About Chestnuts

So, it's autumn. What is better to do in cold, windy times than to get together with friends and family and eat? A few days ago I had two of my best friends over for dinner, and I wanted to make something very autumn-y. Every course starred a different ingredient that is typical to fall. I don't have pictured of everything, but here's my menu:

1. Chestnut soup
2. Mushroom and Chicken Ragout
3. Pumpkin Risotto
4. Tarte Tatin of Pear with Chestnut-Amaretto Icecream

I had never made anything with chestnuts before, but I really wanted to give it a try. A few years ago I had a Christmas Dinner with friends, and one of them made a delicious chestnut soup. I don't know what her recipe was, but I looked at several different one and decided upon a mixture of them, into what I have made here!

Before you can do anything, you need to find yourself some chestnuts. I bought fresh one, 500 grams. Because the job of peeling one is extremely tedious, I would recommand you to use either canned or vacuum ones that are already peeled. 500 grams might not be much, but I had a red hand from all of the work. A chestnut has a hard shell and then a soft one. It will take some time to peel these, so I could suggest doing this the evening before! That is what I did, and when I was finished, I just covered with plastic wrap and put them in the fridge.

First, you need to carve an "X" into all of the chestnuts with a serrated knife. A chestnut has a flat and a curved side, and it is easiest to put them on the flat side, hold them carefully and carve them in the curved side. You have to be careful not to cut into your own fingers!

Put all the carved chestnuts in a oven dish and put them at 180 degrees Celsius for 20 minutes (in a pre-heated oven). You will see that the "X" has opened, and you can start peeling!

I would suggest doing the peeling with a blunt knife. We have a knife that misses the tip (broke off once when I was trying to open walnuts without a nutcracker - damned nuts!). You could also do it with your hand, but you have to be careful. In some spots, the soft layer will come off too, but there's another steps that makes peeling the soft skin easier. Just put all the chestnuts with a removed outer shell into a pan of boiling water and let them in for a few minutes (about 3). Let them dry and then remove the soft skin!

Alright, if you have bought pre-peeled chestnuts you could have ignored all of that, and be happy you saved yourself some pain in your hands and some minor frustrations. Of the 500 grams of chestnuts I bought, I got a little more than 350 peeled ones. We'll continue with the soup here!

Chestnut soup - the Ingredients

I guess this serves about 4 people.

- 250 grams of peeled chestnuts
- 100 grams of apple
- 2 cloves of garlic
- 2 spring onions
- 3 big mushrooms
- a splash of sherry (or white wine, or something else with alcohol)
- a bay leaf
- a cinnamon stick
- stock (I used chicken stock I made the day before, but you can also take a can or make it from a tablet)
- some lemon juice
- some salt/pepper according to taste
- milk
- cream/creme fraiche for serving

Actually, it is really easy to make. Take your chestnuts, apple, garlic, the spring onions and the mushrooms and sautee this quickly in your pan. Then you add your stock, the bay leaf, the cinnamon, lemon juice and sherry to taste. Adding something of alcohol like sherry or wine intensifies the flavour, even if the alcohol is evaporated in the end. You can let this simmer for how long you like, with the lid on the pan. If you make this as a starter for a dinner, just continue with the other courses and occaisionally stir. I guess 1-2 hours is a good time, to really infuse the flavours. When you are ready to continue, you take the pan from the fire and let it cool for a bit (you need to puree this and I wouldn't recommend doing this with boiling hot liquid).

Don't forget to remove the bay leaf and the cinnamon stick! Use a stick blender and mix everything until it is smooth. After it is mixed, add some milk to make it a bit creamier and add salt/pepper to taste. Don't put it on the fire for a long time, as it'll burn. You can leave it as it is and re-heat it before serving. You can serve the soup with a bit of cream or creme fraiche and chopped spring onion greens, or perhaps even with a bit of baked bacon or mushrooms.

This is a not-so-very-good picture of the leftovers. As I said, the recipe serves four, and I had dinner for three. I didn't have any spring onion left, so I used a bit for parsly for colour. This soup might not look the most appetizingly, but it really is delicious!

