How to cook fresh chestnuts. How to roast chestnuts at home

These nuts are one of the symbols of the Christmas table in Europe. They are stuffed with turkeys, they are served for dessert. Baked chestnuts are gaining popularity in Russia as well.

What chestnuts can you eat

Those chestnuts that grow under our windows and bloom with candles are horse ones. Their fruits are inedible. It is easy to distinguish them from the southern ones: in one box with thick thorns there is only one chestnut. And the southern ones are like hedgehogs, they have smaller and more densely spaced needles and there are several fruits in each box.

Southern, noble chestnuts are sweetish, and horse ones are bitter. Although they are not poisonous and even contain useful substances, they cannot be eaten.

Edible chestnuts grow in Europe and the Caucasus. They come to us mainly from Azerbaijan and Armenia.

How to roast chestnuts

First, the chestnuts should be peeled off the outer shells and the membranes removed.

To cook chestnuts, you must first cut them. Moreover, you can cut it crosswise, or you can just make cuts on the side. If you don't cut the shell, the chestnut will explode when cooked.

The cuts should be made not only for frying, but also if you are going to boil or bake nuts.

After the nuts have been cut, they need to be laid out in a frying pan, but not Teflon. Cover with napkins soaked in water to prevent the chestnuts from drying out during frying. Cover and fry for about 20-30 minutes. Stir the chestnuts a couple of times while frying. If the napkins are dry, moisten them.

If the shell breaks and is easily removed from the nut, then the chestnuts are ready.

What is made from chestnuts

Roasted chestnuts are one of the most popular winter treats in Europe. They are poured over with chocolate or other sweet sauces and served for dessert.

But not only desserts are made from these nuts. They also bake a bird and a rabbit with them. They are mashed for garnish, with the addition of vegetables or solo, soups are prepared ...

Boiled chestnuts with coffee sauce

500 g chestnuts

For the sauce:
2 yolks
3 tbsp icing sugar
100 ml strong black coffee
½ cup heavy cream
3 tbsp cognac

Step 1. Cut the chestnuts and boil in boiling water for about 5 minutes.
Step 2. Peel and cook for another 20 minutes.
Step 3. Separate the yolks from the whites. Beat the yolks, add cream and brandy. Beat again. Add coffee.
Step 4. Grind the sauce with powdered sugar, put in a water bath and cook, stirring occasionally, until thickened.
Step 5. Pour the sauce over the chestnuts and serve.

Chestnut puree soup

1 handful of peeled chestnuts
2 cups broth
1 tbsp flour
1 tbsp butter
½ cup cream
1 stalk of celery
Salt and pepper
Toast

Step 1. Pour the chestnuts and chopped celery with broth and simmer for half an hour, covered.
Step 2. Puree everything with a blender.
Step 3. Fry the flour in butter and add to the puree. Bring to a boil, season with salt and pepper.
Step 4. Add warm milk and bring to a boil again. Serve with croutons.

Pork with figs and chestnuts

500 g pork pulp
1 glass of white wine
1 glass of broth
2 tooth. garlic
1 onion
1/2 orange (zest)
2 handfuls of peeled chestnuts
4-5 pcs. figs

Step 1. Cut the pork into portions. Marinate in white wine, add chopped garlic, salt and pepper. Hold the night.
Step 2. Fry the meat with onions. Add marinade and broth. Simmer for about an hour.
Step 3. Remove the zest from the half of the orange, add to the meat, add the chestnuts and figs. Simmer for another 15 minutes.

Lamb with chestnuts

500 g lamb
300 g chestnuts
2 onions
4 tbsp ghee
1 tbsp flour
½ bunch of parsley
Salt

Step 1. Wash the chestnuts, cut and cook for about 40 minutes, covered.
Step 2. Drain, pour cold and leave. Then peel and knead.
Step 3. Cut the lamb into small pieces, put in a saucepan with a thick bottom, where you first need to heat the oil, and fry until a good crust.
Step 4. Add finely chopped onion. Fry a little, then add flour and add half a glass of water. Stir and cover. Simmer for 10 minutes.
Step 5. Add chestnuts, season with salt and pepper and remove from heat. Sprinkle with parsley before serving.

Surely many have heard that, in addition to the Eiffel Tower, numerous street vendors are the symbol of Paris.And indeed, right on the sidewalks there are miniature, and sometimes not very miniature braziers, on which this simple delicacy is prepared.

Having tried it, many tourists ask themselves the question: “How to roast chestnuts at home? And how feasible is it? " This can really be easily reproduced in your kitchen, having a gas or electric stove and a baking sheet or frying pan available.

at home?

