Black truffle freaks will know this, of course, but here’s a word of warning to the uninitiated: the season is ending soon. Some restaurants in town still have them available – XO, Le St Urbain and Venti, for example – but only for a few more days…

I got my fix last Saturday at Brasserie T! when Chefs Normand Laprise and Charles-Antoine Crête decided to offer, for one day only, an all-truffle menu. And they really meant ALL-truffle, as even the humble grilled cheese came with a good helping of aromatic black slices between the ultra-buttery toasted bread. Not your everyday grilled cheese, to say the least.

While the truffle was almost overpowered by the dressing in my scallops starter, what followed more than made up for it. I closed my eyes with sheer delight and slowly savoured each bite of my tartare of venison, ever so fresh and bright, sparingly seasoned with chives and a faint taste of truffle, comme il faut. The fries that came with it? Oh-so-perfect.

The scrambled eggs, speckled in black bits of truffes, were also excellent (sometimes the simplest things are the hardest to get just right) and ditto on the accompanying croissant. The truffle theme continued on till dessert. A snow-white dacquoise made with egg whites perfumed with truffles! A “fausse truffe” of chocolate and banana on a crackly, chocolatey bed of crumbs! Too bad there isn’t yet a set date for the next truffle extravaganza at Brasserie T!.

Truffles are fragile, expensive little things that have a more elegant and complex aroma and flavour than their cheaper, much less interesting stand-in, the truffle-flavoured oil (which varies a lot in quality but often contains synthetic truffle aroma). In Montreal, only a handful of restaurants go through the trouble of sourcing these earthy nuggets and making them available to their clients. Normand Laprise, chef-owner of Brasserie T!, has his own purveyor. But nine times out of ten, the supplier of choice is Macchi Inc.. an import business run by Paolo Macchi and his wife Hivron Turanli (better known as @MrsMacchi on Twitter).

“We’re at the tail end of the season,” warns Macchi. “My last batch just came in.” XO Le Restaurant, a posh restaurant in the Hotel Le St-James that screams “special occasion”, is one of the spots that snagged some. At Le St-Urbain you’ll find them paired with a house-made boudin – but it’s best to call ahead as menus there change very often. And at Osteria Venti, where chef Michele Forgione is building a following for his well-above-average Italian cooking, you can enjoy them in what I think is the best way: a simple plate of tagliatelle tossed with a bit of Quebec organic butter. Nothing else other than pure buttery goodness laced with that jolt of umami earthiness that is so hard to describe to non-believers…

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Photograph by: Pierre Obendrauf, GAZETTE file photo

MONTREAL – For a good while now, we’ve ended each year in this space with “best of” lists. At a time when restaurants are too busy to be reviewed (or often closed), I have preferred to wrap things up by underlining the efforts of the sharpest chefs and their most brilliant dishes.

Yet, I always felt we were leaving out some of the people whose foodie efforts extend beyond those lists. Thus, the tastemakers column was created.

Think of all the people who work tirelessly at getting those ingredients to your plate or in your glass, the people who are growing or raising those ingredients. Then there are the folks who work hard to make home cooks think beyond the usual Hamburger Helper. And let’s not forget the chefs who are taking risks on the Montreal scene to make it a more interesting place to eat.

There are countless butchers and bakers in Montreal, waking at dawn to haul those carcasses or shape those baguettes. There are plenty of shopkeepers who pay high rents and even higher taxes to supply eager cooks with their favourite Le Creuset pot or cast iron skillet.

When I think deep foodie thoughts in this city, people come to mind like truffle seller Paolo Macchi meeting with chefs over an espresso to show them his latest precious tuber,

or a tiny Asian woman called Fong placing chocolates so delicately in boxes at Pâtisserie de Gascogne, or the Lavallée brothers at Les Douceurs du Marché describing bottle after bottle of olive oil in detail to some customer standing in awe before this wall of “huile,” or the ecstatic Chuck Hughes when he won the lobster battle on Iron Chef America.

Yes, there’s a lot more to gourmet Montreal than its fabulous steak frites. Here are some of the people who took the food scene to another level.

Favourite ingredient: Gaspor pork

Though I have long been a fan of this tender, tasty and pricey suckling pig, it was only this year that I finally visited Gaspor headquarters at the St-Canut Farm in the Laurentians. Owners Alexandre Aubin and Carl Rousseau have been in the suckling pig farming business since 2003. You’d be hard-pressed to find two more amiable guys, who not only raise the pigs but butcher them and deliver them in person to their Montreal chef customers, including XO, DNA, Laurie Raphael, and Toqué! I’ve enjoyed it at SEB in St. Jovite and 11 Madison Park in New York. It’s also FedEx-ed to the French Laundry in California and Canoe in Toronto, and four containers are shipped to Japan annually.

Gaspor pigs are a Yorkshire-Landrace mix that are fed on a steady diet of vanilla-scented milk every two hours. “It’s an expensive way to raise pigs,” said Rousseau, “but we believe the taste of the meat has more to do with the animals’ feed than the breed. A 10-week-old pig fed with grain will cost $15, yet one fed on this milk diet costs us $110.”

