My Life in Truffles

The truffle is not a true aphrodisiac; but in certain circumstances it can make women more affectionate and men more attentive. -Brillat-Savarin

Wow, what a tempting proposition – affection and attention all in one small tuber. Reality is often not as romantic. My first exposure to truffles was a completely underwhelming one. While working in France, I was given a truffle preserved in cognac and told to make a special of a salad of poached lobster with truffle mayo. It was a simple enough salad, based on fresh well handled ingredients with a fresh mayonnaise built up with the liquor from the truffle and a little of the tuber shredded in.

A non-chef friend who was visiting me came into the kitchen and we chatted as I prepared my mis-en-place. He asked what I was working with and as soon as I said truffle, he grabbed the black orb and took a lusty bite out of it. I watched in horror as he spit most of it into the garbage ” I thought it was chocolate” he meekly sputtered between scraping his tongue with his upper teeth.

My god, I thought, how am I going to hide this from the chef! Luckily I went to the fridge and saw a stock pile on the shelf, up until today it’s been our little secret.

For the first while I was disillusioned with my truffle experience, I thought they were a mix of cognac, old socks and guilt. It was my first trip to forage for truffles that really opened my eyes. I talked a co-worker into introducing me to his truffle hunting uncle, Marc. We headed off to the oak forest armed with a knapsack, laguiole knife  and a walking stick. Marc looked for several tell tale signs on the forest floor. A burning (dry patch of ground)  near the base of the oaks, He also looked for the activities of rodents and squirrels (pretty much the same thing in my mind – and my dog Cooper) and flies buzzing around these areas. All are attracted to the odor of the ripe truffles. Much to my surprise, these tips soon landed us with 3 or 4 nice orbs of black truffle. The smell was amazing with these fresh specimens.

The Classic Laguiole Knife

We worked our way back to Marc’s cabin (actually a shack made of recycled odds and ends)  and we cooked up a batch of fresh eggs, fire scorched bread (sorry but it wasn’t toast Marc), local cheese and wine dispensed from a recycled water bottle. The truffles were hacked with the laguiole (the indispensable knife of most Frenchmen) and it might have been the best and most satisfying meal I’ve experienced.

In my many experiences with truffles since that day, they generally pale in the comparison. Assaults with cheap truffle oil and stale truffles that taste like burnt rubber have slightly jaded my perspective. An encounter with properly handled truffles always restores my faith. Aromatic white truffles from Italy, black truffles from France, Tasmania and Tennessee, foraged truffles from Oregon – all have been interesting albeit expensive solutions for my truffle cravings. I’m also encourage by the pioneering work of several farmers on Vancouver Island who are in the process of establishing our own homegrown truffle industry. They are growing black Perigord Truffles generally planted in the roots of Hazelnut trees. Good luck and god speed to those black  morsels, we need all the help we can get to make women more affectionate and men more agreeable.

I’ll be hosting a truffle cooking class on the farm on December 5 and a multi-course dinner on December 12

1) Triffling with Truffles – Cooking class -

Saturday December 5, 12:00 noon – 5:00 pm

$125 / person including recipes

2) Truffle Dinner

Saturday December 12th 5:00 pm – 9:00 pm

Truffled deviled eggs with artisan smoked bacon

Truffle Veloute

Fresh egg pasta with butter, fresh truffle and artisan Parmesan cheese

Terrrine of scallops and prawns with a black truffle aioli

Fresh truffle risotto with red wine braised lamb shank

Chocolate truffle tarte with hazelnut ice cream

$125 / person including recipes

For more info see:

www.magnorth.bc.ca

All the rain promises…

- a brief review of the mushroom foraging season 2009

It’s been quite moist around Duncan these past few days, the rain falling on the hillsides has saturated our local watershed, filling up the streams and sprouting lakes where streets use to run. Several months ago I remember wistfully thinking that we needed more rain. The moss in the forests around my farm was getting scorched in the dry and hot September weather. The mushroom harvest had not really started and that made me a little nervous for my favourite pastime – fungi foraging. I guess this was a case of be careful what you ask for – you may get it.

Here we are in late November and at last count we had 21 rain days out of 23 days this month! The moss is looking very healthy now and the past mushroom season has been one of the strongest in recent memory. It all started back in July when I found my first yellow chanterelle (Cantharellus formosa) in the woods around my place. That was a very encouraging sign – and was turned into a lovely pasta dish with rosemary, garlic, olive oil and Parmesan cheese. This soon turned out to be a premature start for the season, we went into near drought conditions for the next few months until about the last week in September. This year, the early fall rain showers translated into a bumper crop of white chanterelles (cantharellus subalbidus). On several occasions we went out and collected 10-15 lbs in less than a couple of hours foraging. These were destined for chowders, tomato sauces and pickles, now slowly being doled out of our pantry. Oddly enough, in the Cowichan there was a distinct lack of yellow chanterelles, in a normal year they are one of the dominant mushrooms in the forest – not this year.

