lperry

By the time I replied, more posts were up. Thank you! I would love to make my own chestnut flour, but the dried ones are so hard that I'm afraid to use any of my kitchen equipment on them. How do you make yours? The chestnuts in wine sound great. I know there's a long history of chestnut use in Europe as well as Asia. I have been hoping for some ideas for traditional savory dishes. I always end up preserving them with sugar.

Mont Blanc. Wow. Having just cooked, peeled, and food-milled three pounds of chestnuts for the preserves, I don't know that I'm up to the task right now . But what a great suggestion. I love impractical food! I've tried making marrons glacees, but the nuts always break into pieces. Not that this makes them taste worse, but the presentation is not as pretty. If someone knows how to keep them whole, I'd do it again. I did not know they were good after being frozen, so I may just put some in the freezer and save the Mont Blanc idea for a holiday dinner. Same goes for the stuffing. I've never made any, but I was eyeing the wild rice in the kitchen and thinking that these two would match well. Seasons in Florida give us "fall" foods when it is still pretty hot out, so I'm grateful for the freezing suggestion. I'm assuming that they can be thawed and then still roasted? The tree looks like it will live, although it may be a few years before it doesn't look lopsided, so I will have more chestnuts next year . Edited for clarity....

Hurricane Frances took the top out of our chestnut tree. I saved the burrs and spread them on newspapers, and they all opened at once. Usually they fall a few at a time, and I can keep up, but now I have about ten pounds of fresh chestnuts to use before they go bad. I've already dried enough to keep me in soup all winter, and I made preserves with pears. This is on top of eating piles of roasted ones. Any ideas would be appreciated. Also, does anyone have a trick for peeling the little buggers? I'm hoping there's a magic solution that will allow me to peel them cool instead of hot. Thanks - Linda

Cailler chocolates. They are Nestle but much higher quality than what we can get here. Their Frigor bars are heavenly

A food mill is great for making mexican chile-based sauces that the instructions tell you to "push through a fine sieve." Just use the fine disk and you've done the job in a fraction of the time, and the sauce is just as smooth. I imagine it would do the same for any sauce treated in this manner. Also, if you do any canning or preserving, it does a great job with berry seeds and skins.

If anyone is interested in some further reading, I suggest Aphrodite, A Memoir of the Senses by Isabel Allende. It is a collection of essays about sex and food followed by recipes for aphrodisiac foods.

I have just ordered Mes Confitures, and I have the feeling that eG will be a fantastic enabler for my out of control cookbook habit. The figs have been gone for a few weeks down here, although I may experiment with some that I dried. The chestnuts have just started to fall, and I always need new recipes for those, so I am looking forward to trying some of Ferber's ideas. The chutney sounds fantastic. Thanks!

Hello- I am new to eGullet and I am very happy to have found a group as interested in food as I am. I live in Florida and currently have over a half bushel of pears to preserve. These are the old fashioned southern varietal "Pineapple", and apart from the tropical aroma, their best quality is that they maintain shape and crispness after they are cooked. I have made spiced pears and pear/ginger/vanilla preserves, and I was hoping that someone would have some ideas for what to do with the rest of them. Also, the rainy weather has yielded a huge ginger crop. I have made crystallized ginger in the past (with mixed results), but I was curious about the steaming method posted by andiesenji. Do you not boil it in syrup at all? I'd love it if you would share how you make this. Thanks lperry