Sometimes I must admit I like doing things for attention. I don’t mean streaking across a grass pitch on a televised sporting event or having an “accidental” wardrobe malfunction in front of a crowd. Most of the attention seeking things I do are related to food and bringing food to events. I figure if you turn up to an event with something nice, well at least someone is going to talk to you. Call it your immediate “plus one”. Someone has just got to talk to you when you bring a two tier chocolate cake to a baby shower.

I’ve always been terrible at making small talk and networking. I tend to stick to my known friends and associates and remain talking to them at parties. I’d watch the social prowlers stalk the room, the really skillful ones so subtle that before you knew it, you’d had your “two minutes” with them and exchanged cards and before you knew what was going on, they were onto their next conquest. I often wish I possessed that skill, but sadly I do not so I am stuck creating sweet and sugary conversation lures.

As soon as I saw this recipe pictured in my copy of “Poh’s Kitchen” my heart started thumping. These pancakes masquerading as fettuccine pasta were exactly the kind of conversation point that I love. Sure it’s not a cake but flambee anything and you’ve got an attention seeking missile. They are simple to make, and her recipe for crepes is a good one and the rest is simply dicing up some strawberries and zesting and juicing an orange or two and then cooking it along with some Grand Marnier in a sauce. I used some of the Grand Marnier Limited Edition Ruby bottle I was sent which is just so purty with that huge, sparkling ruby in the centre.

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If you count the number of recipes that I’ve done in the past few years you may have noticed a strong preference for lemon based desserts and foods. We always have a stash of fresh lemons and Mr NQN doesn’t really enjoy the flavour as much as I do so I end up happily drinking and eating all of them. When I was sent a bottle of Cece Limoncello Liqueuer I was excited but slightly scarred remembering a very cheap limoncello I had once drunk which put me off the drink.

The fact that the Cece Limoncello liqueur has attained Silver Best in Class amongst limoncellos from all around the world at the 2010 International Wine and Spirit Competition in London meant that I should not have been worried. The other ones didn’t fare too badly either with Cello’s Passioncello winning silver and Limecello and Arancello winning bronze. They also fared well in the International Review of Spirits Competition 2010 in the United States taking out three Gold medals and a Silver.

I gave the limoncello a try, straight from the freezer over a fat block of ice and it was delicious, not lip pursing bitter it was smooth and heady with the intoxicating aroma of lemon verbena. Cece use local fruit and sugarcane alcohol to produce the liqueurs and they also contain no artificial ingredients. The owner Domenico Cece’s mum Franca used to give glasses of the limoncello to customers at her Bargo Italian restaurant and their enthusiastic reaction gave them the idea to produce it as a standalone liqueur for sale. Now Dom’s wife Teresa makes the liqueur.

Thanks to Cece Liqueur, one lucky Not Quite Nigella reader will win all four bottles of Cece Liqueur worth over $150! That’s a bottle of the fabulous Limoncello (lemon), Passioncello (passionfruit), Limecello (lime) and Arancello (orange) liqueurs so that you can enjoy your festive season! You can also pour them over ice cream or use them in cocktails!

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My room, No. 3 at The Stirling Hotel

“Hi honey, I am at The Stirling Hotel in room # 3 but I don’t know if I can speak to you tonight as I’m going to a cooking school and after that I’m going to have a bath. They have a TV in the bathroom and a huge tub I can fill with bubbles and you know how much I like that. So you won’t hear from me tonight.

Love,

Lorraine

xxx”

So I wrote Mr NQN by way of explanation why I wouldn’t be speaking to him that evening. It has long been my dream to have a bathroom at home with a television in it-sadly it doesn’t look like it will happen in our current apartment so I am determined to enjoy the huge bath at The Stirling Hotel in the Adelaide Hills.

The Stirling Hotel is part of a pub and I have to admit I’m nervous as I am not much of a pub girl. I should have probably entered through the left hand side which is the beautifully decorated restaurant. I needn’t have worried. We go upstairs and through the private entry door to see a separate area for the five hotel rooms. On the way to the room they show us the guest pantry which is where you can make tea or coffee (although there are tea and coffee making facilities in the room).

You know that bit where they open the door and you feel like you’re home, except you’re not home, but in a room that you would have as your home if you had a designer?  Well this was it. There a fireplace (easy one button, gas), a comfortable king bed, lovely furnishings and a bathroom that is as big as a bedroom with a massive tub with said television. There are also Molton Brown toiletries and it is outfitted using designer furnishings and fittings (Kartell, Rogerseller etc). OK the wifi is a little slow which is probably the only minus but the mini bar is well stocked and very reasonably priced, the bathrobes are beautifully plush and the most genius part of all is the light switches. Light switches you may say? I haven’t taken leave of my senses honestly! These light switches are labelled and illuminated. There’s no ambiguity as to what switch goes for what and if I press one the bedside or room lights simply fade in or fade out. Light switches are the bane of most hotels rooms and I have wasted precious sleeping time trying to figure out which switch does what.

Genius! No more fumbling with strange switches! Could every hotel in the world install these pleeeease?

I settle in and wrestle a bit with their slow and fading in and out internet connection before I realise I am to go to the Sticky Rice cooking school. The taxi that has been ordered hasn’t arrived and I am about 10 minutes late in leaving because of that. When I go to the restaurant downstairs to check on it (there isn’t a lobby, that is one difference although staff in both the pub and the restaurant are happy to help), the man there calls and leaves a message with them to let them know that I am running late and then offers to drive me there myself. The Adelaide Hills people are nice!

The taxi driver arrives just at that second and we take the short drive to the Sticky Rice cooking school. Said to be one of the top three things to do  in the Adelaide Hills, despite the name, it offers cooking classes in all sorts of cuisine from Asian, Spanish and tonight’s Moorish Moroccan class. Owner Claire is there to greet everyone along with Bif who is our facilitator and Katrina Ryan, a chef from The Spirit House in Brisbane. Katrina was Neil Perry’s Head Chef at Rockpool and former personal chef to Nicole Kidman and Tom Cruise (when they were together obviously ). The classes are so popular many are booked out and Claire says that she wanted to make sure that she had chefs that were a) great chefs and b) could communicate well with students.

Chef Katrina Ryan

There are two large groups and some groups of friends as well as people that have been given vouchers to the classes by friends or family for mother’s or father’s day. Claire starts off by introducing us to Katrina and we are handed out the recipes and menu for this evening.

We take a place around the large table where we all have a chopping board, knife and chux in front of us. Katrina starts off by showing us some basic skills with the knife. There are a total of seven dishes tonight.

Katrina starts off by explaining all of the food that she has started preparing this afternoon. Whole ducks have been roasted using a salt and cinnamon rub and saffron is being infused as we speak-she tells us that saffron is best infused for 24 hours to allow for the colour and flavour to develop fully.

She explains some of the ingredients including the differences between eschallots and onions and the two chilli sizes. And did you know that the hottest part of the chilli is actually the white membrane that the seeds are attached to? I had heard that it was the seeds but apparently not! She then shows us some basic skills with the knife including, crucially, how to dice an onion and how to segment an orange (a task I am terrible at!).

Cut off the top and base

Cut strips off the side

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