Before proceeding to describe the process itself, let's talk about where to get the raw materials for it. The fact is that the fruits growing in almost all regions of our country, except for the very horse chestnut, are not suitable for food. Yes, they are very beautiful - lacquered brown rounds, but they taste very bitter.

To do this, you need to go to the market or supermarket and purchase a completely different variety - edible trees. They even look different from the horse - much smaller, darker in color and one side of them is necessarily flat. In a strictly scientific way, they are not even chestnuts, since the tree they grow on belongs to the beech family, but we will not go into botanical details now, since we need to eat them, not classify them.

How to roast chestnuts in a pan or baking sheet?

Before starting the actual preparation of the dish, the fruits must be immersed in water. In addition to the fact that this will wash off the dirt, you can also reject spoiled chestnuts - they will simply float up. They need to be thrown away, and the remaining ones should be dried and pricked with a fork or cut with a knife. If this is not done, then during the cooking process, the water with which the fruits are saturated will boil and tear the shell. That is, you get a series of miniature explosions - a kind of mini-cannonade in your kitchen, similar to the one that occurs when frying popcorn. But corn kernels are much finer than chestnuts, so it is best not to bring them to this state.

Another trick related to how to roast chestnuts at home is that the fruits laid on a baking sheet or pan must be covered with wet wipes. This will prevent them from drying out excessively during cooking and becoming hard. They will be fried for about half an hour, and during this time you will need to replace dried napkins with fresh ones a couple of times.

If you choose a frying pan as your dish, cover it with a lid, as despite the cuts some chestnuts can still explode and you will have to collect them all over the kitchen. It is not necessary to cover the baking sheet, as these "jumpers" will not be able to leave the oven.

The readiness of the fruit is determined simply - press the chestnut with your finger. If it's soft, then it's time to remove it from the fire. Now you know how to roast chestnuts at home and you can enjoy yourself and treat your loved ones with this dish, even without being in Paris. And also do not deny yourself the pleasure of tasting raw fruits - they are also very tasty.

Frying chestnuts in a pan is a classic way of preparing this dish. Later, culinary experts invented other methods of cooking.

Preparation:

Place the fruit in a bowl of cold water and let it sit for half an hour, then dry the chestnuts with paper towels and make a cruciform cut in the peel.
Transfer the fruits to a deep, thick-walled skillet and cover with oil, put on medium heat and fry under the lid for about half an hour, shaking the pan from time to time.
Put the finished chestnuts on paper napkins and cool slightly.
Peel the fruit by applying light pressure to the peel.

Peeled chestnuts should be eaten while still warm.

How to roast chestnuts in the microwave

This method is suitable for those who want to save time.

Ingredients:

chestnuts - 300 g;
corn oil - 50 g.

Preparation:

Soak the fruits in room temperature water for 15 minutes, pat dry with a towel and leave until the moisture has completely evaporated.
Then pierce with an awl in 3-4 places and put them in one layer in a deep microwave container. Cover the top with a damp cloth.
Turn the microwave on to maximum power, setting the cooking time to 5 minutes. Pause and stir the chestnuts every 1.5 minutes.
Pour oil into a bowl and set the time for another 10 minutes. Take out the container every 2 minutes and stir the fruits.

After roasting, transfer the chestnuts to a paper towel.

Cooking chestnuts in the oven

Ingredients:

chestnuts - 1 kg;
vegetable oil - for greasing the baking sheet.

Preparation:

Soak chestnuts for 10-15 minutes, then pat dry with napkins.
Preheat the oven to 200 ° and keep the temperature at this level.
Lightly cut the flat part of the fruit.
Grease a clean baking sheet with oil and place the chestnuts on it with a cut up in one row, leaving some free space, sprinkle with cold water.
Bake for about 20 minutes, moving the fruit from place to place every 1.5 minutes.
When the skin is soft, turn off the heat in the oven.
Cool the chestnuts slightly and peel them.

You need to peel the fruits in the first 10 minutes after turning off the oven.

Whichever cooking method you use, try not to overexpose the chestnuts. Otherwise, they will become very hard and tasteless.

The noble chestnut is a fruit tree. In Europe, its fruits are very popular. Harvest festivals are dedicated to them, they are sung in songs, and in France they are a national dish along with cheese and wine. In Greece, chestnuts ripen in autumn, and then a brisk trade begins on all streets and squares.

The best recipe for this dish is roasted chestnuts, grilled over an open fire.

They are eaten while still hot, washed down with young grape wine. They are not consumed raw, as they contain difficult-to-digest protein.

History reference

This dish has been known to mankind since the days of Ancient Rome, where it was served as a light snack for wine. An interesting legend is associated with it. According to her, the nymph Ney - Diana's friend, fleeing the love ardor of Jupiter, committed suicide. The almighty god could not save the nymph, but he managed to turn the girl into a tree with delicious fruits enclosed in a thorny shell.

