What is truffle, calorie content and chemical composition. Useful properties of a delicacy and harm from use. Mushroom recipes and interesting facts about gourmet food. It is believed that people who have the opportunity to introduce truffle dishes into their diet are not subject to age-related changes. The skin of the face remains youthful, pigmentation does not change.
Useful properties of truffles
In the 18th century, truffles were appreciated not only for their exquisite taste - rich, mushroom, with the aftertaste of roasted cedar or sunflower seeds, but also for the return of "sexual" strength. The pulp was considered a valuable aphrodisiac and was used to prepare medicines and dishes for wealthy patients suffering from "senile weakness." This opinion is not a delusion - in the composition of the truffle, as already mentioned, there is a large amount of a stimulant for the hormonal system - nicotinic acid.
Additional useful properties of truffles:
- Increases immune status;
- Stops the development of degenerative-dystrophic diseases of the musculoskeletal system and prevents inflammatory processes, arthritis of all types;
- Eliminates nervous disorders, has a sedative and calming effect;
- Improves visual function;
- Has an antioxidant effect;
- Stimulates the regeneration of organic tissues at the cellular level, accelerates the restoration of the skin in dermatological diseases;
- Prevents malignancy of neoplasms;
- Improves the condition of patients with Alzheimer's disease;
- Increases the tone of blood vessels and muscle fibers located in the dermis, rejuvenates and prevents vascular hardening;
- In the last stages of diabetes mellitus, it relieves the patient's condition, alleviates the manifestation of symptoms that cause discomfort - reduces dry mouth and flaking of the skin, the number of pigmented areas.
The main difference from most mushrooms, including valuable species, is that truffle pulp is easily absorbed by the body. The use of mushroom dishes has a beneficial effect on the intestinal microflora, has a therapeutic effect in gastritis with high acidity and chronic colitis.
Harm and contraindications to the use of truffles
The officially established contraindication to the use of truffles is individual intolerance. No further harm was noted after entering the menu.
But truffles, like all mushrooms, accumulate toxins and heavy metals that saturate the air and soil. Therefore, you should not eat mushrooms that were collected in ecologically unfavorable areas.
When collecting truffles, one should choose protected areas, where a person's foot has not literally set foot. Also, you should not order dishes from them in cheap restaurants - they are unlikely to offer real expensive mushrooms there. If you do not follow the recommendations, after enjoying the taste, you can end up in a hospital bed.
Truffle recipes
In haute cuisine, only dishes made from fresh mushrooms are valued - their shelf life does not exceed 2-3 days on a refrigerator shelf. So that truffles do not lose their valuable qualities, they are placed in rice, and then a vacuum is provided, or immersed in oil or cognac with an aging of at least 3 years. Sometimes frozen mushrooms are sold at auctions, but their value is much lower - they are used only as an additive to sauces.
Truffle recipes:
- Paste … To get a rich mushroom taste, it is enough to add 1 valuable mushroom to the dish. Soak 30 g of dried white mushrooms in water so that it covers the fruit bodies completely. Then the water is carefully decanted - it will then be needed, and the mushrooms are cut into slices and fried in olive oil for 10 minutes, while frying, 2 minutes before the end of the process, add 2-3 cloves of garlic and a shallot. Pour mushroom water into a pan, boil it until the amount of liquid evaporates by half. Ready-made pasta 1 kg: cook according to the instructions, adding cream 3 minutes before the end of cooking - 70-80 g. Pour the pasta with 1 tablespoon of truffle oil, mix with fried mushrooms, grated Parmesan, salt and herbs to taste. For 2 minutes, bake the peeled truffle in a hot oven, grate and add to the dish. If the truffle is white, rub it raw.
- Poulard with truffles … Poularda - this is how French chefs call large broilers. First, they deal with poulard: they wash it cleanly, make an incision along the spine and remove all bones except the legs and wings. Then they rub it with flour. Regular chicken is cut, offal is removed. All are stewed separately: separately giblets, separately white meat and separately dark meat. The meat is mixed with cream - we take them in a glass. Peel pistachios - 50 g, rub finely 1 large truffle. Pour in pistachio offal with truffle, stir until completely homogeneous. Carefully so as not to shake off the flour, the poulard is spread on a napkin, and the filling is laid out in layers: dark minced meat, white, giblets with mushrooms and nuts, again white meat and dark. The poulard is sewn up and wrapped in an ordinary clean canvas napkin soaked in oil. Separately, a steep chicken broth is cooked from the bones of both birds. When it is boiled, a napkin with poulard is dipped into it and boiled until the napkin is bubbled up. Before serving, remove the threads and cut into portions. As a side dish, mashed potatoes or pumpkin puree, basmati rice are suitable.
- Omelet with truffles … A regular omelet is transformed into a gourmet dish thanks to pieces of black truffle. 10 g of mushroom pulp is enough for an omelet of 3 eggs to become an exquisite delicacy. Beat eggs by adding 1 teaspoon of sour cream, adding a little salt. If it is impossible to imagine a dish without pepper, use white pepper. Pour in finely chopped mushroom pulp and let it brew for 5 minutes. The egg mass is poured into a hot frying pan, greased with butter, fried on both sides. The surface should remain slightly damp - no need to overcook. Sprinkle with herbs before serving. To make the dish more satisfying, add a tablespoon of flour when kneading the egg mixture.
