lyagushka

Last New Year's I ate a prix fixe meal at Ici in NYC. There was a chestnut soup that was yummy and unusual enough that I wrote and asked for the recipe. The chef graciously obliged. I thought I'd share it in this thread. It's labor-intensive enough that you might want to save it for a special occasion. Though if you can find peeled chestnuts, that would make the prep a whole lot easier. I'm pretty sure I tweaked this recipe a bit here and there, but I can't recall the specifics. In any case, credit should go to Ici's chef, whose name escapes me at the moment. Chestnut, Apple & Celery Root Soup 1 pound raw chestnuts half of a large leek, white part only (2½ ounces) butter ½ pound trimmed celery root 2 large, or 3 small apples bay leaf white pepper salt ground star anise 1 cup chicken stock 1 cup water 1 cup cream Soak the chestnuts overnight in water to cover. Drain them and place them in a large pot with plenty of water. Bring to a boil and allow them to simmer vigorously for 1½ hours. When they have boiled, remove a few chestnuts at a time, leaving the rest in the hot water, and peel them of the outer shells and the inner skins. The heat and moisture will make them easier to peel. It becomes harder to peel them as they dry and cool. Discard or trim any spoiled chestnuts. When you have peeled them all and trimmed them, you should have ¾ pound of chestnut meats. Set them aside. Clean, dry, and finely mince the half leek. In a large pot, sweat the leek in plenty of butter over very low heat for 10 minutes. Do not allow the leek to color. Meanwhile, small dice the celery root. Peel and core the apples and dice them too. Add them both, along with the chestnuts, to the pot with the leeks, adding more butter if necessary. (The ingredients will tend to absorb the butter as they cook.) Add a bay leaf, some white pepper and salt to taste, as well as a very little star anise. Stir the ingredients well and allow them to sweat over medium-low heat for 15-20 minutes. Watch the pot carefully so that the ingredients do not begin to brown. Add the chicken stock and the water. The liquid should be just enough to barely cover the ingredients. Bring the pot to a strong simmer and reduce to low. Allow the pot to simmer for 20 minutes. Remove the bay leaf, then completely puree the ingredients in batches in a food processor. Return the puree to the pan and add 1 cup of cream, or as much as to your taste. Heat the soup through and sample, adjusting the seasonings to taste. Notes: Increase the ratio of celery root to chestnuts and apples for a less sweet and carborific meal. Jazz it up by serving with a garnish of roasted chestnuts, celery greens or sautéed apple slices.

Ah, but have you ever had the leafy parts of a broccoli plant? At one of the farmers' markets that I go to, they sell "baby" broccoli leaves. These grow around the crown of broccoli, and aren't like the florets. When they're small and tender, they're divine!

Chard and kale are popular in our house. They stand up nicely to longer cooking times without becoming stringy or mushy. Sauteed with olive oil plus garlic or onions is our most common treatment. I also like to blanch savoy cabbage then slice it very thinly. I add the slices to a pan with very thinly sliced onions that have been cooked down until they just begin to caramelize. I throw in a generous pinch of caraway, and some salt. When the pan warms up again after the addition of the cabbage, I add some cream. When the liquid begins to bubble, it's ready to be served. Kale or cavolo nero (should we be lucky enough to find it) also makes an excellent compliment to farro in a soup. Broccoli is probably our all-time favorite vegetable. We most commonly eat it in a dish we fondly call "mofo." (The name of the dish came from the time back in the very early nineties when blackened everything was very popular. I asked a professional chef friend of mine how to blacken fish, since the blackening spices themselves didn't seem to be doing the trick. He was a skinny southern black guy, and gay as Christmas. He said to me, "Honey, you just gotta get that skillet hot as a muthafucka.") To make this dish, we prep a limited volume of meat, veg, tofu or whatever, and reduce stock to a very small quanity, keeping it warm. Then we take our 13" cast iron skillet and we get it hot as a muthafucka, by heating it on high over two gas burners for 10 minutes. When the pan is smoking a little, we add vegetable oil. When the oil smokes, after about 10 seconds, we throw in the food we've prepped. If we haven't prepped too much, the pan stays hot enough that the food never stops sizzling, so we have to stir constantly and the vegetables get nicely charred. After about 90 seconds, we throw in the hot reduced stock, or coconut milk or whatever. About 60 seconds after that, it's all done. Takes a bit of practice to know how much food is just enough and not too much, and the same goes for the amount of liquid. It's easy to prepare enough for two people with this method. Cooking for more could be tricky, unless you add rice or something else. Have a trivet ready if you want to take the pan to the table. And then of course, there are salads...

