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This soup is absolutely fabulous. I only make it at Thanksgiving and/or Christmas, because first of all, that is the only time of the year that chestnuts are in season, and secondly, it's time consuming to make, very rich and filling, and finally, it's also very expensive due to the price of the chestnuts.
2 to 3 lbs of fresh chestnuts in the shell (you can substitute 2 16 ounce cans of chestnut puree if necessary and if you can find it) -- the more chestnuts the better, but at $4 to $6 a lb, PLUS how hard they are to peel, you may want to just do the 2lbs).
2 medium potatoes, peeled and cut into medium dice (about 1 x 2 inch cubes) (Yukon Gold give a nice color to the soup) (OPTIONAL -- use these to add extra body to the soup if you use the lesser quantity of chestnuts, or just to extend the soup a bit if you need a larger batch)
1 Ham bone with a little attached meat (I generally use the bone from a spiral sliced ham like a Honeyglazed or Dearborn brand, and try to end up with about one cup of meat for the stock, and the second reserved cup to garnish)
1 cup finely shredded lean cooked ham, reserved, to top/garnish the soup (save from the ham bone if possible)
1 large yellow onion, finely diced
1 clove garlic, peeled and minced
1/2 rib of celery, thinly sliced
2 tablespoons butter
a pint of heavy cream (you can use half and half to cut back a bit on the fat, but at Thanksgiving, what's the point???!!!)
dash of white pepper to taste
2-3 sprigs of fresh Thyme or 1 teaspoon of dried thyme (I honestly think it tastes better with fresh)
dash of ground cloves
1 small bay leaf (optional)
1 tablespoon brown sugar
8 cups of rich chicken stock, skimmed of fat. May need a little more depending upon how much the soup reduces as you cook the ham bone and vegetables.
Nice croutons and parsley to garnish (optional, but a good touch).
To prepare the chestnuts -- this is the worst part of this recipe. Start by taking a paring knife and poking a slit or "X" into the shell of each nut. Then, put them into a saucepan and cover with water. Bring them to a boil, then reduce to a low boil and cook them for about 20 to 30 minutes, until fully cooked and soft (you should be able to easily poke a knife through the nutmeat inside the shell).
Drain the hot, cooked nuts, and allow them to partially cool. Working fast, shell the nuts and then, while still fairly hot, REMOVE THE SKIN from the nutmeat. The skin is the brown, slightly fuzzy coating on the nutmeat INSIDE OF THE SHELL. As you work, you will soon discover that the skin only comes off the nutmeat EASILY when it is so hot that you can barely handle it with your bare fingers. As it cools, the skin becomes very stubbornly attached again to the nut. This job can be tackled in a couple of ways -- you can either enlist a couple of helpers to do it fast while the nuts are still hot and peel easily, OR you can keep most of the nuts in the hot water on simmer and remove a few at a time as you can process them.
When you have all of the nuts peeled, set them aside. You can actually do this step well in advance -- the peeled nuts will store for a couple of days in the fridge, or a couple of months in the freezer. Freezing does NOT seem to diminish the quality in any way, so its a good "do ahead" job to free up time on the actual holiday.
OK, once the chestnut ordeal is over, you need to do the soup base.
I start by melting the butter in the bottom of a large stock pot/soup kettle. Add the onion, garlic, and celery and saute it over medium heat until wilted, and then keep going until the onions are just a little caramelized, but not burnt. Then, add the ham bone and let it sort of saute/brown just a bit if possible. At this stage, throw the brown sugar into the pot with the cloves, and roll the bone around in it to develop sort of a glaze. Do all of this over a medium heat so as not to burn.
When you have nicely caramelized onions/garlic and sort of a glazed ham bone, pour the chicken stock and bay leaf (if using) into the kettle, bring it to a boil, and then simmer it for at least an hour, until the remaining ham meat is falling off the bone and all of the flavor of the ham bone has transferred into the stock. Remove the bone, take the meat off of it, cut it up into small pieces, and return it to the pot. You can discard the bone at this point. Now, add the thyme, chestnuts and potato (if using), and the white pepper. Simmer this until the potatoes are soft and the chestnuts are nicely softened again (about 20 minutes). Pull out the thyme sprigs, strip the leaves from them and return to the pot, and discard the stems.
Now, you need to puree the soup. I use an immersion blender, which does a good job, or you can use a regular blender or large food processor. Puree the soup until VERY smooth, and, if you want, you can even run it through a sieve to remove any small solids, but I generally don't do this, as my immersion blender does a great job pureeing everything. The soup should be pretty thick at this point, about like a good, rich split pea soup. You can now serve right away, or hold it for up to an hour. If you hold it and it gets too thick, you can always add a little more stock
At serving time, heat the soup and add in the heavy cream or half and half, stirring all the while to avoid curdling the cream. Serve while nice and hot, with a bit of shredded ham and some croutons and parsley on top. You can also pour a couple of tablespoons of cream on top of the soup if you like, or even a dollop of sour cream.
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