I have never tasted a nugget of Gaspor pork that didn’t make me swoon. I only wish it was easier for us home cooks to acquire, especially since I’ve tasted the Gaspor bacon, sausages and pulled pork at the Val David Farmer’s Market last summer where Gaspor always has a stand. For now, Gaspor’s products are also sold at the Val David Winter Farmer’s market held on Feb. 12, March 12, April 16 and May 7 from 10 a.m. to to 1 p.m. at the École St-Jean Baptiste at 2580 de l’Eglise St., as well as the summer market held every Saturday from June 4 to Oct. 9. You can also purchase directly from the producer at the St-Canut farm store at 14105 Chemin Dupuis. For more information, check out: gaspor.com

Gutsy chef: Nick Hodge

I never reviewed the casual restaurant Icehouse (one of Gazette casual-dining critic Sarah Musgrave’s top picks of 2011), yet I dined there often. Sitting at a paper-topped table and watching our waiter dump a bucket of spicy fried chicken right on the table was a revelation. The food was so delicious, the ambience was as spicy as the pulled pork taco, and the booze offerings ranged from bourbon-spiked lemonade to a California cabernet with a bucking bronco on the label. Our city may be able to boast a strong cast of homegrown chefs, but it took this Texas native to show us a new take on how much fun a restaurant could be while still serving great food. If I had my way, I’d eat this sort of finger-lickin’ fun fare every night. Problem is, I’m not the only one thinking that way, thus the crush to nab a table. Sucking back oysters and shelling shrimp on the Icehouse terrasse last summer, I couldn’t help but marvel at how great it was to have this little taste of Texas in our midst. Yum! Icehouse, 51 Roy St. E., Tel: 514- 439-6691

Fantasy kitchen stores: Les Touilleurs, Arthur Quentin, Dante

As much as I love beautiful ingredients, there’s nothing quite like a fancy kitchen shop to wake up my inner gourmet. For culinary chicness alone, you’d be hard-pressed to find two more beautiful kitchenware shops than Laurier Ave.’s Les Touilleurs or St. Denis St.’s Arthur Quentin. Any item that comes from either of these stores is the nec plus ultra. Don’t be intimidated, though, by the glitzy surroundings. Granted, many items are costly, yet markups are fair and there is plenty here for shoppers on a budget. You also can’t go wrong in the hands of Elena Faita at Quincaillerie Dante, where you’ll find absolutely everything you’ll ever need for the kitchen, ranging from a pizzelle maker to that perfect, flat-edged wooden spoon. And like Les Touilleurs with their “Ateliers des Chefs,” Dante can show you how to put all those pots and pans to great use in their popular cooking classes. Both shops offer classes led by several of the city’s top chefs, Les Touilleurs holds them on-site, and Faita offers her classes at the neighbouring Mezza Luna cooking school.

Quincaillerie Dante, 6851 St. Dominique St. 514-271-2057; Mezza Luna cooking school: 57 Dante. St. 514-272-5299, ecolemezzaluna.ca; Arthur Quentin, 3960 St-Denis St. 514-843-7513, arthurquentin.com; Les Touilleurs 152 Laurier Ave. W. 514-278-0008, lestouilleurs.com

Coolest producer: Anicet

Up in the Haute Laurentides, beekeeper Anicet Desrochers makes honey with a true taste of the terroir. Desrochers, 32, is the proud beekeeper, bee breeder and owner of Les Miels D’Anicet. Lanky, laid-back and with a definite hipster style, he also happens to be the largest producer of organic honey in North America. Thirteen years ago, Desrochers and his wife, Anne-Virginie Schmidt, took over the family apiary, the Ferme Apicole Desrochers, renaming it Api Culture Hautes Laurentides. Located in Ferme Neuve, just north of Mont Laurier in the Upper Laurentians, Api Culture Hautes Laurentides includes both the Miels d’Anicet honey production, and a breeding centre for the Russian Primorsky queen bees he sells to other beekeepers. There are now five certified organic honey producers in Quebec, but none come close to the production of Desrochers, who counts about 1,000 hives on his property. Each of those hives has 60,000 to 80,000 bees at work producing the 36,300 to 45,360 kilograms of honey sold each year.

The complexity of flavour in the Miels d’Anicet is also making fans of some of Quebec’s top chefs, including Normand Laprise, Martin Picard, Patrice Demers, François Blais and Éric Gonzalez. “Chefs have the greatest impact,” says Desrochers, “because they use our products in an exceptional way. These are people who work with artisans, favour small producers and appreciate the signature we bring from our region.”

Next time you see a jar of Anicet honey, pick it up and suck back a spoonful. The complexity of flavour will have you hooked, putting the honey in that plastic, bear-shaped bottle to shame.

Miels d’Anicet products, which besides honey include honey mustards and organic soaps, are available at Rachelle-Béry, Au Pain Doré and Première Moisson, as well as select IGA and Metro supermarkets. For a full list of sales points, visit their website api-culture.com

Sweetest chef: Stéphanie Labelle at Pâtisserie Rhubarbe

Montreal may be seeing a good influx of baguette and macaron makers, but when it comes to pastries that taste as beautiful as they look, pickings are slim. But there’s a Plateau pastry shop that’s upping the pastry stakes in this city above dreary cupcakes and mealy muffins. It’s small, it’s called Pâtisserie Rhubarbe, and it’s a gem.

