Truffle Terrine

This terrine represents a lot about what I love best in cooking. Black truffles for one. They are one of my very favorite foods, but can be one of the most frustrating. They can vary wildly in quality from week to week, region to region, season to season, and given the very fragile nature of their flavor and aroma, can arrive in an American kitchen several thousand miles from their home in very poor condition. Not so with these beauties from Burgundy. They were pristine, full flavored and packed with that signature aroma that says truffle and only truffle. This aroma can be difficult to describe to the uninitiated. Yes, it is powerfully earthy, maybe mushroomy, reminiscent of the woods in Fall, but, the fact is, nothing else on earth smells like a black truffle and it must be experienced to be understood.

The black truffle has been too greatly associated with haute cuisine. To me it represents French country cooking with every fiber of its being. It elevates simple ingredients, like pork or chicken, without taking them out of their context. There is a rough edge wrapped around an elegant heart, like Greta Garbo smoking. Take away that cigarette and Garbo is not Garbo anymore. Anyway...

So, we got these great truffles and needed to do something to show them off. We poached them sous vide very slowly in some butter, garlic, shallot, bay leaf and thyme and decided to put them into a chicken terrine. Nathan Creswick has been providing us with outstanding chickens lately, very full flavored birds and they were the perfect vehicle. We took the skin off the birds in one piece and used it to line a terrine. The meat from the bird was diced and we added the truffle, some roasted garlic, and salt and let it stand overnight to marry those flavors. The meat was packed tightly into the terrine and roasted slowly until cooked, then weighted in the cooler overnight. The following day revealed another of my favorite moments in cooking: when four simple ingredients and a very straightforward but carefully executed technique produce something truly soul satisfying. Complex, but clear and recognizable flavors, flavors that have been paired together in this fashion for generations, soft, supple textures, and an immediate release of joy when it hits the palate. Simple food is often deceiving. The ability to turn four great ingredients into something remarkable is much more difficult than drawing from an unedited pantry and is the real mark of skill in the kitchen. I wish to cook like this everyday and maybe someday I will.