Sweet Chestnuts

Ever since we were on Crete last year and enjoyed a meal using sweet chestnuts I was keen to try and replicate the recipe myself. I know that the UK make good use of these  especially at Christmas time and the French call them ‘‘l’arbre a pain’ (meaning tree of bread).  They are a very versatile nut and can be used for both sweet and savoury dishes. A favourite is chestnut stuffing, but they can also be used in soups, nutloaves,biscuits, desserts or can be ground into a nut flour or simply roasted and enjoyed as a snack.

There is a wealth of information on the internet and the following links give you much more detail than I can supply. 

Foraging and using Chestnuts

Roasting Chestnuts

Once again my book “Find it, Eat it,” by Michael Daly was much initial source of information on both finding the correct tree and then some suggested uses. 

Sweet Chestnut - note lance shaped
serrated leaves.

The sweet chestnut tree - Castanea sativa, has leaves that are oblong or lance-shaped with pointed teeth. The large edible seeds grow in a protective prickly case which splits open when ripe in the autumn. It must not be confused with the Horse Chestnut which is poisonous, has large palmate leaves and tends to be the one found in many of our botanical gardens.  I was lucky to spot the sweet chestnut growing on my brother’s farm in mid Canterbury. It  They are very nutritious. Unlike most nuts, they are rich in both carbohydrates and proteins, but contain very little fat and no cholesterol. 

Chestnut crumbs

Chestnut and Pumpkin Loaf.

My brother collected me a large bag full when we were back in the area for Dad’s birthday and I have been experimenting with various ways of using them. First the tough outer skin needs to be removed. A cross cut into the top of each nut is first made to stop them exploding and then they can either be roasted or boiled. While warm it is easy to peel off the harder outer crust.  I turned some into crumbs and used them to make a Chestnut and Pumpkin Loaf. This is a delicious loaf and very easy to make once the more tedious job of making the crumbs is done. Fortunately I now have enough crumbs in the freezer to make several more loaves. 

Chestnut Stifado

It was on Crete that we had tried a Stifado or stew, a traditional greek recipe usually made with beef but in our case the beef had been substituted with the freshly gathered chestnuts from the surrounding mountains. A quick google gives you plenty of recipes to choose from but they are all similar and easy to follow.  
Link to the Chestnut Stifado recipe:   Chestnut stifado

So it was that we sat down to a delicious chestnut stifado served with brussel sprouts.  However we did suffer a considerable amount of ‘wind’ that night and we couldn’t decide if it was the large number of pickling sized onions used in the stifado, the brussel sprouts or the chestnuts. Another google reveals that all three were the culprit!!!  So the lesson here is to be sure that the chestnuts are well cooked and eat only in moderation.  We have had no such effects from the loaf.

Another way I used them was as a pizza topping, roasting them first with pumpkin and red onion. It made a delicious topping. I also have another recipe for glazed chestnuts and winter vegetables which I think would make a lovely accompaniment to a roast.

Chestnut and Pumpkin Sweet Loaf (courtesy of Michael Daly’s book Find it Eat it.)

125g caster sugar

100g softened butter

2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla extract.

1 Tbsp golden syrup

175g steamed and mashed pumpkin

75g sultanas (I used dates and this worked well too)

200g chestnut crumbs 

200g self raising flour

1 tsp baking powder

½ tsp ground ginger

½ tsp ground nutmeg

Cream butter and sugar and add eggs and vanilla. Mix in the pumpkin, sultanas, and golden syrup before folding the dried ingredients. Place in a prepared loaf tin and bake 35- 40 minutes at 180℃ or until cooked and spongy to the touch. Cool in the tin.