We did notice a huge fruiting of short stemmed russulas (russula brevipes), these on their own are quite unremarkable mushrooms that have one redeeming quality – they are attacked by a parasitic fungus (hypomyces) and converted in the prized lobster mushroom (hypomyces lactifuorum) . They sprouted by the literal thousands in the hills of the valley, a truly remarkable fruiting that continues late into the fall (another rare occurrence).

October brought the biggest surprise of the season, an immense bounty of boletus mushrooms including the prized Porcini (boletus edulis). We have hunted high and low for these delicacies in the past, this year we found them scattered all around the trails and paths of the region. In mid October, a visit to our farm by noted mycologist David Arora shed some light on the fickle nature of the porcini. David explained the porcini is an edge-species in the world of fungi, they like to fruit in the zones that receive a little dappled sunlight and pop up on the edges of forest along paths, streams, meadows and road ways. We also found that the presence of the fly agaric (amanita muscaria) are an indicator of the correct conditions for porcini. The mushrooms are also closely associated with the roots of certain trees (in our area the Douglas Fir) – all of these tips combined with perfect growing conditions to put us in porcini heaven.

Finally in mid October, the nights cooled, the moon waned and the matsutake or pine mushrooms (Tricholoma magnivelare) began to fruit in the local hills. This is always one of my favourite times of the year. The discovery of the first pine and the deep inhaling of the heady aroma is always a thrilling sensation. Our first pines where whisked back to the kitchen and thinly sliced into a steaming pot of duck broth, garden greens and fresh udon noodles – much happy slurping ensued.

Around the first of November, the welcoming of the rainy season began to wear out its welcome. We started to wish the rain would stop. The-rain-did-not-stop. Just when we thought the sky could not shed more tears along came the Pineapple Express. Warm moisture laden winds from the mid-pacific dumped mind-numbing amounts of moisture on our heads. The pines initially flourish and we picked baskets of wonderful specimens – but eventually too much rain caused many of the mushrooms to become water saturated and rot underground. This is terribly disappointing to a forager who has slogged hundreds of meters up wet hillsides – only to be greeted with soggy rotting pine button and worm-riddled mature specimens.

After the torrential rains we have now settled into a steady drizzle. Proving that every cloud can have a silver lining, we have recently started to see a new crop of pine buttons return to the hills. Adding to our elation, we’ve found a few specimens of one of our most aromatic fungi, the caulifower fungus (Sparassis crispa). Despite the name, this fungi looks more like a large ball of creamy white ribbons with an aroma that is forest, floral and spice in a crisp and delicious package. My favourite preparation is a cream of squash soup with handfuls of cauliflower fungus thrown in just before serving.

If we can only fight that urge to curl up with the dog in front of the woodstove, the mushroom season looks poised to make a run deep into December. Who knows, perhaps we’ll have (freshly foraged) pine mushroom stuffed turkey this Christmas.

pine mushroom dinner

saturday 5-9

Deerholme Farm Events

Our next event at the farm is a Dinner on November 21.

We will feature Pine Mushrooms in all their glory. The Pine is also called the Matsutake and is related to the famed Matsutake of Japan (same aroma and flavour with a fatter shape).

The pine is renown as a culinary and medicinal mushroom with reputed positive effects on the circulatory system. The texture is firm with a spicy, mild radish odor. They are definitely one of my favourite mushrooms and I sometimes dream of the intoxicating aroma when they are not abundant. Once you have smelled the mushroom in the forest you’ll know why we love to hunt for pine mushrooms.

Our menu will feature dishes that highlight the aroma and texture of these wonderful mushrooms. Please join us for the next dinner event.

Saturday, November 21, 2009 (Masutake Feast)

Pine Mushroom Dinner

Grilled quail rolls with pine mushroom and apricot compote

Soba noodles with pine mushroom and squash salad

Rice congee with pine mushrooms, braised greens and spice braised duck

Roast leg of lamb with a pine mushroom stuffing, served with roast vegetable polenta cake

Blackberry, mint and chocolate cake with pine mushroom ice cream

$90 / person including recipes

Please go to www.magnorth.bc.ca for more info