You’ve had pimento cheese on a cracker, now you can have pimento cheese in your cracker.  In my on-going quest to eat as much pimento cheese as possible, I arrive at these little gems.  They are a hybrid of two Southern party classics – pimento cheese, the pate of the South, and the classic cheese straw.  Crumbly and cheesy, with the tang of pimentos and the crunch of pecans, these are the perfect nibble with tall glass of ice tea (or short glass of bourbon).  They are wonderful packed up in your heirloom Tupperware for a weekend at the lake or displayed on your heirloom silver for shower or a cocktail party.  They are a marvelous standby, as you can keep the rolls in the freezer for emergencies and they make a lovely gift, wrapped up with a ribbon.

And yes, to answer the obvious question, I would serve pimento cheese crisps and pimento cheese sandwiches at the same time.

Pimento Cheese Crisps

1 (4-ounce) jar diced pimentos

8 ounces sharp cheddar

½ cup (1 stick) cold butter

1 ½ cups flour

1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce

½ teaspoon garlic powder

½ teaspoon smoked paprika

½ teaspoon sweet paprika

Dash of cayenne pepper

A generous pinch of salt

A few grinds black pepper

½ cup chopped pecans

Rinse and drain the pimentos and place them on paper towels.  Pat them dry and then leave them for 10 – 15 minutes to air dry.

Grate the cheese and the cold butter together in a food processor.  Switch from the grating blade to the metal blade, then add the flour, Worcestershire sauce, garlic powder, paprika, cayenne salt and pepper.  Process until the dough just begins to come together and looks moist and grainy.  Add the pecans and process until the dough begins to pull away from the sides and form a ball.  Add the pimentos and pulse a few times until the dough is a ball.

Dump the dough onto a piece of waxed paper, scrapping out all the pimento pieces.  Knead the dough a few times just to incorporate and distribute the pimento pieces.  Cut two more lengths of waxed paper, divide the dough into two portions and place each portion on one waxed paper length.  Form each onto a log and roll tightly, pressing in to form a nice solid log.  Twist the ends like a candy wrapper.  Refrigerate the logs for at least an hour before baking, but you can refrigerate them for two days or freeze them for 3 months.

When ready to bake, preheat the oven to 350° and line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.  Remove the rolls from the fridge and slice into medium-thick wafers, about 1/4 inch each.  Place on the baking sheet with a little room to spread and bake until golden around the edges and firm on the top, about 10 – 12 minutes.  Cool on the pans for a few minutes, then remove to wire racks to cool.

Makes about 3 dozen

Simple, delicious spring vegetables really just need the simplest of bright accompaniments, and this dip really hits the bill.  It is tangy with lemon and perfectly creamy and even has a sunshine-y yellow hue.

I love this at room temperature as a dip for lightly steamed asparagus spears or artichoke leaves.  Put it can also be spooned over as a sauce.  And its uses go far beyond that.  Spoon it over grilled chicken or steamed fish.  I love the use of meyer lemons with their sweet-tart flavor.  This sauce, with the citrus and the wine, is puckeringly tangy.  If you use regular lemons, reduce the amount of juice by a couple of Tablespoons.

Meyer Lemon Chiffon Dip for Spring Vegetables

1 large shallot, diced

1 clove garlic, diced

Leaves from 2 rosemary stems

½ cup freshly squeezed meyer lemon juice

1 cup white wine

1/3 cup heavy cream

6 Tablespoons butter

Place the shallot, garlic and rosemary leaves in a saucepan and add the lemon juice and wine.  Give to a good stir, then bring to the boil over medium-high heat.  Boil gently until the liquid is reduced to ½ cup.  Stir in the heavy cream and cook until the liquid is reduced a bit more and the sauce is thickened.

Place a fine mesh strainer over a bowl or measuring jug and pour the sauce through, pressing on the solids to extract as much liquid as possible.  Wipe out the pan and return the sauce to it.  Place over low heat and whisk in the butter ½ Tablespoon at a time, letting each piece melt before adding more.

