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