When Duncan Garvey, founder of Perigord Truffles of Tasmania, established Australia's first truffle-growing region in the late 90s, the only truffle people knew about then were chocolate ones. Rodney Dunn, owner of The Agrarian Kitchen - a cookery school and homestead, which teaches people how to cook with truffle (just one of their many cooking courses) - recounts the response of Harvey's business partner when he first put forward the idea: "Well, Duncan, if you can grow [chocolate] truffles, then you're a better man than I."
Fast forward 18 years since Harvey unearthed his first black Tasmanian truffle to now when the Australian truffle industry is the fourth-largest black truffle producer worldwide (France, Italy and Spain lead production). We produced about 13 tonnes last year. Our harvest has more than doubled in the past three years and the Australian Truffle Growers Association tips Australia to be the world leader by 2020, producing 20 tonnes annually.
The majority of the Australian truffle harvest is exported but Dunn is passionate about getting people to "celebrate what we have growing in our own backyard".
Dunn, a Tetsuya-trained chef and former food editor of Australian Gourmet Traveller magazine, and his French wife, Séverine, moved from Sydney in 2007 to convert a 19th-century schoolhouse in the Lachlan Valley in Tasmania into their dream: a cooking school and working farm. And that they did.
City chef turned farmer, Rodney Dunn. Source: Adam Gibson
The Agrarian Kitchen Cooking School offers hands-on, one-of-a-kind, bucket-list crossing experiences for cityslickers (i.e. mainlanders) yearning for pastoral escape. You can learn to cook with fire (over an outdoor bonfire or using their Alan-Scott built wood-fired oven or in their original 1887 kitchen hearth), how to butcher a whole hog, or how to cook with the seasons, which is why a class of journos-cum-apprentices found themselves gathered in his Victorian-era kitchen, learning how to make the most of truffles, in season from June to August. This is what we learnt.
You do not need this much truffle.
A truffle the size of a cherry tomato will do nicely for a couple. Source: Adam Gibson
Where can you sniff one out?
You can buy truffles online or from farmer's markets and directly from growers, if you live in truffle-growing regions. Usually truffles are sold whole but you can buy truffle pieces.
Start your own truffle co-op.
If you're only after a small amount (rather than buying truffle pieces), buy a whole truffle with friends. Some butchers, delicatessens and gourmet food stores even have a truffle club you can join and just buy what you need.
Rice is a frenemy.
Truffle is BFF with rice in a risotto, but do not store your truffle in uncooked rice. This will only dry your truffle out and the rice doesn't actually absorb any of the truffle aroma. To keep truffles at their optimum, wrap them in paper towel in an airtight container in the fridge, change the paper towel daily and use within 1 week.
Get a two-for-one deal.
Store your truffle in an airtight container with some eggs for 1-2 days in the fridge. The truffle aroma will infuse the eggs through their porous shells. You can then use your truffle as normal and the eggs in any dish you want. Well, almost, any dish ...
Forget fancy.
Rodney's number-one rule is to keep the ingredients simple when it comes to truffles, so their flavour shines through. Like in this rustic pasta dish. It's simply homemade pasta tossed in truffled butter and a truffle-infused egg yolk.
Keep. It. Simple. Source: Adam Gibson
Truffles and dairy are the celeb supercouple with staying power.
They're meant to be together. The lactic acid in dairy helps unlock the truffle flavour. Any dairy, like butter, cream, cheese or milk, in a dish also helps carry the flavour of the truffle on your palate so that its earthiness lingers longer. Try the Italian method of slow-cooking a cut of meat milk - like this dish of baby goat is braised in goat's milk that's been infused with grated truffle. Over the coarse of three hours, not only does the goat meat become meltingly tender, but you also end up with truffle-flecked ricotta-like pillows sitting in a drinkable pool of braising juices.
Which means truffle makes for a mind-blowing ice-cream flavour.
Finely grate truffle into a custard base, then churn in an ice-cream maker.
Think like a chef. But don't waste like one.
Grating or slicing truffles over a dish at the table looks impressive, but if you're trying to get the most flavour out of your truffle, then the best way is to add all of the truffle to your dish during cooking instead of saving some to garnish on top. This is because heat turbocharges the flavour of truffles. Chefs know this (and that truffle garnish is to make you feel smug about the $50 truffle supplement you're paying).
Make it rain.
The best way to grate truffle is using a Microplane grater. You don't need to buy a fancy truffle slicer. Grating it exposes more surface area of the truffle. If you only have a small nub of truffle, place a folded tea towel on top of the truffle on the grater and use it to grip the truffle so you can grate all of it without grating your fingertips.
The only truffle tool you need. Source: Adam Gibson
Make truffle butter, so you can still enjoy truffles when the season is over.
Truffle butter (pictured above) will keep for up to 2 weeks in the fridge (so there'll still be truffle butter cheesy jaffles into spring).
Even better, make truffle lard, which will last for up to 3 months.
You only need 20 g of truffle to 300 g of lard. You can add the truffle lard to all kinds of vegetables for roasting (we're looking at you potato), use to toast croutons, rub it through pastry for savoury pies or simply smeared over warm toast. Dunn's go-to is to slow-roast whole onions in their skins until they're caramelised and toss them in the truffle lard.
Toss lard over roasted vegetables or use to toast croutons. Source: Adam Gibson
Wait patiently for the next truffle season to come around. If you need a fix, do not buy truffle oil.
As with all seasonal ingredients, enjoy them at their peak. Truffle oil is fake. There may be truffle pieces floating around in your bottle but the flavour is synthetic as truffles don't hold their flavour in oil.
Cook Rodney's truffle menu
Store your truffle with eggs, then use in this pasta. Source: Adam Gibson
The milk enhances the truffel-y flavour. Source: Belinda So
Just one way to use truffle lard. Source: Adam Gibson
If you've got truffle to spare, try these ..
Balik ekmek crayfish and truffle toastie