Chestnut-Amaretto Icecream

For a little less than 1 L

- 100 grams of peeled chestnuts
- 350 ml milk (whole fat to get a real creamy icecream)
- 50 ml amaretto
- 250 ml heavy cream
- 4 egg yolks
- 75 ml sugar/some kind of syrup (I used rice syrup as I don't eat sugar, and it gives a beautiful flavour too)

- You start with the chestnuts, the milk and the amaretto. Add all of this to a pan and boil it for about 15 minutes to mix the flavours.
- Strain the mixture and puree the chestnuts until they are really smooth.
- Take the milk + amaretto mixture and add half of the cream and put it back on the fire.
- Mix the egg yolks with the sugar or syrup, then slowly add the hot milk mixture while stirring constantly.
- Put everything back in the pan and heat it. You are supposed to heat it until 70 degrees - check if you have a thermometer! If you don't have one like me, you just have to use your wits and intuition. The trick is to heat it until the eggs start to bind everything together. You can check this point with a wooden spoon. If you take it out of the mixture, it will stick to the spoon. Then, if you trace a line with your finger on the back of the spoon, it won't start running.
- It might sound difficult, but it is really easy. Mix in the chestnuts puree and chil in the fridge for a few hours or overnight.

Your life will be easier at this point if you have a icecream machine. We have one, but it started to get crappy, so I did this the old-fashioned way. Take a freezer-proof box of about 1 L, preferably one that is low, to increase the surface and quicken the freezing process. Now you have to stir/mix this every hour until it is frozen through and through. For me, this took 6 hours. The stirring isn't so bad, as you can lick the fork every time and enjoy the icecream beforehanded!

Also a rather crappy picture of the icecream, served with whipped cream and chocolate sprinkles. The day before at the dinner we ate it with a pear tarte tatin, and those flavours mix really well!

Enjoy your time with the chestnuts and have a happy Fall! <3

Scones: the perfect friend-food

I love scones. It's the perfect food to make and eat with a good friend, accompanied with hot tea, of course. Or they are easy to take along while you are on a picknick - they are firm and you can take the cream or filling along in a seperate box. The best scone I ever ate was in the Willow Tea Rooms in Glasgow, where I was this summer. The scone was delicious and the cream was just perfect. The tea I ordered was honey almond - which also belongs to the best teas I've ever had.

I baked these scones tuesday, with my friend Sabrina. She is gone now for 6 months to Canada and for another 3 to Cambridge. We've been saying we were going to bake scones for months, so I'm happy we managed to bake them before she went abroad! I made a few pictures of them and I'n not sure which one I like best, so I'll just post them all! And there are a lot of recipes on how to make scones around. This is just my version!

Ingredients
- 375 g flour, I use whole wheat because it's healthy and I think it fits scones!
- 1.5 tablespoon sugar / honey
- Pinch of salt
- 4.5 teaspoons baking powder
- 150 g cold butter, diced in small cubes
- 190 ml heavy whipping cream
- 3 eggs
- extra egg and some milk
- optional ingredients: like lemon peel, cinnamon, dried fruits, nuts... I usually go for lemon peel, but I suggest that cinnamon, almonds and small pieces of apple and even raisins will be a great combination for the fall!

What to do with them?
- Put all the dry ingredients in a large bowl.

- Using knives, "cut" the cold butter in the flour mixture.

- Add the wet ingredients (eggs, cream, and perhaps honey), mixing with the knives or your fingers. Be careful not to over-knead!

- If you have other ingredients, add them too.

- On a floured surface, shape the batter into a square or rectangle, of about 20-25 cm.

- Cut this batter into 16 pieces and put them on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.

- Mix together an egg and some cream (or milk) and brush this over the scones.

- Bake them in the oven at 200°C for 20 minutes.

I take it you want something on these scones, right? My personal preference is lemon curd and cream. I think the best cream is mascarpone mixed with whipped cream. You can buy lemon curd, or you can make your own!

