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Autumn on the Sunshine Coast brought some beautiful sunshine, as well as a few cool, cold, over-caste, very wet April days; showers, then sunshine, followed by more light rain, and then a heavy downpour before the sun shines again. This is wonderful for our garden, my herbs are flourishing, the trees and shrubs have luxurious, green growth, and the grass and vines grow while we watch them! so the last 2 weeks of my time in Queensland were not all sunny Sunshine Coast days; yesterday I wore all my winter clothes!

And what an interesting time I had with Cooking on the Bay at Kureelpa.  As well as the usual entertaining and cooking for friends, I also presented a fabulous Spanish Paella cooking class with nine enthusiastic cooks.  For the first time in 12 years.

The preparations before the class were quite different from those usually undertaken in Melbourne.

Starting with one of the cooktops: 2 of the jets were emitting only the smallest flame, so I wondered whether the gas bottles required replacing. Before I made that call to the gas supplier, I thought I had better check out the gas jet itself. I eventually found a gas fitter, who happened to be on holiday in South Australia.  He very kindly talked me through the procedure to clean the tiny, hole in the middle of the jet. My stove-tops are always cleaned after each use and so I was surprised, but they do experience a lot of cooking, so I guess they do get a little cogged up. Another regular job to add to the long list!

The gas fitter instructed, that first, I had to spray the tiny hole in the centre of the gas jet, with WD40 to loosen the dirt; then I had to find the thinnest sewing needle I had and jiggle it until the needle could slide in and out, reaching an invisible bottom about 1 cm down under the jet.  That job took me on and off most of the day, spraying the DW40 and the needle jiggling until finally, I had full gas flow! Success.

Then I needed to ensure the gas bottles were full; these are huge, 45kg bottles and over the past 2 years, I had forgotten when I last ordered them. I followed the instructions to assess how full they were and thought I should order a new one, just in case.  Fortunately, the gas man was able to attend the next day. A lovely friendly guy came, and I asked for his advice on how to check the gas in the bottles. I was told my previous days’ instructions were ‘old-wives’ tales’; the best way to assess was the lift the bottle; if you could lift it, it was empty.  These bottles are so huge and heavy, 45kg and about 120cm high, so that was of no help to me.  He checked and found that both bottles were almost full.  Fortunately, this nice guy did not charge me a call-out fee. I am now in credit with the gas company until next time.

I also needed to buy some new large chopping boards that I like to use in the classes; they were far too heavy to bring up from Melbourne, so I ordered 6 more from my original Noosa supplier, who always supplied my cooking school needs at Kureelpa. These were to be collected in a few days’ time.

Next was my regular window cleaning ‘chore’, one I do every few months and a job I really don’t enjoy but I do love the results of looking out of clean, crystal-clear windows; essential here for us to really enjoy the glorious views. Another tick, done.

My usual class preparation takes me to the South Melbourne Market, the supermarket, possibly Dan Murphy, the Chef’s Hat, and Fast Eddies, all within 10 minutes of St Kilda and all within a 500m radius of each other! Not so from Kureelpa.

The sourcing and collecting of the ingredients involved making countless calls to source what I needed; ingredients which are not usually difficult to procure at all I when in Melbourne! From the hinterland at Kureelpa, I must have driven over 100 ks all told.

One stint of driving took me to Noosa to collect the new chopping boards, buy some dry goods at ‘Source’ in Noosa Junction, plus check out the seafood shop there. Another day, it was off to Mooloolaba for the seafood, which proved quite a challenge to get what I needed. A visit to the Fruit Market in Nambour, the 2 supermarkets, the wine shop, the butcher, and the health food shop. Then a drive to Maleny, 40 minutes away to meet the pimento farmer, Richard Mohan’s to collect pimentos at a mutually convenient road junction for me and for their trip to the coast!

Then the setup of the house needed to be managed with tables, knives, cookware, plates, etc.  I brought some things with me from Melbourne, such as the chef’s knives, for which I paid extra luggage.

And then came the big day and that made the planning, phone calls, driving, and setting-up, all so worthwhile! We all had such a lovely day with Cooking on the Bay cooking at my former cooking school venue, On the Ridge Cooking School, in the hinterland of the Sunshine Coast. Nine enthusiastic local and interstate cooks drove a variety of distances, the furthest was Sue from Mt Tamborine, a 3 hours drive from south, another drove from Brisbane, a few came from Noosa, a couple from Coolum, and another couple from Buderim, all came to cook and enjoy the experience of delicious Spanish Cuisine.

My original Kitchen Steward, Annie, was back, after 12-years, to help me with the class. We cooked a variety of Spanish pintxos or tapas, depending on where in Spain you are eating; we pan tossed Richard’s Pimentos de Padrone in olive oil, garlic and lemon; made croquetas, octopus salad, scallops with chorizo and aliöli, the main dish was paella mixta with prawns, calamari, mussels, chicken, and chorizo with Catalan aliöli, all followed by the delicious Tarta de Santiago de Compostella, honouring the sacred pilgrim walk, an orange and orange blossom jelly, plus brandied ‘Valencia’ oranges because they taste so good with the tarte!

Starting a little later than usual at 9 am, due to the longer distances to be travelled, we cooked until around 1 pm when we all dined at the table, with a long-awaited wine, enjoying the beautiful hinterland views, with the occasional burst of sunshine, in between a few autumnal April showers. The class finished with coffee between 3.30 and 4 pm, with everyone looking forward to the next time.

It was such a success, and by popular demand, I will definitely be offering more cooking classes here; the class was fully booked, in fact, over-subscribed with more cooks wanting a place!

So, do keep an eye on the Cooking on the Bay Facebook age as well as the regular Cooking on the Bay newsletters for updates. Happy times back at Kureelpa.

I am looking forward to many more cooking classes at On the Ridge in Kureelpa.  I hope you will be able to join me there.  Classes will be advertised in the Newsletter, Facebook, and Instagram.