truffle – Cook and Drink

Mushroom Season

19 October 2023

So far this year’s mushroom season has been great with lots of delicious Cèpes, Bay Boletes, Birch Boletes and Chanterelles. This Saturday we bought a very tasty autumn Truffle and a day earlier we treated ourselves to Matsu Take. Such a special mushroom. We’re waiting for the Saffron Milk Cap, Spain’s favourite mushroom, and the Caesar’s mushroom, a mushroom much appreciated in Italy.

Since it’s a great year for the Bay Bolete, we thought it would be nice to share some recipes with this mushroom. Its taste is similar to that of the Cèpes or Penny Bun. Perhaps more intense?

Pâté en Croûte

A few years ago we celebrated the mushroom season by preparing a Pâté with bay boletes. The combination of a crispy crust, a structured, colourful filling and various flavours is always a pleasure. It’s good fun to think about the ingredients, work on the construction and enjoy the wonderful aromas from your oven while baking the pâté. And the joy when slicing it: is the pâté as beautiful as you expected it to be?

A red, medium bodied wine will be a great accompaniment of this Pâté en Croûte. In general you’re looking for a red wine with aromas of black fruit, floral notes and delicate wood. The tannins should be soft or well-integrated. We enjoyed a glass of Pinot Noir from La Cour Des Dames.

Sauce

Earlier this year we prepared a rich sauce with bay boletes, sage, mustard en crème fraîche. We served the sauce with excelltn veal rib eye and turnip cabbage. The turnip brings frsshness and lightness to the dish, creating a lovely balance.
A fruity, slightly chilled red wine will be great with the dish. We opened a bottle of German Spätburgunder from the Pfalz area. Some dark fruit, strawberries, touch of earthiness, not too complex. One that supported the flavours and aromas of the dish very well.

Guineafowl

Bay boletes combine very well with guineafowl. The meat is leaner, somewhat darker and more flavourful compared to chicken. It is not difficult to prepare, but due to the low-fat content you must be careful not to overcook. In this recipe we use guineafowl supreme (the breast fillet with the skin on plus the wing bone), rosemary, thyme, pancetta and garlic.
Enjoy with a glass of Chiroubles, a cru from the Beaujolais, produced by Domaine Montangeron. The wine has floral notes, aromas of cherries and strawberries. Its colour is pale ruby. Rich, elegant and long. It brings freshness and fruitiness to the dish and is sufficiently complex to remain present when enjoying the guineafowl and the bay bolete.
In general you’re looking for a red wine with freshness, fruity aromas and complexity. Perhaps a Pinot Noir?

More recipes on our website dedicated to mushrooms.

Summer Truffle - Rippitippi / Public domain

Summer Truffle and Egg

1 September 2023

Only a few weeks to go before the end of the summer truffle season. A truffle with mild flavours and aromas but nevertheless great when used in cold dishes, such as truffle mayonnaise or a salad with chicory. We decided to go for a luxurious appetizer with an excellent glass of white wine. We bought 25 grams of truffle (and paid € 12,50) and enjoyed every minute of it.

Wine Pairing

A lightly oaked chardonnay with lots of character will be great with the summer truffle and egg. We opened a bottle of Casa da Passarella Dão A Descoberta Branco. An elegant Portuguese wine with lots of character. Fresh, aromatic, lasting.

What You Need

3 Eggs
Mayonnaise
25 grams of Summer Truffle
(optional) White Pepper

What You Do

Boil the eggs until nearly hard. Peel and allow to cool. Slice in halve, remove the egg yolk and use a fork to create mimosa. Grate half of the summer truffle, combine this with the mimosa and add some mayonnaise, just to get the right consistency. Perhaps some white pepper. Stuff the eggs, cover with cling foil and transfer to the refrigerator. After 2 hours decorate the eggs with thinly sliced summer truffle. Time to sit back, relax and enjoy summer.

Leek with Truffle

23 February 2023

This winter truffles are even more expensive than usual, due to a warm and dry season in the Italian and French truffle regions. The number of truffles is limited and the ones that are harvested are small. Bad news for the truffle-lover.