Owned and operated since last November by a pretty brown-haired pâtissière by the name of Stéphanie Labelle, Rhubarbe is an authentic “pâtisserie” where locals come in to pick up such goodies as her lemon tart, caramel mille-feuilles, cheesecake and pistachio cake.

The sunny shop is modest, with 12 seats for those who want to enjoy a cake and coffee on-site. Framed in white walls and tall windows, the space features a refrigerated case filled with sophisticated pastries and a few cakes, as well as chocolates and macarons. Shelves across the room are lined with jars of homemade jams, jellies and compotes. Bestsellers include the lemon tart, tea cakes and pâte de fruit (fruit jellies).

“I thought there was place for this sort of pastry shop because I was seeing the same thing everywhere, cakes topped with raspberries in February,”said the 28-year-old chef of her lovely little pâtisserie. And to add icing on the cake, Labelle is also now in charge of the desserts at restaurant Laloux. Sweet. Pâtisserie Rhubarbe, 5091 de Lanaudière St., 514-903-3395.

Wine agent to watch: Oenopole

Oenopole isn’t the biggest wine agency, but it’s the one everyone is talking about. Responsible for introducing Montrealers to many of the wines that the city’s best sommeliers are recommending tableside, this trio of two sommeliers, Theo Diamantis and Aurelia Filion, as well as the business brains, Alexis Fortier-Lalonde, have compiled a portfolio of terroir-driven, natural wines with an Old World-centric palate.

The emphasis is also on wines that marry well with food, and you’ll find their products everywhere from the casual Nouveau Palais to the Relais & Châteaux Toqué!

Though they import a good number of French and Italian wines, their biggest strength has been the introduction of fabulous Greek wines that had limited exposure in the Montreal market.

Chances are, the next time you’re offered a delicious Greek wine in a restaurant, that bottle comes from Oenopole.

Yet, besides their impressive private import portfolio, they have about 60 listings at the SAQ. Just look for their name on the back of the bottle. And if you’re interested in meeting some interesting wine producers, check out their website (oenopole.ca), where they announce coming wine and food-tasting dinners in some of the city’s top restaurants.

Shaking up the scene: Boulud and Ramsay

This year, no news marked the Montreal restaurant scene as much as the coming of Gordon Ramsay. The fact that he was not going to open a new restaurant, but revamp a Montreal institution, Outremont’s Laurier BBQ, left everyone gobsmacked. Then in June, he arrived, charmed everyone to the best of his abilities, and took off after less than 24 hours on-site. But what he has left behind is a fun little restaurant, not in the least bit Michelin-star worthy, but a great family eatery where the food is better than it could be and the prices are more than reasonable.

And Ramsay wasn’t the only star to set his sites on Montreal in 2011. Uber French chef Daniel Boulud also announced his intentions to take over the restaurant in the soon-to-be-reopened, and even more iconic, Ritz Hotel. The 56-year-old chef, widely regarded as one of the world’s best, said of our city: “After a love affair of many years with Montreal, I’m proud to be coming to North America’s most European city to join its roster of fine chefs – many of whom are dear friends – and to take part in your love of fine food and vibrant culinary culture.” You’d think the local chefs might be worried about a bigwig like Boulud coming to town, yet not so. “I’m excited,” said Marc-André Royal, the chef-owner of Le St-Urbain and bakery, La Bête à Pain. “I like his New York restaurants and what he does. It’s pretty French, classic, and I like that. It will be a perfect fit for Montreal. For sure, I’m going to try it. It will be great to keep us on our toes. We’ll definitely feel the pressure.”

Here’s hoping chef Boulud will have as successful a run in Montreal as chef Ramsay – and that he gives us a little more face time. (Gordon, where art thou?)

He slayed the Flay: Chuck Hughes

Chuck Hughes opened a new restaurant in 2011 called Bremner, but that’s not the reason everyone was talking about this Montreal chef. No, Chuck’s a star because in 2011 he competed on the U.S. Food Network show Iron Chef and beat American Bobby Flay. It was only the second time a Canadian chef had won an Iron Chef battle (the other being Vancouver’s Rob Feenie), and Hughes was also the youngest Canadian to compete. When the Canadian Food TV episode aired last March, local foodies exploded with joy and pride. Social media networks like Twitter and Facebook were ablaze with news of Hughes’s victory. Though millions watched the show, there is one person who has yet to see it: Hughes. “I can’t do it,” he says. “I think about the number of people watching and I get too nervous.”

© Copyright (c) The Montreal Gazette

Read more: http://www.montrealgazette.com/entertainment/Critic+Notebook+Tastemakers+2011/5953131/story.html#ixzz1jB5f3lnK

PHOTO: MARCO CAMPANOZZI, LA PRESSE

Qu’est-ce qu’une truffe? Un champignon au chocolat? Ça s’achète où, ça goûte quoi, ça se mange comment? Pour en savoir plus sur ce produit de très grand luxe qui fascine gourmets et gourmands depuis toujours, nous avons posé quelques questions à l’un des principaux importateurs de truffes à Montréal, Paolo Macchi. Voici ce qu’il nous a expliqué.

PHOTO: MARCO CAMPANOZZI, LA PRESSE

Qu’est-ce qu’une truffe?