Yes, I remember the meal, because I prepared nearly all of it myself. We had: Hors d'oeurvy bits: batons of baked zucchini wraped with prosciutto apricots with goat cheese and pistachios Main event: Curried tomato soup Fennel & sage crusted pork loin (roasted) Timbalo of pasta with two different sauces (tomato & basil) green salad with seckel pears and Asiago grilled portobello mushrooms with garlic oil braised fennel (seems like I'm missing another vegetable here, but I can't recall what it would have been) dessert: home-made lemon cake with lemon curd dark belgian chocolate We were married in October. My mom made the base of the tomato soup in summer from her home-grown tomatoes, and froze it for later use. My aunt is a fantastic baker and she made the modest two-tiered wedding cake. My cousin then decorated it with edible flowers and berries. It suited our small (40 guests) country wedding very well. We had a full bar with a paid bartender, who served the wines we selected (a McElroy white and a Marr zinfandel if I'm not mistaken) and whatever mixed drinks the guests wanted. The backdrop of fall colors gave us all the grandeur we needed in the setting, and fortunately it was a balmy, indian summer day. The whole thing was very non-traditional with a little bit of formality and a lot of unstructured socializing. Almost everyone who was there told us afterwards that it was the best wedding they'd ever attended. You bet I'd have the same meal again! And I doubt I'd cut back on the meal if costs went up. It just wasn't that extravagant. It was good because it was all really well prepared with quality ingredients. Not because the ingredients were exotic or prestigious.

How about using the leftover roasted veggies in a fritatta or a risotto dish? Roasted potatoes might not work great in risotto (starch + starch), but I would imagine most others would. Roasted squash or parsnips would be lovely in either dish. By the way, I can't wait for late fall again to try roasting some parsnips with a sprinkle of ground cardamom. Just heard about that one. And one rather odd method of roasting fingerling potatoes that turns out to work very well is: grease the roasting pan with butter. Cut the potatoes lengthwise and place in the pan. Add some peeled garlic cloves and olive oil, then mix everthing up to coat well, making sure the potatoes end up cut side up. Sprinkle with salt and pepper to taste, add some fresh chopped sage and a few tablespoons of water. Cover with aluminum foil and bake for half an hour, then take off the aluminum foil, crank the heat way up and finish for another 10 minutes or so. This made great "roasted" potatoes.

Okay, inspired by this thread, I went ahead and wrote my own review of New Canaan's Thali. I hope it will be apparent from my opinions that I'm not a shill. In a nutshell, I thought the food was good, not great or a standout in any way. Service was also good, but the noisy waterfall thing put me off. But yeah, I'd go back if I were in the area and craving Indian. There were some interesting looking things on the menu.

I've eaten at the Birchrunville Cafe Store twice and got a pretty mixed impression of the place. The first time, the food and service were solid. The second time, the food was decidedly mediocre. The ambiance is decent, and since tables share a wine cooling bucket with the neighbors, there's always a chance you can snag part of a leftover bottle when your neighbors leave. My parents on one occasion there, had a waitress assume that almost $40 was intended as her tip, when in fact the table was expecting her to make change. She didn't bring the money back to the table until they asked for it, 15 minutes later. Highly unprofessional, imho.