Hot Creamy Sweet Chestnut Soup Recipe

Making a Hot Starter with Two Pound Bags of Chestnuts

Feb 2, 2009 Susan Morris

When bags of sweet chestnuts are in abundant supply, make up industrial sized batches of this hot sweet chestnut soup to warm up one cold days.

Sweet chestnuts have been held in high esteem by cooks in southern Europe. In good steady supply from October through to late winter, the distinctive taste of sweet chestnuts is a good start to making a chestnut soup. Simone Seekers in Celebrations: Recipes for Festive Occasions (The National Trust 1995) offers Chestnut Soup with Bacon Croûtons for eight, using 1lb (450g) of sweet chestnuts.

The following recipe loses the bacon although it's not a sweet chestnut soup for vegetarians or the lactose-intolerant - being rich in dairy products to give a creaminess to the chestnuts and with chicken stock included. Some residual heat comes from a generous amount of cayenne pepper.

Hot Creamy Sweet Chestnut Soup Recipe

Ingredients:

• 900g to 1kg (around 2 lbs) fresh sweet chestnuts
• 3 brown onions
• 75g unsalted butter
• 1.5 pints of milk
• 1/2 pint single cream
• 2.5 pints of fresh chicken stock
• 1/2 to 1 level teaspoons of cayenne pepper
• black pepper to taste

Directions:

1. Clean each of the sweet chestnuts with a cloth and score (spike or slit with a sharp knife) the tops.
2. Empty the prepared chestnuts into a pan of water and bring to the boil.
3. Cook the sweet chestnuts in boiling water until they are tender to the fork test. This may take between 20 to 40 minutes.
4. Once the sweet chestnuts are tender, drain away the water and empty the chestnuts into a glass bowl.
5. Allow the sweet chestnuts to cool in the bowl.
6. When the sweet chestnuts are cold, peel away the shells and outside skins.
7. Melt the butter in a large saucepan.
8. Add the onions, chopped finely, to the saucepan and fry for 3 to 5 minutes.
9. Then add the chicken stock and milk to the saucepan and bring to the boil.
10. Reduce the heat to the pan to allow the liquid to simmer.
11. Add the cooled cooked sweet chestnuts with 1/2 teaspoon of cayenne pepper to the liquid and simmer for at least 20 minutes or the point of the chestnuts turning to a pulp.
12. Reduce the liquid from the heat and with care, use a blender to mix the chestnut pulp and the liquid to a smooth soup consistency.
13. Add the single cream to finish the soup.
14. Season further with black pepper or more cayenne pepper to taste.

Seasonal cooks who have more sweet chestnuts may like to try out other dishes to complement this soup as a hot starter. Mixing the sweet chestnuts, as whole nuts or in halves, with Brussels sprouts creates a melt-in-the-mouth side dish. Alternatively, the cooked sweet chestnuts, following steps 1 to 6 above, could be mashed or processed into a fresh sweet chestnut purée for spreading on freshly toasted bread.

The copyright of the article Hot Creamy Sweet Chestnut Soup Recipe in Seasonal Cooking is owned by Susan Morris. Permission to republish Hot Creamy Sweet Chestnut Soup Recipe in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.

Cooking with Chestnuts