La truffe est un champignon très rare. (Il existe aussi des chocolats appelés truffes, nommés ainsi car ils ressemblent aux champignons.) Les truffes poussent à plusieurs endroits, notamment en France, en Italie, aux États-Unis, en Chine, en Croatie et même en Suède. Mais ces truffes que l’on trouve un peu partout ne sont pas toutes aussi parfumées et savoureuses. Les plus reconnues sont les françaises et les italiennes.

Quelles sont les différentes sortes de truffes?

Il existe beaucoup de noms différents pour parler des truffes – truffes d’été, truffes noires, truffes blanches, truffes de Bourgogne -, mais on peut utiliser, d’un pays à l’autre, des noms différents pour parler de la même chose. La meilleure façon de s’y retrouver est d’utiliser les noms botaniques. La truffe la plus connue est la truffe noire du Périgord. On la trouve aussi en Italie sous le nom de tartuffo di Norcia. (Norcia est une ville d’Ombrie). Cette truffe est la melanosporum. Elle est parfumée et très aromatique et se conserve relativement bien (10 jours au frigo). On peut aussi la faire cuire. La truffe la plus chère et la plus rare est la truffe blanche d’Alba, la magnatum, que l’on trouve uniquement à l’état sauvage et qui se mange crue. Elle se conserve toutefois moins longtemps.

Et en Oregon, quelle sorte de truffes trouve-t-on?

On y trouve des truffes sauvages locales, la tuber oregonense, que l’on considère comme une truffe blanche. Il y a aussi de la culture de truffe de souches européennes.

Pourquoi la truffe coûte-t-elle si cher?

La truffe coûte cher parce qu’elle est rare, difficile à trouver, difficile à cultiver – il faut injecter des spores dans le sol et attendre cinq ou six ans – et hautement périssable. Elle pousse dans la terre, dans des forêts truffières aux sols calcaires. Elle aime pousser près des chênes, des noisetiers – nombreux au Piémont – des charmes et des tilleuls. Comme on ne la voit pas au sol, il faut deviner sa présence avec l’aide de chiens bien entraînés qui la flairent. On n’est jamais sûr de sa maturité avant de l’avoir déterrée.

Que goûte la truffe fraîche?

La truffe évoque la terre, l’humidité, un peu l’ail, la forêt… Souvent, notamment dans le cas de la truffe blanche, ce n’est pas le goût de la truffe qui est sublime, mais son odeur. C’est pourquoi on sert généralement la truffe sur des plats assez doux. L’oeuf, le riz, les pâtes sont d’excellents faire-valoir pour la truffe, que l’on tranche finement et doucement grâce à un petit outil spécial, directement devant le convive, au dessus de son assiette, pour qu’il capte bien les arômes pendant l’opération.

PHOTO: MARCO CAMPANOZZI, LA PRESSE

Comment cuisine-t-on la truffe?

La truffe blanche est généralement mangée crue, sur des tagliatelles nature, un risotto ou même des oeufs brouillés. On peut conserver la truffe dans du riz, qui en prendra les arômes. Même chose pour les oeufs. Puisqu’on peut aussi utiliser les truffes noires cuites, on peut donc en mettre dans une sauce qui accompagnera une volaille ou la glisser entre la peau et la chair de la bête. Généralement, on accompagne le plat truffé d’un vin qui vient du même coin de pays. Un barolo piémontais avec la truffe blanche. Un bordeaux avec la truffe du Périgord…

Peut-on trouver des truffes fraîches à Montréal?

Oui, plusieurs restaurants en servent: DNA, Toqué! , St-Urbain, Barocco, etc. La liste est longue. On peut aussi en acheter des fraîches Chez Louis ou Nino au marché Jean-Talon, notamment.

Qu’est-ce que l’huile de truffe?

L’huile de truffe est une huile végétale neutre aromatisée avec un produit de synthèse évoquant la truffe noire ou la truffe blanche. On glisse parfois dans la bouteille un petit morceau de truffe chinoise ou de truffe d’été peu parfumée pour donner l’impression que l’huile est imprégnée du goût de la truffe fraîche, mais le gros des parfums provient d’arômes artificiels. Il suffit de regarder sur la liste des ingrédients et de vérifier si le mot «arôme» indique la présence du parfum synthétique.

Comment utiliser l’huile de truffe?

En quantités minimes qui se mesurent en gouttes. On peut facilement en mettre trop et alors le goût tombe sur le coeur. La vraie truffe a un parfum prenant, mais elle demeure toujours plus subtile que les arômes artificiels des huiles truffées. Si on est habitué à consommer de l’huile de truffe, on peut être surpris, justement, de la subtilité de la vraie truffe, beaucoup plus délicate, précise, moins envahissante.

Peut-on parler de prix?

Au détail, il faut compter une bonne vingtaine de dollars par personne, pour servir de la truffe sur un plat principal. On calcule généralement 4 à 6 grammes par personne. Cela peut sembler cher pour une simple garniture, mais la base peut être très peu coûteuse – oeufs, pâtes, riz. J’ai même mangé un délicieux plat de céleri rave braisé garni de truffe au fameux restaurant Noma à Copenhague – ce qui permet de recevoir à manger chez soi avec un plat spectaculaire pour un prix semblable à ce que cela coûte de recevoir en servant à tout le monde une viande de bonne qualité.

