Autumnal Musings

By Marie-Christine Perry

As I picked the last of the tomatoes and peppers before putting the raised beds to sleep for winter, the complex smell of a spicy South Indian tomato chutney bubbling on the stove reminds me that this is my favorite season. The dehydrator is working around the clock drying mushrooms I bring home from my walks into the woods and meadows, I bring all kinds of squashes home from farm stands, and I have been actively searching for fresh chestnuts for soups and sweet “crème de marrons.”  For me fall is the perfect time to spend long hours in the kitchen. Apple sauce and apple butter are waiting to be put away in jars, and earthy soups will lure friends around the table. 

I hope to find local chestnuts, as I love chestnut soup, and “crème de marrons” is a favorite French childhood dessert. Both always compliment my Thanksgiving table. I know that in case I don’t find them fresh, Chinese sous-vide chestnuts will be a decent substitute.  

With fresh chestnuts, you need to steam the nuts in their skins, after making an incision with the point of your paring knife in the shape of a cross at the base. They will peel easily once cooled. Put the meats in a heavy saucepan (I use Le Creuset), cover with milk, add a bit of sea salt, and cook on a very low flame until tender, not allowing liquid to boil. Drain chestnuts, add a good chicken or mushroom broth and the leaves of a large sprig of fresh thyme, season with salt and pepper, and bring to a simmer. Purée with immersion blender, taste to correct seasoning, and when serving, add a large dollop of crème fraîche to each plate, with a few fresh thyme leaves.

For “crème de marrons,” follow the same procedure, adding a vanilla pod sliced in length to the milk and just a small pinch of sea salt, and purée with some of the milk to the consistency of mashed potatoes. Add raw sugar to taste. Served cold in a dome with a peak of sweetened whipped cream, it is a Mont-Blanc!

Both soup and “crème de marrons” can be put up in jars with the water bath method, were you to happen on a trove of fresh chestnuts!

Of course, I also use chestnuts to stuff the turkey (which we traditionally eat at Christmas, in France), with apples, onions, dried cherries soaked in Cognac and sage and celery leaves. There is no recipe there, I use my imagination and the stuffing is different every year!

Mushrooms are the other essence of fall, and so far, Norfolk has been very generous to my forays!  I now usually take a basket with me, and my little mushroom hunting knife with the brush at one end to clear the caps of debris, when walking Louis after a rain. I have been lucky in my first find, 4 pounds o boletus edulis, the King of boleti mushrooms! Mostly though, it has been agaricus campestris, the meadow mushroom, and armillaria melea, the honey mushroom. Wild mushrooms are best sautéed in butter, with an “aïllade” added at the end of cooking: a mixture of finely chopped garlic and fresh parsley. They accompany well chicken, lamb, a veal chop, or more simply, a dish of polenta! If you are an avid mushroom hunter, and can invest in a dehydrator, dried mushrooms (reconstituted by soaking in various liquids) are lovely in risotto, and sauces and soups. You can also pulverize them and have a mushroom powder for use, to give complex earthy notes to many dishes, and to make mushroom broth. 

Foraging in cool autumn weather and enjoying the splendor of the season’s foliage is good for your health, and good for your soul!