Transfer to a small bowl and let it come to room temperature.  You can serve this hot as a sauce.

Makes about ½ cup dip

Soufflé. It’s the word that strikes terror into aspiring cooks. Actually, it can strike terror into the most experienced cook. The idea of any dish that must be treated with such care and delicacy, that a loud noise or simple sneeze might ruin all your hard work. Something thought so difficult that even the tiniest of misteps can turn it into soup or a leaden, burned brick. We’ve seen the TV episodes of the Fifities housewife desperate to impress the in-laws reduced to tears by a fallen soufflé. Soufflé the dread, soufflé the feared! Like the greatest sinners among us, we fear becoming The Fallen.

I have been instructed by experienced chefs, I have experimented in my own kitchen, and yes, I have had a fallen soufflés. But practice makes perfect, and mistakes sometimes take you where you meant to go. I worked on a soufflé recipe for months, making notes, crossing things out, writing in the margins, spilling milk on the ink and somehow I got here. I may not of reinvented the wheel, but I sure made it simple. This is the soufflé for the culinarily challenged. I won’t say it is foolproof; it does take a little patience. But from the first time I accidently stumbled upon the formula to the many times I have made it since, I have never had a dud. My nieces and I used to create “restaurants” at my house. We’d design a menu, plan the cooking, make the signs, take the orders (from indulgent parents and grandparents) and cook and serve the meal. On the first menu of our first restaurant, we offered this Cheese Soufflé, and it was a best seller. So trust me, you can do it.

Cheese soufflé makes an elegant first course, a lovely light luncheon with a salad, or a sophisticated breakfast or brunch treat. Jazz these up with herbs added in, or the addition of a surprise at the bottom of the dish. I always argue for using the best ingredients possible, but in a simple dish like this it is really important that they shine. Farm fresh eggs, quality butter and really good cheese. I use a natural white cheddar.

Cheese Soufflé

It is important that the eggs are at room temperature, and that the cheese mixture has cooled before folding in the egg whites to get the puffy soufflé effect.

5 Tablespoons butter

1/2 cup flour

1 1/2 cups whole milk

2 teaspoons Dijon mustard

8 ounces sharp cheddar cheese

¼ teaspoon nutmeg

¼ teaspoon salt

4 eggs, separated, room temperature

Preheat the oven to 400.  Have a sheet pan ready. Butter and flour 6 ramekins, about seven ounces each.

Melt the butter in a saucepan over medium heat, then whisk in the flour until it starts to bubble and turns white, about 3 minutes. Take off the heat and gradually whisk in the milk. Return to heat and whisk until bubbling and thick. Switch to a spatula or sturdy wooden spoon and add the mustard, cheese, nutmeg and salt. Pull off the heat and add the egg yolks. Stir vigorously until everything is smooth and fully incorporated. Cool.

In an electric mixer, whisk the egg whites to stiff peaks. Stir a large dollop of the egg whites into the cheese mixture to loosen it up, then gently fold in the rest of the whites.

Divide the mixture evenly among the ramekins.  Place a baking sheet in the oven to heat for about 5 minutes. Carefully place the ramekins on the heated baking sheet and bake until puffed and golden, about 15 minutes.

Serve immediately. These will deflate as they cool – deflate, not fall or collapse. They are still lovely, light and airy.

You can chill the pre-baked ramekins for up to 4 hours in you prefer. When ready to serve, cook as directed above, though they may take a minute longer.

Serves 6

*For a little flair, spoon an extra into the ramekins such as crumbled blue cheese, chunky salsa or chutney.

As Mardi Gras time comes around, I start to get a good craving for some Louisiana cooking.  And what is more Louisiana than crawdads?  This creamy crawfish spread is perfect for a Mardi Gras party, or any time you need a little Creole kick.  I like to serve this as an appetizer or on the buffet with some thick rounds of baguette, but it ain’t bad over pasta!

Mardi Crawfish Spread

Look for frozen crawfish tails in the frozen seafood section.

