Chestnut Cream: Just Do It... Yourself!

I admit spending a lot of time in front of my TV screen, but I actually don't watch that much the channels that are on, I'd rather watch a DVD or my VOD and replay services. But there are a few exceptions, and a channel like arte is part of those.
Some of last week's programm have been about food, and especially the industrialisation and globalisation of the food production. How we buy and eat today, and what the consequences are to our health.

One doc in particular was interesting to me: "Poudres et potions de l'industrie alimentaire". It showed how the food industry works to reduce production costs, and how the advertising of those products is more than questionable. To sum it up, there isn't much "natural" left in, even if they try and sell it to you this way. You can go and watch it online for a few more days, it is in french though.

Once again, it shows us the importance of being carefull of what we eat, of knowing from where our food comes from, and reading carefully what's on the package. If the list of ingredients is too long and/or if you don't get the ingredients that are listed, it can't be a good sign.

My favorit option: just do it myself. I had chestnut left, and kept wondering about that chestnut cream, so I thought I'd give it a try. I even bought one in the shop afterwards just to compare, not only am I not sure of all the ingredients, but I thought mine was better!

Chestnut Cream

500gr of cooked Chestnuts
200ml of Milk
400gr of Sugar
Water

In a big sauce pan, poor the milk and the cooked chestnuts. On a medium flame, let it heat up to soften the chestnut. When it's hot, take it off the flame and using a potato masher, make it into a purée.

I weighted the purée and had about 600gr left. So I used 400gr of sugar.

Again in a sauce pan, put in the sugar and cover it with water, on a high flame, bring it to the boil. It should not be a syrup, but it needs to be more consistent than just water.

At this point, add your purée and you'll need to stir for about 20 minutes. It doesn't look promising in the beginning, but it will combine, get darker and get to the right consistency, just keep stiring all the time.