The November issue of Good Food Magazine has some interesting recipes with chestnuts. Grown up in Schleswig-Holstein, I only knew chestnuts roasted at Christmas markets. At our local farmers market I bought some chestnuts in a nostalgic paper bag.
I peeled the chestnuts
to cook the
Chestnut & butternut soup with toasted seeds
-==== REZKONV-Recipe – RezkonvSuite v0.99.2
Title: Chestnut & butternut soup with toasted seeds 
Categories: Soup
Yield: 8 Servings
1 small Butternut squash; about 700 g; 1 lb 9 oz or use
— pumpkin
50 grams Butter; 2 oz
2 Onions, chopped
2 Garlic cloves, chopped
2 1/2 cm Piece fresh root ginger, chopped
2 teasp. Curry powder
1.2 liters Vegetable stock; 2 pints, more if needed
435 grams Can unsweetened chestnut puree
284 ml Carton double cream
Toasted sunflower seeds; see Know-how
============================== SOURCE ==============================
BBC Good Food Magazine, November 2005
— Edited *RK* 10/30/2005 by
— Ulrike Westphal
The soup can be made up to two days ahead and kept, tightly covered,
in the fridge.
1 Cut a slice from both ends of the squash. Set the squash firmly on
a chopping board and peel it from top to bottom with a small sharp
knife. Halve it, scoop out the seeds, and cut the flesh into 2 cm
chunks. Melt the butter in a large pan and add the onions, garlic,
ginger and curry powder. Cook, stirring, until the onion is soft.
Tip in the squash and the stock, and bring to the boil. Cover and
simmer, stirring occasionally, until the squash is very tender.
Season, if you want.
2 Take the soup from the heat and let it cool slightly. Puree it in
batches in a blender or food processor and return to the pan. Whisk
in the chestnut puree until smooth and bring the soup just to a boil,
stirring well to mix. If it is too thick, add more stock. Stir in
half the cream and bring just back to a boil. Taste and adjust the
seasoning. Keep the remaining cream for serving. Ladle the soup into
bowls. Swirl over a spoonful of cream and sprinkle with the
sunflower seeds.
:PER SERVING 517 kcalories, protein 7g, carbohydrate 37g, fat 39g,
saturated fat 19g, fibre 6g, added sugar none, salt 1 g
:EASY
:PREP 15-20 mins
:COOK 35-40 mins
:KNOW-HOW: To toast sunflower seeds, toss 4 tbsp sunflower seeds
with 1 tsp vegetable oil and spread them in a non-stick frying pan.
Toast them over a medium heat until browned, tossing occasionally,
for 3-5 mins.
:To use fresh chestnuts you will need to peel them: Fresh chestnuts
have a double coating; a tough outer peel and a soft inner skin that
clings tiresomely to the kernel. For abaour 450 g; 1 lb peeled
chestnuts, you need to start with 600 g; 1 lb 5 oz nuts in the shell.
:In a pan: With tooint of a knife, slit the flat side of the nut
from top to botoom. Turn an make a second slit at the base,
perpendicular to the first cut to form a T. Place nuts in a pan with
cold water to cover, put on the lid and bring just to a boil, then
take off the heat. Lift out a few with a draining spoon an, when
they are cool enough to handle, strip off the peel and inner skin
using the knife. Reheat them if they cool and start to bcome hard to
peel.
:In a microwave: cut the nuts in half, including peel. Microwave on
Medium until steaming and very hot, 1 – 2 mins. The flesch pulls
away from the hull and can be prised out with a small knife, leaving
behind the peel and skin.
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