I didn’t quite pick the right day to make these gingerbread cookies. It was on the afternoon of my High School Reunion and I thought that it would be a good chance to take my mind off it. I had decided to go to the reunion not due in small part to the fact that two friends had contacted me and we had agreed to walk in together. I wrote last week of my trepidation at attending my High School Reunion. For the days preceding the reunion I was indeed going back and forth on whether I’d attend and now the decision was made. I had RSVPd and I had to go.
*Eeek!*
This wasn’t a Romy and Michelle revenge situation mind you although I have to say that the movie helped to crystallise High School Reunion anxiety perfectly. It was pretty much a normal cliquey all girls school and nothing to get too upset about. But the idea of the reunion was enough to make one a bit nervous. And whilst I thought these gingerbread cookies would take my mind off it, I didn’t realise how long they would take. By the time they were all done and dusted (literally dusted with sugar), it was several hours later standing on my feet and my legs were aching. This was a worry as I had intended to wear high heels that night.
I met my friends beforehand and we walked in. I was a little stunned. It appeared that half of the people had frozen in time and were instantly recognisable whilst others were barely recognisable and this was usually due to hair change or weight gain. Some of the skinniest, prettiest girls were much more generously proportioned and I had to look at their name tags to recognise them and others simply looked nothing like they used to.
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“Flemington Markets?” the cab driver says looking at me dubiously like I’ve landed from another planet. It’s 5:30am and I guess my half asleep state makes him question my destination (or perhaps I mumbled incoherently). It was my second 4am rise in 2 days. And like the Breakfast on the Bridge, it was something that I gladly rose for. When I was invited to experience a Day In the Life of Justin North, I had an idea that it would be busy (he owns four establishments after all) and full of good food. Little did I know, just how exhausted I would be by the end of it and still no closer to solving the mystery about how he has the energy to do it all.
It’s pouring today – only yesterday, rains had pounded Sydney furiously and they had continued throughout the night into the next day. I’m waiting in the main office at Flemington Markets with a few other people including four competition winners, two from Melbourne and two from Brisbane who had entered a competition to experience “A Day in the Life of Justin” and dine at his restaurants Becasse and Etch.
Justin and his lovely PA Victoria arrive and he explains that there are three large sheds at Flemington Markets and that he and James his Head Chef at Etch head to Flemington markets 2-3 times a week to stock up on fruit and vegetables. The reason why they don’t use a buying agent is so they can get to see the produce themselves and the price fluctuations are so varied that it makes sense to make the decision themselves then and there whether to purchase or not based on what they want to put on the menu. “Watch out for the forklifts” he warns us a couple of times. I’m ready for them having experienced something like this at Tsukiji Markets in Tokyo.
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Or I could subtitle this story as “Mr NQN’s favourite restaurant meal” such was his adoration for the food served to us this day.
” Look, he’s actually cooking here!” I grab Mr NQN’s arm when I see the familiar curly grey flecked hair of New Zealand export to London Peter Gordon. I mean I knew this was one of his lunches but he was well and truly cooking in the kitchen and not just here in name only. I had seen Peter speak at the World Chef Showcase only the day before and he had told us of his upbringing involving plastic corks and a pet lamb which they ate. It was a very much Hunter Gatherer lifestyle typical of NZ at the time. He recalls the first time he had an avocado and the pleasure they had eating it.
Martin Boetz from Longrain
Peter Gordon
I have a quick chat to Peter before he gets started and he talks about the restaurant scene in London. I ask if the GFC has hit his restaurants, The Providores and Tapa Room and he says that it hasn’t much at all, they’re open for breakfast, lunch and dinner 7 days a week and on the ground floor there’s the Tapa Room (named after the large traditional Rarotongan Tapa cloth made from block printed and hand beaten paper mulberry bark on the wall) and on the 1st floor there’s The Providores restaurant. Even since the GFC, in a city as badly hit as London, they’re busier than usual. And this is the man who owned The Sugar Club who Calvin Klein said was his favourite restaurant yet he had never visited and who made headlines when they turned Madonna away.
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This is one of those recipes that I didn’t consider putting here until Mr NQN’s repeated requests for it and insistence that it was worthwhile convinced me otherwise. To me, it was a stew and I didn’t think people wanted stews that were simple to make but they were indeed something that people were after. The fact that my recipe for Beef and Beer Stew was so popular and stumbled upon repeatedly was a testament to that. This recipe is one that I call the Happy Husband Maker. If the Beef and Beer stew was a Marriage Maker, this is the Part II. How to have a Happy Husband.
This is great as it’s a real storecupboard freezer meal. I always have sausages in the freezer on standby and they’re more often than not Italian ones. The rest can really be from the pantry as you can see so it makes for a great emergency meal.
The quantity that this makes is enough for 4 or for as we like to have it, for the two of us over two nights for dinner. It’s very versatile, sometimes I prefer to use cannellini beans or whatever vegetables I may have or are in season (zucchini added in at the end works well too). You could also do this in a pressure cooker or slow cooker. The black olives are essential though so please don’t forget these, they provide a saltiness and a texture to this that is wonderful. I confess that I do sometimes make this without them if I don’t happen to have them.
So tell me Dear Reader, what’s your Significant Other’s most requested meal?
Italian Sausage Stew
An Original Recipe by Not Quite Nigella
- 1 large onion, chopped
- 2 cloves garlic thinly sliced
- 1 tablespoon oil
- 3-4 Italian sausages
- 1x425g tinned chopped tomatoes
- 3 large carrots, chopped diagonally
- 3 cups chicken or beef stock
- 1/4 cup chopped black olives
- 1 cup Pearl Couscous (or orzo/risoni)
- Parsley to serve
1. In a large saucepan fry sausages on medium heat until browned on the outside. Remove from pan and drain on a paper towel. Then add oil and fry onion and garlic until onion is translucent. Add carrots, tomatoes, stock and black olives. Chop sausages into bite sized pieces and add these too. Simmer for low heat with the lid on for 30 minutes stirring occasionally (I’ve even left this without stirring and it has been fine).
2. Add pearl couscous and simmer on low heat for another 10 minutes. Test for seasoning, if it needs some salt and pepper add it (usually it does benefit from some). Serve with pasta, rice or with some lovely bread to soak up the juices.
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