Its Truffle Season!

I am conscious that it has almost been three weeks since I shared on Twitter about how excited I was in buying my first winter truffle. Before the truffle season ends (according to the guys at Georgie's Harvest South Melbourne Market, the truffles coming out from the ground are still looking good and it should stretch to August (although I am aware that it is now August), So before it becomes September, I thought I quickly share how daunting yet exciting it is to cook with such a magical perfume of a fungus.

Weighing at 12 grams and costing me well 36 bucks, this little bugger was put nicely in a small jar and went straight into my jacket pocket (didn't want it to get lost in my shopping trolley).

The first thing we set out to do was to make some truffled scramble eggs but before you actually make it, store the truffle with some eggs in an air tight container.

Ideally put it in together for 2-3 days to give the truffle some time to perfume the inside of the eggs. We couldn't wait and did it for a day and I can say the result is much milder than expected. That said, don't belittle the size of the truffle. Open up the jar after a day and take a big whiff inside the jar, the smell is intoxicating (in a bloody good way).

So for a first course, it was my rather runny scramble eggs (x4) with some shaved truffle. Like I mentioned before, the truffle "taste" is not so much for your palate but for your nose. It smells better than it tastes (or a lack of taste).

One challenge I did have was finding a substitute truffle cutter and it was a challenge. Using the crap microplane grater, we had quite a few pieces sticking on the grater. Using a cheese slicer, we found it was hard to slice it thin enough since the truffle was so small to begin with. However, if cooking truffle is going to be a one off, live with it or invest in a truffle cutter.

The second course was a mushroom soup, recipe for another day and again the truffle works brilliantly on the nose. However if you are generous with your truffle, it can work magic into what was an ordinary soup.

I stretched the 12 grams to the third and final course, a simple mash. We normally drizzle truffle oil into our mash but after having fresh truffle, I don't think I can reach out for my truffle oil any more.