Hi, I’m Tom Papoutsis. Today we’re in my kitchen and we’re going to make a chestnut filling. Primarily for a holiday bird, for a Holiday Turkey; and today we’re going to be showing you step by step how to bring all these ingredients together; from how to peel the chestnuts, how to actually peel them, prepare and get them ready to go; to sautéing everything and bringing it all together, mixing everything up and coming up with this wonderful filling.
The ingredients we’re using today; we have chestnuts, turkey, chopped celery, chopped onion, raisins, butter, and cinnamon, and tomato paste, and of course rice. Before we get started just to give you a little background on myself, I have been a Firehouse Chef for better than fifteen years, I was actually a 2004 finalist in the Tabasco Cooking Ladder Competition, which is a National Competition for fire fighters for Firehouse chefs; and actually ended up in the top ten in the nation. This recipe in itself is a family recipe that my family has passed down from generation to generation and this is a wonderful filling for your holiday turkey.
So let’s get started and we’re going to go to step one which is going to be preparing the chestnuts or peeling the chestnuts and getting them ready.