This recipe for Baby Vegetables with Summer Truffle and Quail Egg from Chef Nathan Guggenheimer at Saskatoon’s Ayden Kitchen & Bar  is the perfect dinner for a hot summer night.

Baby Vegetable with Summer Truffle and Quail Egg

FOR THE SALAD

4grams winter truffle

4 sugar snap pea

4 snow peas

5 English pea pods

2 Asparagus

3 baby carrots

5 baby radishes

4 baby potatoes

3 sprigs dill

2 quail eggs

FOR THE DRESSING

4gr. Summer truffle

1tsp Dijon mustard

1pinch salt

1 yolk

100ml sherry vinegar

50ml truffle oil

300ml cold pressed canola oil

METHOD

Note** All these vegetables are available in the last week of June/first week of July in Saskatoon. So walk to your local farmers market in the morning and hand pick the brightest sweetest vegetable you can. Make sure you taste each one, which I call sampling, before purchasing to get the best product possible. I like to use whatever vegetable tops I can and place them in the salad as if they were lettuce. It helps to ask your farmer what the best products are at the time. Be sure to wash all your veg before you start cooking.

Put a large pot of highly seasoned water on to boil. Devein all your sugar snap and snow peas. Take English peas out of their pod and discard the pod. Make a large bowl of ice and cold water to refresh the veg after blanching. Using a spider to scoop out the veg, lightly blanch the first six varieties. Cooking for about 1 minute each, putting them in the ice bath, and then as soon as they are chilled onto a try with a paper towel to soak up any excess moisture. In a small pot eat some canola and add potatoes and saute for 3 mins. Add water just to cover and season with salt very well. Cook potatoes in water at medium heat until just tender. Take potatoes out of their liquid and place them on the same vegetable tray.

In a blender place the yolks, truffle, mustard, salt, and vinegar. Turn onto medium speed and blend until truffle is smooth. Turn the blender to a lower speed and slowly start pouring in truffle oil and then the canola oil. The dressing should be a like an off white color and runny mayonnaise consistency. Halve the asparagus spears and cut down your carrots if too big. Pick your dill into large pieces. In a medium size mixing bowl place all your vegetables, another pinch of salt, picked dill, carrot and radish tops (if available), plus one tablespoon of truffle dressing. Mix well and taste for seasoning. Place vegetable onto your plate. Turn a small pan on high heat and add canola oil to just cover the bottom of the pan. Once the oil starts slightly smoking turn heat down to medium and crack both quail eggs into the oil. Once the white gets slightly caramelized, take eggs out of pan and place them onto baby vegetables. Grate 4 grams of fresh winter truffle over top of everything. Enjoy.

Photo: Bob Deutscher