beXnlog

Bestnuts

On December 23rd we headed into Manhattan with be's mom, sister, cousins and crew to see the Rockefeller Center tree. A strangely warm night with mobs of tourists reaped a small bag of roasted chestnuts from a street vendor, a warm, tasty sweet treat that be kindly shared with everyone.

The street vendor chestnuts awakended the deep inner cravings within the majority of us. The following night, be and his mom roasted about 1.5 lbs of chestnuts purchased from 2 supermarkets - i was in charge of the cleaning and the cutting - but the experience left us in utter disappointment. Not only were the chestnuts overcooked to the point of hard rockness, some of the chestnuts seemed powdery and moldy under the shells! I cried a little, inside of course.

As you know, be and i are quite stubborn people. I did a lot of research and attempt #2 rewarded us with 25 steaming hot, soft and easy-to-peel roasted bestnuts of goodness! They were so amazingly delicious but i could only eat 10 before giving up!

Now, about that mold issue (from Empire Chestnut):

At harvest time, chestnuts have a bland, starchy flavor and a crisp, carrot-like texture (they are about 50% water). As they dry, in a process called "curing", they become softer and some of the starch converts to sugar. At about 30% moisture, they are sweet, soft, and at the best stage to eat. Unfortunately, such cured chestnuts are very susceptible to mold, and should be promptly consumed. Fresh chestnuts should always be refrigerated in order to delay molding. Chestnuts will keep longer in the crispy, high-moisture condition than if they are stored in a cured condition.

Considering that most supermarkets offer chestnuts out in the open, no wonder mold develops! When we asked for chestnuts at our local Whole Foods, they retrieved them from the back and the nuts were kept very cold; good thing they know what's up. The chestnuts they had were also very large and blemish-free, deep brown and fresh looking.

I cleaned each chestnut with a damp towel and cut a long slash into the flat side with my small serrated knife. Many people suggest cutting an X into the rounded side, but having done both methods, the long slash on the flat side made it easier to peel. Next, i put them on a baking sheet into a 400 degree oven for 20 minutes, checking after 15 minutes by sticking a few chestnuts with a fork. At this point i also stirred them around a bit. At 20 minutes they were soft enough so i took them out to cool slightly. It's so rewarding when the shell peels off in 2 nice pieces to reveal a whole nut. Some of ours peeled perfectly but a few sticklers appeared in the bunch. They were all creamy sweet delicious, thankfully.

Check out this beautiful picture of Marrons! Chauds, chauds les mar-r-rons! With our second pound, we're going to roast them using our charcoal grill!

posted by beXn @ 4:11 PM