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
Find the area just next to the pith segment and cut alongside this
Then cut out the orange segment leaving behind a thin “leaf” of pith. Like a page of a book, fold it over and keep cutting the rest of the segments out
You cut the top and bottom to get a flat surface, then like a peeler, gradually take off the skin in several motions and then trim any white pith off. You then cut right next to the pith and then and slice out a segment and turn the page with the leftover pith and do the rest of the orange folding the white pith bits over and over like a book.
She then gets everyone to practice the rocking and cutting motion and the “claw” on pieces of parsley stem. We then split up into four groups with each group tending to a different recipe. Once we get to a crucial stage, Katrina will then have us gather around to watch.
Adrian and I pair up to make the harissa. I have a tube of Au Cap Bon harissa in my fridge and it is a spicy Moroccan paste. This harissa however is very easy to make and involves blitzing chillis, garlic, caraway seeds, coriander leaves, mint leaves, salt and olive oil. We all taste it and it’s gorgeous, a clear favourite with everyone, the garlic is pungent (and yes I can still taste it the next day) but oh so good. Everyone makes plans to make this at home.
Flaming an eggplant
We watch as they smoke the eggplant on an open flame to make baba ganoush and this too is amazingly good. Katrina explains that that the eggplants can take anywhere from 10-30 minutes on the flame-30 if it is an eggplant with a lot of seeds and sometimes you can get a dud one. Then they drain off the bitter liquid.
We then make the lamb shank soup and she explains how to shred the lamb shank and remove the skin. We then learn how to cut apart the duck (which should always be roasted breast side up).
Adrian and I make a quick tomato paste based sauce for the Moroccan pizzas. Katrina then shows us a very useful tip for cooking rice. After washing the rice cover it with cold water up til the first knuckle on your pointer finger-a little less for basmati as that is better when a little drier.
Pinch off the pointer part of the tail shell
Flip the prawn upside down and dislodge the head and pull the head carefully apart
There is another tip (this class is worth it just for the tips alone!) on how to remove the trail of “poo” from the prawn easily. You simply take off the pointer part of the tail that sticks up (like a little blade). Flip the prawn upside down and slide your thumb under the head dislodging it and then pull the head carefully and slowly and the poo trail will come out easily. This works really for fresh prawns, once they start to get old, the vein itself breaks down.
Ta-da!
It’s soup time! They dish up the spicy lamb shank and lentil soup and we take a break with a glass of wine and top it with a slice of lemon and some parsley. It’s thick and rich and very good, especially with the added zing of lemon and herbs.
Spreading with tomato sauce
Pizza!
It’s now pizza time and we all roll a round of the dough and top it lightly with seafood -the scallops have been cut in half to make them cook better and there are pizza stones in the oven which is set to the highest heat. And the piece de resistance? We top it with baba gannoush and the harissa! Katrina and her husband used to own The Pig and The Olive pizza place in Potts Point and they were one of the first to do gourmet pizzas with really interesting toppings (I have eaten many a carb there).
We’re getting to the mains now and we start cooking the chermoula coated barramundi and finish off the carrot pilaf. The twice cooked duck is laid out in a tagine for presentation and before we know it, the table is magically set with our main courses.
Twice cooked duck with pomegranate and walnut sauce
Lentil and parlsey salad with seared chermoula fish
Both the mains are delicious but I can’t eat too much of them having had so much already to eat. We all leave, with plans to make dishes and with garlic on our breath and stomachs satisfyingly full. And I didn’t have to struggle with the lights when I got back to the hotel room. Win!
So tell me Dear Reader, what do you wish all hotels room had?
NQN travelled and explored South Australia as a guest of the South Australian Tourism Commission.
The Stirling Hotel
52 Mount Barker Road, Stirling SA
Tel: +61 (08) 8339 2345
Sticky Rice Cooking School
96 Old Mt Barker Road, Stirling. S.A.
Tel: + 61 (08) 8339 1314
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56 Comments | Add your own
Those dishes look divine – especially love the photo of the twice cooked duck. Amazed by how many stories I’m reading about the Adelaide Hills these days – must get there one day for a visit!
What a funny journey Lorraine! You cooked, met beautiful people and enjoyed this hotel!
The duck with pomegranate more walnut sauce must be magnificent
All the best,
Gera
I will have to bookmark this for a trip to Adelaide! The food sounds absolutely divine, I love spicey garlicy dishes. The Barramundi with lentil looks like a dish I would really enjoy.
You had me at ‘TV in the bathroom’
What fun!
All I can say about that post is YUM!!! It all looks so delicious – and thanks for passing along all those little tips!!
