How to Incorporate Truffle into your Christmas Menus
Much of the festive season centres around food and eating. Most of our favourite Christmas memories are made in the kitchen, at the dining table or on the sofa with a large plate of mince pies. During this time of luxury and plenty, nothing could be more fitting than the decadent flavour of truffles.
If you are getting your menus together early, we have rifled through our go-to recipes and curated a guide of crowd-pleasing truffle dishes and suggestions for each occasion:
Christmas Eve
Picture this: your Christmas shopping is complete, presents are wrapped and vegetables prepped.. it is time to start truly relaxing into the celebration. You need a dinner worthy of the special occasion without exhausting yourself with another overly-elaborate spread. We suggest a simple fresh truffle pasta, paired beautifully with glass of your favourite champagne.
It could not be more simple – cook your store-bought fresh tagliatelle to instruction whilst melting several knobs of salted butter with garlic over a low heat. Transfer your cooked pasta to the buttery pan and toss whilst sprinkling over Italian cheese and starchy pasta water. Once creamy, add a few drops of Truffoil™ 1% white truffle condiment and serve with a generous grating of fresh white winter truffle. Bellisima!
Can’t get hold of fresh truffles? Try using our truffle pepper in an extravagant take on the classic Cacio e Pepe instead.
Christmas Day
There is nothing like an impressive side dish to really make you feel you’ve put on a successful Christmas lunch. It would be too much, even for us, to add truffle to every accompaniment, however we do think at least one recipe from the following deserves a spot:
Honey truffle carrots – quick and easy, just toss roasted chantenay carrots with lashings of Honey & Truffle seconds before serving.
Truffled cauliflower cheese –grate one of our Italian truffle cheeses into your bechamel before adding to the cauliflower and drizzle of Truffoil™ before serving.
Truffle salted potatoes – however you prepare your roast potatoes, sprinkle with a generous pinch of truffle salt straight from the oven for added aroma.
Truffle vegetable medley – serve your steamed broccoli, leeks and cabbage with a knob of black truffle butter.
Food for thought: offer an impressive and thoughtful vegetarian option by using our Salsa Truffina™ as the duxelle in a truffled butternut squash wellington or add into a nut roast mixture.
Boxing Day
To make this year’s boxing day grazing a more exciting affair, we have the perfect sandwich recipe for feeding the masses:
Indulgent boxing day sandwiches
Ingredients:
3 egg yolks, 250ml light olive oil + 50ml Truffoil™ black truffle concentrate, jar minced black summer truffle, 1 teaspoon wholegrain mustard, dash lemon juice, salt and pepper, sourdough (or sandwich bread of choice), salted butter, sliced leftover turkey, leftover braised red cabbage, leftover stuffing
Method:
Homemade truffle mayonnaise
Blend egg yolks and mustard with a pinch of salt and pepper until combined.
Slowly incorporate the oils whilst blending until thick and creamy.
Stir through a teaspoon of minced black summer truffle and a dash of lemon juice to taste.
Sandwich assembly
Cut two slices of sourdough and butter each side.
Spoon over a generous dollop of truffle mayonnaise and smear to cover.
Layer your turkey, followed by sweet red cabbage and stuffing onto the bread.
Toast your sandwich in a hot pan until each side is browned and crispy.
Of course, to save time you can skip the first step and simply add Truffoil™ to ready-made mayonnaise. In addition, you can include any leftover veggies you like – this would work wonderfully with chopped up brussel sprouts, a layering of parsnips or perhaps cauliflower cheese!
New Years Eve
Ringing in the New Year is cause for a party (dinner or otherwise) kitted out with impressive cocktails and decorations. Throwing a get-together can be stressful, however as long as your guests are adequately fed and watered no one will notice any small hiccups.
If you are having friends over for dinner, wow them with an exceptional starter worthy of the occasion. Why not try beef fillet carpaccio dotted with Jerusalem artichoke puree and delicately arranged black summer truffle slices. For vegetarian guests, a truffled cheese souffle would be equally inspiring, made with Truffoil™ white truffle concentrate and salty Gruyere.
Throwing a livelier event? Canapes and nibbles should still look to impress, offering your guests pleasant breaks from the dancefloor. Mix up retro classics with truffled devilled eggs, folding minced black summer truffle through the whipped yolk mixture before piping, or honey truffle cocktail sausages using our Honey & Truffle as a syrupy glaze.
New Years Day
The New Years Day Walk is an essential activity in our opinion, whether to shake off a sore head or contemplate the upcoming year. For most of us, that also means cold hands and muddy shoes, with a comforting quick fix needed upon returning home. So, we suggest soup. Celeriac, parsnip, potato, or whatever you have in the cupboard, lovingly garnished with black summer truffle carpaccio. An easy way to round off the week of special dishes.
We hope to have provided some inspiration and hopefully encouraged some excitement for the coming month. Whether you plan to cook for formal feasting guests, for loved ones (and +1s) squeezed around your kitchen table or simply for yourself, alone on the sofa watching Polar Express for the hundredth time… we hope, like us, you find each mouthful a haven of Christmas joy.