The first to talk to us about truffles were Fred and Yolanda de Leeuw. Not only did they run a very special butcher in Amsterdam, they also imported truffles and truffle related products.
Their shop was the only place in Amsterdam where you could buy Wagyu beef before it became popular, foie gras, quails, Spanish veal, bread from Paris, oysters with wasabi sabayon, capon, home-made pastrami and black pudding. Expensive, delicious and always of the highest quality.

Fred and Yolanda contributed to various cookbooks with recipes for truffle-based dishes. In 1999 chef Alain Caron and author Lars Hamer published a book about the shop, the meat, the patés, the sausages, the salads and the dishes they prepared. One of these recipes is for a leek salad with summer truffle and Jus de Truffe. The truffle juice is obtained after maceration of the truffles for six months to one year in the juice of the first cooking process for conserved truffles. Jus de Truffe has the deep earthy aromas and flavour of fresh truffle.

We prepared the leek salad as a tribute to two people who were genuinely passionate about what they did, what they sold and what they prepared.

Wine Pairing

The dish comes with a range of flavours: the leek is buttery with a hint of onion and the vinaigrette earthy and fresh with a touch of bitterness. Wine wise we suggest a Soave, a white wine made with garganega grapes, because it goes very well with the citrus and the aromatic leek flavour.

What You Need

Young Thin Leek
Lemon
Olive Oil
Jus de Truffe
Mustard

What You Do

Clean and wash the leek. Slice in three, making sure all slices have the same length. Cook in hot water for 20-30 minutes until they have a soft, creamy texture. Cool quickly and set aside. Make a dressing by adding jus de truffe to a bowl. Add half a teaspoon of mustard, a few drops of lemon juice and half a teaspoon of excellent olive oil. Now it’s a matter of adjusting. It all depends on the intensity of the jus de truffe, the tartness of the lemon and flavour of the olive oil. Dry the leek carefully, whisk the dressing and serve. And if you can afford it, add some freshly grated truffle.

Yolanda en Fred de Leeuw - Het Vleesboek

Potato and Truffle Purée

24 November 2022

The combination of potatoes and truffle is an interesting one. Because one is the opposite of the other in terms of price and availability? Because both grow underground?

Dutch chef John Halvemaan (also winner of the prestigious Johannes van Dam prize) created a no doubt delicious combination, using butter, veal stock, parsley and cooked bacon. Also very tasty: a recipe for a gratin with crème fraîche and eggs and a recipe by chef Claude Deligne (Le Taillevent in Paris) with foie gras. All far too complex for us, so we prepared a very rich and tasty potato purée with lots of truffle.

If you look for recipes with potatoes and truffle, you will find suggestions using truffle oil. It’s not the real thing, however, if you find quality truffle oil and use only a little bit, your purée will be yummy. The sad news is that some (most?) truffle oil comes with 2,4-dithiapentane, a synthetically produced, aromatic molecule. Producers add this because it gives the impression that the oil contains truffle. Unfortunately, the flavours of 2,4-dithiapentane are not even close to the aromas and taste of a real truffle.

In this case you have to spend some money on both the truffle and the potatoes.

We combined our purée with an excellent rib eye and served it with its own jus and the purée.

Wine Pairing

We enjoyed a glass of Camino de Caza Almansa Garnacha Tintorera-Monastrell 2020. An organic red wine produced by Bodegas Piqueras and made grapes from the Almansa region in Spain. It’s a full-bodied wine with soft tannins and a hint of vanilla and chocolate. In general, you’re looking for a smooth wine with notes of red fruit and oak, medium acidity and with a long, dry finish. One that goes very well with for instance red meat and game (hare, deer).