Chestnuts are also associated with the Greek commander Alexander the Great. During his campaigns along the route of the troops, he ordered the planting of chestnut groves, hoping to use their fruits as food for his armies. And in the Ancient East, chestnut fruits were eaten long before the appearance of rice. The approximate age of this dish is over 6,000 years old.

It follows from this that chestnuts are an ancient dish, the recipes of which have survived to this day practically unchanged. They are all fried, boiled and baked as well, as they did long before our era.

How to cook chestnuts in a pan?

The horse chestnut growing in our latitudes is not edible, so if you have a desire to cook it, you will not be able to pick it on the street, you will have to go to the supermarket. This is a seasonal product, so it appears on our shelves only at the beginning of autumn and disappears by the end of winter.

When asked how to cook chestnuts at home, most would recommend roasting them. This can be done in a frying pan, on the grill rack, or in the oven. For frying in a frying pan, you need to take a special dish with holes. Although, what can I say? They also manage to cook on ordinary ones. In addition to the frying pan, you will also need a knife and napkins.

How to pan chestnuts

Ingredients:

Chestnuts.

Cooking method:

Before cooking the chestnuts, you need to cut them slightly, preferably crosswise. This is done so that they do not explode when exposed to steam.
We put them on a dry preheated frying pan, cover with napkins soaked in water, and on top with a lid. Cooking time 20 minutes.
In this case, the fruits need to be stirred periodically, as well as moistened dry napkins.
The chestnuts are done when the shell starts to crack and peels easily from the core. In food, this dish is consumed hot. Do not forget to add salt and season it with any vegetable oil.

How to cook boiled chestnuts at home

Ingredients:

Chestnuts.

Cooking method:

How to cook chestnuts in the microwave?

Ingredients:

Chestnuts.

Cooking method:

To safely cook the chestnuts in the microwave, make sure to cut each chestnut with a sharp knife. You can also pierce them with a fork. Then they are placed in a shallow dish, where hot water is added. You need to take a little water, only so that it covers the bottom of the dishes in a thin layer, but not the chestnuts themselves.
The fruits are salted on top, of course, if, after cooking, they will not be used in desserts. Then cover the dishes with cling film or a lid. Cooking time 6-8 minutes at full power.
After the microwave beep, try one thing for readiness. If necessary, steam for another 2-3 minutes. After the fruits are ready, they need to be cleaned and used for their intended purpose.
Since the kernels cooked in the microwave are steamed, it is recommended to additionally fry them. To do this, you can take an ordinary frying pan, which is greased with vegetable oil. The nucleoli are fried for 4-5 minutes.

Chestnut dessert recipe

Do you want to surprise and amaze loved ones or guests with an easy-to-prepare, but spectacular-looking dish? Try a burning chestnut dessert.

Ingredients:

700 g of fruit;
50 grams of butter;
30 grams of sugar;
100 ml of cognac.

Cooking method:

Boil the chestnuts until tender. There are several options for how to do this. You can cook the kernels, having previously peeled them. And you can first cook it, as described above, and then clean it warm.
Next, you need a refractory mold. Lubricate the sides and bottom with melted butter. Then put the nucleoli inside, mix with the rest of the oil. Sprinkle sugar on top. After that, the mold is placed in an oven preheated to 200 ° C. Cooking time 20-25 minutes.
Chestnut fruits are served hot. When serving, pour the dish with cognac and set it on fire.

There are several things you can do to make chestnut fruits tasty while preserving all of their nutritional benefits:

When serving peeled chestnuts, try going a little further and create a Parisian romance at home. Put the dish in beautiful plates, put on holiday appliances, pour wine or grape juice into glasses. Put on some music or romantic French comedy and enjoy a slice of France right in your home.

Among all the products, there is one of the oldest, which is still used today - chestnuts, how to prepare recipes for which, even an inexperienced housewife can figure it out quickly.

Chestnut fruits have a wonderful aroma and peculiar taste, thanks to which the popularity of the nut has survived to this day. It is also worth noting that chestnut is the only nut that contains vitamin C, glucose, fructose, iron, and potassium.

Is it okay to eat raw chestnuts?

It is very simple to cook chestnuts at home, because there are many recipes for boiled, fried fruits. For those who are wondering if chestnuts can be eaten raw, any specialist will answer positively. Chestnuts must be peeled to be eaten raw. However, it should be remembered that raw chestnuts do not have the pleasant taste, aroma that are inherent in the nut when cooked correctly.

Boiled chestnuts

Structure

400 g chestnuts;
1 glass of milk;
1 tbsp. l. flour;
salt, sugar to taste;
2 tbsp. l. butter.

