Not Quite Nigella

Easy Gooey Brie Dip

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When I started High School my friends and I subsisted mostly on pocket money from chores and homework and money was at a premium at least in the first couple of years of high school. Still, there was one friend that was a little tighter with her cash than most and this continued way beyond when we got after school jobs.

One day towards the end of lunch she came up to our group and said ”Who wants to buy the rest of my frozen yogurt? There’s half left so I’ll give you 50% off!”. We demurred, after all a yogurt half eaten wasn’t particularly appealing but one that we had to pay for was even less. If she had offered it to us and said that she couldn’t finish it then I think someone would have taken it but we watched as she went from group to group trying to sell her half eaten yogurt to no avail.

I murmured to my friends “You know, it wasn’t even a good deal…” and they looked at me like I was a bit alien.

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June 20th, 2013 by Not Quite Nigella

The Prison Dairies, Emu Plains

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Dear Readers, this is an excerpt from my book that we had to cut but I thought would be good to put on the blog as unlike the two male prisons that I visited, I was permitted to take photographs.

It’s a warm 21 degrees celsius in the unexpected Winter heat. The sun beats down and we have just driven past acres of pasture with cows grazing. Beyonce’s “Single Ladies” plays in the background. I follow Fay, the petite food loving operations manager of food services into the dairy. This is no ordinary dairy though, this is the dairy for the NSW Corrective Services and supplies the dairy for all of the prisons in NSW and has been doing so for 20 years. Emu Plains is also a women only prison with about 210 inmates.

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Here 70,000 x 300ml cartons, 10,000 x 600ml cartons and 1,500 x 1 litre cartons of milk are produced a day. Each male prisoner in NSW receives 300ml a day while each female prisoner receives 600ml a day. The 1 litre cartons produced are for staff. All milk is full fat although they are in the process of making a low fat version. They also make a dairy custard made here in a range of five flavours: vanilla, caramel, banana, strawberry and chocolate. These are destined for the inmate’s desserts.

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There are approximately 200 mostly Holstein cows here and one lone bull (Ebony) who supply them with milk with 5,000 litres a day. A cow can produce up to 50 litres a day and whilst the dairy is open from Monday to Friday, the farm is open 7 days a week as the cows must be milked every day or they will suffer from mastitis. The dairy is open from 6am-2pm every day and it takes approximately two and a half hours to milk the cows.

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Neil who is in charge of the milking of the cows says that sometimes, particularly on cold days, some prisoners do not show up to milk the cows. If they fail to show up on two or more days, their pay is docked significantly to encourage their attendance. Mark says that for some the work proves a challenge. Some are quite low skilled so doing things like placing cups in a machine can prove a challenge and that they sometimes don’t see when things are going wrong with the machines or processes.

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The officers here are trained chefs and there are at least two officers with the inmates. What is really interesting is that the dairy sits just outside the main prison and a prisoner could, if they felt the need walk out as there aren’t any gates or barbed wire. I ask Fay what holds them in and she explains they don’t escape because they have worked so hard to get to work at the dairy that to throw it away on an escape where they will inevitably be caught is not worth it. Here at Emu Plains, there are many prisoners that are towards the end of their sentences. Also the dairy allows them to earn money which they can send home.

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June 19th, 2013 by Not Quite Nigella

Brigadeiros – Chocolate Caramel Truffles

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A little while ago a dear friend of mine called me in a panic.

“You wouldn’t believe what I just did!” she said anxiously. “You know how I hate the phone at work and it just calls people back when I accidentally hit the same button twice…” she said barely pausing for breath. “Well I was at work at the law office (where she works as a lawyer) and then a friend rang me on the other phone. We were having a good old session talking about well you know how I don’t mind talking about my love life to my friends and I was discussing how I got myself into a compromising position with my husband when I realised that the other phone had redialed a client and left an entire long X rated message on a client’s answering machine!”

After laughing I offered up “Are you sure that the machine didn’t just cut it off? Some of them do that after thirty seconds”, trying to give her hope.

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June 18th, 2013 by Not Quite Nigella

Le Pub, Sydney CBD

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I remember the first time when I started blogging during business meetings. I hadn’t quite made it a full time job and way back then, people didn’t even know what the word blog meant. I had to call it a website. I made no secret of the fact that the highlight of the day was lunch out at a restaurant and luckily, I worked with some people that liked having meetings in a restaurant. I was so new at it that once I got so excited and preoccupied with taking photos of everyone’s dishes that I forgot to take my own. My boss watched my eyes follow a waiter handing over the same dish as I had ordered and reading my mind he said “No, you can’t go over there and ask to take a photo of that lady’s dish” and I sank back down when I realised that he was probably quite right.

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And while some things change, I still like having meetings over lunch. And when it’s at a place that I haven’t visited, well I always bring my camera along. We’re at Le Pub, open in October 2012 on King Street just near George Street. There’s a big sign outside and there are two entrances to the downstairs Parisian style pub. Inside the predominant colour is seafoam (did I really say that? I meant blue) and the pub is open every day but Sunday.

