How to incorporate truffle into your Christmas menus

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Much of the festive season centres around food and eating. Most of our favourite Christmas memories are made in the kitchen, at the dining table or on the sofa with a large plate of mince pies. During this time of luxury and plenty, nothing could be more fitting than the decadent flavour of truffles.

If you are getting your menus together early, we have rifled through our go-to recipes and curated a guide of crowd-pleasing truffle dishes and suggestions for each occasion:

 

Christmas Eve

Picture this: your Christmas shopping is complete, presents are wrapped and vegetables prepped.. it is time to start truly relaxing into the celebration. You need a dinner worthy of the special occasion without exhausting yourself with another overly-elaborate spread. We suggest a simple fresh truffle pasta, paired beautifully with glass of your favourite champagne.

It could not be more simple – cook your store-bought fresh tagliatelle to instruction whilst melting several knobs of salted butter with garlic over a low heat. Transfer your cooked pasta to the buttery pan and toss whilst sprinkling over Italian cheese and starchy pasta water. Once creamy, add a few drops of Truffoil1% white truffle condiment and serve with a generous grating of fresh white winter truffle. Bellisima!

Can’t get hold of fresh truffles? Try using our truffle pepper in an extravagant take on the classic Cacio e Pepe instead.

 

 

Christmas Day

There is nothing like an impressive side dish to really make you feel you’ve put on a successful Christmas lunch. It would be too much, even for us, to add truffle to every accompaniment, however we do think at least one recipe from the following deserves a spot:

Honey truffle carrots – quick and easy, just toss roasted chantenay carrots with lashings of Honey & Truffle seconds before serving.

Truffled cauliflower cheese –grate one of our Italian truffle cheeses into your bechamel before adding to the cauliflower and drizzle of Truffoil before serving.

Truffle salted potatoes –  however you prepare your roast potatoes, sprinkle with a generous pinch of truffle salt straight from the oven for added aroma.

Truffle vegetable medley – serve your steamed broccoli, leeks and cabbage with a knob of black truffle butter.

 

Food for thought: offer an impressive and thoughtful vegetarian option by using our Salsa Truffina™ as the duxelle in a truffled butternut squash wellington or add into a nut roast mixture.

 

 

Boxing Day

To make this year’s boxing day grazing a more exciting affair, we have the perfect sandwich recipe for feeding the masses:

 

  • Indulgent boxing day sandwiches

Ingredients:

3 egg yolks, 250ml light olive oil + 50ml Truffoil™ black truffle concentrate, jar minced black summer truffle, 1 teaspoon wholegrain mustard, dash lemon juice, salt and pepper, sourdough (or sandwich bread of choice), salted butter, sliced leftover turkey, leftover braised red cabbage, leftover stuffing

Method:

Homemade truffle mayonnaise

Blend egg yolks and mustard with a pinch of salt and pepper until combined.

Slowly incorporate the oils whilst blending until thick and creamy.

Stir through a teaspoon of minced black summer truffle and a dash of lemon juice to taste.

Sandwich assembly

Cut two slices of sourdough and butter each side.

Spoon over a generous dollop of truffle mayonnaise and smear to cover.

Layer your turkey, followed by sweet red cabbage and stuffing onto the bread.

Toast your sandwich in a hot pan until each side is browned and crispy.

Of course, to save time you can skip the first step and simply add Truffoil™ to ready-made mayonnaise. In addition, you can include any leftover veggies you like – this would work wonderfully with chopped up brussel sprouts, a layering of parsnips or perhaps cauliflower cheese!

 

 

New Years Eve

Ringing in the New Year is cause for a party (dinner or otherwise) kitted out with impressive cocktails and decorations. Throwing a get-together can be stressful, however as long as your guests are adequately fed and watered no one will notice any small hiccups.

If you are having friends over for dinner, wow them with an exceptional starter worthy of the occasion. Why not try beef fillet carpaccio dotted with Jerusalem artichoke puree and delicately arranged black summer truffle slices. For vegetarian guests, a truffled cheese souffle would be equally inspiring, made with Truffoil white truffle concentrate and salty Gruyere.

Throwing a livelier event? Canapes and nibbles should still look to impress, offering your guests pleasant breaks from the dancefloor. Mix up retro classics with truffled devilled eggs, folding minced black summer truffle through the whipped yolk mixture before piping, or honey truffle cocktail sausages using our Honey & Truffle as a syrupy glaze.

 

 

New Years Day

The New Years Day Walk is an essential activity in our opinion, whether to shake off a sore head or contemplate the upcoming year. For most of us, that also means cold hands and muddy shoes, with a comforting quick fix needed upon returning home. So, we suggest soup. Celeriac, parsnip, potato, or whatever you have in the cupboard, lovingly garnished with black summer truffle carpaccio. An easy way to round off the week of special dishes.

 

We hope to have provided some inspiration and hopefully encouraged some excitement for the coming month. Whether you plan to cook for formal feasting guests, for loved ones (and +1s) squeezed around your kitchen table or simply for yourself, alone on the sofa watching Polar Express for the hundredth time… we hope, like us, you find each mouthful a haven of Christmas joy.

 

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The Ultimate Four-Course Summer Truffle Menu

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The Ultimate Summer Truffle Menu


 

 

We can’t stress it enough – the bountiful Summer Truffle is the perfect training ground for truffle newbies, and the all-is-permitted zone for who already knows his way around Tubers.

 

Its abundance implicates gentler prices than its winter cousins, while the earthy-yet-not-overpowering aroma means it can be paired fairly easily – so you can let the imagination run free when you have summer truffles in your kitchen.

