Do you MARRON CREAM?

Finding a bottle with a Zabar's price sticker in the pantry I wondered what to do with Favol’s Marron Crème [sweetened chestnut paste], a 13 oz. jar, made in France, the label states 52 calories per tablespoon. So Google was searched but all I could find was “Marron Cream”???

A whole new revelation about popular culture was unveiled to me. Remember the young girl’s trendy fad of “Strawberry Shortcake?” Or if that’s too old for you, then remember the later “Hello Kitty” icon? Who knew that "Marron Cream" is “A bright and cheerful girl with good fashion sense. She is good at handicrafts and can make delicious sweets,” and who lives in Paris?? The iconic figure is available on just about every product a young lady could wish for, and more. Was I surprised, looking for recipes and finding a new character icon for commercial girly products.

What I did find for Marron Crème were suggestions to swirl it into cheesecake, pour it over ice cream or layer it over pound cake. None of the above will we be doing since our desserts consist mostly of fresh fruits, a little-bitty cookie or a cup of hot tea. Warm chestnuts out of the shell are wonderful but a lot of work. I did find a vacuum-sealed bag of glazed chestnuts at A Southern Season but they were too soft and mealy.

What I did learn is chestnuts are very popular in Chinese and Japanese cooking, using both sweetened and unsweetened pastes, ground into flour or chopped into various recipes. France favors chestnuts also, especially glazed or confectioner’s chestnuts but apparently the chestnut craze has not yet reached the western hemisphere. The French taste for chestnuts dates back to Napoleonic times when the Corsican-born Emperor imported chestnut trees to Paris to satisfy his sweet tooth. Under his command chestnut trees were planted in parks, widely used for landscaping and even line the Champs de Elysee. The French attention to the flavorful nut continues long after Napoleon’s demise.

TODAY’S NOTE: MEATBALLS, or loaf or whatever you want to make.

Today my freezer has twelve packets of four meatballs each (48), one small loaf and the remaining 4 meatballs will be in our dinner tonight. Friday afternoon was spent making my semi-annual batch of mixed-meat mixture and roasting the golf-sized-balls to pre-cook the meat before freezing. Here’s how I did it:

Meats are a combination of:
1 lb. ground pork, 90% lean
1.25 lb. ground beef, 85% lean
1.3 lb. ground turkey
12 oz. (1 bag) Boca Burger® Crumbles

Chop two yellow onions and begin to sauté in a skillet. After which I removed the onions and added the beef to crumble and brown.
In a large bowl the vegetable mix of leftover napa cabbage, celery, carrots, fennel and leeks that had first been pulsed in the food processor. To this crumbled mix I added one cup of oatmeal, the cooked onions, generous amounts of thyme, black pepper, basil, rosemary, some Adobo seasoning, oregano, something in a bottle labeled “Italian Seasonings” and several dashings of Worcestershire sauce. Basically I pulled any seasoning off the shelf that I thought would add flavor, mixed the vegetables together and added the crumbled beef and Boca crumbles. Four egg yolks (extracted from the souffle recipe that I made later that day) and two whole eggs, slightly beaten together were poured over the mixture.

Now place the baking sheets in a convenient spot near your mixture and set the oven to 375° F. Also put on a good pair of rubber gloves because it gets messy from here. Unpack and crumble by hand the raw turkey and pork and with all of this in the bowl get into squeezing, meshing and mashing by hand to mix everything until totally and thoroughly blended into a paste-y and sticky mess.

Using a serving spoon I extracted somewhat less than a full spoonful and began to roll than in my dampened, gloved hands until a firm ball was shaped and placed it on the baking sheet. Just hope the phone does not ring during this process.

Wait – did I tell you the baking sheets have a Silicon Liner – available at kitchen ware shops this baking liner eliminates greasing the pan and prevents sticking to your clean and shiney baking sheets. Found mine about three years ago, then purchased a second one and would not give them up under threat of death. They are every bakers dream come true.

Back to the meatballs: Fill up sheet one, bake for 15 minutes, then turn each meatball over and roast another 10-15 minutes. As the first pan bakes, begin the second sheet pan; I had three and a half pans in total, before filling a small backing dish with about 1 cup of meat for a loaf. Keeping track of the time was easy on my handy kitchen timer. As they begin to brown pull out of the oven and set aside to cool slightly before placing them on a tray lined with paper toweling to absorb excess fat.

Let cool to room temperature.

Select four equal-sized meatballs and wrap in freezer-plastic-wrap and bag inside freezer-baggies. These baggies get chilled in the fridge for about four hours before going to the freezer.

In the months ahead we will continue to consume meat but less of it – two meatballs per person equates to about two ounces or about half of what a protein meal-portion would be. To round out the meal I add a batch of steamed vegetables or a big salad bowl and the smaller meat portion fits our diet needs.    Whoa… That job is done! bb