My latest "What should I do with ..." two pounds of chestnuts?

[Denninmi]

Hello, C&B friends. You're the best, btw! For putting up with me, if nothing else.

:hi:

My first REAL harvest off of some chestnut trees I planted about 6-8 years back. In 2009, the first year of any blooms, I would have gotten a small harvest, about a pound, but I ended up in the hospital for 3 days with emergency abdominal surgery and the squirrels got them. Last year, a hard May freeze took out the emerging new growth, and all of the flower buds with it.

This year, I got them ahead of the furry bandits, and I have roughly 2 to 2 1/2 pounds of them in a bowl on my kitchen counter.

What to do, what to do, what to do.

Now, granted, I do have a "favorite" chestnut recipe, a chestnut bisque made with country ham, a lot of caramelized onions, and an insane amount of cream. I could make that, but ... last year, Whole Paychecks had a half priced sale on canned chestnut puree, so I stocked up and bought a number of cans, and it seems a waste to use these nice, fresh ones on something that is just going to be ground up anyway, and the flavor of the puree is very good.

I want to do something "special" -- any thoughts?

:shrug:

[grasswire]

1. I don't have any ideas....

...but I do think your use of the phrase "put up with me" is amusing in this forum where we talk about canning, dehydrating, etc. :-)

I've been walking every day past beautiful chestnuts that are falling from a huge tree, thinking that I ought to gather some for something because no one else is gathering them. So if a great idea shows up here, maybe I will do just that. Your bisque sounds delightful, by the way.

[kestrel91316]

2. Just mail them to me and your dilemma is solved.

I fell in love with chestnuts when I was a kid and we lived in upstate NY. There were 2 or 3 small but productive chestnut trees on an old stone wall-lined country lane in the woods. We ate them raw, roasted, either way is fine with me. But roasted chestnuts are manna from heaven.

[surrealAmerican]

4. ... or me.

Chestnuts are so good just plain roasted or steamed, I never end up cooking anything with them.

[Blues Heron]

3. for x-mas my mom would braise them

in beef stock and madeira wine. I'll try and dig up the recipe.