Chestnut Puree With Bacon Food

CHESTNUT SOUP WITH BACON AND CHIVES

Steps:

• In a large saucepan over medium heat, cook bacon until rendered and crisp, 8 to 10 minutes. Transfer bacon to a paper towel-lined plate. Pour off all but 1 teaspoon of the fat. In the same saucepan, melt the butter, and add the carrot, celery, leek, and shallots. Season with salt and pepper. Cook over medium-low heat until softened and golden brown, 8 to 10 minutes.
• Add broth and chestnuts to the saucepan. Bring to a simmer, partially cover, and cook until all the ingredients are soft, about 30 minutes. Let cool slightly, and purée in batches in a blender until very smooth. Return to saucepan, add the cream, and heat thoroughly, adding stock to thin if needed. (A spoon should not leave a trail on the surface of the soup.)
• Season with salt and pepper and ladle into warmed shallow bowls. Garnish with the reserved bacon, a dab of crème fraîche, chives, and a pinch of nutmeg.

CHESTNUT PUREE

Steps:

• Combine chestnuts, milk, and salt in a saucepan. Using the tip of a paring knife, scrape seeds from vanilla bean into pan, and toss in pod. Bring to a simmer, and cook, partially covered, until chestnuts are very soft and all but about 1/2 cup of the liquid has been absorbed, about 20 minutes.
• Pour mixture through a fine-mesh sieve into a bowl, reserving chestnuts and cooking liquid separately and discarding vanilla pod. Process chestnuts in a food processor until very smooth, adding reserved cooking liquid (and additional milk if needed), 1 tablespoon at a time, until mixture is the consistency of a thick spread. Pour through a large-mesh sieve. Cover with plastic wrap, and refrigerate until ready to use.

20 BEST WAYS TO USE CHESTNUTS

Steps:

• Select your favorite recipe.
• Organize all the required ingredients.
• Prep a chestnut recipe in 30 minutes or less!

BACON-WRAPPED WATER CHESTNUTS

Steps:

• Combine the water chestnuts and soy sauce in a resealable plastic bag and let marinate at room temperature, tossing and massaging the bag occasionally, for 30 minutes.
• Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Wrap each water chestnut in a piece of bacon and secure with a toothpick. Set a cooling rack into a rimmed baking sheet and arrange the bacon-wrapped water chestnuts on top. Bake until the bacon renders its fat and is crisp, about 30 minutes.
• Meanwhile, stir together the ketchup, brown sugar, Worcestershire sauce and 1/3 cup water in a bowl to make a sauce.
• Remove the baking sheet from the oven and carefully lift the cooling rack off the baking sheet. Drain away any fat in the baking sheet and wipe dry with paper towels. Line the baking sheet with foil and lightly spray the foil with nonstick cooking spray. Carefully transfer the bacon-wrapped water chestnuts to the bowl with the sauce, swirling to fully coat, then spread out on the baking sheet.
• Return the baking sheet to the oven and bake, tossing every few minutes, until the sauce is reduced to a sticky glaze, about 15 minutes. Immediately transfer the bacon-wrapped water chestnuts to a warm serving platter. Sprinkle with pepper and serve while hot.

CHESTNUT RAVIOLI WITH SAGE BROWNED BUTTER

Steps:

• Coarsely chop chestnuts.
• Cook pancetta in 3 tablespoons butter in a large heavy saucepan over moderate heat, stirring, until crisp on edges, about 5 minutes. Add onion and garlic and cook, stirring, until onion is softened. Add chestnuts and water and simmer, stirring, until liquid is reduced by half. Discard garlic.
• Transfer mixture to a bowl and mash to a coarse paste with a fork. Peel half of apple and cut enough of peeled half into 1/4-inch dice to measure 3 tablespoons. Reserve remaining (unpeeled) apple. Stir diced peeled apple into chestnut mixture with parmesan, parsley, and salt and pepper to taste.
• Put 1 won ton wrapper on a work surface, keeping remaining wrappers in plastic wrap, and mound 1 scant tablespoon of filling in center. Lightly brush edges of wrapper with water and top with a second wrapper, pressing down around filling to force out air. Trim excess dough with cutter and seal edges well, pressing them together with your fingertips. Transfer ravioli to a dry kitchen towel, then make more in same manner.
• Cut enough of unpeeled apple into 1/4-inch dice to measure 3 tablespoons and toss with lemon juice.
• Heat remaining 4 tablespoons butter in a large heavy skillet over moderate heat until foam subsides and butter begins to turn brown. Stir in sage and cook, stirring, until sage is crisp and butter is golden brown. Season with salt and pepper.
• Add ravioli to a 6-quart pot of salted boiling water, then cook at a slow boil, stirring gently occasionally, until tender, 3 to 5 minutes. Carefully transfer ravioli with a slotted spoon to a colander to drain. Slide ravioli into sage butter and cook over moderate heat, stirring gently, 1 minute.
• Sprinkle ravioli with unpeeled apple and season with pepper.