Italian burrata

What’s burrata? Imagine a one-pound ball of fresh mozzarella filled with cream and a mix of stringy mozzarella curds. The outer shell should be thin, about three millimetres, and the whole ball is the size of a large pouch. It doesn’t come cheap (expect to pay about $30 per pound, which serves between four and six) but for aficionados, burrata is, as Los Angeles Times food writer Russ Parsons, says: “to mozzarella as foie gras is to chicken liver.”

This would be my first burrata tasting, so Macchi and I made a date at DNA restaurant, where we sampled it in many guises.

To begin, he carefully unwrapped the cheese and slid it onto a plate. He then sliced into it vertically. Each section began to ooze its creamy heart. “It’s all about the filling,” he said. “The centre is the best part. The outside is just the receptacle to hold it all in. Burrata is all texture.”

He sprinkled grated orange zest and chopped basil, and drizzled over some Italian extra-virgin olive oil saying, “This is a classic way to eat it, spread on crusty bread with a bottle of wine. But in Italy, they often don’t touch it.”

Sliced and drizzled with olive oil and a scattering og basil and orange zest

I took a bite, and was taken by not only the fresh, ever-so-slightly sour flavour with hints of grass and flowers, but also the texture, a beguiling mix of soft and chewy. Wow.

The problem with importing burrata, says Macchi, is the very thing that makes it so good: freshness. “It’s not user-friendly. It has a shelf life of two weeks, which means a week for it to get here from Italy, and a week to sell it. In restaurants, it can be a daily special, but burrata’s not something that’s ever printed on a menu.”

Happily, there are a few restaurants – DNA, Bis and Café Via Dante, to name a few – willing to pay the price for this fabulous and rare cheese. At DNA, chef Derek Dammann serves burrata torn into large pieces with heirloom tomatoes, croutons, marjoram and olive oil. He also serves it with sprouting broccoli and a bagna cauda, the warm anchovy-rich sauce.

Derek Dammann of DNA serves burrata with heirloom tomatoes and marjoram
“It’s so decadent that nothing overwhelms it,” says Dammann, who first tasted the cheese when he worked in England. “It’s phenomenal. There’s nothing else like it. It’s kind of like mozzarella but … but … you just can’t describe it.”

I left with two balls that I served over the next few days to invited guests. The first I prepared with the orange zest, basil and olive oil. But I, feeling bold, served it for dessert with strawberries. Though my berry pairing shocked every burrata lover in the room, it worked thanks to the creamy taste and silky texture of the cheese.

Sadly, the next ball was a flop. Served a mere three days after my first taste, burrata proved just how perishable it is. It didn’t sour, but it did lose water, thus robbing it of its special flavour and funky texture.

One of the few places you can buy burrata in Montreal is Boucherie Capitol at the Jean Talon Market. A shipment of 10 to 12 pounds comes from Italy every two weeks. “We have clients who come just for the burrata,” manager Vito De Benedictis says. “It’s expensive but worth the price. It’s amazing.”
Boucherie Capitol, 158 Place de Marché du Nord, 514-276 1345. For more ideas on serving burrata and other Italian delicacies, check out www.macchiinc.com/blog

Here is Derek Dammann’s recipe, which also works brilliantly with fresh mozzarella.

Purple sprouting broccoli with burrata, pine nuts and bagna cauda
Serves 4-6 as a starter

• 3/4 cup (175 mL) fresh breadcrumbs
• 1/2 cup (125 mL) extra virgin olive oil
• 1/2 cup (125 mL) pine nuts
• 1 tablespoon (15 mL) Italian parsley, sliced
• 1 lb (500g) purple sprouting broccoli, trimmed
• 6 tablespoons (90 mL) unsalted butter
• 2 tablespoons (30 mL) rinsed and minced, salt- packed anchovy
• 1/2 chile d’arbol, sliced thinly
• 2 teaspoons (10 mL) minced garlic
• 1 teaspoon (5 mL) thyme leaves
• 1 lb (500g) fresh burrata
• 1/4 cup (50 mL) sliced shallots
• 1 lemon for juicing
• sea salt and black pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 375F (190C). Bring a large pot of heavily salted water to a boil over high heat. For the breadcrumbs: Toss the breadcrumbs with 1 tablespoon of olive oil. Spread them on a baking sheet, and toast for 8-10 minutes, stirring once or twice, until golden brown and crispy.

Spread the pine nuts on a baking sheet and toast them 4-5 minutes until they are golden brown. Crush half of the pine nuts in a mortar and pestle, and combine them with the whole pine nuts, breadcrumbs and parsley in a small bowl. Season to taste.

For the broccoli: Blanch the broccoli in the rapidly boiling water for 2-3 minutes until just tender. Drain and cool on a baking sheet …. no ice water.

For the bagna cauda: Meanwhile, heat the remaining seven tablespoons of olive oil and the butter in a small sauce pan over low heat. Add the anchovy and chili and cook five minutes, stirring with a wooden spoon until the anchovy melts into the sauce. Add the garlic and thyme and turn off the heat. The garlic will finish cooking in the hot oil. Season with salt to taste. Cut the burrata into four slices.

To finish: Heat a large sauté pan over high heat for one minute. Add the anchovy butter, shallots and broccoli and season with salt and pepper and a squeeze of lemon juice. Toss well to warm the broccoli and coat in the dressing. Taste for seasoning.

