Celeriac and Dark Truffle Quilotto

One of my favorite things to do this time of year is sit down with my mother-in-law and go through the fall bon appetit magazines and pick out what we are going to make for our dinners over the holidays. Naturally we alter the recipes where needed to make them all gluten free. The sad thing is this year... I am in Germany and she is in Boston. Oh how I miss spending the holidays with family.

The one thing that always drives me crazy about this magazine is how difficult some of the recipes can be as far as ingredients go. I know they like to be a bit on the exotic side but a mom doesn't have time to be exotic. Between entertaining the little ones, getting them fed and bathed and trying to crank out a nice meal for my husband there isn't much time to go searching for a white truffle. I did actually look for one but I wasn't even sure what I was looking for and said what the hell, do I really need this? I have the oil, which should be good enough.

I was getting my hair done the other day and looking through the October 2010 bon appetit mag and came across this recipe. It interested me because I happened to have a celeriac in my fridge and a bottle of dark truffle oil, both of which I didn't know what I was going to do with. Perfect, I thought. I'm going to make this dish once I figure out what a Barlotto is. No clue!

It turns out, as many of you might already know that a Barlotto is a similar dish to a risotto but instead of rice it uses barley. Yikes!! Poison to my body. Hmmmm, what could I substitute for this? I thought of using millet but then realized that quinoa might be the perfect thing and after eating it tonight I chose wisely!

So if you have dark or white truffle oil you've got to give this recipe a try. If you don't have it I'm quite certain your local health food store will carry it. The German word for truffle oil is about the same... Trüffelöl.

Celeriac and Dark Truffle Quilotto (Barlotto without the barely)

Ingredients:

• 1/2 stick of butter
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 teaspoons of white or dark truffle oil
• 1/2 onion chopped
• 1 garlic clove, minced
• 1 1/2 cup celeriac, diced
• 1 1/4 cup quinoa
• 1 teaspoon dried thyme
• 1/2 cup dry white wine
• 8 cups vegetable or chicken stock
• 1/2 cup grated cheddar or cheese of choice
• 2 teaspoons dried oregano
• salt and pepper to taste

Instructions:

1. Make the truffle butter: mix the butter, truffle oil, oregano, salt and pepper. Set aside.
2. Saute the onions, garlic and diced celeriac in olive oil until lightly caramelized.
3. Add the quinoa and thyme and cook it for another minute.
4. Add and cook off the white wine.
5. Add one cup stock, stirring constantly.
6. Continue to feed stock into the quinoa little by little, "risotto style".
7. When the quinoa is soft, remove from heat and stir in the truffle butter and cheese.
8. Season with salt and pepper.