The time of mushrooms and truffles

Those who love autumn have a reputation for being melancholic people. Maybe they are just a few good gourmet, because this season comes loaded with subtle, exclusive ingredients, whose charms lie in aromas, little pronounced tastes and inimitable textures.

Mushrooms and truffles are a good example of an autumn gem. Tracks, delicatessen and directions that will make you love autumn more than you could hope for.

The white truffle, the authentic autumn luxury

600 euros per 100 gr. This is what is being paid right now, in the middle of the season, for specimens of white truffles of an average size of 20 gr. each.

Due to the drought, this year the white truffle from Alba (Piedmont) is breaking its own records, turning into a true autumn luxury. Prized for its flavor, aroma and scarcity, the white truffle is a challenge for any self-respecting gourmet.

You have to buy it only at a specific time of the year (from September 21 to January 31), consult reliable sources to know its real price and store it properly wrapped in a damp cloth and in a glass jar. It is eaten in very thin slices as a final finish for any dish and it is not cooked. Never.

Other seasonal treasures

Although the white truffle deserves a special mention when it comes to luxury, do not forget other gastronomic treasures such as black winter truffle o from Périgord (Tuber melanosporum), which, in the northern hemisphere, is harvested between late November and early March. Its aroma and flavor, stronger than those of the white truffle, can cost up to 130 euros for 100 gr.

Among the mushrooms, the kings of the season are undoubtedly the Boletus edulis, The Trumpets of death, Chanterelles and Chanterelles, among others. As Elena Lucas, chef of La Lobita, restaurant specialized in mushrooms, there is a real gem: the Perrechicos of season, which, at the beginning of March, can be paid almost € 300 / kg in some houses in the Basque Country.

The mushroom temple

They say that fall is their favorite season of the year and it’s no wonder. Located in Navaleno, Soria, La Lobita is a restaurant that has made mushrooms the center of its gastronomic proposal (which, by the way, has earned it 1 Michelin star).

This year’s tasting menu is a tribute to the bar, that of the grandparents of Elena Lucas, third generation of the family dedicated to cooking. Potato omelette with mushrooms, Russian salad, ramen with mushrooms and tripe-boletus are some of the dishes in this sequence that can be enjoyed for a price of 64 euros per person.

Acacia and truffle honey, squared luxury

Apennine Food is an Italian company that for more than twenty years has been creating and marketing gourmet products based on mushrooms and truffles.

Apart from all the variety of truffles and fresh, dried, whole and sliced ​​mushrooms, in its offer we find delicatessens that range from parmesan cheese cream with truffle to black truffle juice, passing through buffalo milk butter with truffle blanquilla and salt with black summer truffle.

The most exclusive? Acacia honey with white truffle. The 50 gr jar can be purchased in Spain in specialized stores, it costs 7 euros.

Croquettes and rice in the most exclusive neighborhood of Madrid

Don’t be fooled by the Christmas lights that already frame Velázquez Street: autumn is alive and well. Above all, in the most exclusive neighborhood of Madrid. On The Velazquez 17, located in the same civic area of ​​that beautiful street, a proposal as autumnal as the boletus croquettes has just appeared.

Furthermore, in The Dog and the CookieAt number 1 of the elegant Claudio Coello, you can taste seasonal dishes such as Iberian rice with trumpets of death, boletus and Parmesan risotto and mushrooms stuffed with zucchini, truffled cheese, tomato tartare and pesto.

Mushrooms for dessert

Boletus, trumpets of death, chanterelles, chanterelles, rat’s foot and yellow trumpets. Six types of mushrooms that follow one another in a tasting menu focused exclusively on this ingredient. This is what happens in the Barcelona restaurant nectar, with 1 Michelin star, where the chef Jordi Esteve He signs five dishes such as the Steamed Muffin with peasant roast, sour cream injection, consommé and mushroom carpaccio or the mushroom risotto with duck and chanterelle emulsion.

And for dessert, mushrooms in their habitat, a mushroom ice cream with caramelized chanterelles and rosemary ganache. The price: 55,50 euros per person.

From Gyozas to ice cream, all based on mushrooms

Gyozas stuffed with mushrooms and prawns with autumn truffle, mushrooms with foie, scrambled eggs with mushrooms and mushrooms, free-range chicken pate with boletus and wine and boletus reduction, thyme ice cream and caramelized sweet potato. These are some of the tasting menu passes 2017 mushrooms that can be savored in Bulwark, Soriano restaurant that the red guide also awards 1 star.

The chef Óscar García He changes the menu every month and a half adjusting his gastronomic proposal to the season, looking, he affirms, for the freshest products and trying never to repeat himself.

Mushrooms and olive oil, essential in the most gourmet pantry

Boletus edulis cream, boletus and truffle cream, mushrooms in extra virgin olive oil, boletus edulis in EVOO and summer truffle carpaccio in EVOO.

The Chinata is an Extremaduran company specialized in olive oil and delicatessen (gastronomic and cosmetic) made from this precious ingredient. Its products can be purchased both in specialized stores and in its own stores (36, scattered over several continents) or in its online store. East jar of boletus edulis it can be purchased for 6,60 euros.

An exclusive space in the heart of Paseo de la Castellana

There are many reasons to go this fall to Santceloni. The first is that this benchmark of Madrid’s haute cuisine launches a new look and, with it, also a new space.

The Studio, that’s what this corner is called, has a few tables and a kind of “pantry” with spices, fresh herbs and seasonal products. An exclusive space where you can have an aperitif or gossip about what’s going on in the kitchen. The second is the “sound” of a room where everything works perfectly. The third, their seasonal dishes, among which there is no shortage of mushroom-based ones, such as the sautéed mushrooms with cod and Iberian pilpil or the sautéed mushrooms with red shrimp and hazelnut praline.

The restaurant of Orfila Hotel, the only Relais & Châteaux of Madrid, is another gastronomic space in the capital that is making its debut after a reform, this time by the hand of Lorenzo Castillo.

Since last summer, this establishment also has Mario Sandoval (chef at Coque, a Madrid restaurant with 2 Michelin stars) as gastronomic advisor to define your proposal. In this days, Sandoval and José Carlos Fuentes, chef of the restaurant Earth at the Valdepalacios Hotel with 1 Michelin star, they sign a very exclusive menu inspired by the flavors of autumn.

The menu costs 85 euros and consists of six passes: a starter, a main course and a dessert for each of the two cooks. The Txoco onions in its ink with mushrooms, crunchy quinoa and elvers is one of the preparations that can be enjoyed in this restaurant only until November 24.