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Escargots de Bourgogne $15

Yes I am guilty of having studied the menu and thankfully I have a group of diners that graciously let me steer them towards certain dishes or perhaps it was coincidence that we all wanted the same thing. I love escargot and my hunger shuts down the part of my brain that remembers how to use the escargot tongs. I get there eventually and I bring a shell to my plate and a tiny fork and prise the meat out of it releasing the garlicky herby oil and juices onto the bread on my plate where it soaks it up like a sponge. The escargot are tender and the garlic butter soaked bread a pleasing follow up mouthful.

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Charcuterie $28

There is a cast of thousands on the charcuterie plate. There is home made duck rillettes served in an opened tin. Next to this are breads, cornichons, saucisson, a smooth parfait, a mustard remoulade, a small jar of images and a very mild red pepper sauce. I particularly like the soft rillettes, saucisson and parfait and the little bits and pieces on the plate enhance them.

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Tarte aux poires $15

The pear and roquefort tart was ordered for Jennifer and it’s the only vegetarian entree on offer. It’s a goody with very light and flaky pastry, a generous amount of melted roquefort and a red wine poached pear for contrast and sweetness.

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Confit de Canard a l’Orange $26

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June 17th, 2013 by Not Quite Nigella

Flight Review: China Southern Business Class, Sydney to Guangzhou

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It has been a year since my last flight with China Southern. The last time I flew them I recall the experience was a slightly mixed one-while the bed was terrifically comfortable the food wasn’t great and it was with hope, a little trepidation and curiosity that I looked upon the flight from Sydney to Guangzhou. There were rumours of improvements but I wanted to see if this were the case first hand.

The first improvement is at the check in desk. They’re very friendly and there’s good news. The lounge access is code sharing with Qantas business class lounge now (previously it was the Air New Zealand lounge). It’s a late flight departing after 10pm but boarding is smooth and fast and I take my seat 1K which is a window seat in the front row. The plane is an old plane as evidenced by the seats but they have a shell style capsule seating and the configuration is 2 x2x2.

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Announcements are made in Chinese and English and the flight crew are extremely accommodating, indeed they are one of the friendliest and most eager to please I have encountered. Nothing is too much trouble as they help us with our bags and we are offered orange juice, champagne, apple juice or water. I change into my pyjamas in the bathroom and a flight attendant holds her hands out like a game show hostess guiding my way and tells me “please take care!”. Bags for our shoes and slippers are handed out along with an amenity kit. This contains ear plugs, moisturiser, lip gloss (which is so good I’d buy it), comb, toothbrush and toothpaste.

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The cabin crew are fast at serving dinner and we are handed a wet towel and dinner service is under way immediately which is great for those of us that are hungry but want to get a decent block of sleep. While they prepare the food, I try to browse through the selection of movies and television but there appears to be something wrong with my console and it won’t go back to the main menu. After some tussling by the crew it suddenly starts working again and they apologise for the inconvenience. There are some newish releases like Silver Linings Play book, Les Miserables, Seven Psychopaths (the travel date was May 26th) and the television is better than what we were offered a year ago (where a photo slide show was a feature). There are an inordinate number of ads, mostly for luxury car brands but you can fast forward through these.

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Olive, tomato and bocconcini cup and vegetable brochette
They lay the table with a tablecloth ,butter, salt and pepper and cutlery. The first tastes are a black pastry cup with olive, sun dried tomato and baby bocconcini. The pastry cup is a little soggy but the filling isn’t too bad and there’s a lick of pesto at the bottom. The vegetable brochette is a little oily, particularly the eggplant pieces.

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Cream of mushroom soup
There are a few types of bread offered from garlic bread to various types of rolls. I choose a herb bread and the soup comes after it. The cream of mushroom soup is actually very nice with a good mushroom flavour and a thick, creamy texture. There are a lot of croutons on top and I mostly leave these behind.

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Cajun lamb and prawn on mango salsa
The Cajun lamb comes as three pieces, very lightly spiced with a rather firm prawn and a good mango salsa which adds most of the flavour to the dish.

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Smoked duck breast with smoked salmon rosette, seaweed and chilli salad

This was the other hors d’oeuvre choice. It was four smoked duck breast pieces and two curled up pieces of thick smoked salmon. The spicy chilli seaweed salad added most of the flavour to the dish. They reminded me of entrees served at a wedding, nice enough but not extremely exciting.

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Garden vegetable salad
The vegetable salad had marinated mushrooms and grilled red capsicum pieces on top of a green salad. With it was a choice of three dressings: thousand island, French garlic or Italian balsamic dressing. I chose the Italian which was a bit too vinegary and I prefer a sweeter aged balsamic (okay I know that sounds totally affected).

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