2 Tablespoons olive oil

½ cup finely chopped celery (about 3 stalks)

½ cup finely chopped green bell pepper (about 1 small pepper)

½ cup finely chopped white onion (about ½ a medium onion)

1 pound peeled, cooked crawfish tail meat (thawed if frozen, rinsed and drained)

2 teaspoons Creole seasoning

1 Tablespoon tomato paste

3 teaspoon Creole mustard

1 (8-ounce) package cream cheese

In a medium sauté pan, heat the oil and cook the celery, pepper and onion until soft and translucent.  Add the crawfish meat (if it is in large pieces, chop into bite-sized bits first) and 1/3 cup water.  Bring to a boil and cook until the water has completely evaporated.  Sprinkle on the Creole seasoning and cook one more minute, stirring.  Add the tomato paste and mustard and stir to coat.  Cut the cream cheese into cubes and add to the crawfish bit by bit, stirring until all the cream cheese is melted.

You can transfer the dip to a serving dish and serve immediately, or cool it and refrigerate, covered, overnight.  Stir in a couple of Tablespoons of milk to loosen the dip and gently reheat in the oven, stirring occasionally.  Serve with French bread rounds or sturdy crackers.

Serves 8 – 10, but can be easily doubled

Making homemade crackers is one of the little culinary secrets I love so much.  It never occurs to most people that making your own is something that can or would be done.  But it is easy to do and pretty impressive when you serve homemade crackers.  It took me awhile to get where I wanted to go with making my own crackers.  I read and sampled a lot of recipes.  Some were too complicated, some just weren’t good, most were fine, but plain.  I fiddled around until I had a base recipe that worked with a lot of different flavor additions – herbs and spices and cheese.  But this version literally hit me like a lightning bolt.  I was serving myself a bowl of soup one night, and doling out some (store-bought) plain crackers and I suddenly thought – bacon crackers.  Could it be possible?  I went to work immediately, and here is where I landed.

These crispy, salty little gems are the perfect sidecar for a bowl of soup, particularly with Pimento Cheese Soup.  That being said, they also take pimento cheese spread to a whole new level.  These are excellent on a cheese platter, with a creamy brie, a salty goat or a tangy blue.  Or smeared with a little butter.  Frankly, they are good all on their own.

If you have a fancy-edged pastry roller this is a great place to use it.  Personally, I like the rough and rustic look.  Not all my crackers are even or perfect, but if I actually make my own crackers, I want them to look homemade!  The crackers do need to be roughly the same size on the same baking sheet for even cooking.

Bacon Crackers

4 strips of bacon, cooked very crispy

1 ¾ cups unbleached all-purpose flour

1 ½ teaspoons baking powder

¼ teaspoon kosher salt, plus more for sprinkling

1 Tablespoon solidified bacon fat

5 tablespoons cold butter, cut into small cubes

1/2 to 2/3 cup very cold water

1 Tablespoon butter, melted

Preheat the oven to 350°. Line 2 rimmed baking sheets with a silicone liner or parchment paper.

Pat the cooled bacon with paper towels to remove as much grease as possible.  Break the bacon into pieces into the bowl of a food processor fitted with the steel blade.  Pulse several times to chop the bacon very finely.  Scrape the bacon out of the bowl and set aside.  Do not worry of there is some bacon residue left on the sides of the bowl.

Place the flour, baking soda, salt and one Tablespoon of the chopped bacon in the food processor and pulse a few times to combine.  Add the bacon grease and the butter pieces.  Pulse several times until the mixture looks like sand, with a few larger lumps throughout.  Turn on the food processor and drizzle in the ice cold water until the dough starts to come together.  Check the dough by pinching a bit between your fingers.  If it sticks together, you’re done.  You may use slightly less water, but you may need a touch more.  Add another tablespoon of chopped bacon bits and pulse a few times to mix through the dough. You may not use all the bacon.

