Friday, November 17, 2006

Home Alone

Well, actually, I was stood up by a blind date...

Which wasn't such a bad thing, to be honest, the guy is only about 6 years older than me but sounded older than my grandparents. No spice, no zip. I've been previously traumatized by bad dates - honestly, who considers McDonald's coffee the zenith of bean culture???, so I am a sceptic when it comes to other people's choices for me. But it doesn't help that I am also a sceptic when it comes to my own choices... I have lousy taste in men!

But I ended up spending my time wisely - I blanched a kilo of this seasons sweet chestnuts, and then for the next 3 hours peeled them (next time I will give them 10 minutes in the boiling water, before I start to strip them down.

The peeled chestnuts went into a bath of cream and simmered away for about an hour. They are now cooling and I have a world of possibilities open to me for playing with my food this weekend.

Creme de Marrons anyone?


12 comments:

burekaboy — said...

you mean to say you don't consider mcdonald's coffee as THE benchmark for which all others are compared??!! LOL.

sorry about the standup but at least you had a hot date with chestnuts. was there much waste (as in ones you had to toss)? i always invariably ending up throwing out a bunch. also, are they commonly eaten there (jews vs arabs)? i don't remember seeing them when i lived there.

looking forward to seeing what you do with them.

Anonymous said...

Hey BB,
As I said, I ended up spending my time wisely... I love chestnuts. I think out of the kilo I had to pitch about 4 nuts - 3 for being off and 1 for suspected visitors. The rest, as you can see, were pretty amazing. My house now smells heavenly. They aren't eaten nearly so much here as in other communities, but you they aren't as hard to find as, oh dried baby shrimp or durkee/frank's hot sauce

yudit said...

There must be a hell somewhere for nasty blind-dates, but this sounds like one better missed to begin with. McKoffee? Never
As to the rest: chestnuts are simply yummy
beteavon!

aja said...

Hey Yudit,
Thanks for the vote for a bad-blind-date hell. Yeah - McKoffee - scary huh? And I loooovvve chestnuts!

burekaboy — said...

hey that's amazingly good yield for chestnuts. i can't tell you how many times i found vistors of the wormy kind and just plain black mold ruining all that hard work after extricating them.

are they israeli grown or perhaps italian imports? we have this little cart downtown outside the Bay which opens in the fall -- he does the roasted chestnut thing.

aja said...

Hey BB,
They were this seasons (so really fresh) from Italy. They occasionally have roast chestnuts available at some of the kiosks, along with boiled corn on the cob.

I have a chestnut story too - from Greece - when next I roast chestnuts I'll tell the story... 8^P

Unknown said...
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burekaboy — said...

can't wait to hear it. does it involve jack [yanni] frostolopoulos nippin at your nose? LOL. couldn't resist.

have you ever used farina di castagne for/in anything? i haven't but am hankering to try it in a few things i have dog-eared.

aja said...

Hey BB,
Would you believe it involved broken beerbottle wielding jacks and a self-confessed anarchist terrorist? Long story...

As to chestnut flour - dieing to try something with it - but I haven't ever seen it here anywhere. Probably something to add weight to luggage next time I go to the land of frozen ears... 8^)

aja said...

Hey Paz,
Thanks - I think so... Now why oh whya re blind dates ALWAYS so icky??? And the next question is, why would friends think to set you up with people who are SOOOO inappropriate? This sounds like a sugar delirium rant somehow, or maybe it is the rant of all blind-datees (as against the blind-dater)... Do you think we could get a post out of this?

Anonymous said...

Oh i just saw this! Aja, so sorry about the non-blind date. What a noodle.

your chestnuts look delish. that guy has no idea what he's missing!

aja said...

Hey VC,
I agree, what a noodle! But I had fun peeling chestnuts! 8^)