Aren’t the photos of my perfectly risen black truffle and parmesan souffles delightful? What you can’t see them? You can only see deflated saggy looking excuses of this classic French dish? Hold on, don’t go scrolling down the post to find the perfectly risen money shot, there isn’t one.
Instead you will find a “but a dog ate my homework” excuse for those not so perfect puffs, but I'll get to that shortly. Before we get to my excuse I want to tell you about some dogs, that don’t eat homework or the Perigord truffles (French winter black truffles) they hunt.
Red Earth Truffles' Dogs & The Hunt
Abbie and Tom are the two hardest working members of the Red Earth Truffles team. Red Earth Truffles is a family owned and run farm based in the Southern Tablelands of NSW. They also grow olives and have a small livestock holding which includes lambs, and it just happens to be lambing season at the moment. These guys certainly have their hands full as the truffle and lambing seasons collide.
Abbie is a two and a half year old Rottweiler that has a scenting and tracking pedigree. The other half of the truffle foraging team is Tom, a three and a half year old Australian cattle cross kelpie, or something like that. They aren’t quite sure as Tom was rescued at six months of age from the animal shelter.
Abbie and Tom are both characters. Abbie is very much the family dog, loving, loyal and protective. When not working she loves spending her time frolicking in the paddocks getting covered in grass and dirt. She is also a big sucker for food and treats. Tom on the other hand is a bit of a goof ball, but also very loyal and loving. They both love hunting for truffles.
That above paragraph almost sounds like Belly Rumbles is turning into a doggie dating web site. Thor likes to eat chicken, relaxing in front of cosy fireplaces and long walks on the beach……….
Truffle dogs aren’t born with the gift of sniffling out truffles. They undergo specialist training to hunt truffles. Unlike truffle pigs, Abbie and Tom know not to eat their discoveries. Instead they are rewarded with treats and play.
The guys at Red Earth Truffles also contract a professional truffle dog called Hunter. Hunter is the preferred breed for truffle dogs, a Labrador.
When it is truffle hunt time the dogs are let loose in the truffiere and are all very quick to pick up the scent of the Perigord truffles. When they find a truffle they paw the earth on top of where the truffle is growing. If the truffle is deeper down they will dig a little bit and then wait for the human half of the team to arrive to carefully remove the soil from around the truffle.
As clever as the Abbie, Tom and Hunter are, a human nose is still needed to ascertain if the truffle is fully ripened before digging it up. If the truffle isn’t quite ripe enough then it is covered with soil again, the spot marked and checked daily until it is ready to harvest.
The Bandit Bird & Sunken Souffle
Now back to my deflated souffle story. I could have fudged the photos to make them look perfect and risen. A little bit of top cutting off and shoving something in the black truffle and parmesan souffle to elevate it and puff it out. Trust me you would have never known their flatness if I didn’t want you to, and a good photo will hide all sorts of cooking faux pas. But sharing the truth really is more fun. Also fallen souffles prove that I am only human and things go wrong in the kitchen for every one.
The recipe was coming along swimmingly. I had made the most perfect roux and subsequent white sauce. My egg whites were stiff and shiny and my folding technique without fault. They were into the oven smelling and cooking away on the road to souffle bliss.
Knowing that souffles can fall pretty quickly once out of the oven, I had my set up ready for photographs. Souffles are fine if being served to the table straight away, generally they will get there still puffed up and pretty. But I was going to be fart arsing around with a camera to get those perfectly risen souffle shots so I had to be organised.
There was a rack to place the hot tray that would ferry my black truffle and parmesan souffles to where I was shooting. There were various pieces of cutlery, some plates, and strategically placed pieces of baguette.
I open the oven door and the “food porn” perfect souffles are ready to come out. Just before I pull them out I hear flutter flutter flutter. I look up and there is a bird perched on the rack of my photo set up. I look at the souffles again, at the bird, back to the souffles, swear a little, then swear a lot and quickly try and work out what my next move will be.
JOSH!!!!!!!!! When panicking it is always best to just yell for your 23 year old son to come to the rescue.
I shut the oven door and we both head toward the bird. I am trying to reason with it, as you do. And all thoughts of the souffles leave my mind as the thought of the bird shitting all over our new white leather lounge enters it. This is when I internally start to panic, just a little.
