Intoxicated with the first truffles of the season

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the truffle filling for brie

I’m going to give you a list of my top 7 truffle recipes.

But first I want to tell you about my first intoxicating, dense and aromatic truffle of the season. Unexpectedly on Sunday Simon and Bernie from the pop-up truffle shop Madame Truffles (re-opening June 22 2012) returned from foraging in NSW with a giant truffle larger than an iphone and a pretty decent sized one as a gift for me.

They were straight out the ground as fresh as you can get and intensely aromatic. Rather than keep them overnight for a simple scrambled egg and truffle breakfast I cooked them straight away.

My first dish was unorthodox but made for truffle – cauliflower, quinoa and fetta. I simply broke down a cauliflower to small florets and roasted them in a cast iron skillet. I used black Quinoa, which I rinced, soaked and simmered in a ratio of 1 part quinoa to 2 and a bit parts water and let sit for fifteen minutes. Next I mixed the two together and crumbled in some good fetta, which adds salt to the dish. I baked this at 150C for 30 minutes and then shaved in a lot of truffle, mixed it through and returned the dish to a warm oven (switched off) for 5 minutes or so to release the flavours.

I matched this with a light (12.5%) earthy and exquisitely quirky syrah (shiraz) from Yarra Glen, Bobar 2011.

Baked truffle stuffed brie

A smallish ripe brie was sliced in half horizontally and layered generously with thinly sliced truffle, rewrapped in its waxed paper and stuffed it back into its box before leaving in the warm oven for 30 minutes.

I matched this with another quirky wine, a Laurent Combier Crozes Hermitage 2010 (which like the Bobar I picked up from Blackhearts & Sparrows in North Fitzroy).

I can only describe what happened next as intoxicating as the time I took opium after being bullied into buying some from a hill tribe granny in northern Vietnam. This food trip was as blurry and dreamy as a drug trip and between two of us we ate the whole brie.

So high was I on truffle that I then shared a whole tub of Maggie Beer Burnt fig, honeycomb & caramel ice cream, something I wouldn’t normally dream of (although I fancy another whole tub to myself).

Wow, talk of cheese dream that night.

My dense and aromatic truffle

Anyhow, here are my top 7 ways to treat truffle. I reckon it’s best to keep it simple.

1. Simple homemade pasta served with olive oil and butter and shaved truffle.

2. Scrambled egg with shaved truffle

3. White polenta, poached egg and truffle.

4. Brie (or clarines) baked with truffle

5. Macaroni cheese with truffle

6. Cauliflower, quinoa, fetta and truffle

7. Baked potato with melted butter and shaved truffle.

What are your favourite truffle dishes?

The Fringe Food Festival will be hosting 3 or 4 terrific value truffle dinners this year.

a truffle larger than an iphone

Ed Charles is a journalist and digital consultant who spend the better part of the part two decades in Australia. He trained with IPC in London and has written for major international and national business and lifestyle titles. Establishing this blog in 2005, he was one of the first of a handful of food bloggers in Australia. He's spoken at the Melbourne Writers Festival and Emerging Writers Festival and has broadcasted regularly on food and digital media issues. He is currently writing a history of mankind told through food.

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