Kalahari truffles

Ingredients

Truffles

• 600 gKalahari desert truffles

To cook

• 50 gbutter
• salt
• black pepper

Optional

• 2 clovesgarlic
• 1onion, sliced
• coals for grilling

Directions

1. Buy them rather than dig for them unless you are with someone who knows the ground.
2. They are found by reading cracks in the sand after the rains, and they are gathered by San and Nama communities who know exactly where and when to look. Foraging for any fungus without that knowledge is not worth the risk.
3. They appear only after good rains, roughly two months later, and the season is short.
4. Scrub them very thoroughly in several changes of water, working sand out of every fold with a brush.
5. Sand is the entire problem with desert truffles. They grow buried and they hold grit in every crevice, and a badly cleaned one is inedible.
6. Do not peel them unless the skin is very tough and dark, in which case scrape it thinly.
7. For the simplest version, bury them whole in the hot ash and embers of a fire for about 20 minutes, turning once.
8. Ash-roasting is the oldest way and it is still the best. The dry heat concentrates them where boiling waters them down.
9. Alternatively, slice them thickly and fry them in butter with garlic for 8 to 10 minutes until browned on both sides.
10. Or boil them in salted water for 20 minutes and serve them sliced with butter.
11. Season with salt and pepper and serve hot.
12. The taste is mild, earthy and faintly nutty, closer to a firm mushroom or a potato than to a European truffle, and expecting the perfume of a Périgord truffle will only disappoint.
13. They are eaten as a side dish or as a snack in their own right through the short season.

Technique

• Kalahari truffles are Terfezia and Kalaharituber species, related to European truffles only distantly.
• They are a seasonal cash crop for rural communities in Namibia and Botswana and are sold at roadsides.
• They do not keep well fresh and are eaten within a few days or dried.

Substitutions

• Any firm mushroom, which is a texture substitute rather than a flavour one.
• Dried desert truffle, rehydrated, which is how they are kept out of season.

Variations

• Sliced into a stew with meat.
• Grilled whole over coals with nothing but salt.
• Dried and ground into a powder for flavouring.

History

Desert truffles fruiting after good rains, located by the cracks they push through the sand; San communities have gathered them for millennia.

Frequently asked questions

What is Kalahari truffles?

Kalahari truffles is a salad & side from Namibia: desert truffles unearthed after rains, boiled or grilled. Desert truffles fruiting after good rains, located by the cracks they push through the sand; San communities have gathered them for millennia.

How long does Kalahari truffles take to make?

Kalahari truffles takes 20 min of preparation and 25 min of cooking. The recipe makes 4 servings. It is rated easy to make.

What can I substitute in Kalahari truffles?

Yes, within limits. Any firm mushroom, which is a texture substitute rather than a flavour one. Dried desert truffle, rehydrated, which is how they are kept out of season.

What is the most important thing to get right in Kalahari truffles?

Buy them rather than dig for them unless you are with someone who knows the ground.