Chestnut and Winter Squash Tart

I have been on a mission to find chestnuts (not the canned kind you use in stir-fry) ever since I bought this cookbook. This recipe sounds so delicious, and that was the one hard-to-find ingredient. I just recently gave up hoping to find it locally and ordered it online. I ordered roasted chestnuts, peeled, for baking, and they arrived in foil packages. The whole chestnuts in each foil package (5.2 oz), chopped in a food processor, amounts to one cup, so I used two packages, between the crust and the filling. 

The recipe calls for a rectangular tart pan with a removable bottom. As I had no idea such a pan even existed, I just followed the crust recipe (yummy chopped chestnuts in the crust!) and laid the crust in a glass pie pan. It is a heavy crust, but the perfect compliment to the squash filling. I chose two small to medium sized delicata squash, peeled, seeded, and cut into slices for roasting. The recipe calls for shallots. Now, one can always use a regular onion if need be. But I've developed a partiality for shallots, and try to use them as often as possible. The other really essential ingredient, that makes this recipe so savory? Garlic. We buy it at the local health food store and really fresh garlic makes all the difference.

I did skip the fried sage leaf garnish and pomegranate seeds on top of this pie. No fresh sage this time of year, and pomegranate seeds are not my fav.  I do advocate for the chestnuts. I suppose you could substitute some other nut, but once I'd tried the chestnuts, I wouldn't make this recipe any other way.

This pie makes a delicious lunch, served with a green salad. And if you bring it to a fall potluck (maybe next fall, after the pandemic is over?) people will fall in love with it. Young children will likely think they have pulled off the ultimate trick, being served dessert for their meal, never knowing how healthy it is for them.



Comments

Post a Comment

I welcome your comments. Please be kind and considerate. Thanks for stopping by!

Popular posts from this blog

Lunchtime Gloop

Image
Remember the first recipe I tried? Submitted by the mother of Astronaut Jessica Meir? Well, the cook behind today's lunch menu is famous, but don't wear yourself out trying to think up names of famous Maine cooks. Easiest recipe in this cookbook? Yes. No-fail? Yes. Going to win culinary awards around the globe? No. But when it comes to comfort food, I'm guessing this might be one of author Stephen King's favorites. I followed Mr. King's recipe exactly. Except where he says to use Franco American Spaghetti. Could not for the life of me find that brand name, so finally bought Campbell's Spaghettios. Got home, looked up Franco American and found that, yes, you guessed it, Campbell's bought out Franco American and kept the Spaghettios. Spaghettios were introduced in 1965. What kid doesn't love those little circular bits of pasta soaking in a tomato and cheese bath? And somehow, according to the writing on the can, they manage to pack 20% of your daily vegeta
Read more

Maine Party Chicken

Image
 As I read the ingredients for this recipe, I had a flashback to my childhood. My parents enjoyed having friends over, and my mother was not a chef by any means, but she would look for recipes that were easy to prepare for a crowd. This is one of the recipes she used to make.  I used to be a can-of-soup cook, like my mom, when a white sauce was called for. But since I learned how to do a bechamel, oh my, there is no going back. Not that there is anything wrong with an easy pop-top cream of mushroom soup once in awhile. It does the trick, and you just tuck this dish in the fridge overnight and do a three-hour bake the next day, which gives you time to focus on putting up party banners, or whatever, for your company. I'm not sure I care for the dried beef in this dish. Awfully salty. But the bacon, when you do a slow bake, smells fantastic for three solid hours. Can you say Anticipation?! I say, when you go big, go easy. Try this recipe for a crowd. You'll be glad you did!
Read more

Dad's Bean Hole Beans

Image
This recipe presented two distinct challenges. Firstly, I live in a parsonage and I'm not likely to receive permission to dig up the lawn just to try my hand at cooking bean hole beans. Secondly, we are now solidly in winter, and even if I had opportunity to dig a hole, it's not the right time of year. So I allowed as how baking the beans in the oven would have to do for now, and we'll see what summer brings. Who knows, maybe the church will want to offer a bean hole bean "suppah" as a fundraiser. The picture shows off pea beans, and yet the recipe calls for yellow-eye beans. I must say, were I pressed to pick a favorite bean recipe, I did so love the Baked Yellow-Eye Beans (see blog). But when it came time to try this recipe, there were no yellow-eye beans in the pantry. So I used pea beans. I do like pea beans, but I have to wonder if these beans were getting a little old. They seemed to take longer to cook. I checked the difference between the Yellow-Eye Bean r
Read more