A Heavenly Dinner Featuring Truffle Carpaccio

First Course:
Cucumber & Truffle Carpaccio with Bucheron
Olive Oil, Verjus, Fleur de Sel, Chives

Second Course:
Filet Mignon Wrapped in Speck
Duxelles with Truffle, Potato Cake, Creme Fraiche, Truffle Carpaccio
Painted Bordelaise Reduction

Jupiter aligned with Mars. Our Creative Cooking Crew challenge for the month of February was to put an imaginative spin on “meat & potatoes.” A gift of Truffle Carpaccio arrived in the mail. My dear friend and savvy cook, FA, was coming to town. Meat. Potatoes. Truffles. Sounds like a party. Dinner party.

Creative Cooking Crew
February Challenge: MEAT & POTATOES

The Creative Cooking Crew is a new group of 24 innovative food bloggers hosted by Laz of Lazaro Cooks! and Joan of FOODalogue. Each month brings a new culinary challenge with a round-up of all the entries posted at the end of the month. Please stop by Laz’s blog here to savor the ingenious spin on meat & potatoes by our group of talented cooks.

Trio Boutique

Truffle Love Giveaway

The folks at Gourmet Attitude would like to share their products and their Facebook page with us!

For a CHANCE TO WIN a fabulous Trio Boutique:

1. “Like” the Gourmet Attitude Facebook page HERE.
2. AND leave a comment on one of Taste With The Eyes’ Truffle Love Dinner posts.
3. That’s it. Bonne Chance and Buona Fortuna!

Truffle Carpaccio
Ingredients: summer truffles (tuber aestivum vitt), olive oil, salt, flavorings.

Truffle Honey
Ingredients: acacia honey, white truffles 3% (tuber albidum pico), flavorings.

La Tartufata (White Truffle Cream)
Ingredients: porcini mushrooms 84% (boletus edulis and relative group), olive oil 12%,
white truffles 3% (tuber magnatum pico), salt, wine vinegar,
vegetable extracts, spices, flavorings.

Retail $73

Cucumber & Truffle Carpaccio with Bucheron Recipe

Slice an English cucumber into thin disks, we used a mandoline. Arrange the cucumber on a platter, top with crumbled Bucheron (semi-aged French goat cheese) and truffle carpaccio. Drizzle white verjus and fruity olive oil over the top. Finish with a light sprinkling of fleur de sel and finely chopped chives. Serve with a crusty baguette and a glass of dry crisp Sancerre/Sauvignon Blanc.

Filet Mignon, Bordelaise Reduction Recipes

Duxelles with Truffle:

Finely chop shiitake caps using a food processor. Saute a finely diced shallot in a mixture of half butter/half olive oil until soft. Add the mushrooms, salt and pepper, and continue to saute until the mushrooms are cooked. Add fresh thyme leaves and a splash of dry sherry. When the sherry has evaporated, finish the duxelles with a splash of cream and chopped truffle carpaccio. Keep warm.

Bordelaise Reduction:

Heat a cup of hearty red wine (such as cabernet) in a saucepan with a couple sprigs of fresh thyme, a finely diced shallot, and a bay leaf. Bring to a boil, reduce by two-thirds. Remove the bay and thyme sticks. Whisk in pan juices from cooked filets, 3/8 c. demi-glace, and 1 1/2 T. butter. Simmer over low heat until the sauce has a syrupy consistency, stirring occasionally. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Potato Cake:

Grate a russett potato in a food processor. Remove the potato mixture from the food processor, one handful at a time. Squeeze out as much moisture as possible by hand. Place each handful in a large bowl. Mix in chopped parsley. Add enough flour to lightly coat the mixture. Add Kosher salt and fresh ground pepper to taste. Mix well. Lastly add just enough beaten egg to bind the mixture. Heat a large sauté pan over high heat. Add 1/2 olive oil 1/2 canola oil mixture to completely cover the bottom of the pan. When oil is hot, add mounds of the potato mixture. Turn the heat to medium-high. When the bottom of each cake is nicely browned, flip and brown the other side. Drain on paper towels. Season with salt.

Filet Mignon Wrapped in Speck:

Wrap trimmed room-temperature filet mignon with a piece of speck (or prosciutto) and secure with toothpicks. Generously coat each side of the meat with olive oil, season with salt and pepper. Sear the filets in a hot dry pan over medium-high heat for 4 minutes per side. Finish in a 425° oven for 4 minutes. I call this my 4-4-4 method, it results in a medium-rare piece of beef that has a nice brown exterior crust. Keep warm until ready to assemble.

To Assemble:

Paint the bordelaise reduction on a plate using a pastry brush. Place the filet off the center of the sauce. Top the filet with a couple tablespoons of the duxelles. Cut the potato cake with a cookie cutter to fit the filet. Place the hot potato cake on top of the duxelles. Finish with a small dollop of creme fraiche, a few slices of truffle carpaccio, and a chive garnish. Serve with a glass of big Red Bordeaux/Cabernet Sauvignon.

Truffle Love Dinner Series

When a gift box from my friends at Gourmet Attitude in NYC, purveyors of fresh truffles and fine truffle products, arrived containing the “Trio Boutique” three jars of fancy truffle products, we thought it would be fun to cook three separate dinners, each featuring one of these preserved truffle goodies. This Heavenly Dinner ~ Featuring Truffle Carpaccio is the second in a series of three Truffle Love Dinners.

First in The Series

A Sweet & Savory Dinner ~ Featuring Truffle Honey

Pan-Seared & Roasted Pork Loin Wrapped in Bacon
Demilune of Baked Butternut Squash & Apple with Truffle Honey & Rosemary
Sauteed Purple Cabbage with Truffle Honey, Balsamic Vinegar, Caraway Seeds

Please stop by later in the week to savor the last meal in the dinner series,
featuring White Truffle Cream.

Like truffles? “Like” the Gourmet Attitude Facebook page HERE.