What Else We Did with the Truffle: Omlette

We stored the remaining half of our truffle in a lidded bowl with eggs. The idea is that the scent of the truffle will be absorbed by and flavor the eggs. We had mushrooms in the house so we took a bit more of our precious truffle and chopped it up into little pieces and added it to the sauted mushooms. This we added to the scented eggs and had a fabulous omlette.

So What We Did with the Truffle

A fresh free-range chicken was purchased at the market with the truffle. When we got home, we cleaned the chicken and sliced the truffle (about 1/2 the truffle actually). The small crumbs of the truffle were mixed with duck fat, salt, pepper, and pineau de charentes (our local fortified wine). The skin of the chicken was separated from the meat and the sliced truffles were gently pushed under the skin. The paste was slathered over the chicken which was then trussed and wrapped in plastic and refrigerated over night. The next day we nestled shallots around the bird for cooking. It went into a medium hot oven and roasted for about an hour. The results were excellent.

In Search of the Perfect Truffle

If it is December it must be time for truffles here in the Dordogne. Saturday we went to the truffle market in Perigueux for our annual truffle purchase. We left the house in the dark to be sure to arrive at the market in time to hear the judge evaluate, comment on, and assign a quality category to each truffle before the market opens at 9 AM. Unfortunately, we did not arrive in time because we apparently also needed to find a closed RV store miles outside of town. We did arrive a bit after 9 and in time to buy a truffle. Here is the truffle we selected in hopes that it would be that perfect truffle. How we use it will be my next post.

La Tourtiere

In the last post I mentioned the flaky apple pastry flavored with armagnac "la tourtiere" which is a regional speciality. A mother and daughter team from la ferme des Tuileries demonstrated how to make this delicacy at the agricultural fair we visited a couple of weeks ago. It is made with a pastry much like brik. Originally the dough was beaten with a heavy baton at least 50 times, left over night and then the next day spread out on a large table until it is paper thin. It is allowed to dry and then cut into circles to begin the tart. Today a mixer beats the dough and a hair drier can be used to dry it out. The pastry circles are used flat and folded into triangles to construct what ends up looking like a work of art. Apples, sugar, and armagnac are added along the way until it is ready to go into the oven. All my photographs of the process are posted at our Flickr site http://www.flickr.com/photos/petillant/

But if you would like to get the recipe and meet the family who make these wonderful tarts go to http://www.ferme-tuileries.com/

Heritage Fruit and Veggie Fair

We live in the province of Aquitaine where there is an association dedicated to the preservation of the region's heirloom fruits and vegetables. With membership in the thousands, there is a preserve with nursery and greenhouses, lecture hall for courses, and an annual exhibition and sale. We spent last Saturday at the exhibition where you could learn about and possess almost any type of fruit or vegetable that grows well in our region.

There was a huge attendance and most people left with fruit trees to plant. We particularly enjoyed the exhibiton of produce and the vendors selling regional specialities such as tourtiere, an apple tart that I will post next.