- Truffle pie … The preparation is time consuming, but the taste is worth it. 800 g of pork, a mixture of loin and neck, cut into small cubes and marinated in a mixture of cognac and white wine - 20 and 150 g - with various spices, pepper mixture, cloves, basil and coriander. Spices are chosen to taste. The meat is marinated for 10-12 hours. Using a blender, prepare the dough: 2 eggs, 150 g of melted butter, a glass of water, a teaspoon of vinegar, 250 g of flour, salt, starch 110 g. The finished dough is wrapped in cellophane and put in the refrigerator for 4 hours. When all the ingredients are ready, they take out the dough, roll out some of it, put it in a baking container. Peel the nuts - pistachios are combined with truffles to taste - 50 g, add mushroom pulp cut into small pieces and pour everything into the marinated meat, stirring. Beat eggs - they are necessary to grease the cake. The meat is spread into the dough, covered with another layer, forming a closed pie, allowed to stand for a while so that it rises. When the dough "comes to life", grease it with an egg, make cuts, inserting foil funnels into them so that steam escapes, and send the cake to the oven. Bake at 190 ° C for an hour and a half. While the cake is baking, dilute a 15 g package of gelatin in hot water, cool to 40 ° C. After the cake is cooked, gelatin is poured into the funnels, the cake is cooled to room temperature and placed in the refrigerator for 12 hours. Served cold.
- Mushroom sauce … The pack of butter is left to thaw at room temperature in a deep enamel bowl (or saucepan). Chop 1 truffle about 20 g into pieces, chop greens: a tablespoon of green onions, arrows of garlic, parsley and dill, half a teaspoon of basil, rosemary, tarragon. You can use dried seasonings by adding half a teaspoon of Provence herbs. Beat the herbs with butter until a homogeneous structure, put everything on cellophane, roll up into a sausage and send it to the freezer to freeze. Use in pieces, spreading over hot meat or fish. This addition significantly improves the taste of the dish.
Truffles are very expensive: 1 kg costs from 400 euros. Therefore, if by some miracle you managed to acquire a fungus, you need to fully enjoy its taste, without mixing it with other ingredients. The French combine pieces of pulp with the usual sauces - wine and cream. Italians offer a combination with eggs and fruits - mango, avocado and regular pears.
Interesting facts about truffle
Culinary experts became interested in truffle in the 15th century, before that it was used for medicinal purposes. In ancient Rome, impotence was treated with them, in the Middle Ages, bizarre tubers were used in witchcraft rituals to summon otherworldly forces. Alchemists necessarily introduced it as an ingredient in recipes for making a philosopher's stone.
The first culinary recipes were offered by Italian chefs, then the inhabitants of France, the provinces of Aquitaine and Provence began to extract the valuable product.
In Russia, bears were trained to search for mushrooms. Despite the fact that they had their teeth pulled out beforehand, the harvest was very dangerous for the owner of the animal - the animals refused to share. The method of collecting truffles with the help of dogs or pigs has become very popular.
Truffles are harvested at night: at this time of day, mushrooms that lie underground at a depth of 20 cm exude such a strong aroma that animals can easily catch it.
Experienced mushroom pickers hunt mushrooms during the day, on their own, focusing on the swarms of truffle flies. Insects lay eggs near the fruiting body, the larvae feed on truffles and mature quickly. By the swarm swirling above the ground, mushroom pickers understand that there is a mushroom plantation here.
When harvesting a truffle, in no case should the fruit body or mycelium be damaged. In the first case, the mushroom will not be of any value; in the second, the mycelium dies off quickly.
The most valuable mushroom varieties are black, winter, blue and Italian. The aroma of mushrooms is described by gourmets as the smell of an autumn forest. It reveals the moisture of falling trees, notes of musk, the smell of fresh earth.
On the territory of Ukraine and Russia, there is a Polish and white truffle, but it is impossible to collect a bountiful harvest, the myceliums are not large. The white truffle looks like a potato tuber, and its taste is not pronounced enough.
Truffle breeding is expensive, it is necessary to provide a soil composition that resembles natural conditions, to maintain constant moisture, to provide conditions for symbiosis - mushrooms prefer oaks. First, an oak grove is planted, and already when it gets stronger, the mycelium is sown.
Chinese farmers have successfully coped with the task: by 2005, 40 tons of valuable mushrooms were sold to French restaurants. Despite the fact that true connoisseurs of a delicate dish are protesting against such a substitution - the Chinese counterfeit is not very similar in taste to the original, restaurateurs are ready to purchase mushrooms with a less pronounced taste at a lower price.
Watch the video about the truffle:
In laboratory conditions, anandamide was isolated from the fruiting body of the truffle - its action resembles marijuana, a psychotropic drug. If the isolation of the alkaloid becomes easier, gourmets will have to be content with the "Chinese counterfeit" - the plantations of natural drugs will certainly be destroyed.
