Diamonds in my kitchen

The year has kicked off with a sparkle with these white truffles in my kitchen, or as gourmands call them ‘diamonds of the kitchen’. This is one thing every chef loves to make love to, and create minimalistic dishes where the hero is the white truffle. Everything else around it is a vehicle to carry that earthy, sexy flavour and mouthful of those paper thin slices or shaved white truffles atop the rest!

This subterranean fungus is being transformed into four or five sensational plates for some friends. One dish which is the most simple but definitely my fave is soft truffled scrambled eggs, sea salt and truffle buttered crostini. Delish! It could be a real pimping-it-out breakfast too, with a nice bubbly.

Italian white truffles are highly esteemed and are the most valuable on the market. The white truffle market in Alba is busiest in the months of October and November. The flesh is pale cream or brown with white marbling.

The record price paid for a single white truffle was sold at $330,000 (£165,000) for a specimen weighing 1.5 kilograms (3.3 lb), discovered by Luciano Savini and his dog Rocco. Just FYI.

I followed Heston Blumenthal’s techinque of scrambled eggs over a pot of boiling water, whisking the eggs in a bowl with cream and truffle butter. It takes scrambled eggs to another level. Please try this.

The wild mushroom bisque, truffle foam and shaved truffles was a bombshell. It was literally that rich, sexy terroir and intense flavours of the earth.

Hand cut fettuccine with truffle butter, olive oil powder, gently tossed homemade pasta with velvety truffle butter foam.

Believe it or not. Vanilla bean ice cream, shaved white truffle, sea salt was the icining on the cake.
All I can say is the year has begun with a sparkle. Bring it on 2014!

Try this one at home
Fettuccine or spaghetti  cooked 500 g
Truffle butter (can be bought ready)  90g
Cooking water from the pasta 1/3 cup
Chives
Grated parmesan cheese
Sea salt
Pepper

Reserve some of the water in which the pasta has been cooked.

Melt the butter slowly in a pan.

Add the pasta, toss, add the sea salt and pasta water.

Make sure that the butter is evenly coated on the pasta.

Shower with grated parmesan. Enjoy!