The bird takes off from the rack and circles the room twice. I am waiting for what normally happens, that the bird will try and fly out the large glass windows at the back of the house. Which I may add are closed. But instead it goes back to the rack, looks down and attempts to pick up one of the slices of baguette.
Ahhh, light bulb moment, he wants the bread. I then realise he had probably been sitting in the bamboo next to the open door, planning his attack for some time while I was in the kitchen.
He gets half a metre in height off the rack with a piece of baguette, nearly the same size as he is, before he drops it. He sits back down, looks at the baguette piece that is now on the floor, starts eyeing off the other piece when I simple say to him “Really? Really?? You really think you are going to get that out of here??” To which the bird looks at me, looks back down at the piece of baguette, looks at me again, then calmly turns around and flies out the back door into the bamboo.
To which Josh says “That’ll teach you to leave the back door open when you are shooting”. To which I think, not say, "bloody smartarse kids", and we both go back to what we were doing.
Sadly when I get back to the oven, the souffles are slightly over cooked and fallen.
Even though what you see isn’t very pretty, I can vouch that they looked amazing when they were ready to come out that first time. They also smell and taste wonderful, either puffed up like peacocks or flat as pancakes.
It is currently black truffle season in Australia and we have some of the best Perigord/French black truffles in the World. We really are a lucky bunch to be able to readily access seasonal local black truffles in Australia. If you would like to get your hands on some of the stunning Perigord/French black truffles from Red Earth Truffles you can do so here.
Now that I have told you my baguette bird bandit soufflé story, I would love to hear if you have any tales of animal related kitchen disasters. Please share so we can all have a giggle along with you.
Sara xxx
www.redearthtruffles.com
Red Earth Truffles Facebook Page
Belly Rumbles would like to thank Red Earth Truffles for the beautiful truffles that were used to make this recipe.
Black Truffle and Parmesan Souffle
Ingredients
- 250 ml milk
- 45 grams butter
- 40 grams flour
- 40 grams parmesan finely grated
- 4 eggs separated
- 1 egg white
- 30 grams Perigord/French black truffle grated
- salt & pepper
Instructions
- Pre-heat oven 190°C (370°F).
- Grease 6 ramekins (10cm deep x 7cm tall) well with butter. Place a collar around each ramekin, this can be either baking paper or greased foil. By doing this you avoid the soufflé spilling over if it rises too quickly due to oven temperature not being quite right.
- Place milk in a small saucepan and warm until hot, just before simmering point.
- While your milk is heating melt butter in a medium saucepan. Whisk in flour and cook for a few minutes. The butter and flour should be bubbling, but you don’t want it to brown.
- Remove butter and flour mixture from the heat. Add the hot milk in one go and whisk. Your white sauce will thicken as you whisk and as your milk is hot you will be lump free.
- Place white sauce to the side as you prepare your egg whites. In a clean large size bowl beat the five egg whites until stiff and shiny. Set aside.
- Stir egg yolks into your white sauce until well combined. Then stir through grated black truffle and parmesan. Season with salt and pepper.
- Push the beaten egg whites to one side of the bowl that you have beaten them in. Creating a space to pour the truffle mixture in. Then gently fold the truffle mixture into your egg whites.
- Do this by starting from the centre of the bowl, and drawing your spoon out to the bowl edge and then folding the mixture over. Do not over fold your soufflé mixture. You want it just combined, it doesn’t have to be prefect.
- Distribute the soufflé mix between the 6 greased ramekin dishes.
- Place on a tray on the middle rack of your oven. Cook for around 25 minutes until they are golden, cooked through and puffed up.
- Serve immediately with green salad and baguette.
Heather
What a great recipe!! I have always wanted to try truffles... this sounds amazing!!
Sara
Thanks Heather, it is worth having a go at. Hopefully no birds when you do 😉
Marissa @ OMG FOOD
Hilarious post! Gotta love when strange birds fly into your home and rustle things up. 🙂 I'll bet these souffles were delicious! Thanks for sharing!
Sara
Thanks Marissa, got to love a little chaos!
Sara
Thanks Donna, they were pretty tasty.