 

To give you an idea of their versatility, we searched through hundreds of recipes to create the perfect summer truffle menu.

 


 

(note: you can use either Black Summer Truffle or Black Winter Truffles in these recipes, depending on the season)

 

Start off with this beautiful Jerusalem Artichoke Soup with Black Summer Truffle, by Chaîne des Rôtisseurs.

 

You can then go the Italian way and have a first starchy and comforting main course made of Pan-Seared Potato Gnocchi with Buerre Noisette, Black Summer Truffle and Provolone (by Joseph Hafner at James Beard Foundation), or keep it international and use the gnocchi to accompany the second meaty main course, this gorgeously juicy Roast Magret Duck Breasts with Shaved Black Truffles (Epicurious, photo: Pornchai Mittongtare).

TIPS.
If you are short of time, use good quality ready-made gnocchi for your recipe.
Provolone not in sight? Parmesan always do, but also a tender Caciotta cheese will work miracles here – just use a coarse grater.

 

Sweet tooth? We’ve got that covered, too. As weird as it may sounds, here’s a Burnt Cream with Black Truffles you won’t regret giving a try (Saveur, photo: Christopher Hirsheimer).

TIP. If you don’t have a blowtorch available don’t skip the burning part as it really adds another layer of flavour. Just sprinkle with sugar and place the custards under the oven grill for a couple of minutes, leaving the door slightly open and checking frequently. When melted and browned, remember allow the time for the sugar to set.

 


 

We hope you’ll like our menu – if you want to recreate it, you can find Summer Truffles, Black Winter Truffles, truffled Caciotta cheese and Truffoil in our online store!

 

 

Seasonal Greens and Summer Truffles – Top summer recipes

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Seasonal-greens-and-summer-truffles

 

 

Seasonal, greens and good for you are three of the leading culinary trends. Fabulously flavoursome it’s not even a trend – it’s just the reason why we love eating. We have joined them together in this little compendium of springy earthiness.

 

 

 

With the last crop of British asparagus being harvested in these days it would be a sin not to take advantage of the last sprouts of the season.

An easy take on a classical is steamed asparagus with poached eggs and truffle shavings – keep it simple or follow Mark Jordan’s fancy Asparagus spears with truffle, poached free-range duck egg, hollandaise sauce and Parmesan crisps recipe.

You can go vegan with this Grilled asparagus with sorrel and shaved black truffles, from Karen Martini.

If you got caught in a summer storm and need something more comforting, try a simple asparagus velouté, laced with single cream (just a little drop, you don’t want to cover the asparagus flavour) and topped with grated black truffle. Here a good (and utterly beautiful) version from Zen Can Cook.

 

 

Summer truffles are a great match for peas, broad beans, fava beans etc. Sure, one could use the frozen version, but if you ever tasted the buttery, earthy sweetness of peas-out-of-the-pod, you know the difference.

Arne & Claudia, from Food with a View, mix fresh fava beans with a fresh truffle pesto, which will come in handy in many more recipes.

They also make the best early summer picnic treat with this Frittata with wrinkled peas and summer truffle’s butter de luxe, which is the most civilised take on the Neapolitan classic beach food “Frittata di maccheroni” that we have ever seen.

Just remember that you can always prepare a risotto with fresh peas (half whole, half pureed) and summer truffle – and add your favourite choice between lobster meat, scallops or seared cubes of foie gras marinated in Cognac.

Oh, well, are you salivating enough? You can get your fresh Summer Truffles here!

 

 

Summer Truffles Hunting & How to make a good Black Truffle Risotto

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Warmer days, green leaves, first walks in the woods. Summer Truffle (Tuber Aestivum) season opens tomorrow – our dogs are ready for the hunt, swinging tails and quivering noses.

While we wait for them to spot the first truffles, here is a recipe to keep you salivating!

 


(note: this recipes calls for Black Truffles – you can use either Black Summer Truffle or Black Winter Truffles, depending on the season)

Risotto with black truffle and parmesan

 

I know, this sounds pretty basic – but let’s be honest – there’s nothing better than a simple and classic dish made with the best ingredients you can find. It’s not about the complexity of the recipe, but the harmonic meeting of a few great quality ingredients that combine together to put a little taste of heaven in every mouthful.

Also, it’s important to know the basics – making a risotto it is not that simple as we’ve been told. Nothing scary, just a few tips to follow so you end up with the perfect al dente rice, creamy without drowning it in cream.

First of all, get a small blonde onion, or – even better – a shallot. Slice it as thinly as you can and slowly fry it with a dollop of good quality butter until translucent. Add the rice (Carnaroli or Vialone Nano are our recommendations for risotto, make sure you’ll get the best rice you can find – it really makes the difference) and – THIS IS A REALLY IMPORTANT PART – toast it. Yes, add the rice to the onion and butter and stir with a wooden spoon over medium-heath for 2-3 minutes, until all grains are shiny. Toasting the rice you are basically caramelising it with butter, closing the pores and allowing the grains to maintain their shape and texture.

After this crucial part, start adding a spoonful of vegetable stock at time, adding the next one only once the liquid has been almost completely absorbed. Keep stirring. 3 minutes before the cooking time, add the grated Fresh Black Truffle.

Once the risotto is done, close the fire, add a good dollop of butter, a generous sprinkle of Parmesan, stir briefly and cover. This helps the risotto assuming the creamy texture we all love. After a couple of minutes stir for the last time and serve – if you like – with some shavings of Parmesan and Black Truffle!

 

Ingredients – 2 people

170g rice
1l vegetable stock
30g Black Truffle
30g of shallot or blonde onion (no need to be very precise)
Butter
Parmesan