Cooking with Truffle Is NOT Complicated

I'm a Truffle buff and I'm not afraid to cook with it. I'm also the first one in line to have dishes with it, because for the fun part, I'm crazy obsessed with it. 

Cooking for it must be a mystery for most people, but let me tell you a simple rule. If you are cooking with truffle, use the black variety. If you are using it for a salad or finishing something like soups or dishes, use the white kind because it doesn't need heat for the flavor to permeate. With that in mind, the good people over at UMBRIA are suggesting two new dishes which you can serve your family and friends. Let's introduce these two recipes and get straight to business.

 Beef Mushroom Sandwich

Ingredients: 30 grams Sukiyaki Cut Beef, 50 grams Portabella Mushrooms, a table spoon of soy sauce, Mayonnaise, a good crusty bread, Umbria Truffle Oil and Worcestershire Sauce.

Marinate the beef with soy and Worcestershire sauce (overnight if possible) but 30 mins would do. Cook it with butter, mushrooms, season with salt and black pepper. Put mayo on bread, when beef caramelizes, add mushrooms. Salt to taste, then finish the beef with a little Umbria Truffle oil after placing it on top of bread. Remember, a little goes a long way.

 Potato Leek Soup with Truffle

Ingredients: 3 Medium sized potatoes, 35 grams of leeks, 750ml chicken or vegetable stock, 125 ml of Cream, White Pepper, Umbria Truffle Oil

Peel potatoes and cut into slices, chop up leeks and saute on hot pan with butter. When leeks become wilted, add potatoes, stir it in til it crumbles. Add broth, salt and pepper to taste. Put it into a blender or use an immersion blender if you have one. Add in cream, mix thoroughly (not to boil so it gets creamy). Put a few fresh leeks on top, crunchy bacon (if you have it) and about a half teaspoon of Umbria Truffle Oil. Put this on the side of the sandwich we prepared earlier, and it's a meal you'll love for sure!

Make sure you enjoy your time at home and prepare food for them, your family and friends will surely love it because the one who prepared it is YOU. Truffle is NOT complicated, think of it as perfume when you're about to go out on a date, but you're just putting it on a plate. Umbria is distributed in the Philippines by Dygen Food Ventures Inc. which is under Dyna Drug Corporation. It's available at https://goodwill.market/ which you can order online with.

Trust me on the truffle.

TRUFFLE Dreams Come True in Manila

 

I am a certified Truffle addict, let's just put it out there.

My fascination with it spanned years when I first learned about it on YouTube and how it was like legendary status in Italy. It was like gold, only found by special hunting dogs, pigs in secret farms across the country. It has no certain place to grow, very difficult to actually find which made me even more eager to actually taste it. I also learned more about it when hotels in the Philippines started sourcing it for most of their pasta dishes via their upscale restaurants. It opened a huge opportunity for local chefs to experiment and use the certain flavor to enhance dishes, Italian or not, and get it to that heavenly place called Tartufo bliss which everyone wants to attain. I still do.

 

Umbria Terra di Tartufi

Anyway, I always wanted to cook a batch of fresh pasta, with chicken, bacon and mushroom cream sauce. I knew it was a little hard to source truffle in Manila so I never really sought doing it because the last time I got some, it cost me an arm and a leg. I didn't really complain because I know how hard people have worked just to get them. I didn't know where to find them in abundance, but this one came to life. Yes, there exists a truffle brand called Umbria Terra di Tartufi. This actually is now easy to source as it is available in the country courtesy of the people of DyGen Food Ventures Inc., the same people behind Dyna Drug Corporation that brings in really good products into the country. 

Their Truffle Sauce or what they refer to as Salsa Tartufata was so good I had to cook a batch when it arrived on my doorstep. This thing had bits of fresh champignon mushrooms, EVOO, olives, truffle, salt. In what is supposed to be such a difficult task of spending hours in the kitchen only took minutes for me to do. A spoonful would be enough to actually flavor up a meal for around 4 or more. A hint of it would actually go a long way and when things are hot, I could finish a bowl or two in one sitting (oh please don't judge). The white truffle oil on the other hand, is what I want to use for steak soon. It's quite nice to have it also finish a lot of dishes like bruschetta (when you bite on toast and close your eyes lol), pasta (which I love with bacon and more bacon), meat (oh those steaks) or fish (Steamed or pan fried, all good). I think I loved how the cream also enveloped the pasta and still smell that truffle permeating on several forkful of it. Ahh it was so good!

 As if that's not enough, they've got other things that would be good for the panty for people like me.

Gullon has gluten free cookies

They also have sugar free options for diabetics like me. I love shortbread cookies with tea in the afternoon. They also have chocolate wafer and the twins cocoa sandwich cookies. That's for my midnight snack LOL.

Healthy recipes called for Bulgur and Brown Rice, Duru and Nutribrown Rice are essential for lots of vegan recipes, and it's also got way lower calories.

These are the essential things I actually buy for pasalubong in Malaysia, now I've got access to White Coffee and Teh Tarik without the need to go out of the country. How nice would that be? :)

Visit dygenfood.com now to take a look at the rest of the things they've got in Manila. Now it's easier to buy stuff online. The Umbria Terra di Tartufi white truffle oil costs Php 1,399 for the 250ml bottle, they have a 100ml bottle version which costs Php 719. The original Truffle sauce costs Php 519 for the 80g bottle while the 180g bottle costs Php 759. The black truffle sauce in 180g bottle costs Php 999. Believe me, every drop of it is just worth it!