Lightly flour a work surface.  Divide the cracker dough in half and place one half on the work surface.  Knead a little to bring the dough together and pat it into a nice square.  Using a floured rolling pin, roll the dough until it is as thin as a dime, trying your best to keep it in an even rectangle.  Trim off the rough edges and set aside*.  Cut the dough into crackers, about 1 inch by 1 inch.  I find a pizza wheel a very handy tool for this. You can cut them into smaller crackers if you prefer, but you’ll adjust the cooking time.  Carefully transfer the crackers to the prepared baking sheets. The crackers puff up rather than out, so you can place them close together.  Prick the top of the crackers with a fork, then very lightly brush the tops with melted butter and lightly sprinkle with salt. Repeat with the second half of the dough.  Bake the crackers, one sheet at a time, in the middle of the oven for 12 – 15 minutes until lightly puffed, golden brown and firm. Cool on the baking sheets.

The crackers will keep in a completely airtight container for several days.  I find a flat, sturdy container works best as a zippered bag doesn’t protect the crackers from breakage very well.

* I like to gather all the scraps and knead them together, then roll them out as sort of a third batch.  They may be not as pretty as the rest, but taste just as good.

Makes about 3 dozen

When October rolls around, I start thinking about beer.  Because I start thinking about Oktoberfest.  I’ve never been to Germany, so I’ve never been to a real Oktoberfest celebration, which I understand generally happen at the end of September anyway.  But the idea of Oktoberfest just presents so many options for cooking with, and drinking, good beer. It’s impossible to pass up.

So here is my contribution to the festivities this year.  A nice little beer- based starter.  Tangy with camembert cheese and beer and studded with crispy bacon, these would make a great starter to a meal of German Meatballs, or Belgian Beef and Beer Stew with a selection of nice, crisp beer.  There are so many amazing imported and locally made beers out there now, it’s a great chance to have a little tasting party to familiarize yourself with the latest options.  In the name of research, of course.  So, the name of this recipe is a little silly, but any celebration focused on beer is bound to get silly at some point…

Bacon CamemBeer Bites

Use a good beer you like to drink, but not a dark or amber.  The color would be muddy and the taste overwhelming.

½ pound bacon

7 ounce round of camembert cheese

1 cup pale or golden ale or lager

4 Tablespoons butter

¼ teaspoon ground mustard

¼ teaspoon smoked paprika

Dash of cayenne pepper

1 cup all-purpose flour

4 eggs, room temperature

1 teaspoon Dijon mustard

1 teaspoon salt

Cook the bacon until crispy and drain on paper towels.  Finely dice the bacon and set aside. Cut the rind off the camembert as best you can, cut it into small pieces and leave it to come to roomtemperature.

Pour the beer into a high-sided saucepan, add the ground mustard, smoked paprika and cayenne.  Drop in the butter, cut into pieces. Bring the beer and the butter to a boil over medium heat, stirring until the butter melts.  When the beer is boiling, dump the flour in all at once and stir vigorously with a sturdy spatula or wooden spoon until the dough comes together in a ball.  Remove from the heat and continue stirring until the mixture is smooth.  Add the eggs one at a time, stirring vigorously after each addition until the mixture is smooth.  Drop in the camembert pieces and continue stirring until it is melted into the dough.  Stir in the bacon, mustard and salt.

Refrigerate the dough for 20 minutes while you preheat the oven to 350° degrees and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.  Take the dough from the fridge and using a 2 Tablespoon scoop or spoons, drop mounds of dough onto the prepared sheets,  about ½ inch apart.  Bake for 15 – 17 minutes until puffed and golden. They puff up quickly, wait until they are firm and golden brown on top to take out them out.  They willdeflate a bit, no worries.  Serve immediately.

Makes 18

Every community, particularly in the South, has those handful of classic community cookbooks that everyone seems to own, or haveaccess to, or just know about.  They are the reference points for the community table. Compiled by church auxiliaries, symphony leagues, historic societies, these treasure troves bind a community through the most essential love we all share. Food.   When you are at a party, or have friends over and someone prepares a great dish, how often is the answer to the recipe request, “oh, it’s in…”  In Memphis, the end of that sentence is frequently, “Heart and Soul” one of the most popular of the local Junior League’s cookbook offerings.  There are recipes included in Heart and Soul that people know by heart now, that are as much a part of the Memphis lexicon as an Elvis song.  But there a few that get overlooked.  This is one of those recipes.

