Paupiettes in Autumn

I haven't bored you with a recipe in a while, so I do it again. This time it's for chestnut stuffed paupiettes with mashed pumpkin and potatoes on the side.



I asked my butcher to cut me some thin slices of beef and Toño brought me some roasted chestnuts he got from a street vendor. The slices of beef we smeared with mustard, added a slice of ham, thinly sliced leek and onions, topped it with rough crumbs of chestnut, and seasoned with salt and pepper. Seas Everything was rolled to nice paupiettes.

The paupiettes were briefly fried and then removed, the remains in the pan were used to make the sauce with flour, white wine, beef stock, thyme and rosemary. When the sauce was boiling, the paupiettes and the remaining stuffing was added again and braised for 50 minutes.

For the mashed potatoes, we replaced a third of the mass by pumpkins, which we processed together with the potatoes.

You Know It's Autumn (#5)

... when you go for the Bambi Burger.



... which reminds me of a song.

You Know It's Autumn (#4)

...when you try to make some grape jam.



Last year's attempt was quite a disaster. I tried to learn from the experience by getting rid of the pips early in the process.

I tried two different approaches. The first was recommended by Kaag's mother. She boils the grapes to break them and then passes them through a sieve.



This worked just fine. However, I also went for a bit more sophisticated method by using a Steam Juice Extractor. Here the grapes are first put into a sieve.



The sieve is then into the extractor, which is placed onto the stove.



The steam juicer consist of two compartment. In the bottom one, you have to put some water in order to get the steam. The fruit come into the top part of the container. Then the fruit juice will drip into the centre pan where it will be extracted through a tube.

You Know It's Autumn (#3)

... when you can't resist the urge to make some pear bread.



Three bottles of fine wine and half a bottle of rum went into them.

You Know It's Autumn (#2)

...when you send your spouse to bring in the hot harvest.

You Know It's Autumn (#1)

... when you ordered your first Vermicelles this year.



Vermicelles (little worms) are made of sweet chestnuts. They are a speciality of southern Switzerland, however, in autumn, you get them all over the place. I prefer them on served on meringues and with whipped cream.

I still remember, when I enjoyed them for the first time. At the end of Swiss children book classic Schellenursli, the family is eating sweet chestnuts. I had no idea how that tasted and I urged my mother to get me the experience.