Friday Fungus: We can do with out Barolo - but a world without truffles?

The New York Times reports on the problem created by the clash between fine wine and one of the most wonderful things on the planet - the white truffle:

Not only does this land produce some of Italy’s best, and most expensive, wines. It is also home to the famed Italian white truffle, which can run 200 to 500 euros (about $225 to $560) for a good-size knob that will sit in the palm of your hand.

But what happens when those resources compete? Vines require clear hillsides, and truffles need thick and damp yet clean woods. Today, hillside after hillside of Barolo is planted in neat rows of well-groomed vines more valuable than anything else that could be put on them. The forests, on the other hand, have been shrinking.

The result is that, not only are there fewer places where truffles can grow, but the loss of forest impacts the wine growers and especially those using organic methods. And the truth is that there a plenty of places where fine wines can be made but vanishingly few where "trifola d'Alba Madonna" is found - truffles are altogether too fickle for cultivation.

The result is 'save the truffle':

Save the Truffle wants to protect what has been to this day one of the most outstanding and internationally recognised products of Piedmont. Its fame has been connected to the city of Alba and the surrounding area, the Langhe and Roero, for more than eighty years.

In an area which has become a world heritage Unesco site, in which the truffle, together with the outstanding red wines, are the driving force for international tourism, Carlo and Edmondo believe that this precious fruit of the territory must be approached from an alternative point of view, without mentioning marketing and sales.

This is in the wonderful and conservative traditional of italian food campaigns - perfected by the Slow Food movement that spread across the world (although sadly has become a shadow of its origins by becoming a locavore lobby rather than a celebration of waiting for dinner and using the finest ingredients).

And we can all help - there's a crowdfunding initiative 'Breathe the Truffle' that's helping these people develop and protect the environment in which this magical, exceptional fungus thrives.

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Remembering asparagus!

Since the asparagus season is over (for those who don't know, it runs from the Grand National to the Derby) I thought I would write about asparagus - sparrow's grass. Despite it making your wee smell funny, it is one of the most flavoursome vegetables and versatile - as a starter, accompanying a main course or, combined with other stuff, a great main course in its own right.

First the boring bit before I describe the recipe that's pictured above:

Asparagus is a herbaceous, perennial plant growing to 100–150 centimetres (39–59 in) tall, with stout stems with much-branched feathery foliage. The "leaves" are in fact needle-like cladodes (modified stems) in the axils of scale leaves; they are 6–32 millimetres (0.24–1.3 in) long and 1 millimetre (0.039 in) broad, and clustered 4–15 together. The root system is adventitious and the root type is fasciculated. The flowers are bell-shaped, greenish-white to yellowish, 4.5–6.5 millimetres (0.18–0.26 in) long, with six tepals partially fused together at the base; they are produced singly or in clusters of 2–3 in the junctions of the branchlets. It is usually dioecious, with male and female flowers on separate plants, but sometimes hermaphrodite flowers are found. The fruit is a small red berry 6–10 mm diameter, which is poisonous to humans.

Got all that? The plant also has supposed medicinal qualities although I'm pretty (by which I mean 100%) sure that it doesn’t cure cancer.

So, that recipe – roast asparagus salad with poached egg – which comes from Steve Parle (or rather the roast asparagus bit does):

1 large bunch of asparagus
8 sweet cherry tomatoes
2 tbsp of small firm black olives, stones removed
1 scant tsp of capers
6 sprigs of thyme
1 clove of garlic, cut into 4
3½oz/100g lamb’s lettuce, washed and dried
1 scant tsp white wine, cider or sherry vinegar
1 tbsp olive oil
salt and pepper
2oz/50g aged pecorino or other hard, picante cheese

Preheat the oven to 200C/gas mark 6. Snap the tough stems from the asparagus and place in a roasting tray with the tomatoes, olives, capers, thyme and garlic. Glug over a little olive oil and roast for five to 10 minutes until the asparagus is soft and the tomatoes have burst.

Remove the tray from the oven and add the vinegar and a little more olive oil. Break the tomatoes up a little into the oil and vinegar to make a sort of dressing.

Lay the lettuce on a serving plate and place the asparagus on top.

Pour over the juices from the roasting tin then shave over some cheese.

My version has two variations – the addition of a poached egg perched atop the roasted sparrow’s grass and a particular cheese:

Pecorino Tartufo is an old style of Umbrian pressed sheep milk cheese. The cheese's buttery nutty flavour is enhanced with the addition of aromatic black truffles giving it a unique signature.

