Sometimes this blogging malarkey aint all bad and last night was one such time.
Myself and a handful of other Handpicked bloggers (RedTedArt, CrumbsFeedYourFamily and Nixdminx to name but three) were invited by toothpaste giants Oral-B to a cookalong evening with Masterchef 2011 winner Tim Anderson.
No money changed hands, and this is not a sponsored post. What I write is how I saw it, with an honest hand on heart.
Now recipes involving 34 ingredients are right up my street. But there is one ingredient that I cant work with because it might do something nasty to me: fish. Not seafood, but the back-boned variety. So the evening got off to a bit of an embarrassing start when I saw the menu of delights that were going to test us.
The first involved slabs of fresh tuna, which looked amazing, but made my lips blister just looking at it.
After declaring my mortification and duly sat out the first of the dishes, we moved onto the next: Hens Nest of Tea-Stained Egg, Leek Bhaji and Chana Masala Puree.
Yes, it sounds like a mouthful and it was. A delicious, tastebud-tingling mouthful.
Tim is famous for his wizardry, naming Heston Blumenthal as one of his inspirations, and is a lover of Japanese food.
Im not going to publish the whole recipe, just the egg component (scroll down) because to list the whole thing would cause my fingers to seize up from typing. But the egg stands alone as a stand-alone. The most incredible yolk youll ever see.
But first, I asked Tim for his 3 Favourite Ingredients and how we could use them at home (one of them is beer!)
Its all here in this first video.
Crumbs and RedTedArt taunt me with tuna
Now for the Tea-Stained Egg Recipe¦
Youll need¦
3 eggs
5g chai tea
300ml water
15ml soy sauce
10ml rice vinegar
0.1g saffron
1. Cook the eggs in rapidly boiling water for exactly 5 mins, then refresh by running under cold water for 2 mins.
2. Boil the water and combine with the tea, soy sauce and saffron.
3. Allow this mixture to cool, then peel the eggs and marinate for 24 hours.
In this video, Tim shows off the finished dish.
Tea-stained eggs with leek bhaji and chana masala puree
So what was the purpose of this event? Big companies dont invite us bloggers along to something so special out of the goodness of their hearts.
Well, they were nice to me, so Im going to be nice to them.
Theyre launching a new toothpaste called Oral-B Pro Expert. In our house, our toothpaste costs 1 per tube. Oral-B Pro Expert retails at 3.49.
So why the expense? According to the companys super-passionate scientist a 26 year-old called Adam Oral-B Pro Expert has more protective and preventative ingredients than any other toothpaste on the market. Its been in development for 20 years and, according to Adam, it will not only prevent cavities but will help you keep your teeth where they should be (in your mouth pay attention at the back) until you drop dead and give you a smile whiter than Simon Cowells porcelain gnashers.
We were given a free tube of the stuff to try for ourselves. Which was nice, though the cooking masterclass from Tim Anderson was better!
For more info about Oral-B products, click here.
