Paul's [recipe] Corner

This is from Episode Five of the Food Trail where I cooked at Villa Gusto: http://www.villagusto.com.au

This is in fact the first episode we shot and there for the first time we had cooked for the series. At that stage we thought that the chef and I would just cook one dish each using different produce. Well thats what we did for this show (as well as putting on a pretty damn good cheese platter) but as we started shooting other episodes the produce was just so good I wanted to cook it all and so I did. After this episode I cooked three dishes each other episode!!

Olive oil
Knob of butter
120g of Speck or Pancetta – Diced
1 brown onion – chopped
2 cloves of garlic – finely chopped
1 chilli – finely sliced
5 cups of chicken stock
500g cleaned mushrooms- chopped
500g of roasted chestnut meat - chopped
5 Fresh sage leaves

If using chestnuts in the shell then take about 750g – 800g and cut a cross in the bottom of each shell – this helps the steam escape as they roast in the oven (or over a fire) and also makes them easier to peel. Put them on an oven tray and place in a hot oven for about 20 – 30 minutes. Keep an eye on them if they over cook they become tough and inedible. Take them out of the oven and wrap them in a clean tee towel for about 15 minutes and then peel. You should get about 5oog of meat. If you use raw peeled chestnut they need to be boiled for about 45 minutes first.

Put olive oil and butter into a large pot and heat to combine then add the Speck, onion, garlic and chilli and allow to sweet down for 5 minutes or so. Add sage leaves and chopped mushrooms and cook them down for about 10 minutes stirring occasionally. Add chicken stock and simmer for a further 10 – 15 minutes before adding the chopped roasted chestnuts and simmering for another ten minutes. Turn off the heat.

Blend the soup in a blender or use one of those hand held blenders until you have a nice chunky and thick consistency. Return to the heat and bring to a simmer then taste for seasoning adding salt and pepper as necessary.

Serve in a bowl with a dollop of Millawa Sage Mustard in the middle for garnish and an extra taste sensation.

Note: Speck is a smoked, salt cured, air dried ham that hails from the Austro –Italian Border. Pancetta is bacon cured from belly of pork. It is often found rolled (like large salami) salt cured and air dried.