Truffled Sake Lobster Fettucine with Da Rosario Organic Truffle Butter

From Q & Abe


Our friends from out of town visit and we decide to pull out all the stops and make drunken lobster pasta.

Sake Lobster Recipe:

3 Live and hearty lobsters
A huge, cheap bottle of unfiltered sake (reserve 1/3rd cup for sous viding)
1 tablespoon white miso
1 tablespoon of scallions
a dash of sea salt

Pasta:

Use your favorite homemade recipe or store bought tagliatelle.

Lobster Liver Sauce:

All the livers from the head of your lobsters
2 Tablespoons of DaRosario black truffle butter
1 Tablespoon of lobster broth
A pinch of sea salt
Fresh ground pepper to taste
Scallion Olive Oil Coulis:

1/3rd cup of chopped scallions
1/2 cup of extra virgin olive oil
salt and pepper to taste

We schlep to Chinatown to buy our lobsters and are rewarded with free scallions from the nice fishmonger. When we get home our three lobsters immediately get a wash in cold water. Then, we immerse them in unfiltered sake in a snug container. Next, we mix a handful of chopped scallions with olive oil with an immersion blender, we set the coulis aside as our finishing sauc

Our friend, supermodel and physicist Danielle, assists to roll out the pasta dough and cut it into shape. It takes finesse to catch the pasta when it comes out of the machine, you have to approach the freshly formed shape like a fainting baby, let it fall evenly into your hands and then rest it gently on a flat floured surface.

My secret hope is that killing a drunk lobster is more humane than killing a sober one (probably not though, sorry lobsters). Either way, after eight hours of soaking, we use a sharp knife to quickly sever the lobster's heads from their tails and that kills them instantly.

We will only sous vide the tail. The head and claws are reserved to be boiled and we'll use the broth to loosen up the liver sauce.

Use a pair of scissors to cut down the belly of the tail until you reach the end flippers. If the tail moves, SCREAM, but relax, it's just muscle memory--- the lobster is dead. Pull the meat out by massaging your thumb along the shell with a lot of pressure to get the meat out. Take your time.

Reserve the lobster livers in a separate bowl and remove the clear intestines. Clean up immediately, or else the clear lobster blood will coagulate and turn into something we've dubbed "sea glue" (which will be super hard to remove).

Lobster tail, scallions, sake, salt, and miso in a bag for sous vide.
We vacuum seal our lobster tails in with sake, miso, sea salt, and scallions. It goes into the sous vide at 59.5°C for 15 minutes.

We use real truffle butter in the liver sauce.

Meat Jacuzzi's temp flux'd b/c we put our bag in.

While the tails go vide, we simultaneously do the following three actions: make the liver sauce, boil the other half of the lobster, and cook our pasta.

All of the livers are put into a small saucepan with two tablespoons of DaRosario's Black Truffle Butter. We whisk the sauce with a spoon until the butter melts and it's uniform. Next, we put in a touch of our lobster stock (more like lobster water) from our boiled lobsters to thin out the sauce a little. Finally, we add salt and pepper. Our fresh pasta is thrown into boiling salted water for two minutes, we stir and strain. We portion the pasta into bowls and immediately spoon the truffled liver sauce on top.

Our sous vided lobster tails are firm but lightly springy to the touch. We give the meat a quick run under the knife and distribute them into the pasta bowls and toss.

Roughly chop the lobster tail after taking it out of the sous vide.
Finally, we drizzle our scallion oil on top and serve! In the picture below the coulis is already mixed in and we garnish lightly with chopped raw scallions.

The result from all of our hard-work is mind-blowing. I had really bad memories of laboriously chewing on overcooked (expensive) lobster and this dish eradicated all of them from my mind. The lobster meat had a very complex sweet flavor and it's texture was as delicate as a grape. We all inhaled our plates and we don't think our guests, Danielle and Sam, minded the wait.

Done and yum.

daRosario in VIV Magazine

The Truth About Truffle Oil
HEALTHY EATING
November 8th, 2010

If we were going to buy gold dust, we’d want it to contain actual gold — and we feel similarly about truffle oil. Considering that the exotic fungi sell for as much as $2,200 a pound, it’s probably not entirely surprising that almost all so-called truffle oils are created by mixing olive oil with synthetic compounds that seek to duplicate the distinctive aroma and flavor of truffles. When The New York Times published a story a few years ago by an acclaimed San Francisco chef revealing the “hocus-pocus” in truffle oil, readers were so dismayed that food critic Frank Bruni responded with a blog post assuring readers that a little truffle oil — or, as he said, “oil of truffle-mimicking chemicals” — still had its place. Used sparingly, he said, it was wonderful on popcorn or scrambled eggs.

Now we can tell you about a truffle oil that’s the genuine article. That would be from Rosario Safina, a New York City-based truffle dealer whose company, daRosario Organics, sells truffle honey, truffle salt and seasonings, truffle butter and truffle oil that contains actual bits of truffles. About 18 months after the Times printed its original story about “phony” truffle oil, it posted an update, reporting that the daRosario truffle oil presented an “authentic alternative.”

