Waiting for Winter
Simple recipes with seasonal ingredients: chestnuts, sweet potatoes, apples, quinces
Smells detonate softly in our memory like poignant land mines, hidden under the weedy mass of years and experiences.
Diane Ackerman
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As the season moves into winter, the sweet air of autumn turns crisp, flushes the cheeks, and makes the eyes weep.
The arrival of the roast chestnut man on Rizzoli Street near the big square reminds me that here we are. The most beautiful season is about to begin.
I celebrate the return of chestnuts, roasted and boiled, the crate of apples I bring home from Romagna, and white sweet potatoes. And of quinces kindly offered by the tree that lives in the orchard at my country home.
I have waited for that fresh, clean air that brings some of the things I love most into my kitchen.
Reading Notes
The journey through the history of pasta returns from mid-January.
Upcoming newsletter dates:
Friday, December 1st, Via Emilia - Christmas Edition
Sunday, December 10th, Waiting for the snow
Saturday, December 16th, My perfect day
Thursday, December 28th, The year to come
Wednesday, January 3rd, 2024, The sweets of the Epiphany
Events
You can find me at the Bologna Fair at Il Mondo Creativo on Nov. 25, busy telling and cooking the Certosino, also known as Bologna's Christmas Pan Speziale.
If the story and recipe interest you, click HERE.
My Winter Sweets
Let's do a memory exercise.
Do you remember the taste of a sweet that accompanied your family's winter evenings?
For me, it is easy to answer: baked apples and sweet potatoes, boiled chestnuts.
And to recall that memory, I don't have to make any effort. It is always at hand in my memory drawer where I keep the best ones, which, fortunately, are many.
When I think back today to the after-dinners of long ago, they all seem equally long and loving.
Winter was longer, or so it seemed to me, and it was more severe than now.
It began in mid-autumn when the air turned from golden to blue.
Cold colors were taking the place of warm ones, and with them came the first fog.
I would stick my nose to the glass of the living room windows where everything was dark and silent, and the only thing I could perceive was silence, the one coming from outside.
Then the cold and ice replaced the nasty mist dampness that always knew how to make its way through the loops of scarf tight around the neck.
At home, next to the home cellar, there was a room with a fireplace, and Grandma used it as a second kitchen. Sometimes, we would stay there roasting chestnuts and laughs, even if the winter evenings I loved the most were the ciambella nights.
Grandma used to close the kitchen door and then put the cake into the oven.
We would have eaten it for the next day's breakfast. Then she turned on the TV and turned off the light.
That was our time, suspended between laughter and tears. It depended on the show.
I saw all the old Hollywood movies sat in that kitchen with nonna.
We loved the cheerful, lighthearted comedies with Dean Martin, Jerry Lewis, and Frank Sinatra and the romantic ones with Cary Grant or David Niven. And we admired the elegance and grace of Ingrid Bergman, Audrey Hepburn, Grace Kelly, and Marylin Monroe's charm.
Those evenings illuminated by the yellow light of the oven were an intimate and precious time.
Lights are low, and noises absent. No one enters or leaves our cocoon.
From the oven comes the scent of cake that mingles with what came out of the same window in the afternoon. Sometimes, it is the caressing scent of a pan of baked apples with cinnamon, the way I like them, or the slightly vanilla fragrance of white sweet potatoes or, again, the fresh aroma of the bay leaves that kept company to the chestnuts as they boiled.
Each evening sweet involves different operations.
If they are baked apples, Grandma arranges them in two different little dessert dishes, then adds a few spoonfuls of the cooking sauce, amber and spicy, while I take teaspoons from the drawer. We eat baked American sweet potatoes and boiled chestnuts while watching the movie, unlike we enjoy the apple sitting at the kitchen table with the light on during TV advertising.
Usually, chestnuts boil in water and bay leaves in the afternoon.
Grandma and I like them at room temperature, cut in half. We eat the pulp with a teaspoon that comfortably sinks and then comes out with a delicious little bite.
Sweet potatoes, baked during dinner, are kept warm inside a dish towel so they are still mild when we eat them cut into slices, flouring our hands.
The sweets of the winter evenings of my memories taste of the countryside, simple flavors, and unpretentious luverie (a term from Romagna for delicacies).
The Recipes.
Boiled chestnuts with bay leaves
Ingredients
chestnuts, as many as you like: from a handful to 1 kg
water, enough to cover them
2 or more bay leaves
Method
Make a horizontal incision in the belly of the chestnuts with a sharp knife, plunge them into water with bay leaf, bring to a boil, and calculate about 30-40 minutes of cooking (test with a toothpick).
Turn off, drain, rinse.
Cut in half with a knife and enjoy with a teaspoon.
Baked white sweet potatoes
1 or 2 white sweet potatoes
Method
Bake in a preheated oven from 45 to 60 minutes at 180C degrees (356F) or until a toothpick should be able to deep in.
Wrap them in a clean dish towel to keep them warm. Or let cool, peel, slice, and eat.
Once cooked, you can freeze the pulp for later use.
Baked apples
Buy an apple variety suitable for baking.
Choose a baking pan and calculate how many whole apples can fit in.
