Food

Chestnuts: tricks to cook and keep them

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Written by EFW Staff

Chestnuts, virtues and benefits

Chestnuts, not only are delicious, but also a cure-all fall food, for this reason eating them in this period can bring important benefits. There are different reasons to crunch chestnuts, first of all they can maintain your regularity and monitor your cholesterol.

Chestnuts are rich in vitamins and minerals, useful to get better after seasonal sickness. Their richness in fibbers helps the bowel regularity, whereas their high calorie count turn them in real super food, suitable as snacks for athletes or to give energy in case of tiredness.

Being also gluten free, they are perfect for who suffer from celiac disease, finding in them high nutritional properties and a source of sugar and vitamins. From chestnuts you can obtain a delicious flour, ideal to substitute the glutinous flours in cakes or as thickener.

new york times building, architekt renzo piano, lichtplanung ovi

new york times building, architekt renzo piano, lichtplanung ovi

How to cook chestnuts

There are different ways to cook chestnuts, it depends on the recipe that you want to cook or if you prefer eat them purely. Here you are four ways to cook chestnuts.

Roasted chestnuts

It is the most famous way, that make the chestnuts tasty and crunchy. It is sufficient to cut the rounded side of the chestnut with a knife, creating an incision of at least two centimetres and cooking them in the proper pierced pan over an open fire, better if there is a fireplace. The fire, and the slight burn over the chestnuts intensify its taste. Before eating them it is necessary to put them in a dishtowel to make them cool down. In this way you can peel them easily.

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Roasted chestnuts in an oven

If you don’t have a pierced pan or a fireplace, another way to cook chestnuts is the oven. After having cut their peel, put them in a baking pan and bake to 200°. Do not forgive to move them around every few minutes for a better roasting. Bake them between 15 and 25 minutes, it depends on the size of the chestnuts. Once baked, put them in a little bag and wait until they will be warm.

Boiled Chestnuts

It is the perfect way to cook chestnuts if you want to use them in cakes, creams or sauces. You can boil them with the peel, cutting it with a wide incision, or peeling them uncooked, boiling them with the pellicle, that will be easy to remove once cooked. In the former case, it will take 20-30 minutes, in the latter only 10 minutes.

Pierce them with a fork to see if they are cooked and once turned the fire off, keep them in the hot water, it will be easier to peel them and it will maintain them warm. They are ready to be used smashed to realize the famous cake Mont Blanc, but also as starting point for “panna cotta” or “semifreddo”, and as a cream with chocolate drops, or as stuffing for cakes.

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Microwaving chestnuts

Have you ever thought to cook them in a microwave? It is a good way to save a lot of time. Just few advise to cook chestnuts in a microwave in five minutes. Cut them in the curved side and put them in a dish, paying attention to not pile them up on each other, cook them for five minutes to the maximum power (750-800 watt, no more); once cooked put them in a dishtowel, before starting peeling them.

Tricks for soft chestnuts, easy to eat

If you cook the chestnuts in the microwave these tricks are really important, but useful also for the other cooking methods as well:

  • before cooking, put the chestnuts in warm water for 15 minutes, the peel will be softened and it will swelled up. In this way it will be easier to remove peel and pellicle, moreover the pulp will be softer.
  • Pay attention to cut only the peel, avoiding the pulp, in this way cooking it the peel will be removed naturally, making it easier to peel them.

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EFW Staff