A ONCE-OFF CHICKEN SOUP (CHESTNUT STUFFING PART 3)

A humble and rustic chicken soup. There by the grace of a few chestnuts we stumbled upon.                                   Mans

“They (soups) tend to be an omnium gatherum of what’s to hand and you must be in a pretty bad way if you have not the materials for some kind of soup”

                                                                                    Martin Versfeld – 'Food for thought'

The chestnut stuffing might be long gone, but the stripped skeletal vessel that once flavored and contained it is still parking off in my fridge. It’s ready for its ‘swan song’ or should I say its ‘chicken song’. Together with the saved appendage bones, it'll flavor todays lunch.

Isn't that pretty?                                                                                      Mans

Never throw your Parmigiano rinds away. They're perfect for soups.  Mans

I’m talking about soup, a humble and rustic soup. A soup that’ll take care of those neglected leftovers in the fridge. The type of soup that a peasant family might gather around. One that’ll leave you feeling virtuous, when all that's left is a bowl of sucked and chewed bone debris: a clear conscience that nothing has gone to waste and a satisfied belly.

'That'll do.'                                                               Mans

I’m not going to give you a recipe, because there is no recipe. Soups like these should be informal, and anyway I can’t really remember what went into this one. All I know is that if you've got bones, onion, carrots, celery and a few herbs, you are well on the way.

“When I say that the soup-pot is a good place for scraps and left-overs, I do not mean to equate it with the dirt-bin. A soup requires some sense of composition. A cook is fairly judged by his soup.”

                                                                                       Martin Versfeld – 'Food for thought'

CHICKEN MAYO SANDWICH (CHESTNUT STUFFING PART 2)

A Chicken Mayo Sambo, a left-over roast classic.                                                                                                              Mans

My last blog featured a chestnut  stuffing that was crammed into the cavity of a roast ‘chook’. That night, not all the chicken was chomped, but I can’t say the same for the stuffing. For the whole of the following morning I had chicken mayo sambos on the brain. Without doubt, that was going to be my lunch: chunks of remaining chicken, stripped from the carcass, squashed between bread, oozing with thick, creamy, homemade mayonnaise and a few garden greens to boot. What more can a city dweller want in the lunch department? Never chuck the carcass away, keep it along with the remaining chicken for a soup. Watch this space...

That's the wrist action I'm talking about.                                             Mans

On the day, the mayo recipe went something like this.

Yip, nice and thick                         Mans

WOT YOU NEED

The yolk of an egg

Peanut oil, about 60ml (any neutral tasting oil will do)

A ½ tsp of English mustard

A generous squeeze of lemon (without the pips)

Salt

Very rapid wrist action

WOT TO DO

Separate the yolk of an egg and slip it into a round-bottomed mixing bowl (keep the white for tomorrow's brekki omelette). Add the mustard and a pinch of salt. Now for the fun and challenging part: slowly dribble in the oil, while frantically whisking until thick. Squeeze in the lemon to your taste (I like mine a bit tangy). 

A perfect lunch for we busy urbanites                                                                                                                                       Mans

CHESTNUT STUFFING

It all looks a bit 'Christmessy' to me                                                                                                                                           Mans

A friend and I were running, (actually more like walking) through the forest. I was keeping half an eye out for the first mushrooms of the season, when we stumbled upon a bunch of chestnuts littered about the forest floor forming an uncomfortable carpet. There they were, some poking through slits of browning green spikes, some still were firmly trapped in their prickly pods... and then there were those just lying about waiting to be collected and cradled in a makeshift shirt pouch that exposed the spreading bellies of forest walkers, rather than forest runners.

Pick me if you dare                                           Mans

I thought that a chestnut blog would be apt, so as usual I leaned on ‘The Mighty Mans’ to come and take a few pics. So off we merrily trotted armed with a camera, a pair of tongs and a large collection basket to go and schnab a heap of the little brown nuggets. But, oh dear me, virtually all the hundreds of spiky pods were empty. Clearly, this hunter-gathering thing is fiercely competitive, but I guess it has always been that way. On the way back to the car we did schpickel (spy) a couple of mushrooms (Bay Boletus). We arrived back home with two mushrooms and a scattering of chestnuts rolling around rather forlornly in our big basket. These slender pickings would be just right for a stuffing. What a delicious stuffing it turned out to be.

WOT YOU NEED FOR THIS ONCE OFF CHESTNUT STUFFING

A disappointing amount of chestnuts

Two lucky mushrooms

A gifted Karroo quince

A boring slice of bread

An onion

Some bacon

A large sprig of garden thyme

A generous knob of butter

Salt and pepper

WOT TO DO

With a sharp pointy knife punch a cross in each chestnut and boil them for about 10 minutes. Remove their annoying shells and in doing so probably cause a minor injury to a fingernail or two. Chop all the above ingredients up and toss into a large bowl. Season with salt and pepper and give it a good mix. Now stuff the mix into the cavity of the chicken. Pop into the oven and roast as you would normally would. Chomp and enjoy.

Lets face it, everyone can do with a jolly good stuffing from time to time                                                                     Mans