What You Need

Potatoes
Butter
Egg Yolk
Cream
Milk
Salt
Winter Truffle

What You Do

Make your favourite purée! Cook the potatoes until ready (meaning: until the blade of a knife inserted in the potato goes easily through it). Drain. Mash with a fork, add cold butter, combine, add warm milk and/or cream and use a spatula to get the right consistency. You could add a beaten egg yolk (also because eggs and truffle work together wonderfully). Add salt to taste. Perhaps some white pepper. Grate the truffle and add half of it to the purée. The taste of a winter truffle benefits from the warmth of the purée. Just before serving add the remaining truffle.

Lamb Gascogne

18 July 2022

It was not your ordinary butcher, not your ordinary delicatessen, it was something very, very special. It said slagerij (butcher) on the window, but it was so much more, so very special. It was the only place in Amsterdam where you could buy Wagyu and truffles before they became popular, foie gras, quails, Spanish veal, bread from Paris, oysters with wasabi sabayon, Iberico pork, capon and home-made black pudding and pastrami. Expensive, delicious and always of the highest quality. Owners Yolanda and Fred de Leeuw and their staff were clearly passionate about what they did, what they sold and what they prepared. And if it wasn’t busy, they would gladly tell you how to prepare sweetbread or how to make sure you got the perfect cuisson for your bavette.

Expensive? Yes. But as Fred explained, quality meat was, is and will always be expensive, so it’s better to enjoy quality once a week than to eat industry produced meat 7 days per week. “And if you want to know why”, they said in 1999, “just read the papers”.
Which is, unfortunately, still very true in 2022.

In 1999 chef Alain Caron and author Lars Hamer published a book about the shop, the meat, the patés, the sausages, the salads and the dishes they prepared on a daily basis.

Truffle Salad

One of our favourite recipes is for Yolanda’s truffle-egg salad. Beautiful, intense flavours and so much better and tastier than the ready-made misery that’s being sold today. Her salad is easy to make and only requires mayonnaise, eggs, truffle oil and yes, of course, lots of summer truffle!

Another great recipe is for Lamb Cascogne-style. The anchovies add saltiness and umami to the meat, the garlic brings lovely aromas and the spring onion sweetness. Use the cooking liquid to make a simple jus and you have a perfect meal. Some recipes suggest coating the lamb with tomato puree, others suggest making a tomato sauce with carrots, celeriac and the cooking liquid, but we prefer serving the lamb with tomato confit.

Het Vleesboek (Dutch only) by Alain Caron and Lars Hamer is out of print. A second-hand copy will probably cost around 10 euro.

Wine Pairing

We enjoyed a glass of Pontificis, a red wine produced by Badet Clément in France. It is made of the classic combination of Grenache, Syrah and Mourvèdre grapes (GSM). In general you’re looking for an aromatic red wine, with tones of red fruit and a touch of oak. Medium bodied and well balanced.

What You Need

Leg of Lamb (boneless)
Anchovies
Young Garlic
Spring Onion
Olive Oil
Tomato Confit

What You Do

Slice the meat, allowing you to press bits of anchovies, garlic and onion into the meat. Heat your oven to 180 °C or 355 °F. Fry until the centre is 60 °C or 140 °F. Allow to rest under aluminium foil for at least 10 minutes.

PS

You may think this is a rather low temperature. In the US it seems that 145 °F is the bare minimum for leg of lamb. The temperature in the centre will of course increase during the resting period. Feel absolutely free to go for 145 °F before removing the meat from your oven. Fred and Yolanda sold only the very best of meat, so serving it a touch seignant was never a problem.

More mushrooms!

28 March 2022

Mushroom is one of the first books by Johnny Acton, Nick Sadler and Jonathan Lovekin (photographs), published in 2001. The book offers some 70 recipes plus very interesting background information on the history of mushrooms and their hallucinating, psychedelic and culinary aspects. The book comes with many beautiful drawings and photographs. It has specific sections on cèpes, morels, chanterelles and truffles. It is very well written, fun to read and the recipes are accurate.

They have also written books on Soup, Preserves and one called The Complete Guide to Making, Cooking & Eating Sausages.