I never really noticed this delicious appetizer recipe in the book, but awhile back, a friend served it at book club.  We were all much impressed.  She offhandedly remarked “oh, it’s just from “Heart and Soul.”  It took me awhile, but I pulled out the book and made the recipe myself, and it is so good, it is worth sharing.  These tender little golden bites are so surprising.  Rich with chicken and a real depth from the seasonings.  These make a nice change from your standard appetizer fare.

I have made a few adjustments to the recipe to streamline the prep, and I serve them now with a blue cheese dip, which complements the chicken and pecans so well. I do recommend celery salt, but if you don’t have it on hand, try your favorite seasoned salt or a little plain salt.  And these do freeze beautifully, so you can always have some on hand.

Chicken Pecan Bites with Blue Cheese Dip

For the Chicken Bites:

1 cooked boneless, skinless chicken breast

1 cup chicken broth

½ cup butter

1 cup all-purpose flour

4 eggs, at room temperature

½ cup chopped pecans

3 Tablespoons chopped fresh parsley

2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce

1 teaspoon poultry seasoning

1.2 teaspoon celery salt

For the Dip:

4 ounces crumbled blue cheese

8 ounces plain Greek yogurt

2 Tablespoons mayonnaise

1 -2 Tablespoons milk or buttermilk

Generous grindings of black pepper

For the Chicken Bites:

Melt the butter in the chicken broth in a medium saucepan over medium heat.  Dump in the flour all at once and stir vigorously with a sturdy wooden spoon.  The mixture will roll away from the sides of the pan and come together in a ball.  Keep stirring until the mixture is relatively smooth.  Remove from the heat and leave to cool slightly.

Meanwhile, finely chop the cooked chicken breast.  You want small pieces.

When the flour mixture has cooled, add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition until smooth and completely combined.  Stir in the chicken, pecans, parsley, Worcestershire, poultry seasoning and celery salt and stir until well combined.

Line a rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper.  Scoop the chicken bites onto the pan.  I use a 2 Tablespoon cookie scoop for a nice hearty bite, which makes about 2 dozen.  Feel free to scoop smaller bites if you’d prefer.

You can preheat to oven to 400 degrees and cook the bites immediately for 20- 30 minutes until firm and golden, or freeze the tray of unbaked bites for a few hours until firm, then remove to a zip-top freezer bag.  Bake from frozen, but you may need to increase the cooking time accordingly. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Makes 24, more if you choose to make them smaller

For the Dip:

Place the blue cheese, yogurt, and mayonnaise in a blender and blend until smooth.  Add a little milk to thin it out to a dipping consistency as needed.  Season generously with black pepper.  Pour the dip in a bowl, cover and refrigerate until ready to use.

The dip can be made up to 2 days ahead.  You may want to thin it with a little milk before serving.

Makes 1 ¼ cup

Adapted from Heart and Soul: Stirring Recipes from Memphis

If you are like me, you open magazines and cookbooks and admire the beautiful photography. The casually laid tables bursting with delicious dishes, the beautiful vessels holding each delicacy, simplicity and refinement, but with the decadence of good food. And you think – I can do that. I can casually invite a few friends round, act like it’s no big deal, then present an amazing tableau of culinary largesse, and the perfect champagne in fabulous Danish glasses, or an impressive cocktail with rare herbal infusions. I can just throw together a selection of charcuterie and artisanal cheeses, add a few exotic fruits or homemade pickles, artfully fold it all on an old piece of reclaimed plywood and boy, won’t my friends be impressed.

But the reality is driving to delis all over town to find interesting cured meats and cheeses, realizing the most exotic fruit you can find is purple grapes, and running out of time to pickle your own vegetables. And the wood board you ask for at Chrsitmas – just for this purpose – is really only big enough for a sliver of salami and a finger of cheese. The champagne was too expensive, and the herbal infusions just another time suck. Thankfully, for good measure, you made “simple” bruschetta from a two page instructional guide in a fancy magazine. But the toppings just got all over the floor and your $40 a bottle extra virgin, cold-pressed, first-of-the-season, mail order olive oil has just dribbled on and ruined your best friends new silk top.