Preparation

Peel chestnuts, rinse with water.
Place fruits in a saucepan.
Pour in milk.
Put on medium heat.
When the milk boils, cook the chestnuts for 35 minutes with the lid closed.
Mix flour and butter.
Add to chestnuts.
To stir thoroughly.
Remove from heat, serve.

Cooking methods for chestnuts

Not everyone knows how to cook chestnuts at home, and even more so how to free the fruit from the shell, which must be removed before cooking.

The first way

Make a small incision on the flat side of the nut, put it in boiling water, cook for 5 minutes. Remove the chestnut from boiling water, peel and film. If the film and shell are not removed, the fruit will acquire a bitter taste. Place the chestnuts in a saucepan, add cold water and cook for 15 minutes. How are chestnuts cooked according to this recipe eaten? They can be consumed with oil as a stand-alone dish or as one of the ingredients in a salad or a side dish. If the chestnuts were boiled for soup, meat dishes, then dill with spices should be added to the water during cooking.

Second way

Cut the chestnuts on one side. Put all the nuts on a baking sheet, put in the oven. Keep in the oven until the shell breaks. Peel the shell with a film, place the peeled nuts in boiling water, cook for 15 minutes. With this method of cooking, chestnuts should be used immediately, because they dry out quickly and lose their taste. If you know how to cook chestnuts correctly, then you can prepare a very tasty dish.

What can be cooked from boiled chestnuts:

salad;
roast;
souffle;
pudding;
component for jam, confectionery;
can be used as an independent dish in the form of mashed potatoes, porridge.

Chestnut pudding

Structure

1 cup peeled chestnuts
60 g sugar;
0.5 l of milk;
30 g butter;
60 g flour;
3 eggs;
breadcrumbs.

Preparation

Place the chestnuts with milk in a saucepan.
Cook until the fruit softens.
Make mashed chestnuts, add sugar, milk.
Mix butter and flour, add to puree.
Cook over low heat for 5 minutes.
Beat eggs.
Mix them with puree.
Grease a baking sheet with oil, sprinkle with breadcrumbs.
Put out the finished mass.
Send to oven for 45 minutes.
Serve with jam or sweet sauce.

Roasted chestnuts

For those who do not know how to cook chestnuts in a pan or are preparing them for the first time, there is a method that demonstrates how to cook fried chestnuts, the recipe for cooking in a pan is very simple.

Structure

500 g of nuts;
2 tbsp. l. vegetable oil;
salt, spices to taste.

Preparation

Cut each chestnut.
Grease a frying pan with oil, heat.
Place the chestnuts in a preheated skillet.
To cover with a lid.
Fry for no more than 15 minutes over medium heat.
Stir the chestnuts occasionally.
The nuts will be ready when a specific smell appears.
Peel the fruit from the shell.
Add spices, salt.

Knowing how to cook chestnuts in a pan, you can make a delicious independent dish without serious time-consuming.

Other cooking methods

There is another roasting method that demonstrates how to cook chestnuts in the oven. One of the disadvantages of this method is time - on average, you need to spend 30 minutes. Chestnuts are baked in the oven at a temperature of 240 degrees. You just need to make cuts on the nuts, grease a baking sheet with oil, put the fruits in one layer and just wait.

How to microwave chestnuts

This is the fastest way and will save you time. Chestnuts should be washed, cut, put in one layer on a dish, placed in the microwave. It is better to fry the nuts at maximum power for about three minutes, it all depends on the capabilities of the oven. The recipe is great for those who do not know how to cook chestnuts at home, because it does not require any specific knowledge of cooking.

If a person does not know how to eat chestnuts, but has already been able to cook them, then there are many options. The easiest way is to simply eat raw or cooked nuts. They are tasty and very healthy product even without any manipulations, additives.

Having learned how to cook chestnuts, you might think about what to serve it with in an original way, then a meat dish would be an excellent option. Ready-made nuts can be added as an ingredient to a sauce or stew, stuffed with a roll, and mashed, stewed, served as a fragrant side dish.

Contraindications

Despite the fact that chestnut is popular, how to cook it is not the only thing you need to know about the product, because it has a number of contraindications:

allergic reaction, individual intolerance;
decreased blood clotting, thrombocytopia;
acute form of gastritis, stomach ulcers;
irregularities in the menstrual cycle;
pregnancy;
constipation;
low blood pressure.

Chestnut is a tasty, healthy product. If you know how much to cook chestnuts, you can prepare a delicious, aromatic dish, an ingredient for salads, sauces. Rich in vitamins, microelements, the composition helps to reduce the symptoms of many diseases, however, like most products, chestnuts have some contraindications that must be taken into account. Knowing how to cook chestnuts at home, you can really surprise households who are used to simple and uncomplicated food.