PURéE DE CHâTAIGNES (CHESTNUT PURéE)

Steps:

• Tip the chestnuts into a saucepan with the milk and thyme. Bring to the boil over a medium heat, then reduce the heat to a gentle simmer and cook for 10-15 mins. The chestnuts are ready when they start to fall apart slightly when pricked with a fork.
• Meanwhile, heat the butter in a small pan and fry the shallots over a medium heat until softened.
• Remove the thyme from the chestnuts and discard. Use a slotted spoon to transfer the chestnuts to a food processor, then pour in 100ml of the poaching milk, reserving the rest. Add the fried shallots and crème fraîche, then blitz to a thick purée, adding more of the reserved poaching milk to loosen if needed. Season with salt and some white pepper to taste. To freeze, leave to cool fully, then seal in an airtight container and freeze for three weeks.
• Tip the purée back into the saucepan and cover to keep warm until you're ready to serve. If the purée needs reheating, add a splash of the reserved poaching milk and warm through over a low heat.

GRAIN-FREE CHESTNUT BACON STUFFING

Steps:

• Chestnut Purée: If using fresh chestnuts, peel them as follows: with a very sharp knife, carefully cut each shell from top to bottom along one side. For large chestnuts, remove a 1/8 inch strip by making a second parallel cut. Place the chestnuts in a saucepan, cover with cold water, and bring to boiling. Boil for one minute. Remove from saucepan from heat, but do not drain. Take a couple chestnuts at a time, and peel the shells and the inner skin. They are butter colored when properly peeled. For large chestnuts it may be difficult/impossible to remove the inner skin -- just scrub them to get a reasonable amount off.
• Place the chestnuts in a saucepan, along with celery stalks and herbs. If using dried herbs wrap them in cheesecloth to form an herb bouquet.
• Pour in the beef stock, and enough water to cover the chestnuts by about an inch. Simmer uncovered for 45 minutes. At this point you can skip below and begin preparing the Meat Stuffing portion of this recipe.
• Drain immediately, reserving the chestnut cooking liquid.
• Remove the celery, and herbs/herb bouquet.
• Place the chestnuts in a food processor. Run for several seconds until coarsely ground. Add the heavy cream and run for several seconds until evenly mixed.
• The mixture should be spreadable but retain a crunchy texture. If too dry, carefully add the reserved cooking liquid one tablespoon at a time. You don't want baby-food texture, so don't over do it.
• Adjust salt and pepper to taste. A little sugar if needed. Cover and set aside.
• Meat Stuffing: slowly cook the finely chopped onions with the butter in a large skillet until tender, but not browned. Probably 8 minutes or so.
• Transfer onions to a large mixing bowl. There should be a little butter left in the skillet -- add more if needed.
• Pour the wine or cognac into the warm skillet. Boil down to about half the volume. Transfer to mixing bowl. Scrap out any bubbly sugar too. Note: even a bourbon liqueur should work well -- you want something with plenty of sugar and a decent flavor, not necessarily a high price.
• Add all the remaining ingredients to the mixing bowl, and beat thoroughly. Don't use your hands -- the goal is mixed not mushed.
• (Optional: the Meat Stuffing and the completed Chestnut Purée can be separately refrigerated at this point. I'd say a day in advance would be safe.).
• Assembly: the original recipe had everything assembled and cooked inside a goose. I prefer cooking stuffing in a separate pan. Adjust the following steps as suits your preference.
• Preheat oven to 450 degrees Fahrenheit.
• Grease a shallow casserole or gratin. Starting with the Meat Stuffing, layer the ingredients in the casserole. I found that meat-chestnut-meat-chestnut-meat worked well. Specifically, my ratios went something like 40% of the meat, half the purée, 40% of the meat, the remaining half of the purée, the remaining 20% of the meat as a crumble-topping.
• (Pro tip: here's an easy way to estimate the 40-40-20% ratio. Evenly distribute the meat in the skillet -- no big hills or valleys. Now, imagine the skillet is the face of a clock. The portion between "noon" and 25 minutes past the hour is about 40% of the material. Likewise, the portion between 25 minutes past the hour and 10 minutes before the hour is the next 40%. The final portion between 10 minutes before the hour and noon is the last 20%.).
• Brown the casserole in the hot oven for 20 to 25 minutes. The top should be brown, and any exposed bacon should be approaching crumbly.
• Alternately, if the Chestnut Purée and Meat Stuffing ingredients were refrigerated prior to final assembly, start with a 350 oven. Assemble as above, Heat the casserole for 20 minutes. Advance the oven to 450, and brown for 10-15 minutes, checking frequently.

CHESTNUT, BACON & PARSNIP SOUP

Steps:

• Fry the rashers of bacon in the oil until crisp. Scoop out half the bacon and set aside until later. Add the onion and garlic to the pan, stirring until tender, then add the parsnips. Cook for another 5 mins, then crumble in the chicken stock cube. Add the milk, 600ml water, the thyme and chestnuts. Cover and simmer for 30 mins until the parsnip is tender. Blitz with a hand blender, then season to taste. Ladle into bowls and top with the reserved bacon.

CHESTNUT & BACON CAKE

Steps:

• Heat oven to 190C/170C fan/gas 5. Heat the oil in a large frying pan, then fry the onions and two-thirds of the bacon, covered, for 10 mins until the onions are very soft. Once cool enough to handle, mix with the chopped chestnuts, sausagemeat, breadcrumbs, thyme leaves and egg, and season really well. Take out 250g for stuffing the turkey.
• Butter a 23cm round tin, scoop in the remaining stuffing, press down a little, then top with the remaining bacon. Put onto a baking sheet, cover with foil and bake for 15 mins.
• Uncover, grind over some fresh black pepper, then cook for 35 mins more until the bacon is turning golden. With 5 mins to go, top with the chestnut halves, if you like, brushing them with a little butter. Cut into wedges to serve.