Donna
These sound amazing - anything with truffles sounds amazing 🙂
Kennedy Cole| KCole's Creative Corner
If I can ever get my hands on some fresh truffles, I'll be sure to make this beautiful soufflé! Thanks for sharing! 😀
Sara
Thanks Kennedy!
Helen | Grab Your Fork
Whenever disasters happen, I console myself that it will make a great story once the tears have gone! And I bet these souffles tasted incredible regardless!
Sara
That is my philosophy too, it will make a great story if nothing else. Luckily they still tasted great.
THE HUNGRY MUM
This is fab! I can almost HEAR you screaming for Josh! Comedy gold 🙂 They look delectable, money shot or not x
Sara
Naw thanks lovely. And yes, half the neighbourhood heard me yell for Josh!
Lizzie {Strayed Table}
Don't you hate it when you are right in the middle of something and then something distracts you. I swear my greatest thoughts are lost simply by interruptions, let alone a bird with no sense of outside awareness! Had a good giggle and deflated souffles or not, I reckon they tasted amazing and I would love to eat one right now.
Sara
Thanks Lizzie, glad you had a giggle along with me. Yes the souffles did taste great even if flat.
chocolatesuze
oh dear! i still say they look amazing and i can only imagine how incredible your kitchen would have smelled as they were baking!
Sara
Thanks Suze, and yes the kitchen did smell pretty good.
john | heneedsfood
Oh no!! I swear, I can see you frantically running around trying to get that damn bird away. I'm sure the soufflés looked smashing when they were all risen and prefect, but you know what? It's all in the taste.
Sara
Yes it was a bit of a headless chook moment, followed by trying to be a bird whisperer 😉
Howie Fox
I think they DO look very pretty! I think I never tasted truffle in my life. Now I got quite curious. Beautful pictures! 🙂
Sara
Awe thanks Howie. Try and get your hands on some, they are definitely worth trying at least once for the experience. If not, see if you can dine out at a restaurant that has them when they are in season.
Patti @ CooksRecipeCollection.com
OMG! This looks just amazing! My mouth is watering thinking of the truffles!
Sara
Thanks Patti, they were very tasty indeed.
Whitney
This post was hilarious! I think your pictures looks lovely, though!
Sara
Thanks so much Whitney and the lovely words about my pics 🙂
Claudia | Gourmet Project
In love with your souffle, with your pics and your dogs!
Sara
Thanks Claudia, sadly they aren't my dogs 🙁 They are the dynamic due from Red Earth Truffles.
Julie @ Tastes of Lizzy T
Mm......So savory! I'd love a taste, please! 🙂 Yummed!
Sara
Thanks for the yum, and they are yummy!
Sam - Journo and the Joker
Great story! And beautifully written. I love how the truffle industry is growing in Australia. And at the end of the day it is all about the taste, not the looks.
Sara
Thanks Sam! I am with you, love how the industry is growing. We do things well in Aus.
Harriet Emily
Sunken or not, they definitely look like the ultimate soufflé to me! Black truffle and parmesan?! You can't get any better than that. I think they look beautiful! Thank you so much for sharing 🙂
Sara
Thank you Harriet. Black truffle and parmesan is one of my fave combos, oh and eggs 😉
[email protected]
Oh no! But, in all seriousness... frickin hilarious story. 😉 Either way, I'm sure they tasted incredible if a little less fluffy than you had hoped.
Sara
Thanks lovely, they did taste wonderful.
Nancy | Plus Ate Six
Does a persistant husband hovering around the kitchen count asking how long dinner will be and why do I need five minutes to take photos count?! I love that you didn't edit the souffles and that I got to see them exactly as they would more than likely turn out if I made them. They look delicious and the photos are gorgeous.
Sara
Yes your husband counts LOL! Mine does that too, then when you throw in the son, yup, feel your pain.
Claire | Sprinkles and Sprouts
Sunken or not these look so scrummy. And the photos look great.
Your post made me laugh, that is the sort of thing that happens to me!
I once had a bob tailed lizard in the kitchen as I had left the patio door open after taking photos on the veranda. Scared the living daylights out of me when I saw the head poke out from under the table. I thought it was a massive snake!
x
p.s Your dogs are amazing!!! And adorable!
Sara
I probably would have fainted if I saw the bob tailed lizard! Sadly not my pups, they are part of the Red Earth Truffle family.