfood Cooking School runs classes with a minimum of 8 participants and a maximum of 12 as this gives everyone hands-on experience  and keeps the class small enough for maximum learning.

• Tuesday 19 January at 6pm – 30 minute meals (R380 pp). In this class we will 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.
• Thursday 21 January at 6pm – Sushi 1 – The basics of making sushi (R395 pp – maximum 18, so book early). The basics of sushi making – cutting fish, making rice, California and maki rolls, nigirizushi (finger), and hand rolls.
• Sunday 24 January at 4pm – Flavours of the South African Portuguese Table (R370 pp per class). 7 tasty dishes including trinchado, chicken livers, caldo verde, chicken peri-peri, Portuguese salad and crème caramel.

Please contact the school should you wish to make a booking:

Looking for info on food? – The Wickedfood blog took off in a big way in 2009, with lots of questions coming in from our readers.  If you have any  food-related question, 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.

Cookbook of the week – Summer is in full tilt and with it comes a glut of fruit and vegetables. What better way to capture the essence of summer than to preserve some of nature’s harvest. Oded Schwartz’s excellent book, Preserving ……    Click Here for more.

Click Here to see Wickedfood Cooking School’s top 10 food related books for 2009.

Did you know: – Blueberries thrive in acidic, boggy soil and are native to North America. The Americans have several names for the fruit, including hurtleberry, bilberry and whortleberry. Native Americans found blueberries extremely versatile – they developed the practise of drying them in the sun and using them to flavour cakes; they also pounded them and added them to meat dishes and soups. Today these delicious berries, together with a wide variety of others thrive in South Africa.  Now in a high of summer, they are widely available on the shelves.

Food quote of the week: – “The blacker the berry the sweeter the juice.” – Proverb

Our favourite ingredient: – Blueberries – In recent years, popularity has surged for blueberries as people learn more about their supposed health-giving properties.  In fact, not only are blueberries a rich source of fibre, calcium and vitamins A and C, but some US studies have shown these berries have more antioxidants than many other fruits and vegetables.

Home-grown blueberries are unbeatable for flavour. Berries  grown in a colder climate have much more acidity, which gives the flavour a structure, but hot-climate blueberries just taste sweet and flabby.

Blueberries release lots of juice when cooked, which makes them a versatile addition to a variety of dishes. Add the lush, dark berries to muffins, cheesecakes and pancakes or combine them with apple in a crumble, and with other soft fruit in a glorious summer pudding. A splash of water and a sprinkling of sugar will give you a delicious compote to serve with Greek-style yoghurt or to ripple through whipped cream. For something a little exotic, cook a mixture of blueberries and other summer berries with red wine, rosemary and vanilla. Out of season, dried blueberries are excellent if you’re making muesli.

Recipe of the week – Summer pudding

With a glut of berries now coming into season, what better way to celebrate, then with a simple summer pudding, referred to many as the king of puddings.

The Wickedfood Team

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 – team building 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.