Roasted chestnuts are a traditional French delicacy. Chestnuts baked in the oven

Among the many famous cities in the world, Paris stands out, where thousands of couples come. They admire the beauty of architectural buildings, and also try roasted chestnuts, which only experienced chefs know how to cook. Exactly this gourmet dish considered one of the national products of France. Every year in Paris, a national holiday dedicated to the edible chestnut is held. At this time, right on the street, sellers are frying amazingly in huge pans. delicious treat. It is not difficult to imagine how the air is filled with a pleasant aroma of heated fruits, and couples in love treat each other with them.

But not everyone can go to Paris, but learning how to cook chestnuts is available to many. The main thing is to listen to the advice of experienced chefs. In addition, it is important to find out what benefits regular consumption of the product brings and possible contraindications. Let's try to understand these issues.

Close acquaintance with the delicacy of lovers

To learn how to cook chestnuts, you first need to get to know them better. Each fruit contains many useful substances, namely:

• fiber;
• sugar;
• proteins;
• starch;
• oils;
• tannin elements;
• a number of vitamins.

The fruit is widely used in traditional medicine in the form of tinctures and decoctions. In addition, he has refined taste for which he has been recognized all over the world. So, if you know how to cook an edible chestnut, the benefits and harms of the product, you can safely get down to business.

In order not to harm yourself, you should distinguish an edible fruit from a horse chestnut. For the preparation of delicacy, only the type of chestnut "Castanea sativa", which grows in the coastal regions of the Black Sea, is suitable.

Often people who do not have understanding confuse sweet chestnut with "Acorn". It is this plant that can harm the body. On the other hand, excessive consumption of the product leads to food allergies, bloating, intestinal upset and causes nausea. Eating roasted chestnuts is contraindicated for people suffering from such diseases:

• hypotension;
• kidney failure;
• urolithiasis disease.

It is undesirable to include chestnuts in the diet of pregnant women and nursing mothers. Since the nut is considered a high-calorie product, it is contraindicated in people who are overweight.

Culinary secrets of creating a dish

French chefs make extensive use of chestnuts in their culinary delights. They prepare them in various ways:

• baked in the oven;
• fry in a pan;
• boiled in a saucepan;
• added to sweet desserts;
• used as excellent snack to alcoholic beverages;
• the dried product is placed in the dough for baking.

In any case, the dish is obtained with an exotic taste and aroma. But how to cook chestnuts at home to feel like a Parisian? It turns out that everything is much simpler than it might seem.

There are several ways to create this amazing treat. For example, in order to fry fruits with high quality, they take a wide frying pan. Then spread the nuts on it.
Constantly stirring, in half an hour they will be ready. When the chestnuts have cooled, peel off, sprinkle with sugar or salt. In this form, a delicacy is served at the table.

It is advisable to cook the fruits in a pan without fat. The fire must be of medium size.

Another way to roast chestnuts consists of the following steps:

1. Fruits are poured into a pan without fat. Turn on a moderate fire and, stirring constantly, fry.
2. When the nuts are warmed up, they are covered with wet chintz cloths.
3. Some cooks simply pour water into the pan. Then reduce the level of fire to a minimum. Cover with a lid and fry for 30 minutes.

Check the readiness of the treat by pressing on the product. Soft specimens are removed from the fire and served to the table. Many cooks know how to fry chestnuts in a pan and are happy to share their experience. But the product can also be cooked in the oven.

You can fry nuts in any frying pan, but not with a Teflon coating.

You can bake the product correctly by performing the following operations:

1. First, cut off a miniature tip from each fruit.
2. Spread on a baking sheet, spreading evenly over the entire area.
3. Set in the oven for 15 minutes.
4. Ready nuts are peeled while they are warm.

The main rule of how to roast chestnuts in the oven is to preheat the oven to 240 degrees. In addition, you need to carefully monitor the process. As soon as the fruits lose moisture, they can be baked for only 7 minutes after that.

French touches on the dining table

Unfortunately, most of us will not have to walk the streets of Paris and taste roasted chestnuts. But any cook can learn how to cook chestnuts at home and feel like a Frenchman. Consider a few dishes that include fried fruits. They are used in the form of a semi-finished product, adding to vegetable stew. Chestnuts can be thoroughly mashed with a rolling pin or chopped with a blender. Then stir with milk and add to:

• various sauces;
• souffle;
• pies;
• cakes;
• cupcakes;
• ice cream.

