Nothing reconciles with the sad times of late autumn, like the smell of roasting chestnuts. This fragrance spills the streets of most French, Spanish and Italian cities. He caresses the smell of tourists and residents of my city - Lviv. Although only horse chestnuts grow in Galicia , their edible subspecies grow in abundance in nearby Transcarpathia. We have these delicious nucleoli baked in large drums on mobile trays similar to trains. And in Turkey, for example, in open braziers. They are also baked in special pans. Can I make roasted chestnuts at home ? The recipe with a photo is given below.
The way they are cooked is very simple. But first, make sure you have edible chestnuts in front of you. If you collect them in November, then their green shell is more like a hedgehog, and several nucleoli are hidden in this box. And when you buy them, make sure that their shape is a bit like an onion and has a straight line. Edible roasted chestnuts have a sweet taste, while horse chestnuts have a bitter taste.
These delicious nucleoli can be boiled, baked, fried. But no matter what you do with them, you must first violate the integrity of their brown glossy shell. Since during the heat treatment the juice inside the kernel turns into steam, and the nut can explode in the most unexpected way, flying out of the pan. And you can cook roasted chestnuts in an ordinary frying pan (but not Teflon). No fat is needed.
So, we cut each fruit crosswise to pierce the peel. We fill the entire bottom of the pan with chestnuts. It is advisable to lay them with incisions up, but this is not important. We level it with a single layer. We cover with napkins abundantly dampened with water. We put on medium heat. We cover for safety with a lid, since some roasted chestnut will certainly explode. From time to time mix the nucleoli. We also make sure that the wipes remain wet - we spray them with water as needed. If this is not done, the nucleoli will be too hard. These nuts are roasted for about twenty minutes. Their peel will be charred by that time, the visible nucleoli will brown, and the smell in the apartment will go amazing.
There is roasted chestnut, you can both solo and include it in other dishes. The sweet taste of nucleoli makes it possible to prepare desserts from them, but they are also good in sauces and as a filling for meat - turkey, chicken, rabbit, pork. And like street street food, chestnuts are only good when hot. When cooling, they lose their aroma, become dry and tasteless.
And in the end, about how to use roasted chestnuts. Cut pork meat into portions, marinate in wine, garlic, spices. Fry the pulp with onion, add broth and marinade at the end. Simmer until cooked for about an hour. Add the zest of orange, two handfuls of roasted peeled chestnuts and five pieces of figs. Hold under the lid for another 15 minutes. You can make a delicious sauce for boiled cauliflower or brussels sprouts. Peeled kernels are mashed with a blender, diluted with cream, kept in a frying pan for a bit and pour the dish with this dressing.