I’m Moving…

I’m moving this blog from hosted wordpress to my own install of wordpress, so there may be a few issues here and there. I won’t be gone too long, and hope to have a bigger and better site soon!

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Love,

Reemski

Truffled eggs, Tummyrumble Style

Truffles. What are they exactly? I know they’re a fungus, but how many of us have actually had a real truffle? Not many, I’m sure. So in the interests of my dear readers I recently bought a piece of actual truffle to get to the bottom of the mystery, what is a truffle and are they really worthy of all the hoo-haa?

One Saturday afternoon walking past the Black Bull Butchery in Potts Point on my way to the Kings Cross Organic Markets I notice a sign: “Australian Truffles available here” in a scrawl on a piece of cardboard in the front window. I walk in and it’s a riot of people jostling for position in front of the main counter. I make my way to a corner looking for the truffles. I spot a little bag on a tray looking so forlorn. The last piece of truffle left. 5.30 grams of Australian Black Truffle:

As you can see, an expensive little morsel, working out to approximately $489.62 per 100grams. I can’t wait to get it home and finally smell the smell that everyone comments upon, apparently sex and stinky socks.

According to Truffles Australis:

The French Black Truffle is the fruiting body of the fungus Tuber Melanosporum that forms a symbiotic relationship with the roots of oak or hazel trees on which it grows. The edible portion, the truffle, is harvested in winter once it has matured and is emitting the sweet perfume it’s renowned for.

So we know that it’s a fungus and we know that it got a funky smell. It’s moment like these I wish we had smell-o-vision (not minties). When I finally get home and get to open it, things unknown suddenly make sense. What do I mean by that? All those times I’d eaten things with “truffle oil” or stuff of that nature, I now know what that element was. That unknown soft thing that floats around your mouth that is subtle and mild. A revelation in smell. Sex is right, or also a really smelly man who hasn’t bathed in some time..sweet, but stinky!

Yet what to do with it? Eggs. Simple scrambled eggs. I had some beautiful eggs perfect the job. I popped them in a jar with the truffle and left them overnight on my first attempt. Second attempt I left them for about 3 nights, two days. Leave them longer to get more of the delicate aroma to seep through the porous shell of the egg.

I don’t eat scrambled eggs often.  No reason in particular, I just prefer poached (not that I’ve ever really successfully poached an egg!). But I do make a pretty mean scrambled egg. The key is not to overcook, and to be very gentle. Crack your truffled eggs in a bowl, with some full cream milk, or cream, a little pepper, no salt yet, and mix to combine. Heat a large heavy based fry pan with some good butter. When the butter foams, it’s good to go.

Pour your eggs into the pan and very gently draw through from the edges to the centre with a wooden spoon. As you do this, the uncooked egg should fill the gaps to gently cook. It should be curd like and glistening, not rubbery or foam like.

Once it’s done take off the heat pronto, you don’t want it to keep cooking…Make sure you have some super good sourdough on hand ready to toast. Don’t be like me and cut your hand open while hacking through my Brasserie Bread Reem-made epi roll! (if you want to see a picture of my cut hand click here but careful there’s blood!)

Toast your bread, pile your eggs on a plate, then gently grate or thinly slice your truffle over your eggs. Voila! Insanely luxe, scrambled eggs with truffles.

Verdict on the truffles: I was surprised that the flavour did not anywhere near match the intensity of the aroma. But it gave the eggs a softness that’s hard to describe. I can now successfully sniff out truffle oil, and think I could probably tell the difference between synthetic truffle oil and the real thing.

Is it worth the dollars? Maybe for a special occasion at home, but keep it simple. Don’t try anything complex. The flavour is so subtle you don’t want to be overpowering it at any stage or it’s simply a waste of money.

Truffles, yes. Get them now while they’re in season.

Ripples at the Wharf, Pyrmont

I love dinner. I love dinner even more on a cold and stormy night when you’re all warm and cosy, with belly warming food. The next best thing, is practically sitting in a restaurant kitchen with belly full of warming food! On this particular night, courtesy of Ripples Sydney Wharf via Prue at The Mint Partners, we were given the opportunity to test drive their version of a chef’s table. What’s a chef’s table? It’s when you can dine in the kitchen of the restaurant and get up close and personal with the crew preparing your food. Matt Moran has been doing it for some time at Aria, and I’m sure there are other gems hidden away, and only accessible on request.

Bathers Pavilion, Balmoral

My friend had news. She was so excited she couldn’t wait for our planned lunch and told me over lunch at a food court a couple of days prior. A baby is coming!! Yippee! So a couple of days later she picked me up and we started on our adventure over the Bridge to one of Sydney’s most iconic restaurants, Bathers Pavilion.

The Local Taphouse, Darlinghurst

An easy weeknight, neighbourhood dinner. We’ve exhausted most of the cheap and cheerful options in our immediate vicinity of Surry Hills, and we’ve heard through the grapevine that what was once The Flinders Hotel has had a change of image and ownership and is now The Local Taphouse, a beer emporium.

York & Albany, London

In this special guest post, my desk buddy Skye, who has just returned home from an 8 week jaunt through South America, finishing up in Edinburgh and London,{read about her adventures over here} takes us through her delicious, “last day on holiday” lunch at York & Albany. Enjoy!

When I had decided that I was going to London to finish of my huge overseas trip, the first thing I thought of was doing a posh hotel and food to match. Unfortunately, I cancelled the posh hotel in Notting Hill, settling for a grubby hostel in Russell Square, but I did make a booking at York and Albany, one of Gordon Ramsay’s numerous restaurants in London. Situated between hippy Camdentown and Pretentious Primrose Hill, I thought I had it all wrong, but I guess its in just the right position for its clientele.

Lamingtons

Lamingtons. A classic Australian icon…they remind me of my childhood where the daycare centre my parents used to enrol me in, had bake sales, and enormous trays of lamingtons would be carted home in the back of the car, with me desperately trying to get my little fingers into them!

Recently, our office hosted a Australia’s Biggest Morning Tea to raise money for the Cancer Council. Our morning tea was “Aussie” themed and included competitions for best Aussie bush tucker, best food/baked item (I think) and best Aussie hat…I discovered that one of my colleagues, being English, had never tried a lamington! I couldn’t believe it! “Not even a bought packet one?” I wasn’t going to bake at all, but then on discovering this I had to do it, and be the one who introduced her to this classic Australian.