Truffles in Canberra

One day i’ll get a truffle. One daaaaay….
(am planning to get some of that oil though).

Ant, if you love porcini, then do whatever it takes to get your hands on a truffle!! Porcini add a great element to many dishes, and if you like what they do then you will probably also like the characteristics of a truffle.

S4anta – thanks for the tips on morel-hunting. Never had a fresh one, but I know people who have (in the US) and they just about swoon at the memory. Rather than going collecting, I might stick to the dried version, though, in the interests of waking up the next day…

trick to truffles is the water content in the soil. if the trees feet are too wet the truffle spores get infected and die. Hence their preference for dewy dark forests, kinda like smurfs and mountain bike riders.

Woody Mann-Caruso said :

If this sh.t wasn’t rare and expensive, would all you ‘connoisseurs’ still sing praises about it? It surely doesn’t taste that good.

Spoken like somebody who’s never tried it and is comfortable enough with their ignorance to put it down anyway. Liver isn’t rare or expensive but I’ll still pay through the nose for a decent pate.

I also earn over $100K – is it OK with you if I keep eating this sort of thing rather than subsisting on Home Brand cat food and yesterday’s bread?

I don’t earn over 100k, so i will have to make do with homebrand tuna and stale bread. ah, but truffles! I will save up for a while to get them….

I’ve never tasted truffles, but I love Porcini. You can’t describe how they taste, but I love them. You can buy porcini powder at Essential Ingredient too, and the butcher/deli in Riverside Plaze sells Porcini stock cubes!

Morels are really popular in the US, but I never tried them.

@Santa, Walnuts certainly grow faster than Oaks, but they’re not quite as hardy. If it’s a watered and not too harsh environment though, Walnuts would be a good option indeed.

In other random agriculture news:

your vegies prices might be a bit cheaper if other states have hiot this as well

Just to add to Nic’s comment when looking for morels, ensure they are not false morels or you will catch a small case of death.

Word on the street is that morels have habit of popping up amongst the rose gardens of the more well to do suburbs in Canberra, particulary those that have a history of being owned by somemone who brought rose specimens over from Europe. This doesnt include the old parlismwent house rose garden/ first nation embassy/ derro slumberhouse.

A key word here may be trespassing, and you need a good eye. they stand about an one and half inches off the deck of the mulch they grow in.

TRUFFLES – love them. Developed a taste while riding a motorbike trough Italy and Spain last year. Absolutely fantastic. The oil is a letdown once you’re tasted them undiluted! You need so little to add so much flavour that the price isn’t that big an issue – yum, I’ll be there. Any real Spanish or Italian recipe book is stuffed full of recipes for them (we’ve got a big Italian recipe book called the Silver Spoon or something similar). The Italians somehow keep them affordable for the locals, hence for one lunch at a small cafe in the middle of nowhere my partner had slices of truffles mixed with scallops. Hate to think how much that would cost anywhere else.

Simple is good when it comes to truffles – e.g. shaved over some fresh pasta with a bit of butter.

Although truffles are expensive they are pretty impressive as a sensory experience. And why shouldn’t people spend their dollars on a pricey mushroom if they want to? Enough truffle for 2 people is cheaper than a tank of petrol!!! I am most certainly going to get one!!!

We went to a tasting (French night) at the Mart Deli in Fyshwick last week and had morels (another kind of mushroomy thing – you buy them dried, then soak in water, then cook in cream for a great sauce for chook or pasta). I’d actually say that, as a member of the expensive mushroom category, they were even better than truffles – really complex and interesting (quite delicate really), rather than just the powerful earthy hit you get from a truffle. Morels sell for $40 for a packet at the deli (enough for 8 people for a pasta sauce I’d say).

too easy PM. back up late august, i’ll be in touch!

Grab a jar with a rubber stopper, and whack them in with a bunch of eggs, cos egg shells are porous the eggs take on a bit of the smell and taste.

Froi grois is down here too groover.

If this sh.t wasn’t rare and expensive, would all you ‘connoisseurs’ still sing praises about it? It surely doesn’t taste that good.

Spoken like somebody who’s never tried it and is comfortable enough with their ignorance to put it down anyway. Liver isn’t rare or expensive but I’ll still pay through the nose for a decent pate.

I also earn over $100K – is it OK with you if I keep eating this sort of thing rather than subsisting on Home Brand cat food and yesterday’s bread?

S4anta – Can you please bring back some truffles on your next sorjourn to Belco?

Mælinar said :

Where can one get decent wild bacon in Canberra ?

Some of the specialist Game butchers occasionally have wild boar Ham and Bacon. The one at the Belco markets does occasionally.

Ant,

Most truffle growers in tassie and parts of France have diversified their trees. Hazelnut and Walnut trees and have been known to produce good spores after two years or so. And you get the added bonus of the trees producing their nuts as added income.

The only problem is ensuring that your machinery doesnt compact the soil too much, get into the rubber tracked skid steer jobbies. They seem to do the job on most the export joints i’ve visited over the past year or so.

Wank alert!

If this shit wasn’t rare and expensive, would all you ‘connoisseurs’ still sing praises about it? It surely doesn’t taste that good.

It’s funny, you all probably earn what, 60-70k on average?

You’re lower middle-class at best. Spending hundreds of dollars on mushrooms is not for you.

There’s a rather extravagent recipe that requires you to layer truffle slices over a chicken breast, under the skin, completely covering the meat. Smear with butter, season, cover the breast with bacon then roast. I think there’s also some kind of ‘world’s most expensive burger’ recipe made from truffled ground wagyu.

Truffles also go very well with eggs. I think you can also make pre-truffled eggs by storing them together – the truffle aroma permeates the shells and flavours the white and yolk.

You can practise the truffle thing with some truffle oil. Funnily enough, The Essential Ingredient has their truffle oil locked away in a glass-fronted case, but if you go to the IGA-ish place at Griffith shops, there it is on the shelf with everything else. heh. Good for pasta and risotto.

Majura Road valley has good soil, it’s old river flat so lots of sedimentary stuff. Oaks grow well throughout this district, they’ve been encouraging us to grow olives and truffles in local ag publications. Only Oaks take forever to grow, slow buggers.

s’easy jazz, just grate it over pasta that has been tossed with butter, parsley, mebbe a little parmesan and garlic too. or add last to a slow cooked beef casserole – basically as a pungent and richly flavoured garnish to anything you rekkun mushrooms might work with.

snice scraped in between two lateral halves of a nice camembert or brie (though the latter can be a smidge too runny if too ripe) then reassembled and sliced with a good sourdough bread or plain cracker, too.

Happy to buy some bacon off you bubzie, but I get the feeling you were just trying to be sarcastic.

from a wild pig??

Where can one get decent wild bacon in Canberra ?

You’d want decent bacon & free range eggs to compiment such expensive mushies.. wouldn’t you?

Oh and for reference – good truffles sell @ $3000 a kg.. forget italian white truffles @ $50000 for a kilo.

Truffles are probably too strong as is – If I was using them as is, I would shave them very finely over a leek and onion/white wine risotto.

Preferable method would be to finely shave and steep in oil – then use oil as a condiment…

Not that I would know of course.

I reckon you’d want to follow the recipe veerryy closely

ooh,

now if only i knew how to cook with truffles