Ingredients
20 g toasted and ground almonds
20 g raisins softened in hot water and dried
20 g chopped amaretti cookies, or other dry cookie
a pinch of cinnamon powder
a pinch of cloves powder
a pinch of salt
10 g honey
filtered juice of 1/2 lemon
4-6 apples
100 ml water + 10 g Marsala wine
Method
Preheat the oven to 180C degrees (356F).
Take a cup and mix in the filling ingredients following the order from almonds to honey. Add a tablespoon of lemon juice to the filling before stuffing the apples.
Squeeze and strain the juice of half a lemon into a cup.
Using a knife, remove the stem from the apples and set aside.
Use a small knife to remove the core and seeds without piercing the bottom of the apple.
Pour a tablespoon of lemon juice into the hole, and turn over to remove excess liquid (pour it into the cup, and remember to to mix 1 tablespoon with the filling).
Insert some of the filling with the help of a teaspoon or your fingers, apply gentle pressure, and close the apple with the stem as if it were a lid.
Use a toothpick to pierce the skin of each apple in two different places.
Arrange the apples in an oven dish and pour the water mixed with Marsala on the bottom.
Bake in the oven for 30 minutes or until the apples are soft but not undone.
Strain the cooking liquid and reduce over low heat for a few minutes.
Serve the warm apples with their sauce, ice cream, or custard.
If you prefer, you can replace the raisins with dried figs (soft them in warm water, dry with paper towels, and cut into small pieces).
Store in the refrigerator for up to two days.
You can use the pulp to make tarts and cakes.
Baked quince
Quinces are the fruit of the quince tree.
Depending on the variety grown, they are either elongated in shape reminiscent of pears or rounded and similar to apples.
I have always thought they are an autumn fruit that gracefully and patiently accompanies us into winter.
Set quinces aside in the fruit bowl (never in the refrigerator).
They keep for a long time and release a light scent of flowers and honey that will pleasantly fill your kitchen.
In the past, because of their fragrance, they were used to scent rooms, from kitchens to bedrooms, and even drawers and closets in old country homes. As they slowly ripen, the aroma becomes more intense as the scented substances accumulate in the peel. It is an excellent reason to use even that part of the fruit.
The skin is smooth and pleasant to the touch. When you observe a light fluff on the skin, it means the fruit is still young. That is fine. In fact, these fruits ripen after being picked. At the time of use, wash the fruit under running water and then wipe it with a dry cloth.
If you use a potato peeler, you will find that peeling them is easy.
The flavor has nuances of apple, pear and citrus but it can't be eaten raw.
Quinces contain lots of pectin and lend themselves to being mixed with other fruits to become jam.
I usually bake a couple of them in the oven with a glass of marsala wine and a drizzle of maple syrup or honey.
They work well with yogurt, ice cream, and whipped cream.
Also, pair it with savory dishes such as a cheese board or a roast.
If I've enticed you, buy some fruit and let it gently accompany you into winter.
Baked quince
Water, 750 ml
Sugar, 40 g
4 pieces of star anise
2 cinnamon sticks
4 or 5 cloves
filtered juice of 1 lemon
2 large quinces
maple syrup, 50 g
Marsala fine wine, 10 g
You can substitute Marsala with sweet wine, white or red wine.
You can cut a quince in half and bake it like an apple, but I prefer to poach it first so that the flesh becomes melting and opalescent.
Method
Bring water, sugar, spices to a boil.
Meanwhile, squeeze and strain the juice of one lemon into a bowl.
Wash and peel the quinces with a peeler without discarding the skin.
Be careful, and cut the fruit in half with a heavy knife.
Without delay, bathe the fruit in lemon juice.
Place the quinces and their skin in the boiling water pot. And add in a generous tablespoon of lemon juice.
Cook over medium-low heat and medium stove for 20 minutes, mumbling them slowly.
Check with a knife and make sure the flesh is soft enough. If more time is needed, do what the quince asks for.
Toward the end of cooking, preheat the oven to 180C degrees (356F).
Remove the fruit from the still-warm liquid. Strain the cooking liquid and mix 200ml with the marsala wine.
Place the quinces in an oven tray and pour the liquid part.
Add the maple syrup and the spices you used to cook the fruit.
Bake for 30 minutes or until soft.
Serve the quinces warm with whatever you like.
Store the leftover juice in a covered cup in the refrigerator for 3-4 days.
Add it to the batter of a cake or drink as fresh juice.
Reading Notes
That is that time of year when Nigel Slater's The Christmas Chronicles glides across my work table. Nigel Slater is one of the food writers I love best, and only he could write an article about quince that seems like a short story.
is a recipe developer, consultant and pastry chef based in London.As I was writing my newsletter, I received Kitchen Projects #119 dedicated to Everything Quince. I loved it!
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My 3 apples trees gifted my with 500 pounds of imperfect fruit. I have doing my best to preserve and use some it fresh. Several takes on pies, slices canned, apple butter, apple sauce( a big hit with the 16 month old great grandson). Do you have any fresh apple suggestions? I have about 40 pounds left. GG nipote licks the apple butter off his toast. Forget the toast.