Oh it's good all right. Truffle oil smells like sex -- seriously. Now maybe that's not to everyone's taste but ... I'm not sure how to finish that sentence.

Fresh truffles (the season runs from Sept to Dec) are also tres expensive, and not every palate "gets it." The white truffles (which I think are slightly earlier than the black) are the more flavorful.

Adding just a few drops of truffle oil -- to an omelette, a risotto, etc -- is like cheating.

(Rocket, I was jerking yer chain re olive oil; I have the stuff coursing through my veins. :))

Hillybilly Truffles.

First we kicked their wine industry in the ass.....

I've always been put off by the harvesting process.

http://www.gourmetgirlmagazine.com/0...g-truffles.jpg

How do you stop the ol' hog from munching the find?

See, this is what makes the deep south perfect for this industry. From the article

Mmmm

I'm guessing the same way you keep your retriever from eating your duck. You teach them that they get a treat for dropping it when they're still small and you can wrestle it away.

Fairy nuff - training young pigs might be ok - but when a full grown oinker tries to shag your leg . . . . . :o

as some of you know, i'm into cooking. so, we have this traditional dish that everybody eats during the solstice, but it is pretty complicated to make. they are called "pasteles", and i'll be making some to sell this weekend. (they are pricey). it's a masa made out of green bananas, pumpkin, green plantains and a potato like tuber that we grow here, stuffed with a cooked mixture of pork and chicken, with raisins, roasted bell peppers and green olives. think tamales but not made out of corn masa and without the corn husk wrapping.
got me some clients for them lined up already.
will also make smoked stuffed jalapeño poppers (20 bucks a dozen!) and posibly some prize-winning bbq ribs. (people are begging for them).

things are bad, gotta make some money!

In September I found a ginormous chicken mushroom in NW Connecticut -- had to weigh 10 kg. It took a couple days to cook all of it in several batches -- some with tomato sauce and peppers, others with garlic and olive tampanade -- and froze tons of it. Was a huge hit at Thanksgiving.

http://i49.tinypic.com/ogdz6o.jpg

http://i50.tinypic.com/e28a0.jpg

I have a couple quarts left in the freezer...

does it taste like chicken??

it looks fowl.

It has the texture of chicken.

The italians call it 'penale', because of it's penile shape when it first emerges from the wood.

I said *wood*

like an aphrodisiac...

Looks like someone's going to have a very Mary Studgemas.

:lol:

And then they can sell post cards as well.

The chicken mushroom mentioned earler figures into tonights new years eve
meal. It's a basil pesto mélange. Also having a mushroom risotto and am about to start some bread. I inherited an old cuisinart which has cut my kneading and pounding in half. ( my advancing years have also taken it's toll on pounding)

anybody else doing gustatory magic in the kitchen tonight?

not really- chicken kabobs with honey mustard sauce, tiny pizzas, humous, dips - finger food really :) too pissed on steamer already to cook for real :)