Recipe: Fennel and chestnut soup

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pE1hV4dSBmc]

Well contrary to popular belief we do have winters in Sydney. It's been bitter this week, and today it turned wet and miserable as well. On top of which, Kate is now going back to work which means we're getting to the end of our period as a single income family, so we've been feeling a mite short of cash. So we made this leftovers soup, which was dirt cheap.

Fennel in Australia is a weed, as it is round the Mediterranean. Last week I did a reporting trip to the mines in the Hunter Valley, and the smell that sticks in the memory is not coal dust but fennel. Every time I stopped the car to get a photo of an open cut mine, it was growing in canes all along the roadside, well above head height. It's in season now and you can get a bulb the size of a grapefruit for a dollar; not something you'd put in a salad, but great for cooking.

Chestnuts are also in season and pretty cheap, but wow are they a pain to prepare. We cut crosses in the flat side of the nuts and put them in cold water, which we brought to the boil for a minute and then took them out to peel when they were cool. The shells come off easily but the tricky bit is the papery skin on the nuts, which gets under your fingernails and can be hell to separate from the mealy flesh.

Anyway, the recipe.

Take some pancetta or bacon. We probably had about 125 grams of pancetta, maybe a bit more - it needed finishing up. Fry it up in some olive oil till it's soft and the fat has gone translucent. Then put in one big bulb of fennel, the size of a grapefruit - maybe two smaller ones - two sticks of celery, and three cloves of garlic. The fennel and celery can be roughly chopped, the garlic finely. Chuck in a teaspoon of fennel seeds too - you could crush them but I didn't bother. Sweat the whole lot on a low heat for a good long time - this could be a good moment to peel the chestnuts. You want them sweating for at least 15 minutes.

Once this mirepoix is smelling fantastic and softening nicely, throw in your chestnuts - we had probably 40-50 chestnuts, I didn't check the weight. Add stock (we had some yummy home-made chicken stock and topped it up with water), plus a sprig of thyme and a couple of bay leaves. Leave to simmer for a while - again, at least 15 minutes. I didn't check. Some cookery book writer I'd make.

Once it's all smelling irresistible take out the herbs and blend it up, add some cream, check the seasoning and serve. We had a little bit of leftover single cream and a little bit of leftover sour cream, so I stirred the single cream through it and put a dollop of sour cream in the top. Althea had given us some red wine-infused salt that we scattered artfully across the top, but we then ate it so fast that the only photo I have is of a second helping looking a bit messy and grey. So I might not bother to post it.

Edited to add video at the top. Kate and I still have bits of chestnut membrane under our fingernails. This looks like a good way to prevent the pain.