Since the product has versatile properties, it is easy to experiment with it. Consider a recipe for how to cook chestnuts at home using additional products.

butter (a piece for greasing);

salt.

The process of creating a dish:

The finished dish is cut into small portions. Serve with hot broth or cream soup.

As you can see, the Roasted Chestnuts delicacy, the recipe of which is available to everyone, can be easily prepared at home. The main thing is to follow the instructions of specialists. And then, enjoying the taste of exquisite French food, you are mentally transported to the streets of the glorious city - Paris.

Secrets of cooking chestnuts - video

For cooking delicious side dish, dessert, first courses or salads, you can use the fruits of the sowing chestnut or noble - they have a brown shiny peel and wrinkled kernels. Those who want to try this delicacy should find out how European chefs cook chestnuts.

How to eat chestnuts

Many housewives and cooks use this unique product not only as an independent dish, but also make soups, pilaf, etc. from it. frying pans, because the taste of the exotic nut will fade as it cools.

How to Peel Chestnuts

To enjoy the taste of a nut, first prepare it properly: select fruits that are suitable for eating, fill with water - collect and discard those that float, and continue to work with the rest. Make cross-shaped cuts from the side of the sharp edge, using scissors or a fork, send them to fry. This action determines how easy it will be to peel the chestnuts later, and this is also where any recipe for roasted chestnuts begins.

What chestnuts can be eaten

Roasted chestnuts in cooking famous dish with amazing taste. Before roasting nuts yourself, you need to know what they are. So, you can eat chestnuts that are covered with a spiky green shell. Elongated fruits are considered edible. appearance and shaped like an onion with a small tail at the sharp end - as in the photo.

It is worth noting that it is strictly forbidden to use lumpy round nuts (horse nuts) for cooking, because at best it threatens you with food poisoning. Such fruits grow on trees among large spreading leaves in central Russia, so it’s better for residents of warm regions not to take risks and, if they wish, cook chestnuts, choose and buy them at the nearest store.

The benefits and harms of roasted chestnuts

If you want to try an exotic dish, then you need to figure out if you should eat it. Consider the benefits and harms of roasted chestnuts:

1. Of the positive qualities, special attention should be paid to the composition of fruits: vitamins (choline, beta-carotene, vitamins A, B, C, E, K, PP, including ascorbic acid) and minerals (phosphorus, potassium, calcium, zinc, iron).
2. An important role in creating a positive characteristic of the product is played by its the nutritional value and composition: water, ash, saturated fatty acids, mono- and disaccharides, dietary fiber.
3. Contraindications to the use of chestnuts include the fact that when fried they contain carbohydrates and a large amount of starch, and this is unacceptable for people who are prone to fullness.

Roasted chestnuts calories

One of the most popular edible varieties are sweet chestnuts. The calorie content of roasted chestnuts is about 180 calories per 100 grams of weight, so eating them in small quantities will not negatively affect your parameters. When roasted, the exotic nut contains a lot of carbohydrates and vegetable protein, which will especially appeal to those people who do not eat meat.

How to roast chestnuts at home

Such an unusual ingredient can be used for different dishes: first, second, desserts, but the beginning of each recipe is a heat treatment. How are chestnuts roasted? There are several ways. You can roast chestnuts in a regular or special pan with holes, bake in the oven, boil. Check out these tips to help you understand how to roast chestnuts at home.

How to roast chestnuts in a pan

The presented method is a classic method for preparing edible fruits. Before frying chestnuts in a pan, they need to be soaked, and then already used, and taking only those that fell to the bottom of the bowl. Step-by-step instruction:

1. Pierce each fruit with a fork or cut.
2. Put the nuts in a frying pan filled with hot oil, cover with a paper towel on top. Moisten the napkins several times during frying - thanks to this, the fruits will not dry out.
3. Cover the pot with a lid and cook for 30 minutes on medium heat. It is recommended to shake the nuts periodically without opening the lid.
4. Serve the dish, salted or sprinkled with sugar - as you wish.

