Are you all ready for this???

I don’t know all there is to know about cooking and food!

Take a minute to digest this…I know, it’s a hard one.

How I lived my whole life and didn’t know that there was Truffle Butter?  Well, I don’t think I was quite living…I was in a fuzzy non-truffle haze.

I actually have only recently tasted truffles…Since they are about 20 bajillion dollars a pound, you don’t see them that often…By the way bajillion is a word…Google that s&%$!

Now I am not talking about the chocolate truffles…I am talking about the pig sniffing them out in the forest truffles…Do you know what they are?

Well, in-case you don’t here is a small lesson…

These are Black Truffles

Truffles are in the fungi family, which means it is the wealthy, distant cousin of the button mushroom.   They are found in Europe and they grow under ground near the root system of certain trees like birch, oak chestnut and pine. They are extremely hard to find and are hard to cultivate.

They are usual found by the use of Truffle Hogs, pigs that naturally have a keen sense of what truffles smell like or by trained dogs.  People started training “truffle dogs,” because the female pigs who are used to find the truffles usually eat them once they are discovered.  This doesn’t help people in the harvesting when the product is getting eaten by the one finding it.  The pigs desire them because it has a compound in it that is similar to a sex hormone called pheromone that is in boar salaiva, and these pigs are wildly attracted to this androstenol pheromone.

Anyway, truffles are hard to find, low in quantity and high in demand.  Therefore, the cost a pretty penny…I myself have only seen tiny shavings on my dishes or had some truffle oil drizzles over the finished dish…I have yet to see a whole one.  Now Wikipedia states that in2005 at a charity auction in Italy a truffle that weighed 2.6 pounds sold for $112,000…that is $2,693.31 an ounce.  The Black Summer Truffle usually goes for about $670 a pound.  I did find some black truffles at Amazon.com that sell for $111.30 an ounce.  They are typically sold in a brine and not sold fresh.  But, this is how retailers preserve them and really they taste fabulous anyway!

There are a few types of truffle.  There is the black truffle which grows in France and only under oak trees and the white truffle that grows in Northern Italy under poplar, beech, oak and hazel trees.  These two are the most famous and most desired truffles in the world and are harvested in the fall.  There are also Summer Black Truffles, Chinese Truffles, Scorzone Truffles and Oregon White Truffles.

People use truffles as sort of a garnish.  You can shave it over eggs, pasta or anything else that you want.  They are typically served raw, but you can put it under the skin of poultry to infuse the bird with flavor.  There are cheeses that also have small bits of truffles in it and then there is the truffle butter that I found at my local AJ’s.  If you are not from Arizona, then see if you can buy some at your local fine food store.

I bought my truffle butter for around $11.00 and it is a very small amount, but sooooo very worth it.  My favorite is to slather it on two pieces of bread and make a grilled cheese and granny smith apple sandwich…heaven!

Here is the recipe

Million Dollar Grilled Cheese Sandwich

-         Truffle Butter

-         2 Slices of Crusty Bread (any bread will do)

-         A few thin slices of Granny Smith Apple (or any apple will do)

-         1 oz Sharp Cheddar

-         1 oz White Cheddar

-         Dijon Mustard

Set your pan on Medium heat.  Put Dijon Mustard on one or both sides of the bread.  On one slice of bread put the Sharp Cheddar, thinly sliced Apples and White Cheddar on in that order.  Top with second slice of bread.  Put the Truffle Butter on one side and put in pan butter side down.  Butter the top slice of bread and once the bottom slice is golden and the cheese is starting to melt, flip over.  Cooked till the cheese is melted and both sides of the bread are golden and toasted.

Serve Immediately and it Serves One Very Happy Person

NOT MINE BUT WONDERFUL

I came across truffle butter by watching Barefoot Contessa.  She did a Fillet Mignon Sandwich with Truffle Butter and I just had to make it at home.  It was fantastic!  I would though add some Boursin Herbed Cheese or any soft Herbed cheese to one side of the bread, because it made it taste all that much better.  And I would cook a Fillet Mignon roast this way all the time, it was the best beef I have ever made in my house.  I am going to post her recipe…remember it’s not mine…I just want to share the wealth.

My Fillet of Beef with Truffle Butter Sandwich

Fillet of Beef Sandwiches on Baguette with Truffled Butter – by Ina Garten

Ingredients

nocoupons

• 1 1/2 to 2 pounds fillet of beef, trimmed and tied
• 1 tablespoon unsalted butter, at room temperature
• Kosher salt and coarsely ground black pepper
• 2 French baguettes, 18 to 20 inches long
• 3 ounces black truffle butter, at room temperature
• 1 (2-ounce) chunk good Parmesan cheese
• Fresh baby arugula

Directions

Preheat the oven to 500 degrees F. (Be sure your oven is very clean!)

Place the beef on a sheet pan and pat the outside dry with a paper towel. Spread the butter all over the beef with your hands. Sprinkle the beef evenly with 1 1/2 teaspoons salt and 1 1/2 teaspoons pepper. Roast for exactly 22 minutes for rare and 25 minutes for medium-rare.

Remove the beef from the oven, cover it tightly with aluminum foil, and allow it to rest at room temperature for 15 minutes. Remove the strings and slice the fillet about 1/4-inch thick.

Open the baguettes lengthwise but not all the way through. Spread the bottom halves generously with the truffle butter. Top with a layer of sliced beef and sprinkle it with salt and pepper.

Using a vegetable peeler, shave the Parmesan into thin shards and scatter the shards over the sliced beef on each sandwich. Finish with a sprinkling of arugula leaves. Fold the tops of the sandwiches over, cut each baguette diagonally in 3 or 4 sandwiches, and serve right away.

HOW I SERVED THESE SANDWICHES

Filet Sandwiches with Kettle Chips and Caprese Salad

I served them small so everyone could have one or two.  I also served them with store bought kettle chips and I made a homemade caprese salad with purple and red heirloom tomatoes, fresh mozzarella, fresh basil, very good extra virgin olive oil, salt, pepper and a reduced balsamic vinegar.  I reduce my vinegar by putting it in a small saucepan and boil it till the liquid is cut in half.  This makes for a much more flavorful salad in my opinion.

WHAT ABOUT TRUFFLE OIL?

In my research, I found out that most commercially sold truffle oil has no “truffle” in it.  So, when you buy truffle oil, be aware of what you are buying.  Although, these oils are just olive oil with infused artificial flavors, they still taste a lot like the flavor of truffle, so cooks and chefs still use it as an inexpensive way to infuse the flavor of truffles into a dish.   I personally have some black truffle oil in the house and it’s okay, but not nearly as good as the truffle butter.

So go out and experiment with truffle butter, you won’t be disappointed!

Happy Eating!