Well there had to be some mushrooms involved somewhere!

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Friday Fungus: Underground Restaurant and truffled mac & cheese!

I have neglected to speak of many things – and one of them is Ms Marmite Lover (other than a little rant about the Underground Restaurant). So it was a delight to have an excuse for a Marmite Lover themed Friday Fungus.

As with many of these things it started with a tweet – a comment to Mister Truffle from Ms Marmite Lover that she planned a macaroni cheese with truffles. Wow I thought, that’s a brilliant idea – as good as my wife’s approach of adding cayenne pepper. In response Ms Marmite Lover urged me to come and try out said delight at her latest event:

JAR FOOD: PICKLES, POTIONS AND PRESERVES

LONDON: The Underground Restaurant - Kilburn

FRI 4TH MAR, 2011 7.30

A meal in which I explore the properties of food cooked in sealed jars:
pickles
bouillon
bean stew
sauerkraut
preserved fruits
rice pudding
More details closer to the time.

Arrive on time
BYO or order from tengreenbottles.com who will deliver here directly
Dress: Up!
Service: spring like

Sadly for reasons of distance and engagements I can’t go to this – sounds a fine do and as of now there are still a few places left.

But truffles in a macaroni cheese – that’s a thing I shall be trying! There are any number of recipes with truffle oil – like one from The Taste of Oregon (although there’s not much of Oregon in a Mac & Cheese) – but I wanted one that used the real thing, grated black truffles and I found it here.

I shall enjoy – hope you do too!

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Friday Fungus: A truffle growler? Now that's a thing of wonderment, for sure!

The combination of pork pie and mushrooms is, for me, a better than suitable replacement for the food of the gods. So when in one’s meanderings the tale of Britain’s – nay, the World’s Poshest Pork Pie – appears, the heart beats a little faster and the soul does a little skip of joy!

I wasn’t really sure whether to bite the excellent man’s hand off or just fall on him in gratitude. Dear Reader, I behaved and just said please and thank you interminably. The said man is Mister Truffle on Twitter and he’s setting up a new business, born of his passion for truffles, offering mail-order fresh truffles by the gram so people can order tiny amounts and feel more comfortable about using such a luxurious ingredient at home. Possibly in more “British” foods than you’d normally associate with a truffle. Hence a humble pork pie maker striking very lucky.

His challenge to me was to make a pork pie with truffle.

“I’m just sending you a sample – 10g” he said. After the merriment of picking up a parcel from the Post Office addressed like this, I discovered that 10g of truffle is a very decent, if not generous, sized little lump. How very lucky!

Sarah goes on to describe the making of this fine pie – complete with quails’ eggs – and its auctioning for local hospices. Sadly, this mushroom fan arrived too late to play – and would love to know who ate all the pies!

However, while Norfolk’s a long way off (and I wouldn’t want to be too disloyal to Cullingworth’s growler* king, Paul Ellison), the ordering of truffles on-line is a great discovery. To buy your truffles from Mr Truffle just click here, put in how much and bingo they’ll arrive, Mr Benn-like “as if by magic”! And while you’re buying discover more about nature’s most wonderful thing – the truffle.

The term "truffle" as commonly used refers to members of the genera Tuber and Terfezia. There are many other kinds of subterranean fungi, "false truffles," which outwardly resemble the ones we eat. They are far more common than the ones that are collected for food, and some are poisonous.

Truffles are round, warty, and irregular in shape and vary from the size of a walnut to that of a man's fist. The season for most truffles falls between September and May.

And if you’re in Norfolk don’t leave without trying one of Sarah’s pies – they are my sources say a passing fair pie indeed!

*According to the concise gentlemen of Oxford, a growler is a small iceberg or a four-wheeled cab. They do not know what they have missed. Anyone from these parts devoid of vegetarian tendencies would tell those who write our dictionaries that a real growler is a thing of beauty, rare personality and infinite variety. It is a pork pie

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Friday Fungus: In search of the Scottish truffle!

Truffles. The caviar of fungus. Exclusive, expensive and intense of flavour. Prized about all other mushrooms – whether the white truffle of Umbria or the black truffle of Perigord. And the only fungus with a special breed of dog to search for it!

And now, it seems the truffle is growing in a Scottish primary school! Except we’re not sure. As the BBC’s chosen wild food expert, Andrew Fraser, points out:

"They are truffles - we just don't know what sort they are," he said. "They're not Scottish summer truffles. I need to get another expert to look at them. They're a whitey-brown colour - but white truffles have never been found in the UK before."