Those who think that fried fruits are too dry can boil them with milk - the combination is simply excellent! For this you need:

1. Peel the already toasted nuts from the film, pour in the milk so that the liquid covers them 2 cm higher.
2. Add a couple of tablespoons of honey, a cinnamon stick.
3. Let the dish simmer until the main ingredient is soft. Before sending the delicacy to the fire, you can add more cedar cake - so the taste of the dessert will become even more interesting.

How to cook chestnuts in the oven

You can bake an exotic nut using oven- the process is even easier than frying in a pan. A well-known way to cook chestnuts in the oven is as follows:

1. Preheat oven.
2. Make cuts on each fruit.
3. Put the workpiece in one layer on a baking sheet, leave to bake for 35 minutes.
4. Open the oven and serve a treat. From a part of an exotic nut, you can still cook, for example, a salad: add vegetables and pasta to the peeled fruits durum varieties, and then it is recommended to mix all this mass with sauce from olive oil and lemon juice.

Chestnuts in the microwave

This method is quick and safe, if you cut or pierce the products with a fork before laying, this will allow steam to escape and avoid “explosion”. Cooking chestnuts in the microwave is easy:

1. Put the fruits in a shallow, but wide plate designed for the microwave.
2. Salt the product a little, pour in 3 tablespoons hot water. Roasting this way is unrealistic, but nuts can be steamed for easy cleaning.
3. Close the dish with a lid (not a glass plate) or film, leave the dish for 8 minutes, making the power of the technique maximum.
4. Try one thing, then either continue the process, or serve a treat to the table by pouring your favorite sauce on a plate.

A useful and containing many vitamins and protein product to the liking of many. However, not everyone knows how to cook chestnut, and in order for you to enjoy this appetizer at home, and not in a restaurant, follow these recommendations:

1. Before you cook chestnuts in a pan, they must all be cut - so they will not "jump out" when heated.
2. Spread raw ingredients in the pan you need in one layer, while the dishes should not be on the stove for a long time, otherwise the nuts will turn out to be too hard and tough.
3. You need to remove the peel as soon as the product is cooked, otherwise it will be much more difficult to do it later.
4. If you intend to store edible chestnuts, then know that fresh fruits can be kept in a cool place for just a few days, otherwise they will become dry and lose their luster. Baked, boiled or roasted nut It will keep longer if you store it in the freezer.

Video: How to roast chestnuts

Each of us loves tasty and satisfying food. Often the question arises before the housewives: what to cook in order to please loved ones and not spend a lot of effort and time on it? If you really want to surprise your loved ones, try roasted chestnuts!

Many, for sure, do not even know that chestnuts are edible, but this is true. And if they are also cooked correctly, then the dish will turn out to be unusual, tasty and original. Chestnuts have been a favorite delicacy since ancient times. The most ancient Romans and Greeks loved to eat them for dessert and as a snack with wines. Chestnuts are widely used in European cuisine. They are on the menu of many restaurants in France, Italy and other places that know a lot about food. For example, in Paris, chestnuts are cooked right on the street in special large frying pans and immediately treated to passers-by. Moreover, in France they are baked on fires, in pans with special holes, soups are cooked from them, served with seafood, and even bread and sweets are made from chestnut flour.

How to Roast Chestnuts?

Chestnuts taste like a cross between a nut and a potato. If you eat them raw, they will be crispy, but if you boil them, they will become soft. Chestnut is used as the basis of the dish. They can be bought in ordinary stores by weight, frozen and in jars in the form of ready-made puree. But it is even easier to find chestnuts right on the street, because they actively grow on trees in autumn. But be careful! If you decide to pick chestnuts yourself, you need to know which fruits you can take, and which ones are better to refuse. In appearance, they are all the same and covered with a brown shell. But not everything can be eaten! Edible chestnuts are slightly elongated and look like bulbs. The trees on which they grow have carved, serrated leaves that are attached to the branches with a handle. If the leaves resemble maple leaves, it is better not to pick chestnuts from them, because. can be easily poisoned. When you split such a fruit, you will see that their nuts are round and slightly embossed.

Chestnuts are extremely healthy, like all other nuts, they contain natural vegetable proteins and carbohydrates that are easily absorbed by the body. They contain such important substances as ascorbic and folic acids, potassium, copper, iron and zinc.