Quick correction – the Spirit House is in Yandina, which is about an hour and a half outside of Brisbane. It’s fabulous – if you ever get the chance to go there grab it with both hands!
I’m so in love with that hotel room!!! I totally get what you mean by knowing that it would’ve been home if I had a designer come in.
The cooking school looks great too. Do you know how much the class would’ve cost by any chance?
Yummo – this is my kind of food! Twice cooked duck with pomegranate sauce sounds particularly heavenly.
What fun. I’ll be in Adelaide tonight. I wish I had time to do this. I also wish all hotel rooms had a decent hairdryer.
Hotel rooms? I can really advise on this one given this year’s global love-fest:
1. Fast, free wifi, especially in the US where most places charge.
2. An enormous bed that you sink into as if it were a cloud, with a light and fluffy doona.
3. One switch by the bed that would turn off the entire lighting in the room (I am totally with you on the confusing light switch issue)
4. A large screen TV…on the ceiling
5. Fresh pastries in the mini bar
6. Complimentary water
7. A shower head with multiple settings from “rain” to “get all the hair conditioner out in under a minute”
8. An enormous bath with massage nozzles firing water
9. A panoramic view of the water
10. A butler
I’m so jealous. The class looks like fun. I love ‘nice’ toiletries in a hotel, not the generic stuff.
The Stirling Hotel certainly looks a lot different to when I was last there many years ago…..what is the tariff per night?
Now that’s so cool Lorraine , I so wanna go there !
and accomodation looks awesome as well
Dario
I’d like to know what the ‘Welcome/Goodbye’ switch is for? If it’s to turn every single light on/off, then I need one for my man!!
yay, glad you came to visit the Adelaide Hills!
Um, I stayed at the Stirling Hotel and it was NOT like that. Mind you, this was way back in the early 90s. What a fab experience it is now!
Oh I am so stealing that pizza idea! I even have a giant eggplant waiting to be made into baba gannoush. I wish all hotel rooms had baths with tvs actually!
Love the switches in the room!
Lovely post, Lorraine. And I always love to see the Adelaide Hills on show!
Welll I sure know where to go when next I get to s.a. Havew a son living there already so half way …sounds yummy
Love the hotel room – I wish that the nicer hotels had a teleporter so that you could drop in any time you like!
And the cooking class looks good; I like seeing how things are done rather than just reading about them (less room for error on my part!).
Would have been so nice in the winter if they kept the fireplace in the bathroom! I assume that area used to be a fireplace
Can’t believe it takes so long to flame an eggplant! Yum twice cooked duck with pomegranate sauce looks delicious
Yum! Gourmet Pizza!
I wish all hotels had an oil burner – even a electric one.. I hate the nothing smell, or cleaning products smell or God forbid a bathroom smell. I’d love a lavender scented room to greet me!
Awesome Lorraine, I’d really love to squeeze in the odd cooking school of that calibre for sure, you learn the best tips from chefs of Katrina’s abilities. Fab hotel room too, I’m with you on those light switches, excellent idea huh.
I’ve been following your blog for a long time now and have not made comment so far but just had to on this one.
So glad you enjoy the Adelaide Hills, it’s a stunning place to live.
So sorry about your exasperation with the taxi (and it is founded)also with the Wifi, even phone reception is a bit hit and miss in spots up here (I’m constantly walking around trying to find a good reception point in my house). I hope this won’t leave a bitter taste in your mouth and you’ll be back to visit again soon.
Wow, that cooking class looks amazing! Working at the spirit house was always a goal of mine pre-kids, so I’m jelous of all that delicious food you must have sampled from Katrina. I am yet to visit the Adelaide Hills, but it looks and sounds like a really beautiful part of Australia.
What do I wish all fancy hotel rooms had? ME IN THEM!
And I wish my current apartment had a gas stove so that I could roast eggplants like that…
Hahahahaha I have to agree with Hannah’s comment… it made me laugh! Ditto on the labelled light switches though! The cooking class looked really good… 7 dishes?! And the tips will come in really handy, especially the prawn poo one
I love the light switches! This is going to sound very very boring of me but a washing machine is a big bonus in a hotel room.
I just traveled around Europe and I think if I had had to wash one more item of clothing in a sink I would have lost it!
oooh, you had me at TV in the bathroom, my ultimate dream too. One hotel we stayed in had a ‘pillow menu’ to choose between, hard, soft, high,low etc. I thought that was pretty cool.
The restaurant at the Stirling Hotel is pretty good too.
