Winter Wonderland

What a lovely couple of days to end off a great trip to Tassie in winter and it even snowed.

I sure have been slack this trip, having to much in holiday to keep the blog up to date.
Will down load some more pictures and stories later maybe Hmmmm.

Tides Reach

Over the past 2 days we have been down in Dover which is about 80km south of Hobart.

Found a great little beach shack called Tides Reach. It is a new build little 2 bedroom cottage which is a replacement in the same location as an existing beach shack. Properties this close to the water are rare and can’t be any bigger than the existing shack before which protect the look of these small fishing villages.
How lucky are we to find this little gem, 8m to the water’s edge and the sound of the small waves from Port Esperance are so relaxing that the world around you can just disappears for a time.
 

We went out hunting and gathering to get some of the famous grass fed beef from Geeveston 20km up the road.

So a late BBQ lunch sitting on the back deck looking over the bay of grass feed scotch fillet marinated in local olive oil and garlic, blackened on the BBQ and served pink in the middle.

Local pink eye potato with their buttery texture and Sandy made up an Asian caramelised chili sauce to drizzle over the potatoes which had been dolloped of Greek yogurt.

Tiny local brussel sprouts blanched then stir fried with a smoky Cygnet butchers ham, shaved cauliflower and red onion salad plus a tomato and onion sauce reduced to be rich and spicy.

To top it all off a 2011 Cabernet Sauvignon Merlot from Frogmore Creek in Tasmania of course.

 

Happy days and a walk after lunch on the beach

Truffle Day Has Arrived

Truffle day has arrived … I woke up early like a kid on Christmas morn. It was almost a white Christmas in July, the frost here in Chudleigh just out of Mole Creek in northern Tasmania was so heavy it looked like snow on the ground.  It was as cold as one would expect of a winter morning in Tasmania, a great day for that beautiful addition of mine …. Truffles.

Rugged up and headed off for the short drive to “Truffles of Tasmania” which is one of a few black truffle companies/farms down here in Tasmania. These guys have been working on developing the farm and establishing the trees for about 20 years now, it is a slow and fickle return on your large investment for the farmed black truffle.

A bit different to my truffle adventures for the wild grown white truffle of the Italy hills around La Marché with Doriano but funnily enough Mark our guide was still dressed in his camouflage outfit.

It was a very orderly hunt, we arrived to a small section of the 25000 acorn tree farm in a four wheel drive and that was the hardest part of the whole hunt. The dog did his bit and Mark just popped the truffles up from the ground. In the early part of the Tasmanian truffle season the truffle sit just under the surface ripe for the picking one might say.

My reward was so great and to soon be holding and constantly smelling a very cold hand full of truffles totalling 545 gram was a true delight. My addition is just as much to the smell as it is to the taste. This time Sandy was able to join me and really one could have or should have been sipping a warm beverage as we strolled the acorn tree lined avenues on our truffle hunt watching Mark and his dog at work.    

Within 20 minute we had harvested enough truffles that we soon made our way back to the warm and small laboratory style of a sorting and grading farm office.

As the truffles are so expensive the tour today was cut short as they only want to harvest as many truffles as they have sales for. Farm gate prices are from 1.2 to 1.5k per gram so our little haul was worth about $700. Prices sold into restaurants are up to 2K and when we were at the Salamanca markets they had a guy selling to the tourist for $3 a gram. We arrange to buy a 50gram nugget from the days haul and have enjoyed it over the past week.

Sandy made me an Italian white sauce pasta with a heavy shaving of truffles that 1^st night “heaven” We put the rest of the nugget with fresh eggs in a foiled lined bag so truffled infused scrambles eggs have been a real treat also.

But now they are all gone and I open my foiled lined bag every morning to get a smell but even that is coming to an end.   So till my next truffle adventure I will wait J

Young Chef Jane

Tonight was a great food experience and we both learnt a few new tricks as well as a few new tastes. 25 year old Jane our chef for the night and as we were they only in-house guests at the Red Feather Inn we got her all to ourselves. As she had to play waitress and chef the questions run quick and fast.

