Black Diamonds

11^th January 2011-01-11

It’s the Truffle season and so we make for Sainte Alvere 30 kms north east of Bergerac for the Monday market. The season runs from December until the end of February and the regional newspaper, SudOuest lists the markets in the Dordogne where “Truffes” can be bought and on what days. Sainte Alvere on Mondays; Ecideuil, Saint-Astier and Tarasson on Thursday; Riberac and Brantome on Friday; Perigeux, Sarlat, Bergerac and Thiviers on Saturday and on Sunday the Truffes market is at Sorges..

Sainte Alvere, a pretty market town in Perigord Noire, has a reputation for top quality truffles. In local parlance they are known as “black diamonds” costing as much as 1000 euros per kilo. For the princely sum of 10 euros we bought a small nugget the weight of a feather and which resembled a lump of hashish. Truffes are a tuber –“tuber melansoporum” - found near the base and roots of oak trees. Dogs are trained to sniff them out and pigs are sometimes used for the same purpose. The “truffe” taste is delicate with a distinct aroma that needs to be acquired by sampling a number of special dishes.

The SudOuest features recipes of local restaurateurs built around the essential truffle ingredient.These included Chausson a la Truffe et a la sauce Perigueux; Truffes sur panacotta; Le soufflé sucre a la truffe; Tartare de foie gras aux truffes, Bar truffe Rossini coulis d’ortie and Tournedos de foie fourre, jus sauce Perigeux. Suggested wines to accompany these delights were Bergerac rouges from Chateau Tour des Verdots, Chateau Moulin-Caresse, Chateau des Eyssards, and Chateau des Tours des Verdots and Bergerac blancs secs from La Tour des Gendres and Chateau Les Marinieres

At Sainte Alvere in a marquee opposite the covered market truffle omelettes were being served at 15 euros a head. The patron proudly announced that the truffles were from his own land a few kilometres outside the town. He had three trained Labradors to sniff them out. My omelette was delicious but frankly I found it difficult to detect immediately the taste of the “black diamond” which had been shaved into the omelette with a special truffle guillotine. Definitely an acquired taste!

According to the Mayor of Sainte Alvere, Philippe Ducene people have sufficient confidence to buy on the internet without seeing the merchandise.

“It’s a good sign that Parisian restraunters buy our truffles with their eyes closed,” he said

La Federation Trufficulteurs de la Dordogne represents 1,500 producers covering 132 hectares. Truffle production in the Perigord region is circa 10 tonnes but 40 tonnes of Truffles are produced throughout France. The other French departments producing “les truffes” are La Drome, le Vaucluse and Le Gard.

NB: please note that with an English keyborad I am unable to accent those French words that need one.