Recipes

One of the benefits of the book is that the recipes range from relatively easy to make (pasta with cèpes or clear soup with enoki for instance) to exotic and mouth-watering dishes (lobster and cauliflower fungus ravioli with saffron butter). The book is a great addition to more classic books on mushrooms such as The Mushroom Book by Michael McLaughlin, The Mushroom Feast by Jane Grigson or Antonio Carluccio’s Complete Mushroom Book.

In most cases it’s not too difficult to buy the required mushroom. Shopping at your local Asian toko will also help, for instance if you need shiitake, enoki or wood ear (they offer a recipe for a very nice Chinese chicken soup with ginger, pak choi and dried wood ear).

Our favourite? Perhaps their salad with shiitake, watercress and tofu. A modern, light dish with lots of flavours (cilantro, ginger, sesame oil, lemon).

Mushroom is available (in most cases second hand) via channels such as Amazon and e-Bay for between 10 and 25 euro.

Earthly Delights

14 March 2022

The Mushroom Book by Michael McLaughlin and Dorothy Reinhardt (Illustrator) is a lovely, small book with some 35 recipes and 60 very delightful full-colour wood-cut illustrations. Just look at the cover! It’s the kind of book that we bought because it looks good. A book you simply want to have.

Only later did we find out that it discusses the history and other interesting back ground information of various mushrooms, including information on choosing, storing and preparing them. The book offers an introduction to the joy of cooking with mushrooms such as button mushrooms, morels, oyster mushroom, truffle, trompette de la mort, chanterelle, shiitake, cèpes and huitlacoche, a Mexican mushroom that grows on corn.
Michael McLaughlin is also known as co-author of The Silver Palate Cookbook with recipes from Manhattan’s celebrated gourmet food shop.

Amongst our favourite recipes are Mushroom Tapenade and Raw Mushroom, Fennel and Provolone Salad.

The Mushroom Book was published in 1994. It’s available (in most cases second hand) via channels such as Amazon and e-Bay for something like 15 euro. Ii is an ideal and friendly introduction to the world of earthly delights.

Antonio Carluccio’s Oysters with Bianchetto

7 February 2022

Last Saturday we were extremely lucky. Not only did we buy the very first fresh morels of the season, we also bought a small bianchetto. This affordable white truffle is available from mid January to the end of April. It is also called March truffle (marzuolo).

In his book Complete Mushroom Book, Italian chef Antonio Carluccio combines fresh oysters with a white wine sabayon and white truffle: Ostriche con zabaglione e tartufo bianco. The result is spectacular. The combination of the distinct aroma of the white truffle with the oyster is intriguing. The sabayon brings everything together in terms of taste, consistency and structure. And just to show you how clever Carluccio’s combination is: the sabayon in itself is not pleasant. We prepared the dish with bianchetto. Maybe less subtle than when prepared with a white truffle, but the result is nevertheless wonderful.

Wine Pairing

With such a great dish you many want to drink a glass of Chablis or Champagne. We enjoyed a glass of Crémant de Bourgogne, produced by Vitteaut-Alberti. A refined wine, soft and with delicate fruit. The bubbles are small and pleasant.

Oysters a la Carluccio © cadwu — Oysters à la Carluccio © cadwu

White Asparagus with Sauce Périgueux à la Kimizu

5 May 2021

The French Périgord is the truffle heart of France. The region is also known for its culinary products, such as Confit de Canard, wines from Bergerac and Monbazillac, Foie Gras and Sauce Périgueux. This sauce is a classic in the French kitchen. Its basis is a white sauce made with shallot, a reduction of white wine, (goose) fat, stock and lots of truffle. The ‘original’ recipe of this truffle sauce can be found in La Bonne Cuisine du Périgord written in 1929 by La Mazille. The sauce works beautifully with Tournedos and Magret de Canard. And since white asparagus love truffles, why not combine them with Sauce Périgueux?

We don’t think a roux-based sauce will go very well with asparagus, so we combined two recipes: the flavors of Sauce Périgueux with the lightness and consistency of Japanese Kimizu.

