Chestnut Soup 栗ときのこのスープ

We used to get fresh chestnuts from California every fall. The preparation, especially removing the inner brown membrane is time consuming and difficult. So we decided to try commercially prepared chestnuts sold either in a jar or a plastic pouch. As a test to see if the prepared chestnut tasted any different from the fresh, I made chestnut rice 栗ごはん with it. The final dish came out similar to using fresh chestnuts with the added advantage of much less effort of preparation required. (Since we posted  making chestnut rice with fresh chestnuts and this preparation tasted exactly the same we did not post it again.) But this exercise proved to us that fresh and commercially prepared chestnuts are interchangeable.  After making the rice we were left with one and half bags of prepared/roasted chestnuts (about 7-8 oz or about 200 grams.) My wife came up with this chestnut soup recipe which she found on-line. Again I had to modify the recipe because of the ingredients we had. The original calls for dried porcini and fresh button mushrooms but I only had fresh shiitake mushrooms.

Ingredients
5-6 fresh shiitake mushrooms, stems removed and caps sliced.
2 tbs. unsalted butter and 2 tbs. olive oil
1 large leek, white and tender green parts only, finely chopped
1 carrot, thinly sliced
2 celery stalks finely chopped
1 teaspoon minced rosemary (from our herb garden)
7 oz. (200 grams) peeled roasted vacuum-packed chestnuts (see picture below)
3 cups chicken stock
Salt
Freshly ground pepper

For garnish
1 tbs each of olive oil and unsalted butter
5-6 fresh shiitake mushrooms, stem removed and caps thinly sliced
Salt and pepper to taste
Fresh rosemary, finely chopped up

Directions
In a saucepan on medium heat, add the olive oil and butter. Add the sliced shiitake mushrooms, leeks, carrot, celery and rosemary and cook, stirring occasionally, until the vegetables are cooked; about 15 minutes. Add the chestnuts and stock, season with salt and pepper. Bring the soup to a boil and simmer over low heat for 30 minutes. Using an immersion blender, puree the soup until smooth.

For garnish
In a frying pan, heat the oil and butter. Add the sliced shiitake mushrooms, cook over moderately high heat until lightly browned (6 minutes). Season with salt and pepper. I served the soup warm and garnished with the sautéed shiitake and the chopped rosemary.

This is an excellent soup/potage. The chestnuts and leeks imparted a nice sweetness and distinctive chestnut flavor. Although the original recipe calls for heavy cream, I served this warm without any cream. It really didn’t need it. We had this as a lunch with slices of my home baked baguette. I am sure certain chestnut dishes cannot be made using these kinds of prepared chestnuts but I will try to use them in more of our favorite chestnut dishes