Arrange the burrata on a platter and tuck the broccoli pieces among the cheese. Drizzle with the remaining warm dressing and shower the breadcrumbs over the top.

Hivron Turanli (left) and Joanna Notkin try each other’s strawberry rhubarb dessert renditions. Lesley Chesterman declared the two pies equally fabulous. Photograph by: Michelle Berg, THE GAZETTE

MONTREAL – It all started innocently enough, with two friends on Facebook exchanging opinions about strawberry rhubarb pie. “Grandma Zoe’s famous strawberry rhubarb pie is on the way …” wrote Joanna Notkin. “I’d actually dare to challenge you on that one,” replied her friend Hivron Turanli, obviously feeling a bit competitive about who could master the rhubarb-strawberry combination dessert.

A keen baker, award-winning oyster shucker, former textile designer and owner of the Zoe Ford catering company, Notkin has quite the talent for creating sweets ranging from classic cupcakes to fancy French macarons. Turanli, marketing director of the food-importing company Macchi Inc. is also quite the cook, and being a native of Sweden, offers a repertoire of baked goods unfamiliar to most Montrealers.

I’ve met both these ladies at food events around the city, and I figured their recipes would be winners. I piped in and offered to choose the best, eager to taste their takes on this early-summer classic pie.
They each arrived at my house, proudly carrying their creations, and after five minutes of chatting, I knew there was more to this bake-off than who has the better feel for pastry, or who has sourced the reddest rhubarb or sweetest strawberries. Both these pies have a backstory.

Turanli is Swedish, and her “Smulpaj” crumble pie is a common dessert in her homeland. The classic dish is made with apples and cinnamon sugar, but variations include apple/lingonberry, gooseberries, cloudberries, raspberries, blueberries, cherries, red/black/white currants, strawberries, rhubarb, or any other mix of fruits and berries imaginable.

Swedish crumbles, says Turanli, can be made either with a mix of flours with butter, or whole oats with flour and butter. “I haven’t found the right oats to use in Montreal yet,” she says. “The instant oats taste like paper, and the 5-minute oats are too coarse.” Even sans oats, this mix of sweet-and-sour filling with a buttery crisp crumble topping is divine.

Turanli’s recipe comes from her 6th grade home-economics class in Stockholm. “We spent three hours a week in a beautiful kitchen learning to execute recipes that were somewhat easy and also traditional,” she says. “Being a child who had an undiagnosed ADD (Attention Deficit Disorder), it was practically impossible for me to follow any kind of instructions or recipes. But then there was this oh-so-forgiving crumble, ‘smulpaj.’ It was love at first sight, and the more creative I got, the better the results. What’s also so wonderful with this recipe is that if it ever turned out too dry, there was the silky vanilla sauce there to save a failed crumble. I have never served a crumble and had anyone say they don’t like it, nor have I ever seen a plate with leftovers on it.”

Notkin’s recipe has a rich pedigree as well.

She credits her family recipe to her grandmother, Esther Finestone (known to her inner circle as Zoe), who was famous for her cooking, especially her baked goods. “Zoe was a formidable woman and was a real do-er, “ says Notkin. “During her life in Montreal, she started a nursery school, ran the fine arts program at the Saidye Bronfman Centre and opened an art gallery on Crescent St. As a young child, I would love to go for a visit to her house in Westmount, which we referred to as the Old Cookie Farm for obvious reasons. She was the kind of woman who ruled the kitchen and would have no problem telling you to get out of it while she was cooking. French home cooking was her thing, but pies, cakes, tarts and cookies were always laid out in beautiful tins and jars on the counter. She really taught me how to speak to people through cooking – everything was so beautiful and well presented and always of the best quality.”

Tasting the pie, I sensed a great balance of flavours, with more of a rhubarb hit than Turanli’s crumble, which was dominated by strawberries. This is definitely one of those great homemade pies that make baking grandmothers like Finestone so cherished.
“The pie is sort of legend in our family and to our friends,” says Notkin. “It started at our summer house in Gloucester, Mass., a town near where Zoe was born. It’s the type of pie we’d eat after a big lobster dinner with lots of friends around. It’s also the kind of pie that a grandmother would make, never writing the recipe down. Pie to me is all about the fruit, so when the rhubarb is full in the back yard, it’s pie time. When it’s over, you dream about next year’s crop.”

Now that both rhubarb and strawberries are at their peak, try one or both of these beloved recipes. As for a winner: I call it a draw. When recipes have a backstory as good as these two, we are all the richer for it.

Swedish Rhubarb and Strawberry Crumble (Jordgubb och Rabarber Smulpaj)
Serves 6

• 3/4 cup (175 mL) white flour
• 1/4 cup (50 mL) whole wheat flour
• 7 tablespoons (105 mL) salted butter, at room temperature
• 1 tablespoon (15 mL) sugar
• 1 cup (250 mL) chopped rhubarb (about 3 to 4 stalks)
• 2 cups (500 mL) sliced strawberries
• 3/4 cup (175 mL) sugar
• 3 tablespoons (45 mL) potato flour

Preheat oven to 450 degrees F (230C). Prepare a 6-serving glass or ceramic pan. If you use glass, butter the pan and flour it lightly to prevent the filling from sticking. Slice butter into small pieces and mix with flour and sugar in a bowl, and with your hands, work ingredients into a crumble until crumbs are a mix between pearl- and pea-size. For best results, gather mix into a big firm ball and then roll the dough between the palms of your hands. It will then break into the perfect crumbs. You can also do this with a fork, which will take a bit longer, but you won’t dirty your hands.

