This recipe was created by chef Traci Des Jardins of San Francisco's Jardinière. It's part of a special menu she created for Epicurious's Wine.Dine.Donate program.
Ingredients
Makes 10 servings
For chestnut and sherry soup:
For truffle garnish:
Roast chestnuts:
Step 1
Preheat oven to 350°F.
Step 2
Using chestnut knife or sharp paring knife, make large X on flat side of each chestnut through shell but not meat. Soak chestnuts in bowl of warm water to cover by 2 inches for 15 minutes, then drain well. Arrange chestnuts in 1 layer in shallow baking pan, then roast in middle of oven until shells curl away at X mark, about 15 minutes. Wearing protective gloves, peel away shells from chestnuts while still hot. In large pot boiling water, blanch chestnuts 2 minutes, then drain. Using kitchen towel, rub chestnuts to remove skins. Coarsely chop and reserve.
Make soup:
Step 3
In large stock pot over moderately high heat, heat butter until melted. Add garlic, shallots, leeks, and celery and sauté until very soft, about 8 minutes. Add thyme, bay leaf, and chestnuts. Cook, stirring occasionally until chestnuts are golden brown and aromatic, about 10 minutes. Add white wine and bring to boil, then reduce until no liquid remains, 15 to 18 minutes. Add 3/4 cup sherry and bring to boil, then reduce until almost no liquid remains, about 10 minutes. Add stock and bring to boil. Reduce heat to moderately low and continue cooking until chestnuts fall apart very easily, about 1 1/2 hours (If chestnuts are not completely cooked, the finished soup will be gritty.) Remove from heat and remove thyme and bay leaf. Stir in remaining 1/2 cup sherry and honey. Working in batches, transfer to blender and blend until smooth. Strain through fine-mesh strainer into clean pot. Stir in salt and pepper and keep warm.
Make truffle garnish:
Step 4
In heavy 2-quart pot over moderately high heat, bring truffle juice to boil, then lower heat and reduce by 1/4, about 5 minutes. Add butter and sherry and continue cooking until butter is melted, about 30 seconds. Remove from heat and whisk until frothy, about 2 minutes. (Alternatively, use hand blender to froth.) Stir in chives, salt, and pepper.
To serve:
Step 5
Divide soup evenly among 10 shallow soup bowls. Place 1 tablespoon truffle garnish in center of each bowl. Serve immediately.
How would you rate Chestnut and Sherry Soup with Truffle Garnish?
Leave a Review
Reviews (15)
Back to TopAgree with others that this is a labor intensive soup and pricey to make but really yummy. Last year I made it for my holiday dinner party. One of my neighbors offered to help clean up and just happened to take the left overs to their house to finish. I agree that jarred chestnuts are fine; same with trader joe's that are packaged like prunes.
AllisonBe
Silicon Valley, CA
11/24/2013
I view all recipes as merely starting points / general guides but a few points cannot be missed here. 1) make sure you boil everything off between steps 2) keep stirring 3) immersion blender uber alles! 4) jarred chestnuts are just fine
ghenjei
NYC
11/29/2011
The sherry and chestnut is a genius combination. I'm planning to serve this as a starter on Thanksgiving.
Anonymous
Chicago, IL
10/26/2011
我希望我读过审查通过vmascitti贝尔ow before I made this. I agree that the flavor was slightly too oniony. I also used white truffle oil instead of the garnish. (after coming up empty handed at four very well stocked gourmet shops and an Italian store where nobody speaks English, I could not find truffle juice). The one big mistake I made was not straining. Dinner was behind schedule and I just needed to get things moving so I used an emersion blender. (shameful but true). The flavor was very rich, decadent even. I think the sherry and wine and truffle overpowered the chestnuts so I will have to play with it next time. Overall, this is with a try, and probably a couple of tries to get it right.