In hotels I like an ipod docking station, a clock that does not light up the entire room (or at least has a dimmer which can make it completely unreadable in the dark), and a luxury bathroom with decent hairdryer. Double basins are also good when not travelling solo. Oh and a walk in wardrobe with adequate luggage storage. A comfortable chair to sit in (preferably a sofa). Let’s be honest, we want a suite with a view and a sunken bath with TV.
Oh yes wish I had a tv in my bathroom too!! I can only dream
Wow, such an experience! First, just love the homy designer hotel room (I mean look at the painting on the wall, so exquisite!! and the bathtub yeahh)..
And the dishes from the cooking class look delicious. Well, if I am lucky I might see your post about any of those dishes *cross my fingers
The hotel looks very posh!
The Stirling Hotel looks like my kind of place: cosy, elegant, gorgeously tech savvy! And I wonder why local cooking schools here don’t offer activities like the one done by the folks at Sticky Rice.
More things to love in Adelaide!
Wow that hotel looks just amazing and I love the name of the cooking school – genius!
AHHHH that hotel looks awesome!! If you are ever so inclined, the Hilton in Sydney also has tv’s in their bathrooms (hint hint to Mr NQN for a “night of relaxation in home town” idea) – I was amazed by the fact that the whole bathroom would steam up and the tv screen wouldn’t! It must be some special material they use!!!
Also, that hotel I just stayed at in Cornwall recently, they also had those cool light switches for different moods.. i love it too
Looks like you had an awesome time
Great tips from the chef and definitely like the light swtiches. Not a big fan of baths though, so TV in the bathroom doesn’t matter to me. I’m a shower kinda gal.
The sticky rice cooking school looks like a BLAST – let alone that hotel room
NICE!
How fun!! What a lovely escape AND fun learning these new dishes.
So cool, Lorraine.
A massive, comfy bed with numerous pillows. Nothing like a bad bed to spoil a hotel stay… Oh and rain showers in the bathroom are totally welcome as well.
I love how they’re cooking that aubergine!
I want my house to look like THAT, too! And the switches are genius. Kind of makes you wonder why more hotels don’t label them like that, huh?
I’m not much of a bath person (couldn’t tell you the last time I had one) mainly because I find them terribly boring. I think a TV to entertain me while bathing sounds like just the ticket!
Some very useful tips, and lovely looking dishes. Will have to file away in my memory for when I make it to that part of the country.
cooking class and bubble baths–i can’t think of a more ideal way to spend an evening. is a jacuzzi in each hotel room too much to ask?
All very impressive, but NQN (and pardon me, as this is one rare occasion to gloat) how can you not know how easy it is to remove the ‘poo’? We Queensland girls and boys learn it when knee high to mumma or dadda’s knees. (It is still gross though, and I would much rather someone else do it…)
i would love to go these kind of masterclasses just for the tips !!Pierre
very cold here in Paris under snow!!)
First off, having a tv that you can view from a big bubble bath is such a hotel treat!! I need a ridiculously sized bed in a hotel room
Good to know about the chilli – I thought the seeds were the hottest part too. The lentil and parlsey salad with seared chermoula fish looks particularly delicious to me. What a great class, so much covered!
Heidi xo
swanky room! i’m terrible with a knife, or anything remotely sharp. i shaved off a bit of my thumb last week when i was grating pecorino romano!
Wow, what a lovely place to stay, can’t imagine it being in a pub!
I love cooking classes , bonus you get to eat the food at the end.
I like it when you have a free bottle of water supplied in your hotel room, as I tend to get thirsty through the night. Extra comfortable beds and pillows can make or break your stay.
They all look so amazing!
I wish all hotels had the shower heads that come from the roof, not the wall. So retro and fab!
That looks like a fantastic trip, lovely hotel and fantastic cooking shcool.
As well as lights that are labelled i would just love it if hotel rooms had at least one light it was bright enough to read by!
What an awesome class. As much as I love food, I’ve yet to try a cooking class. Always seems to be more than I can afford. But at least you share all your awesome experiences with us
.
Would you believe I’ve spent many a happy rainy day in Stirling (my favourite place to be in Adelaide in Autumn), and I had no idea that the Stirling Hotel was an actual hotel (thought it was just a pub) – but it looks gorgeous (love all that Philip Starke furniture).
And the cooking school is definitely going on my list – that pizza looks mouthwatering!!
B xx
I love cooking classes so much. Every time I go to thailand I always go to a cooking class, as it’s great entertainment and you get to eat what you make!
I wish every hotel room had a tv in the bathroom with a massive bath!
Looks like a great class.
I like long baths!
I just wish every hotel room had a bath. I hate it when there’s just a shower. Even better, a deep bath with a special section to keep my phone/kindle/book dry & somewhere for my snacks & drinks
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