Wednesday: Braised carrots and chestnuts

Carrots and chestnuts braised with fennel seeds, served on wild rice.

Another nice use of chestnuts: pairing them with carrots was another way to emphasize their natural sweetness. The gentle anise flavor of fennel seeds was a surprisingly subtle complement. Overall we actually found this dish more complex than would be implied by the simplicity of its ingredients.

We basically followed this recipe, though we again roasted the chestnuts instead of boiling them, and we omitted the thyme (though it probably would have been nice if we'd had some).