In a bowl, toss together rhubarb, strawberries, sugar and potato flour and pour it into the prepared mould. Distribute the crumble evenly over the top to cover the fruit.

Place in the middle of oven, and bake for 20-25 minutes.

The crumble is ready when the filling starts rising and bubbling along sides. The crumble should be golden/brown. If it gets too dark before the fruit juices boil, cover lightly with aluminum foil for the rest of the cooking time.

Allow to cool for about 15-20 minutes. Serve warm with cold vanilla sauce or vanilla ice cream.

Swedish Vanilla Sauce (Vaniljsås)
Makes about 1½ cups (375 mL)

• 1 vanilla bean
• 1 1/4 cups (300 mL) whipping cream
• 1/3 cup plus 5 teaspoons (100 mL) water
• 3 egg yolks
• 2 tablespoons (30 mL) icing sugar

Slice the vanilla bean lengthwise with a sharp knife. Scrape out the seeds and add them and the pod to a saucepan along with 1 cup (250 mL) of the whipping cream and the water. Bring to a boil, remove from heat and let cool. Remove the vanilla bean.

In a small bowl, whisk together the egg yolks and icing sugar. Bring the cream back to a boil, reduce heat to medium-low, and add yolks while whisking steadily.

Keep whisking over low heat until the sauce thickens enough to coat the back of a spoon (do not let it boil). Strain the sauce into a clean bowl and place it in a larger bowl of ice water. Stir until it cools down.

Beat the last ¼ cup (50 mL) of cream to soft peaks and fold it into the chilled vanilla sauce. Keep refrigerated until ready to serve.

Zoe Notkin’s Strawberry Rhubarb Pie
Serves 8 to 10

Dough:

• 2 3/4 cups (675 mL) all-purpose flour (such as Five Roses)
• 1 tablespoon (15 mL) granulated sugar
• 1 teaspoon (5 mL) salt
• 1 cup (250 mL) chilled Crisco shortening cut into small cubes
• 4 tablespoons (60 mL) chilled, unsalted butter, cut into small cubes
• 1/2 cup (125 mL) ice water

Custard:

• 3 eggs
• 1 1/2 cups (375 mL) granulated sugar

Filling:

• 5 cups (1.25 L) bright red rhubarb, cut into 1-inch (2.5 cm) pieces
• 2 1/4 cups (550 mL) strawberries, cut to quarter-size pieces
• 4 tablespoons (60 mL) corn starch
• Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200C).

To make dough: Combine dry ingredients with a whisk to aerate. Add butter and Crisco and blend using a pastry blender or two knives in a criss-crossing motion until it resembles pea-sized crumbs. Sprinkle over the ice water and continue blending until dough begins to come together. Do not over-blend, and avoid touching the dough with your hands, which warms it up. Divide dough onto two pieces of wax paper or plastic wrap and gather by using the ends of the wrap and your knuckles (touching it as little as possible) forming it into a ball. Wrap well and form into flattened disks. Refrigerate for 1 to 2 hours.

To make the filling: When your dough is chilled through, place rhubarb and strawberries in a bowl and add the corn starch, tossing to combine until all fruit is coated.

To make custard: Whisk together eggs and sugar until very well combined. Do this just before adding to the pie.

To assemble: Roll out one disk of the chilled dough between two pieces of waxed paper that have been lightly floured, forming a circle about 12 inches (30 cm) in diameter; the circle should be 1 inch (2.5 cm) wider than top of pie plate, and about 1/16 inch (1.5 mm) thick. Gently remove top paper and gently turn dough into the pie plate. Gently remove bottom paper.

Fill the pie with the fruit and pour over the custard. Roll out the second chilled disk of dough the same way as for the bottom crust. Remove the top paper and cut strips about 1 inch (2.5 cm) wide (if making lattice), or cut holes with ½-inch (1 cm) cookie cutter. Assemble lattice in an over-under method on the pie or turn cut-out crust over the pie and carefully remove paper. Leave a 1-inch (2.5 cm) overhang, but cut off any excess beyond that. Pinch the dough up around the pie and then, using thumb and first finger on left hand and index finger on right, pinch dough to form outer edge and seal the pie so that the custard does not run out.

Place pie in the oven on the middle rack for 10 minutes, and then lower the heat to 375F (190C) for a further 45-50 minutes. The custard inside should be thickened but slightly wobbly. Cool pie and serve at room temperature, or chill overnight, and let come back to room temperature for best taste.

© Copyright (c) The Montreal Gazette

Hivron Turanli’s Swedish strawberry rhubarb crumble pie takes vanilla sauce as a finishing touch. The recipe comes from Turanli’s Grade 6 home-economics class, and was love at first sight for Turanli as a student who couldn’t get a handle on recipes that were not forgiving. Photograph by: Michelle Berg, THE GAZETTE

Joanna Notkin’s strawberry rhubarb pie recipe came from her grandmother, Esther (Zoe) Finestone, who was a renowned cook. Photograph by: Michelle Berg, THE GAZETTE

I’m happy that Hivron Turanli, a foodie and the Marketing Director at Macchi Inc. has accepted to be a guest blogger on At Home with Kim Vallee. Hivron agreed to talk to us about a special ingredient that she adores. She shared with us practical tips on how to use truffles in your kitchen. Hivron is also known as Mrs. Macchi on Twitter.

