Like pumpkin spice and the comparison between pumpkin and squash, this will be my last lesson on chestnuts and I'm doing this because I've had lots of emails about them. I realize chestnuts aren't in Australia unless they are water chestnuts that come in a can and eaten in a Chinese dish.
These are totally different. So, here goes:
Straight out of the shell and dried a little bit on newspapers they are ready to roast
First, though, you have to cut into the pointed tip, a cross cut that doesn't cut the fruit, just the shell
It helps if the pan you are using has bottom openings. If you don't have one, punch holes in a pie tin. I 'borrowed' these four from daughter to roast in the oven for blog purposes.
This is the group on Santa night at the Showboat, getting ready to roast. It's a fun night for the kids, there are ice carvings, live reindeer, free hot dogs and cookies and hot chocolate and chestnuts, sleigh rides around town and of course, Santa.
And here they are, hard at work, notice the two pans roasting. It's cold, notice Elizabeth's clenched hands, but the line is forming and it's time.
I tell you, the smell of roasting chestnuts is irresistible. See how that slit helps to open them for peeling? It also helps them not to explode! I wish we had smell transmitted across the web, you'd all be hooked, I'm sure.
After they are roasted, peel off the outer shell. It comes off easy.
And here you have it. Hot chestnuts
So, if you are in the US or maybe Canada and happen upon a bag of them in the grocery produce aisle this time of year, give them a try.
How interesting. I've never tasted roasted chestnuts. We only have horse chestnuts around here and they are bitter. (I tried eating them when I was a child.) I looked it up and they are edible (toxic when raw) but you have to boil them as well as roast them and that sounds like a lot of work. When I went to North Carolina to see my daughter she insisted I try the boiled peanuts. They, too, tasted like a boiled potato.
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