Kalahari Truffles are ripe now!
Kalahari truffle (Terfeziaceae sp., known as Mahupu in Tswana): one of the most anticipated local food events in Namibia is the short truffle season that comes after the main rainy (January to March). Locally known as !Nabas, these desert truffles do not have the same flavour as their more famous and much-prized European counterparts. Fortunately, however, they are also more affordable. Their culinary uses are extensive in savoury dishes, and if vacuum frozen or dried, they can be preserved quite successfully. They are available only for a few weeks each year, and appear and disappear almost overnight.
Truffles, dubbed the ‘Kalahari truffles’ or traditionally known as "omatumbura" or "mavhumbura" - are nutritious delicacies that can bedazzle any plate and are much cheaper than you may think (depending on where you get them). The best time to find them is in March or April after the substantial rains.
These treats are washed several times, peeled, heated, and then added to a bowl of spices to make a perfect meal. Some people eat them ripe and raw as they come, but after a good boil in water, they also make a great addition as a side dish to your steak or fish. Thanks to their exotic taste and aroma, they’re unlike any other around the world; but similarly to those found in Europe, they are dug up from underground and have to be treated with absolute care. The most useful way of finding them is by spotting several cracks in the ground as the mushrooms are thick and potato-like, but it’s still not as easy as it sounds.
Truffles can be easily found on the side of the road in the northern or north-eastern regions, where they are sold at cheaper prices. Grab a kilogram or more and create your own recipes at home - truffle butter is a delicious favourite.
Truffles are Hypogeous fungi, that is fungi that have their fruitbodies growing below the ground. They exude an aroma that intensifies as they ripen, attracting animals to unearth them and disperse their spores. This centuries-old delicacy not only has forest fame but has also been sought after in the souks of Syria since time immemorial.
The desert truffle, of the Hypogeous ascomycete family Terfeziaceae, differs from its distant Tuber relative of southern Europe by favouring arid soil, and is found in arid and semi-arid areas of the world including the Mediterranean, Arabian Peninsula, North Africa and Namibia.
Referred to as manna from the heavens by the Prophet Mohammed, as well as by local Namibians, the desert truffle can be found growing in the Kalahari Desert in the eastern section of the country. Called both omatumbula in the north and the Nama name of !Nabas in the east, the Kalahari truffle, Terfezia pfeilii, is smooth like a potato and can be eaten raw as well as cooked in a variety of ways, from baking in searing sand to frying, and incorporated in speciality recipes concocted by creative chefs in the restaurants of Namibia.
Truffles can be eaten raw, sliced with drizzled olive oil and parmesan cheese or cooked and served as a starter or main dish. When in season, truffle ragout or truffle ravioli in a champagne sauce are well known specialities. Sautéd in butter with onions and a splash of white wine and pepper, the truffles have a nutty mushroom taste. Added cream holds the aroma and a few Swakopmund asparagus with a triangle of savoury seeded pastry completes the delicious dish. White wine or a rosé accompanies the treat, making the humble truffle a royal meal.
A rare delicacy, Kalahari truffles have a flavor somewhere between corn and asparagus with a light “mushroomy” perfume. The texture is smooth and firm (somewhere between a firmer mushroom and a soft potato), the flavor nutty, buttery, earthy - subtle savory perfumes and floral hints of bush grass are its essence.
The Kalahari truffle is beige to brown in color (matching its desert environment) and can be eaten raw as well as cooked in a variety of ways, from traditional baking in searing sand to sauteing in butter and incorporated in specialty recipes in a variety of forms (shaved, cooked, or blanched).
Kalahari truffles grow close to the surface and are visible to the trained eye of truffle collectors as cracks and protuberances in the red soil. Like the termite-hill mushrooms omajowa, they grow in the wet season but usually occur only when weather conditions are favourable, often later in the season. Their partner plant is not the oak of the northern-hemisphere truffle but the wild melon, with which the desert truffle forms a symbiotic relationship.
The history surrounding desert truffles stems back thousands of years. In the 1st century Africa’s truffles, dined on by Roman emperors, were described by Pliny the Elder as ‘the most esteemed’. Folklore amongst the Bedouins and North African Arabs holds that they appear without seeds or roots, especially in places where lightning strikes, and are swollen by rains and loosened from the desert sand by thunderstorms.
Besides being a nutritious meal, desert truffles have been used by the Bedouins as remedies to cure ailments ranging from stomach complaints and open cuts to eye infections. Today, modern medicine is exploring their antibacterial and antiviral properties.
These treasured fungi, although thankfully not fetching the same exorbitant price of the more aromatic European variety, have been valued for centuries by desert-dwelling peoples. They have fed villagers through times of famine and have been sung to by harvesting Bedouin girls on sandy desert soil. They combine with Namibia’s cuisine of rich game meat and fresh Walvis Bay oysters, to provide a rare culinary treat with their singular scent and distinctively Terfezia taste.
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