I love working with truffles, so when a truffle hunter from Hungary and his friend asked me if I’d contribute to a new book on truffles they were writing by sampling Honey truffles (Mattirolomyces terfezioides) fresh from the earth, shipped direct from Hungary, I agreed (and squealed with joy). Shipping mushrooms across the pond is…
Truffles
Not exactly a mushroom, truffles are one of the most expensive ingredients in the mushroom world. Just like other types of mushrooms, there are many different types, some with a smoky taste, a cheesy taste, or just straight up truffle. If you're lucky enough to have some, you have to try Jean Louis Palladin's Black Truffle Ice Cream.
Heirloom Acorn Squash with Truffled Maple, Honey Truffles and Butternuts
A while back I was contacted by a truffle hunter and soon to be author from Hungary wanting to know if I could contribute some recipes to a book on Honey Truffles (Mattirolomyces terfezioides). They offered to ship some to me direct from Hungary for the project, and being a fan both of truffles and…
Goat Milk-Black Truffle Custard Royale
Royale custard is one that is made purely with egg yolks instead of whole eggs. I designed this for my girlfriend who can’t have too much cow dairy, but likes truffles. You can mix and match different dairy as you like, cream will naturally give you a richer final dish, half and half will work…
Does storing truffles with eggs really work?
Ask a chef or someone who likes truffles how to store or cook with them to get the most out of them, and you can get some confusing answers: “Cook them in chicken stock!” “They must be stored with rice!” “Store them in a case of butter!” “Chopped up to make truffle butter!” “Store them…
Black Truffle Honey
Anyone who knows me will tell you I love food and history. This came about after thinking about truffles, and where they came from. I’d just gotten a shipment of tuber brumale, and I wanted to preserve some of them as quick as possible. In the process I got to thinking about how the first…
Roast Chicken “Demi-Deuil”, With Black Truffles
A couple days ago someone who received a batch of Italian truffles in Minnesota was referred to me for some advice on how to use and preserve them. It gave me the chance to write up a recipe I made a while back, and it’s a great one: Chicken Demi-Deuil. The first time I read…
Crown Coral Mushroom Soup, Milkweed, White Lentils, Truffle Cured Egg
There’s a bit of an intermission in our Midwest season after the morels come up. From my experience, for a month or so, it’s pretty doubtful you will see alot. With a little rain you could find an early chicken of the woods, or a puffball. Fairy ring mushrooms might also be up, as well…
Truffle Cured Duck Egg Yolks
Curing egg yolks in salt is a great trick I learned from a chef friend of mine, the talented Brett Weber, now chef de cuisine at the Bachelor Farmer in Minneapolis. You take some duck yolks (chicken would work fine too, but they won’t yield as much) cover them in salt, let them sit for…
Dried Morel-Pheasant Paté Chaud Froid
The culinary possibilities of working with fresh mushrooms are infinite, and dried mushrooms are no different. Cooking with dried shrooms can take some know-how and experience though; it can be heartbreaking when something doesn’t work out since a lot of time went into picking them. There is nothing worse than making a nice dinner with…
Crispy Pork Snout with Black Truffle
The last time I visited the Butcher Block restaurant in Minneapolis, Chef Fillipo Caffari gave us a tour of the kitchen. Fillipo moved here from Rome, where he used to be a butcher. I haven’t worked directly under him except for one or two special dinners, but I always admired the magic he works with…
Jean Louis Palladin’s Black Truffle Ice Cream
Of all the chef’s I look up to, Jean Louis Palladin takes the cake. I only learned about his work after he died, hearing Anthony Bourdain talk about him on one of his tv shows. What Bourdain said was: “You and I will never cook like Jean Louis, no one will” I became a bit…
Morels “A la Normande” With Black Spring Truffle.
This is one of the most decadent ways I have ever prepared morels. The inspiration for this recipe came from reading up on morel’s in one of my favorite books: Mushrooms Demystified, by David Arora. In the section on morels, he says: ” I request you, generous reader, to deliver any and all morels you…