I can still remember it to this day.  It was a beautiful can, brown, blue, green and and gold curlicues with elegant French script.  In fact, it was too beautiful to be called a can; Boîte de Conserve would be a more honorable description.  “Créme de Marron” was written on the label.  I knew it held some wonderful secrets that were begging to be freed.  I knew that something wonderful would come out of that can.  Mom had taken the bus all the way to Georgetown just so she could buy the special can.

On New Year’s Eve she finally opened the beautiful Boîte.  Magic was happening in our little kitchen in Washington DC.  As I watched the snow falling on the black asphalt from our apartment window, I knew that my mother was concocting the most wonderful dessert in the world.  Even its name held the magic: Mont Blanc. It would be a special night with one of her amazing meals.

I can’t remember the main course or the little canapés, and I don’t remember the guests.  I just remember being called back from watching a TV Christmas special, sitting down at my little table (children did not eat with the adults), and looking at the concoction.

The lights were set low, and the candles were burning everywhere.  Still, in this romantic light, I could see the dessert set on my table.  It was whipped cream and this light grey stuff on a meringue.  “It’s a very wonderful French dessert, Cherie, everyone in France loves it.  Taste it, Nadine”, she whispered in my ear.

Nervously, I picked up my spoon.  After all, that cream stuff was grey.  I hesitate, quickly dunked the spoon in the cream, popped it in my mouth and swallowed.  I gagged.  It was the nastiest thing, next to oatmeal, that I had every eaten.  In fact, oatmeal and this blob had 2 features that were identical, they were both grey and they both had a nasty texture when swallowing.  This stuff was like swallowing cream with tiny hairs or sand particles. And the taste – bad, bad, bad.

“I hate it”, I cried out to my mom.  The look she sent back was scary. I was a traitor to fine cuisine, an oaf, not deserving her attention.  All the adult were swooning over the Mont Blanc. “Eat it”, she hissed back.  Slowly I made my way through the white whipped cream and meringue, leaving the grey amorphous matter on my plate.  “Eat it all”, she said with madness in her eyes.

Now when your mother is French with red hair, thus displaying an evil temper, and has worked all day on dinner and dessert, you learn not to tempt the fates by refusing a direct command.  So slowly I made my way thru the grey blob, gulping and choking while tears ran down my cheeks.  As she saw the blob disappear, my mother began to smile.  “There, wasn’t that better”, she said.  “No”, I replied, “It was awful.  I want TV”.  And thus I sealed my fate and was banished to my bedroom for the remainder of the evening.

Still to this day, I shudder about that meal, and will not try a spoonful of chestnut purée.  However in any other form, I love the nut.  Whether it be roasted, in marrons glacées or in meals.  This is now the season of fallen leaves, smoke leaving the chimneys, and chestnuts.  So before I part with you, I would like to leave a traditional French recipe of chestnuts and red cabbage. This is one of my favorite fall meals, and except for the peeling of the chestnuts, relatively simple and rich in taste.  Remember to keep your chestnuts in the fridge, otherwise they get wormy.

Chestnuts and Red Cabbage

INGREDIENTS

Medium size head of red cabbage, thinly sliced and rough chop

One onion, thinly sliced

1 lb of chestnuts

¼ cup water

Olive oil

Salt and pepper

DIRECTIONS

Slice the skin of the chestnut with a sharp knife.  This keeps the chestnut from exploding.

Place the chestnuts in a pot of boiling water for approximately 10 minutes.

Drain the water, cool down the chestnuts and peel the nut from the skin using your knife.

In a good pot with a lid or Dutch oven, pour enough olive oil to cover the bottom of the pan.

Sautee the onions, then add red cabbage, chestnuts and water. Stir and place lid on the pot.  In 10 minutes, reduce heat and let steam for 40 minutes. Salt and pepper to tast

Serve with a prime rib or roast.  A good red wine would top off this meal.