To search out true truffle oil, Safina advises looking for the words “organic white [or black] truffles” in the ingredients list and the USDA Organic seal on the label. “Truffles are organic,” he says, “and the organic seal is the only way to tell you have the real thing.” (Our old bottle of Trader Joe’s White Truffle Oil says “infused with white truffles aroma.”)

When we met Safina at a food show, he gave us a few products to sample, including his decadent truffle butter. (While you can find links to online grocers for Safina’s other products at darosario.com, the truffle butter is available only locally to lucky New Yorkers at a few gourmet shops and through freshdirect.com for $13.49 per 2-ounce jar.) Safina also sent us home with a simple, elegant recipe: Cook fresh fettuccine or taglietti in well-salted water. Drain, but leave some water clinging to the pasta. Immediately mix with the truffle butter and sprinkle with fresh-grated Parmesan cheese. The dish, we’re happy to report, was absolutely sublime, and the perfect thing to serve for our first home-cooked meal in a budding romance.

Though that romance wilted, we nonetheless fell in love with the truffle oil and, as Safina suggested, we’ve been using it judiciously as a condiment, a few drops sprinkled on grilled vegetables or fish, macaroni and cheese, and on a freshly made pizza with thinly sliced potatoes, sage and ricotta cheese. Safina also recommends a light salad of fresh baby spinach leaves, button mushrooms sliced paper thin with a potato peeler, shards of Parmesan cheese, a squeeze of fresh lemon juice and a teaspoon of white truffle oil. (Meat eaters can add a tablespoon or so of crumbled pancetta.) What not to do, however ardent your love of truffles and extravagant your budget, is to cook with a couple of tablespoons of truffle oil instead of, say, olive or canola oil. The flavor will absolutely overpower the dish. Drizzle — don’t pour — on freshly prepared foods as a finishing seasoning.

At about $26 for 8 authentic ounces, truffle oil is a luxury we’ve been enjoying if not every day, then a couple of times a week. What’s your favorite luxury food?

da Rosario 100% USDA Certified Organic Truffle Products Featured on Food Network “Iron Chef America”

Watch the Video HERE!


The Only Truffle Products Available in U.S. Made With Real Truffles,
Not Synthetic Flavorings

NEW YORK, N.Y. – October 20, 2010 – On September 12th, 2010, DA ROSARIO 100% USDA certified organic truffle products were featured on the Food Network hit show “Iron Chef America” (viewers: 2 million) as the featured secret ingredient in “Battle Truffle.” A long time staple of the “Iron Chef America” pantry, da Rosario products played the starring roll in Kitchen Stadium in this episode as chef Naomi Pomeroy of Portland’s Beast challenged resident Iron Chef Jose Garces in the head-to-head battle of earthy delights.

“We’re pleased that Food Network and “Iron Chef America”, influential players in the food world, chose to feature our products, made with 100% USDA certified organic real truffles, instead of other so-called truffle oils, which are typically made with a chemical additive,” said Rosario Safina, founder of da Rosario. “Today’s consumers demand to know what’s in their food. They expect top chefs and media brands to feature products that not only taste great, but are made from the purest and safest ingredients.”

da Rosario 100% USDA Certified Organic White and Black Truffle Butters, Truffle Oils, and Truffle Savory Seasonings were provided to the chefs. While chef Pomeroy impressed judges with her truffle menu of delicacies including bacon-wrapped sea scallops with black truffle vinaigrette, Iron Chef Garces reigned supreme with his creativity in dishes including truffled and sliced Wagyu sirloin with truffled egg and truffle salad.

da Rosario organic truffle products retail for $11.99 – $45.00 and are carried nationally by Earthy.com and Murray’s Cheese. For information on da Rosario, please visit www.darosario.com or call Rosario Safina at (212) 226-8572.

ABOUT DA ROSARIO
da Rosario’s creator, Rosario Safina, has been the driving force behind the popularization of truffles over the past 20 years. In 2002, Safina published the first book in the U.S. dedicated to this luxury item, “Truffles: Ultimate Luxury, Everyday Pleasure,” establishing him as the noted authority on the subject. Safina has appeared and been featured in outlets including Martha Stewart Living, CNN, Fine Living, Emeril Live, Good Morning America, The New Yorker, The Genuine Article with Gordon Elliott, and NPR. With da Rosario, Safina brings the purity of organic ingredients to his passion for truffles with the launch of the first-ever USDA 100% Organic truffle line. da Rosario organic truffle products are an official product of the Food Network’s Iron Chef pantry and have been featured in outlets including Food & Wine, InStyle, People, Everyday with Rachael Ray and CBS’ The Early Show, among others.

Rosario Safina in Serious Eats

Meet & Eat: Rosario Safina
May 27, 2010

Rosario Safina in the Daily Beast

5 Things You Didn't Know About Truffles
May 21, 2010