 

It's been 5 years since we were in Tassie last and we have been hearing of many young passionate chefs  so we thought we should pop down taste their food share their stories and learn a bit more on the way.

 

Our starter was a goat’s cheese and parmesan soufflé with pear, kale and toasted almonds.

Interesting the parmesan was local to Tassie so will need to find out that supplier?

Yum and Kale as a salad and not as some weird green drink it was a sure a hit with me.

The secret to the kale being so tasty was it was dressed ½ an hour before service with butter milk vinaigrette, so all the acidity cured the kale and took away the rawness.

 

 

Washed down with a Goaty Hill Riesling 2015 … just love the Tassie Riesling and this one soon to be on The Retreats wine list.

 

The Main was a share platter of a crumbed pork cutlet, tomato chilli jam, lamb belly pie under puff pastry bites with a stunning jus, sides of baked artichoke, broccoli, carrot on cauliflower and garlic mash, quinoa and lentil salad. OMG rustic, young and a funky dish.

This was pared with a Home Oak 2015 cab merlot which worked well , just a bit on the soft side for us northern shiraz drinkers so will need to search further for a more robust red to suit our taste in this pino landscape.

 

 

To finish we had a perfectly small sized Chocolate Fondant great finish all round "in food heaven".

 

Red Feather Inn

After a wet 3 hour trip from Hobart airport via … and via another … ect ect!!!... we finally arrived at the Red Feather Inn in Hadspen some 20km south west of Launceston our destination for our first night and introductory taste of Tasmanian food. This little inn has 5 rooms in the main 1830’s coach house building and several cottages that take up the rest of the block. The owners have restored this gem over the past years and wow what a beautifully propped and appointed historical building.

If the food is a patch on the accommodation we are in for a treat tonight.

We have arrived into Tasmania

We have arrived into Tassie for another bite (pun intended) of our segmented food gap year, having completed 6 fantastic months in Italy over the past few years and now this 3 weeks in Tassie will add some much needed variety for Sandy’s up and coming cook book.

I keep putting it out there and one day it will happen. However I’m thinking that we may have to do the full 12months RD to have complete material for the book J J

After a couple of days to chill out and the weather down here is certainty cold and wet enough for that chilling process I have worked out how to blog again, well with lots of help from a little friend. This time perhaps a little more high teck as I have my computer with spell check and not Sandy’s I pad with its “predictive text”. Sooooo here’s hoping what I write is what you get and what I actually mean!!

They say you can teach old dogs new tricks but as I’m get older I’m more in need of regular retraining I think the memory retention is a bittttt rusty when it come to the magical world of technology.

Leaving Tamworth Sunday we bumped into Costa at the airport he had been at Bingara for the Orange Festival and also the 80^th anniversary of their Greek café. For those who don’t know Costa, he is the delightful hairy garden guru from Gardening Australia. We first meet Costa some 4 years ago when he stayed with us as part of a sustainable expo in Tamworth.  As soon as her saw me he said that he remembered me as the guy with the great pumpkin patch which he tells everyone about … So cool … my pumpkins patch is famous, well at least in his eyes as well as mine.

 Stayed in Sydney Sunday night and it was a great opportunity to catch up with Peter and Yvonne now that they have moved so close to the airport, thanks for a fab dinner Yvonne and as usual the great company … where have those 30 years gone.

 Our 1.5 hour flight on Monday from Sydney to Hobart was smooth as. We landed, went to pick up our hire car and as we were a bit early they didn’t want us waiting around in the cold and wet they kindly up graded us J (good upgrade this time and not a Sherman Tank).

Quickly heading north to Launceston for the start of our next culinary adventures, or so we thought!

The hour we made up was quickly spent driving around and around enjoying the rainy scenery that Tassy has to offer! From the airport via Richmond and then back to the airport again, somehow we got aaaaaaa little bit lost. With no Gloria to help us out we ended up then driving south via Hobart, finally stumbled on the A1 heading north to Launceston.

Never thought I would say this after spending 6 challenging months in Italy with Gloria Princess Storker our trusty GPS we are missing her already in Tassie!!

 So let’s see what trouble we can make for the unsuspecting people of Tassie!