Achilz
NY NY
12/30/2010
听到我用williams - sonoma栗子——一个伟大的time-saver. Upon completion we felt it a little too 'oniony' tasting (probably because the shallots I used were quite large) and needed a little something. We added 2/3 cup of heavy cream about 1/4 tsp of cayenne pepper and simmered for another 40 minutes to reduce it. I did not make the truffle garnish but did drizzle with a little white truffle oil when serving. Fabulous. The straining is an important step; don't skip it.
vmascitti
Elm Grove, WI
12/26/2010
Very time consuming, a lot of work, but well worth it. This is my go-to soup for special winter dinners. Making it this Thanksgiving!
AubreyY
NJ
11/22/2010
I have made this recipe at least a dozen times. I usually exclude the white truffle garnish; as a college student, I find most of the people I'm cooking for aren't discerning enough to notice its absence. The chestnut prep has caused me a great deal of trouble, and I even went so far as to purchase a ridiculously expensive chestnut shelling tool (totally useless). I very highly recommend the already prepped chestnuts from Trader Joe's. They're something like $5 a box and you need several boxes, but chestnuts aren't all that cheap anyway, particularly when they're out of season.
anniestoner
Los Altos, CA
11/21/2010
This is a delicious recipe! Under pressure, I was unable to find my recipe for chestnut and fois gras soup so I knew epicurious was the place to check for a suitable replacement. This recipe did not let me down! I used peeled chestnuts due to time, but her technique for peeling chestnuts is spot on. It is important to follow the directions...ie. you want to take the time to reduce both the white wine and sherry and cook the chestnuts long enough so the soup is not gritty.This recipe can be labor intensive, but well worth the effort. Thanks Traci!
dbolek
Sonoma, CA
12/27/2009
This was wayyyyy too much work for an okay soup. Too sweet. Handling the chestnuts is a nightmare, lots of the chestnuts were moldy and I bought them at a premium shop. It went over okay at my dinner party but I'd never make it again.
NCahill1
andover, ma
2/15/2009
I think this is one of the most decadent soups I've made. Nonetheless, the chestnut soup didn't add much to the truffle butter for me. I also think the truffle butter would be amazing with various types of meat as a kind of gravy, especially cooked with pan jus. If you're short on cash, add potatoes instead of chestnuts. Keep the truffles though - I can't imagine it's worthwhile otherwise.
scully607
Seattle
1/18/2009
this is very good, very rich. I forgot the shallots and replaced the chicken broth with veg broth. I also just used truffle oil mixed with butter and chives, which was great (although i bet the juice is even better). Roasting the chestnuts takes a long time. The recipe took almost 4 hours of continual work, but next time I will buy jarred chestnuts.
Anonymous
1/6/2009
The truffle garnish, while mostly butter, adds quite a bit to the soup; if you don't make it, yeah, you miss a fork. The soup itself is outstanding. Mine actually came out a bit thinner than I expected, but the flavor is exceptional, and unusual. There's a great deal of sherry flavor, but the chestnuts add a rich and special taste to it. We're lucky enough to live in a place where they still sell roasted chestnuts from stands, in the old European tradition, so we saved a lot of time on the roasting step, but I still think it would be worth it if you had to roast them yourself, and it would probably still be good if you used pre-cooked or canned chestnuts. We made this dish for New Year's Day, and everyone wanted to take the extra portions of soup home with them! My next search is for a chestnut creme soup; I had some at a local restaurant that inspired me to make this, and while this was OUTSTANDING, it still comes in behind the creme version.
TheresaLynn
Munich
1/3/2009
Interesting. Something everyone should try at least once. Mine came out a little thicker than I would have liked, but my guests... and baby loved it. I didn't do the truffle garnish.
jaimekm
12/28/2008
Absolutely delicious! The flavor was full & rich but not at all heavy. Definite hit with everyone. This is a keeper!!
jnorton243
NYC
11/28/2008
This was really easy to make. Last Thanksgiving it was a hit, and I think I plan on making it again. Using good quality, cooked chestnuts (not cheap) makes this recipe a whole lot easier and it's really worth it!
edava72
Astoria, NY
10/29/2008
