my first black gold nugget - tuber melanosporum

i got my hands on my first black gold nugget! a fresh one! not preserved, not suspended in oil or vinegar...
it was freshly dug in tassie by laughing-fi... thanks laughing-fi, now i can cross off one from my bucket list...
in order to maximise the use of the black gold, we went gourmet food shopping and parted with even more $$... we discovered the simon johnson in castlecrag was just as well stocked as the main shop in pyrmont, complete with a cheese room too!

we decided to keep it simple - homemade pasta with burnt butter sauce and shaved truffle, accompanied by truffle-butter and bread, and cheese and quince paste for after dindin... all the ingredients we bought at SJ, except the cultured butter i was deforsting from the freezer (from the good food farmer's market)


the tipo OO flour was really dear! $9 for a kg...next time i am going to a homely italian deli eg the one in burwood plaza...
the pasta turned out good though:
600g tipo OO flour
6 whole eggs

and the star of the show was double wrapped in zip lock bags (two of them) then the container... in my mushroom textbook by carluccio (later)... it was noted that truffles should be stored with dry rice grains to absorb x-s moisture! our one actually just started to sweat alittle, we managed to save it with a bit of rice...


as the truffle laid dying / decaying in the container, it emitted pungent aromas (which laughing-fi claimed that it fumed her entire car)... the decay and lingering aroma would last for only 2 weeks for the t.malenosporum... (the white even more pungent t.magnatum only lasts about a week! (well, these could not be "cultivated" yet and they cost a bomb)) ... after which the black gold becomes black dirt as it would have no tastes or smells...


out nugget was 23g and at $2/g it was not cheap! (although it was below recommended retail price of $2795/kg, as we got it at farm direct)

i got my mushroom text book in the uk directly from antonio carluccio! signed and all!! of course my other treasured signed and all book was the original jamie O "naked chef" (b4 he was world famous TV chef)... tank Q mcduck!

the pic below was our presentation guide...

pasta making was a real 2-person job...

the dough was first kneaded and rest with clingfilm in the fridge for 1/2 hour...

then put through the pasta machine from the smallest setting and sequentially to the larger ones numerous times...

constant flour dusting was essential to keep everything non-stick...

so i reckon an extra 100g flour was used just for dusting....

it got thinner and thinner and smoother and smoother each time...

lovely, like satin sheet....

then we cut the sheet into taglionili

boiled in salted water for 3-4 minutes...

poured on our burnt butter sauce... our pan was too small to have the pasta being tossed in it...

then the truffle shaved on top after being salted and parmasened...

our 2-person celebratory truffle meal had to be stretched to feed 4 people at the end as snowflake and mcduck hovered around and won't go away...

hence our share of shaved truffle also was halved...

the pasta was great... the truffle on top though didn't "shine"... it did shine though in our truffle butter...

we ended up shaving 1/2 knob into out truffle (cultured) butter...

and that was delish with bread!

next time when i get my hands on another nugget, i would definitely go the truffle-butter / sour dough way! YUM!

homemade eggless cake

making a conventional sponge could be costly, should organic eggs be used... cos eggs alone could set you back $4-5...
so i attempted a homemade improvised recipe - eggless cake... and it's dead easy!
3 cups self raising flour
1 cup castor sugar
1 cup olive oil
1 cup milk
1 cup water
1/3 cup coloured chocolate chips (optional - i just had left over in the cupboard)
mix everything together and bake in 2 silicone cake moulds (diameter 24 cm)
let cool
sandwich the 2 halves together with butter icing (250g butter and icing 1 cup sugar & dash of milk)

the texture of the grain is soft and large, quite aerated...

the sides are nicely browned and crispy

the cake is not very sweet, so the sweet icing is an essential complement...

YUM!

jamie's fowl dinners - being a "mostly-vegetarian"

last night mcduck and i were glued to the tele mesmerised and horrified with the content on jamie's fowl dinners... yes, we had our veggo dindin (white radish / carrot / peas rice with sesame coated pan-fired nut loaf) b4 watching the show which would have rated a MA 15+ with its live killings, live gasing, blood and gore, severe animal cruelty etc...
it was jaw droppingly shocking... it would be most unfortunate to be reborn as a battery caged hen who would live for a year as an egg machine, standing from the day it was born until being sectioned and sold and the remains minced into mush to make hot dogs etc...
the heavy breasted supersized american birds could not even stand upright to support the weight... during most of the life they just sit in their own shit...
i do buy organic eggs - although they cost double the price... but buying organic birds would be another step up... they are normally triple the price... i guess because we have adapted a "mostly-vegetarian" diet of late (since we have resettled in oz), we should be able to justify the increase in cost for organic meat...
at the beginning of our "mostly-vegetarian" journey, our main concern was cost...then fat (saturated)... having meat not everyday should be the norm (like in the 50s or post war)... people now a days expect having meat protein everyday... this practice is unsustainable - water wasting, resource wasting, unhealthy, and of course costly!
there's plenty of protein in pulses and nuts you know and they are delish!

final speedo bargains

last thursday was the last day of speedo in "the most beautiful mall in the world" for a while... and the last minute bargains included these bottoms for a fiver each... they finally discounted the goggles (this pair from 25 down to 10)...
snowflake went there again even later than me... and she told me the swimmers also became a fiver each at the end (not in my size though)...
i have enought swimming supplies for the next year or two! (although i did bagged another bargain at cancer council - long sleeve top to shield the sun SPF 50+ 50% off)...

