Truffle season

Asparagus / poached egg / truffle

Yes that’s right folks. Whilst it may also be duck season, and rabbit season. It is now most importantly truffle season ! As the weather cools and the rain falls, you can take some comfort in the fact that those little nuggets of earthy goodness have been slowly growing in their special funghi like way for the past year (or 6 or 7 years perhaps) and are now ready to be harvested and savoured.

W.A is fast becoming a truffle haven it would seem. With the Mundaring Truffle Festival going from strength to strength each year, and Manjimup truffles being joined by Pemberton (The Stone Barn has just harvested it’s first truffles), and others in the works. It’s a boutique industry success story.

I picked up a little truffle at the Perth edition of the Good Food & Wine Show last weekend. It was from the Manjimup Wine & Truffle company who currently supply most (if not all) the black truffles you find in restaurants and gourmet stores across the country. Apparently the little 15gram piece I bought had been harvested the day before, and was vacuum sealed with a little padding for maximum freshness so it would still taste as strong as it did when it came out of the ground.

I like to do as little as possible to truffles. I think their uniquely pungent flavour should be the star of any dish they’re added to, and my lack of finesse when deal with fancy ingredients tends to lend itself to simple classics.

As such, the two dishes I made with this truffle were: Asparagus / Poached Egg / Black truffle, and a very simple truffle risotto with scallops.

My egg poaching method these days involves boiling water, white wine vinegar, and then just dropping the egg directly into the water without swirling or wrapping anything in cling film. The secret to the beauty of this is using really nice fresh eggs. The eggs I had this time were sourced from a stall at the Subi Farmers Market, and based on shape and consistency alone were obviously far superior to the supermarket eggs I’ve dealt with in the past.

Manjimup truffle risotto with scallops

The risotto was made using a chicken / rabbit stock as the base, and a little milk added along the way. I got the idea for the milk from Vince Velletri who used a similar method to cook the risotto for the Slow Food Perth lunch at the Mundaring Truffle festival last year. I was responsible for stirring about 10kg of rice that went into one massive pot and the memory still sticks in my head. The idea behind the milk is really just to mellow the flavours of the onion etc in the base so that the truffle has more poignancy in the dish.

The rest was simply frying some scallops in butter for 20 seconds or so on each side, and then shaving what was left of the fresh truffle over the top.

Served with a Bellarmine 2004 Riesling, it wasn’t a bad meal at all.

Really looking foward to the upcoming Truffle Festival at the end of this month, and you should all get up there and check it out.

10 thoughts on “Truffle season”

  1. So sad there are no truffle producers in Victoria. Those flakes of truffle looks so damn good.

    I like poaching eggs without vinegar though. I don’t like the taste and texture it gives the eggs. In cafe’s vinegar does help speed things up and get more consistent results though.

  2. OK, I admit it. I’m addicted to a good food blog and I’ve just come across yours at about the same time I’m being reminded by a grumbly tummy that I should eat before our function starts!
    Love a good truffle and being a chef there is much to do about truffles this time of year and it seems too many of us cheffy types tend to over complicate the delicacies of the pungent earthy goodness of truffles – especially here in Oz!
    So., its with gratitude read your recipes & I’m now off to the kitchen to suggest Chef whip us all up some poached eggs, asparagus & a touch of shaved black truffle. You’ve inspired me & I’ll be back!
    Cheers
    Anna

  3. Well spotted Linda. That was a sneaky inclusion that I made because I ran into some particularly nice looking asparagus from Peru in a grocery store. If I was feeling more adventurous I’d substitute it for some potato foam ala Movida’s poached egg, wagyu bresola, potato foam and truffle dish.

  4. If it were in there for any more than a day I’d agree with you George. Other times I’ve bought truffles they’ve either come packed with rice or au naturale. This one hadn’t suffered any ill effects from vacuum sealing.

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