Lemon Tart

Lemon Luvs: Truffle Salt

I love truffles, as you may know from a previous post. I've been using white and black truffle oil for years to perk up mushroom pastas and soups and anything else that could use a dash of decadent heady flavour of truffle oil. While I've never been fooled that these products would replace the glories that are genuine wild truffles, they have a flavour all their own that has its place in the kitchen when used thoughtfully and with restraint. Restraint being the key word. Too much truffle oil on anything is not a good thing. Unlike too much truffles in something, which isn't possible! So given my interest in this flavour it made sense that when in Seattle's Pike Place Market I would sniff my way into a little truffle shop,  La Buona Tavola. To be honest though, most of the products in there I'm not interested in, aside from any fresh Italian truffles they might sometimes have in the cooler. When a woman tried to sell me a very expensive jar of truffle flavoured salt I automatically put my salesperson defenses on. I quickly realized that of all the products on the shelves, this was the only one she wanted to make sure I knew about and she seemed pretty persistent that this was an important culinary secret ingredient. Call me gullible, call me hungry, but I started to become convinced and I plunked down $18US for 100g of truffle infused salt. I left, wondering if I'd been had.

The first time I opened it I was surprised at the truffle aroma that came out of the jar. There was no hint of artificial truffle flavours and in fact is generous with truffle bits. I made creamy French style scrambled eggs and since at the time fresh truffles were out of the question, I would use this as not an alternative but a reminder of truffled scrambled eggs. That dish with a healthy dose of truffle salt and just a drop of black truffle oil, instantly transported me. Truffles and scrambled eggs are one of the worlds most perfect dishes and for me the best way to enjoy a truffle if you ever have the opportunity.

Lemon Luvs: Amelia Oil

This is the first of a series of posts featuring food products I'm loving at the moment and since I love you so much, loyal readers, I would like to share these "luvs" with you.  When there is something I want to share it will appear in a post with the tag line "Lemon Luvs".

For 3 seasons now, I've waited for February, or March in this year, with anticipation. That is when "my olive oil" arrives. From Italy. Its not just for me, of course, but somehow it feels like it. I send an email to my "source", some time in November or December, order a few liters, check in once in awhile for the state of the harvest, and wait. Once it makes its long journey across the ocean pick it up.

These are the kinds of direct source purchases I love to make. Whether its buying organic tomatoes from my favourite farmer at my local market, or picking up cheese at its farm on Salt Spring Island, bringing home wine from a B&B in Provence or getting good olive oil from a lovely mother daughter team in Vancouver, the sense of connection you get from purchasing direct is always fulfilling for me.

Amelia oil is a mother daughter team who started their business after being frustrated by the lack of fresh olive oil available to them. Rachel and Rebecca Black noticed high priced, premium olive oils on the shelves of gourmet stores that had no indication of its production date. Since olive oil has a very short shelf life and goes rancid usually after less than 2 years, the time of production is an important piece of information, especially when you are paying $25+ for olive oil. Rachel had been living in Italy in a small village of Amelia in Umbria and had been accustomed to the freshest olive oil around, bringing it home to friends and family. So as someone obviously passionate about a quality produced product and wanting to make it available to a wider number of people, they got together with local farmers  in Amelia, Italy and Amelia Oil was born.