zac posen bargains at target

after the usual sunday laps and yoga class, i got to westfield very early... the usual shops are not open, but target was...
and at the far far corner of target - bargains galore!
i actaully hovered around until early 11am... digging out things, trying things on...
and why on earth did i spend so much time there? designers for target - zac posen items were reduced... at first i thought the final price was on the tag - around $69.95 mark down form $179.99 - "not bad" i already thought... then i made use of the self scanning price check... hang on - $38.88?!?! really? for the tops and for the dresses too! gotta be a mistake... and i scanned the rest of my interested items... they were all reduced to $38.88 - they were cheaper than some target limited edition items or even hot options items!
i ended up buying 6 items totalling $929.94! (that is b4 discount)... i handed over $233.28...
a net saving of $696.66! that's 75% off...

pompeii print drape gregian dress... i wasn't going to buy this but changed my mind after the $38.88 price tag... RRP $179.99
black cowl dress - it is cotton, not luxurious silk, but looked nice... RRP $139.99

gregian top paired with crinkled skirt...

RRP $119.99+$129.99

i really love this 50s brocaed dress - seen here the back of the dress

RRP $179.99

and the must buy... fuscia gregian dress with drape... good for one of snowflake's many wedding events... and it is shiny silk/ cotton

RRP$179.99

bargains at home - homemade chicken nuggets

i never (usually) buy processed food during our groceries shopping trips... 1)it tastes horrible 2)it contains too much artificial favouring / preservatives 3)it costs several times the price of the homemade equivalent
one of my favourite convenience food at home is chicken nuggets... like the batch i just made last night... 2 kg+ of chicken breast ($20) + packet of crackers (less than $2) + some cornflakes (less than $1)
first i crushed the cornflakes and crackers in a big freezer bag to make crumbs... during which the sliced up chicken breast meat was marinating in oilve oil and lemon juice and abit of smoked paprika (to tenderize the meat, i could use buttermilk too, but it cost more and i don't have any ready to use at home)
the crumbs were mixed with salt, dried sage... then baked in the oven at 220 degrees celcius until golden brown...
when the crumbs were cooled, the breast pieces were crumbed and put on a plate lined with baking paper... multiple layers were stacked on top of each other for easy storage in the freezer...
after an overnight stay in the freezer, the frozen pieces of nuggets could be broken up and stored in the freezer bag for future times of hunger - 10-15min in 200 degrees - yummy golden nuggets, best served with sweet chilli sauce with sour cream!

bargains at franklins

when we do groceries shopping, we do it in bulk... recently we have purchase bulk coles toilet paper at about 40c per roll...
now franklins have the bargain of $9 for 2 packs of 12 (037.5c per roll)...
a net saving of $14.95 for 6 packs of purex
and the bargain is until tonight only...

speedo bargain

the finanacial year has ended and shops are off loading their stock at bargain prices... and i have be discovering stuff for less...
first up, there was the speedo shop (due to relocate) at the "most beautiful mall" in the northshore...
the bargains came in quietly middle of last week (when i firstly discovered the good quality $5 swimming caps, down from $8.95 and $11.95 from rebel!)... and since the advert in the local paper, people have flocked there this weekend...
i got there b4 the crowds set in and got $250 worth of stuff for $70! net saving $180

best bargains : swimming caps, bikini tops ($10 down form $44.95), swim gym top and bottom ($25 down from $89.95)

why is dandelion tea so costly?

we spent sunday packed in the crowds of the aroma festival... after our third cup of $1-tasters, we were already quite coffeed out...
out of the corner of my eye i spotted hari hari chai's dandelion root tea/coffee - and a small pack cost $18! (while the other chai was $4.50)...
i couldn't help but wonder... dandelions are classified as weeds?! why is dandelion tea so dear?
i went and DIYed some myself... i did my research... found out that there are no poisonous lookalike... there are however lookalikes eg cat's ear (also a weed, which is apparently more common) in the backyard...
dandelions are set apart from the other lookalikes by their non-hairy leaves with sharp-tooth corners... they are also single flower per rosette of basal leaves unlike the cat's ear which has branching flowers...
i dug up about a 4L icecream tub full of roots and leaves, about 10+ plants (with pretty small roots)... the hard work was washing and loosening the soil on the root and the subsequent trimming...

then, it was time for thier roasting (at 100 degrees celcius to begin with then 150)... i also roasted some barley (first rinsed and drained) at the same time, so not to waste the electricity...

dandelion roots looked abit like ginseng...

and the barley...

the roasting lasted for about 1 1/2 - 2 hours (with the 1st hour at 100 degrees)

the oven door was left ajar for steam to escape in the first hour with a chopstick

after the roasted roots / barley turned golden brown and filling the room with "coffee" aroma, it was time to grind... i used my food processor...

10 plants worth of root resulted in about 1 -2 tbsp full of dandelion root powder!

now i know why they are so costly in the shops!!!

the barley yield was much better... i was able to fill an old nesquick jar with my homemade barley powder...

and now the taste test...

dandelion root in strainer + hot water...

and a golden brew... i could certainly taste the slight bitterness... the taste did not justify all the hard work! so i'll be buying my dendelion root tea from now on... (or just make barley tea - cos it was less work and the tast wan't bad at all!)