Ingredients
- 3 eggs
- 150 g sugar
- 80 ml of lemon juice (this is about 1 large lemon. You could also mix lemon juice with a little lime juice, what I did here)
- 50 g butter

What to do with them?
- Put the eggs, sugar and lemon juice in a saucepan. Most recipes say you need to do this au-bain-marie, but putting it directly on the stove works fine as well.

- While on the stove (medium heat), keep stirring constantly! This is the key, as otherwise you'll get lemon-flavoured scrambled eggs. How long you have to mix depends on quite a few factors like the humidity and temperature, but you'll notice when it's thickened and ready. For me, this usually is at 4-5 minutes.

- Take it from the heat and stir in the butter. As it cools down, you need to stir the lemon curd every once in a while, or it will form a skin on top.

- You can also add lemon peel to the curd to intensify the flavour. I choose to put the peel of the lemon in the scone batter, so I didn't have any peel left.

And the best way to eat them is invite some friends, have a pot of tea ready and perhaps a movie. Scones make me nostalgic for romantic costume movies, of times where "high tea" still was part of the day. But I think scones also fit an extravagant breakfast table, together with a boiled egg and yoghurt.

Oh, and do tell me which of these three pictures you prefer. I cannot decide myself! Anyway, a fine day to you and enjoy your next meal!

Bread Pizza

This is a simple lunch I often make when I am home. It's really easy and doesn't take much time. The day after I got my camera I made this lunch again to practise. So behold, this photo is one of the very first photo's taken with my camera!

- At least in the Netherlands, there are a lot of different types of breads available that you only need to bake at home. I guess you could also use fresh bread, but we always have a few of these breads in storage. You could also take something like pita bread, that will be even more like a pizza!

- If you have a bake-at-home bread, cut it open before baking. If you choose pita bread, you could just put the ingredients on top.

- Take a small can of tomato puree and mix it with your preferred flavouring. Here, I used pepper, salt, garlic, dried oregano and fresh basil and chives. You can also add a bit of olive oil for the taste. Spread this tomato mixture on both halves of the bread.

- Cut an onion into small cubes and scatter on top of the tomato puree. You can add ingredients like paprika, zuchinni, mushrooms or some meats. Here, I added some raw ham.

- Finish it off with your favourite cheese, like morazella or parmezan.

- Bake it for 8-10 minutes at 220° C.

- You can serve it like this, or if you want to be healthy, put it on top of a salad.

- Bon apetit!

Confessions of a Food Lover

If there is something true about me, then it is that I have way too many hobbies and passions. Making costumes is one of them. Photography is one of them. And certainly, cooking is one of them too. I have a different blog, the Needle and the Lens that will focus about costumes, and this one will be dedicated to food! Photography binds everything together. I recently bought my first DLSR camera - the Canon 550D. I still have a lot to learn, so any suggestions about how I can improve my photo's is highly appreciated!

When I was young, I always helped my mother with baking cakes and pies. She cannot eat sugar (and now I can't either), so if she wanted to have something sweet, she needed to bake it herself. I think apple pies were out favourite, but we also made a lot of marbled chocolate-and-vanilla cakes, or mocha pies. Since the last few years, I've taken up on baking, and now my mother helps me, instead of the other way around. It's not just baking I love, I also love cooking. I love all sort of cuisines, but curiously, I'm not that fond of the traditional Dutch cuisine with potato stews and the likes.

I always find that cooking (and baking too) is highly personal. There are people who don't like a certain type of meat, people who don't like tomatos, and so on. If there is a specific vegetable I don't like, then it's leek. And while I absolutely love cooking books and can spend afternoons just looking in them, I never stay true to any recipe. Perhaps I like it with a little more pepper, or substitute one of the vegetables for another. For me, cooking books are just a great inspiration - something to twist to my own tastes. That is why the recipes I will write are rather loose. I might make notes on things that you can add or substitute and make the recipes your own. All I intend to do is inspire you!