That is why I love this dish. It’s another recipe that has my favorite characteristic: easy to make while appearing complex. No, it is not slapping some cold cuts on a lumber off cut, it does take a little work, but the results are impressive. Simple, but elegant. This is the kind of dish that makes it look like you really know what you are doing in the kitchen. Like you actually are the kind of person who could just throw together a magazine-spread worthy gathering at a moment’s notice. And really, as long as people believe it, then it must be true…

Baked Ricotta and Goat Cheese with Candied Tomatoes

Don’t skip draining the ricotta or your baked dish will be watery.

For the baked cheese:

15 ounces whole milk ricotta cheese

4 ounce log goat cheese

1 egg

2 Tablespoons fresh marjoram leaves, or a leafy herb of your choice

Generous grindings of black pepper

Generous sprinkling of kosher salt

For the candied tomatoes:

1 Tablespoon olive oil

12 ounces cherry tomatoes

¼ cup vermouth

¼ cup light brown sugar

3 sprigs marjoram or leafy herb of your choice

Sea salt

For the baked cheese:

Place the ricotta in a colander lined with cheese cloth and leave to drain for about 30 minutes, pressing down to help extract liquid.

Preheat the oven 375 degrees. Brush the inside of a 2 cup baking dish with olive oil.

In the small bowl of a stand mixer, beat the ricotta, goat cheese and egg until smooth. Beat in the herbs (chopped if the leaves are large), a generous amount of pepper and salt. Taste your goat cheese first, saltier cheeses require less additional salt.

Spoon the cheese mixture into the prepared baking dish and bake for 40 minutes, or until puffed in the center and browning.

Let the cheese cool slightly, then invert it out onto a plate.

For the tomatoes:

While the cheese is baking, heat the olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat, then drop in the tomatoes. Cook, stirring frequently, until the skins on the tomatoes start to split. Pull the pan off the flame, add the vermouth and return to the heat. Add the brown sugar and herbs and stir until the sugar is melted. Add a generous pinch of salt. Lower the heat and cook gently until the liquid is reduced to a syrupy coating for the tomatoes. The tomatoes will collapse and some may disintegrate. That’s fine.

When ready to serve, spoon the candied tomatoes over the warm baked cheese and serve with sliced baguette or crostini.

The baked cheese can be prepared a few hours in advance and then baked before serving. It is best served warm, but not necessarily right out of the oven. The tomatoes can be prepared ahead too and gently reheated before serving.

Serves 8 – 10

I love these little puffs.  They are tender and cheesy with a nice bite from the green chiles and couldn’t be easier to make.  They are a great nibble to start a family taco night but are also elegant enough for the swankiest party. 

Green Chile Cheese Puffs

I love the extra little hit of smoked paprika on top, but use sweet paprika if that’s what you have.

½ pound sharp cheddar cheese

1 cup all-purpose flour

½ teaspoon salt

½ cup (1 stick) butter, softened

2 (4-ounce) cans diced green chiles, well-drained

Paprika or smoked paprika for sprinkling

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicone mat.

Grate the cheese with the grating disc of a food processor.  You should end up with 2 cups.  Switch to the metal blade and add the flour, salt and butter.  Pulse several times until the butter is cut into the flour.  Add the green chiles and process until the dough comes together in a ball.

Roll pieces of the dough into balls about the size of a golf ball and place on the baking sheet, about an inch apart.  These will spread when cooking, so leave some room. Sprinkle a little paprika over the tops of the puffs.  Bake for 10 – 15 minutes, until the puffs are firm and golden brown.

Serve warm or at room temperature.