So it isn’t a white truffle then (unless something very strange is happening in Perthshire). The main British truffle is the summer truffle which is a caramel colour and (I’m told) can be cultivated in the same manner as the white and black truffles of Europe are cultivated.

“…the biologist Dr Paul Thomas whose business, Plantation Systems, has pioneered a way of cultivating summer truffles in the UK. A self-confessed truffle lover, Dr Thomas used his expertise as a biologist to find a way of impregnating the roots of trees with truffle fungus in the laboratory and then transferring the saplings onto one of four plantations across the UK. "We took a load of root samples out of the ground a few weeks ago and had a look under the microscope and the fungus was positively thriving," he said. "That's almost definitely down to the rain; British truffles simply love summer rain."

That being said the picture does seem to me to suggest that the Perth Truffle is a summer truffle of some sort:

Britain's summer truffle, the only variant grown in the UK that is eaten, is a caramel-coloured species with white veins that has a nutty and sometimes gritty consistency and can fetch up to £300/lb.

All good stuff! Enjoy those truffles!

Friday Fungus: Truffles and why the Duke must be patient!

There are a load of myths about truffles - not least that the white truffle can't be cultivated. This picture from somewhere near San Miniato in Tuscany is a deliberately planted truffle wood. And as you drive through the area around San Miniato you will see quite a few of these truffle orchards - some with hazel, some with oak and most with poplar.

And the black truffle associated with France and with Piedmont has been cultivated for hundreds of years - and has been successfully transplanted to North America and to Australia. Plus of course to the UK. And in a newsworthy (and so far unsuccessful) way to Sandringham. It seems that the Duke of Edinburgh's lovingly planted truffle impregnated oak trees have so far failed to produce a truffle - or at least one that the skill of a Lagotto Romagnolo hound can find. The Duke will persevere - his supplier Truffles UK says up to eight years is need for the truffles to emerge, so there's time to go yet!

And let's be clear. Truffles have an intense, powerful mushroom flavour that can turn ordinary cucina povera into the food of the great. A few scrapings of white truffle into your spaghetti carbonara and it is transformed. And added to that classic Tuscan ribollita soup and - as I discovered here - you have a truly great dish.

So the good Duke - and anyone else setting out to cultivate truffles - needs to be patient. It's worth the wait!

These sheep are forgiven for waking me up every morning for the past week!

These sheep are guilty of waking me up every other morning for the past ten days - half of them have bells round their necks and the clunking and baa-ing at five in the morning wasn't all that cheering. But I've forgiven the sheep as their milk contributed to the cheese from these people - Pinzani. Some of the very best pecorino and ricotta you'll ever taste including one infused with white truffle that I'll speak of later.

The older pecorino is almost as hard as a Parmesan and can be used as a substitute whereas the younger ones make great cheese on toast, are fantastic as a starter with olives or can be used in cooking as an alternative to cheeses like Emmenthal, Gouda or Edam. And the ricotta? Make a cheesecake. Or better still a cheese & truffle souffle!

Friday Fungus - Australian Truffles

The truffle has long been viewed as the emperor of fungi (I hesitate to say mushroom since the truffles we worship aren't fruiting heads) so it was a delight to discover that there are antipodean relatives of this exquisite delicacy - and that enterprising Aussies also took spores of the classic black truffle (Tuber melanosporum - see picture) and established truffle colonies in Tasmania. The primary (but not only) producer of black truffles is Perigord Truffles of Tasmania - nothing like saying what it does on the tin!

However, as well as growing these imported delicacies (a reminder yet again that you can transfer European - even French - classic produce elsewhere in the world and keep up levels of quality) there are also a fascinating range of truffle type fungi native to Australia. These pseudo-truffles are also edible and perhaps our antipodean friends might like to share some of their delights with those of us stuck in the Northern Hemisphere! There's a great deal to learn about these fungi and the Australian Fungi Website is a great place to start.

Finally, mycologists in Australia have identified a whole new bunch of truffles - related to the Amanita fungi that give us fairy rings and magic mushrooms (as well as some edible delights). The Amanita truffles are pictured above and are about the size of a marble. Finally, if you're wanting to experiment with eating mushrooms you gather yourself, truffles are a good place to start as none of the main truffle groups are poisonous (which isn't the same as saying they all taste good)!