People associate truffles with refined and expensive food. Many may feel that it is too expensive to use at home. I will show you that there are many ways and price levels at which you cook with truffles.

What is a Truffle?
Truffles come from the ‘Fungi’ (Fungus) family, just like the mushroom. It has the consistency and the shape of a potato or a nugget. The common definition refers to the shape of a truffle. What makes it so desirable is its incredible and unique aroma. Plus, their seasons only last for a couple of months at a time.

There are three types of truffles:

• Winter White Truffle (Alba Truffle) retails at $8,500 CAD/kg
• Winter Black Truffle (Black Norcia Truffle or Black Perigord Truffle) retails at $3,500 CAD/kg
• Black Summer Truffle retails at $1000 CAD/kg

The aromatic level and the season duration explain the price difference. The summer truffle is the least expensive since it’s the least aromatic and it has the longer season period. It stretches from mid May to September.

How Much Truffles Do You Need for 4 Portions?

The most common way to serve fresh truffle is to shave it on your dishes, like a plate of pasta or pan-fried eggs!
The more aromatic is the truffle, the less you need to put in a dish. The rule of thumbs is to cut by half the quantity if you use the pricer winter white truffle compared to the least expensive option. From my experience, a generous serving for 4 people would be:

• 20g of Winter White Truffle,
• 30g of Winter Black truffle and
• 40g of Black Summer Truffles.

Preserved Truffles and Truffle Oils

But you don’t need a deep wallet to enjoy the taste of truffles. Macchi carries a variety of preserved truffles and truffle oils under our own private label Il Tartufo d’Oro.

As you can see there are a lot of options for enjoying truffle and adding it to the ingredients you use in your cooking.
Thank you, Hivron, for letting us discovered the wonderful world of truffles. Hivron writes a blog where you can learn more tips and recipes about the fine gourmet ingredients imported by Macchi. Here is everything she wrote about truffles.

SOURCING: + photos: Macchi Inc.
european, food, gourmet, guest blogger, luxury, montreal

For the second year in a row, Macchi Inc has jumped on board to help out with out event. Owners Hivron and Paolo Macchi have been a blessing to our event by providing us with monetary donations, cupcake donations and gifts for our awesome celeb and foodie judges. On top of all that, the lovely Hivron has donated her time to help us with planning and contacting sponsors on our behalf. We love her!

Hivron aka @MrsMacchi at Cupcake Camp MTL 2009

Macchi Inc. Truffles

I had a special lunch twelve days ago. Hivron and her husband Paolo Macchi received me for a tasting of their products at a local restaurant in Old Montreal. While talking to Hivron during the lunch, I discovered that we have several things in common. We both studied interior design for one thing.

Prosciutto crudo
Macchi imports and distributes the highest quality of Citterio’s prosciutto crudo (raw ham). They carry Prosciutto di Parma, Prosciutto di San Daniele and Culatello. I invited my foodie friend Nathalie Rivard to share this experience.

The Citterio’s prosciutto crudo are all natural. They are made without additives. The curing masters created them with ham, salt, air and time. Another main difference with these prosciutto is the sweet taste of the fat. These premium prosciutto are miles away from the taste of the pre-packaged prosciutto.

We savored 5 famous types of Italian and local (meaning made in the USA) prosciutto crudo. We were able to taste each prosciutto “nature”. Plus, DNA’s chef Derek Dammann made us as a delightful appetizer dish for each type. They each have their own personality.

I enjoyed the food combination that Derek Dammann served us. Derek had been Chef de Cuisine at Jamie Oliver’s Fifteen in London, England. You know how I love Jamie Oliver. He takes great pride in serving sustainably grown and harvested produce, meats and seafood because food tastes better when its ingredients are the product of thoughtful stewardship. He was the right chef to serve us this prosciutto.

I particularly enjoyed the plate where he mixed prosciutto with a very light mustard vinaigrette. A appetizer recipe that you can do at home is to drizzle aged balsamic topped with shaves of Parmesan Reggiano. The mix of salt and sweet is delicious. Another tasty combination was to serve prosciutto with dates.

Macchi imported directly from Italy as much as possible. It makes a difference. The pigs used in the United States are smaller than the pigs used in Italy. The Italian prosciutto is ham from a very rare bread of pigs that are bred in north-central Italy. How you cure the meat is also important. You get the best results with time. It generally produces a prosciutto that is more tender.

Shopping Tips
Look for these qualities when buying fresh prosciutto:

• Color should be lighter rather than darker, a light to medium pink. If it’s burgundy, don’t buy it!
• Fat colour should be white and not yellow. A fresh prosciutto should be sweet and not salty
• Ask to taste a slice before buying prosciutto
• Outside fat should not exceed 1/2-3/4 of an inch. Every animal is different. If it is more than 3/4 of an inch, they should trim the excess fat for you.

The Swedish-born Hivron writes a blog for Macchi where you can find recipes and food information.

SOURCING:
+ Macchi
+ DNA restaurant
chef and cook, food, italian, montreal, tasting party