Makes about 2 dozen puffs

Chestnuts roasting on an open fire. I guess Nat King Cole and Bing Crosby have made chestnuts part of the holiday season for ever. I never really knew what that line was all about until my first holiday season in London, where vendors sell roasting chestnuts from special carts on the main shopping streets, and the fragrance they produce really does make the air smell like Christmas. We don’t do that here, so it was a new experience for me.  In fact, it has only been in the last few years that chestnuts started to appear in stores here.  For me, the chestnut frenzy starts when I first see the jars of roasted and peeled chestnuts on the shelf.  I start going on a spree, stocking up just in case I can’t find them again.  I always use chestnuts in my Thanksgiving stuffing, but I inevitably buy too many jars, so I’ve become pretty creative at using them up, like my Crispy Chestnut Veal.

But here I have interpreted the sweet, silky flavor of chestnuts into a creamy, lovely soup perfect for the holidays.  It can be a nice, warming hearty dish with some good country bread and a winter salad, but also makes a most elegant starter for a seated holiday dinner.  And if you are of a mind, it would be brilliant served in shot glasses passed around at a swanky cocktail party.

I always buy chestnuts ready-roasted in jars or vacuum-sealed bags, but if you like to buy whole chestnuts and roast and peel them yourself, by all means, go ahead.

Roasted Chestnut Bisque

Marjoram is an amazing complement to chestnuts, but if you can’t find it, substitute thyme.  Don’t skip the marjoram oil, as it really adds the perfect finishing touch.  You could sprinkle some chestnut pieces or small toasted croutons on the bisque as well.

For the Bisque:

1 medium-sized yellow onion

2 carrots

3 celery stalks

1 medium-sized leek

¼ cup olive oil

6 Tablespoon cognac or brandy

4 cups chicken stock

2 (7.4 ounce) jars roasted and peeled chestnuts

6 – 7 sprigs marjoram

1 ½ cups heavy cream

Salt and pepper to taste

Marjoram Oil (see below)

Dice the onion, carrot, celery and leek.  I do this in the food processor pulse just until everything is chopped.  In a large Dutch oven, sauté the vegetables in ¼ cup olive oil over medium-high heat until soft and tender, and the onion and leeks are translucent.  Add the cognac and stir, scraping up and bits from the bottom of the pan, and cook until the cognac is evaporated.  Add the stock, the chestnuts and the marjoram sprigs (count how many so you can take them out later).  Bring to a boil, lower the heat, cover and simmer the soup for 45 minutes.  Leave the soup to cool until it’s safe to put in the blender. Meanwhile, prepare the marjoram oil (see below).

Fish out the marjoram stems, then transfer the soup to a blender in batches and puree until smooth.  After blending each batch, pour the soup through a wire mesh strainer set over a large bowl and push the soup through with a wooden spoon or spatula.  There won’t be much in the way of solids left behind, but straining the soup creates the velvety texture that makes this bisque so elegant. (For an even velvetier texture, you could push the soup through the strainer a second time).  When you have strained all the soup, wipe out the Dutch oven and return the soup to the pot.  At this point, you can cover the soup and refrigerate it for up to two days before completing it.

When ready to serve the soup, heat it gently over medium heat, stirring occasionally, but do not let it boil.  Slowly stir in the cream, incorporating it fully into the soup, then warm through.  Serve immediately drizzled with marjoram oil.

Makes 4 large bowls or 6 small

For the Marjoram Oil:

6 Tablespoons olive oil

4 sprigs marjoram

Heat the olive oil in a small saucepan just until bubbles appear on the surface and the oil is shimmering.  Remove from the heat and leave to cool for two minutes, then drop in the marjoram sprigs, cover the pan and leave to cool.  Strain the cooled oil into a jar or small spouted measuring cup for drizzling on the soup. The oil can be kept in an airtight jar for up to a week.

This post is part of Share Our Strength’s Share Our Holiday Table a virtual, progressive fundraising dinner designed to raise awareness of child hunger in the U.S. during the critical holiday season.  As you enjoy the bounty of the table this season, please think of those who are not so fortunate and donate to Share Our Strength.  And visit the Share Our Holiday Table site to see all the amazing bloggers who are participating and check out their great recipes.