Wine Pairing

We enjoyed our asparagus with a glass of Riesling, produced by Bott Geyl in the French Alsace. This fresh, aromatic, dry white wine with a hint of sweetness and high acidity combines very well with the sweetness of the asparagus and the intense, rich flavor of the sauce. The wine supports the dish perfectly.

What You Need

6 White Asparagus
1 Small Truffle
For the Sauce
- 1 Shallot
- 1 Glass of Dry White Wine
- 3 Black Peppercorns
- ½ tablespoon Simple White Vinegar
- Two Cubes of Jus de Truffe*
- 2 egg yolks
White Pepper

What You Do

Chop the shallot, crush the peppercorns coarsely, add to a pan and add a glass of white wine. Leave to simmer for 20 minutes. Add a splash of white vinegar. Leave to simmer for 10 minutes. Add the two cubes of jus de truffe and leave to simmer for another 10 minutes. Pass through a sieve. If all is well you should have 4 tablespoons of liquid. If necessary reduce. Set aside and leave to cool.
Peel the asparagus and steam for 20 minutes, depending on the size. When there is still 10 minutes on the clock, start working on the sauce. Whisk the two egg yolks well, add the 4 tablespoons of liquid, mix and heat in the microwave on 30% power. Start with one interval of 10 seconds, stir, followed by an interval of 5 seconds, stir and continue with intervals of 5 seconds until you have the right consistency. Total time in the microwave will be approximately 60 seconds. Allow to cool for a minute or two. In the meantime grate the truffle. Serve the sauce over the asparagus, add some white pepper and sprinkle the truffle over the sauce and the asparagus.

* Best to buy a can of jus de truffe and freeze the content in an ice cube bag.

Omelet with Winter Truffle

13 January 2021

Black truffles are harvested from November to March, so be extravagant and buy one before the season ends. When buying a truffle, please ask if it’s okay to smell them, because the aroma will tell you everything you need to know about the quality.
Black truffles combine really well with a warm purée of potatoes, with scallops, risotto and everything eggs. We used our truffle to make one of the simplest and tastiest truffle dishes ever: an omelet with truffle and Parmesan cheese.
If you store a black truffle for a day or so, then please store it in a small box with some rice and an egg. The rice will prevent the truffle of becoming wet and the egg will embrace the aromas of the truffle and become a treat in its own right.

Wine Pairing

A not too complex white wine goes very well with this omelet, best would be a classic Pinot Blanc or Riesling from the Alsace region (for instance produced by Kuentz-Bas). Think fruity aromas, floral characteristics, minerality and a touch of acidity and sweetness.

What You Need

2 Eggs
Butter
Parmesan Cheese
10 grams or (budget permitting) more Black Truffle
White Pepper

What You Do

Clean the truffle if necessary. Take a fairly small iron skillet and make sure the pan is warm through and through but not hot. Using a fork (a spoon is even better) whisk the two eggs together. Add butter to the pan and wait until it is melted. It should not change colour or sizzle. An omelet should not be fried; the bottom must remain yellow. Add the whisked egg to the pan and wait until the egg is beginning to set. Check the consistency with your fingers. There is no alternative to baveuse! Take your time.
Serve the omelet on a warm dish with some freshly grated Parmesan cheese, white pepper and grated black truffle.

Black Truffle, Egg and Parmesan Cheese © cadwu

Omelet with Black Truffle and Parmesan Cheese © cadwu

Cook and Drink

The Art of Flavours

Tag: truffle

Mushroom Season

Pâté en Croûte

Sauce

Guineafowl

Summer Truffle and Egg

Wine Pairing

What You Need

What You Do

Leek with Truffle

Wine Pairing

What You Need

What You Do

Potato and Truffle Purée

Wine Pairing

What You Need

What You Do

Lamb Gascogne

Truffle Salad

Wine Pairing

What You Need

What You Do

PS

More mushrooms!

Recipes

Earthly Delights

Antonio Carluccio’s Oysters with Bianchetto

Wine Pairing

White Asparagus with Sauce Périgueux à la Kimizu

Wine Pairing

What You Need

What You Do

Omelet with Winter Truffle

Wine Pairing

What You Need

What You Do