How to roast chestnuts in a pan?

First, they must be cut. You can do this with scissors or a regular knife. Cut on the side to lightly touch the nut itself. This is done so that when frying, steam comes out of the chestnuts freely.

If the chestnuts are not young and the flesh in them is wrinkled, you can add a little water to them or cover them with a damp towel. This will allow them to steam well.
So, now that we've learned how to pick and process chestnuts, it's time to learn how to cook them!

Chestnuts need to be peeled and the bitter veins removed. Then they should be rubbed with a brush and washed with plain water. After that, as we have already said, you need to make cuts in the chestnuts or just pierce them deeply with a fork.

Take any large skillet with thick walls, special barbecue dishes are best. Next, heat it well and lay out the chestnuts. No oil needs to be added! Do not forget that chestnuts must be covered with a lid and roasted over moderate heat. If they start to crackle and burst, just shake the pan. Do not rush to immediately cool the dish. They are good hot!

Thoroughly it is worth approaching the choice of dishes. There are special frying pans for roasting chestnuts. Their distinguishing feature is small holes at the bottom.

Important frying rules:

• Don't roast the chestnuts too long. If you overheat the fruits, you will not be able to gnaw them!
• Eat nuts hot, otherwise they will lose their taste and nutrients.
• Remove not only the shell, but also the partitions.
• Raw chestnuts are best stored in dark, cool rooms. For example, in closets.

How to roast chestnuts in the oven?

Another interesting way to cook chestnuts is to bake them in the oven. To begin with, you also need to wash and cut them.

Next, put the fruits on a baking sheet and put in the oven, heated to 220 degrees. Wait until your chestnuts begin to crack and open. This means that the dish is ready and you can safely try it. You can add salt or sugar to give it a piquant taste.

And here's another one interesting recipe cooking chestnuts in the oven.

Compound:

1. Chestnuts - 500 gr.
2. Eggs - 2 pcs.
3. Cheese - 200 gr.
4. Breadcrumbs, nutmeg, salt and pepper to taste

Cooking:

• Grate nuts, cheese on a plate, add breadcrumbs and pepper.
• In a separate bowl, break the eggs and put the chestnuts there.
• Next, combine the resulting mixture with cheese, and put everything in a greased baking dish. Bake until done.

It is curious that in Turkey glazed chestnuts are considered their own national invention and are called Kestane Sekeri. Oriental delicacy is no different from its European counterpart: neither in taste, nor in the way of preparation, nor in the price - quite high, because we are talking about a delicacy product. Roasted fruits of Castanea sativa are also not uncommon in Turkish cities.

In Russia, edible chestnuts are not widely used, since heat-loving trees that bring these delicious nuts, grow only in the south of the country - in the Krasnodar Territory. So if you want to try a very healthy fruit, it is better to go in late autumn, or for the winter holidays to Italy, France, Spain, Portugal, Turkey, or, for example, China and Thailand.

How chestnuts are eaten in different countries

Wherever we go, street food vendors will cook fragrant nuts in about the same way. On small carts, braziers are installed - stoves on wood, and sometimes on crystalline salt, which burns longer and is consumed less. This method is very common in Spain.

Chestnuts are thrown into large pans with holes and, stirring occasionally with a spatula, are cooked until the shell begins to crack with a characteristic sound. They sell treats in 10-15 pieces (it is difficult to eat more at a time) in kraft paper bags. In many Western cities, one more empty package is necessarily added - for the peeled shells.

Europeans do not flavor chestnuts with anything, believing that the taste of the product is good in its pure form, without such enhancers as salt or sugar. According to tradition, fried fruits are washed down with mulled wine or just good young red wine. If you do not want alcohol, you can replace it with natural grape juice.


And in China or Thailand, chestnuts are thrown into the wok along with small pebbles and constantly shaken so that the fruits are evenly baked. Unlike European counterparts, Asian traders water nuts sugar syrup for extra shine and sweetness.

Note

Let's upset the gourmets - they will not try the most delicious chestnuts, called marron among the hawkers. Prices for nuts that once served as food for the poor are growing year by year, so elite varieties “affordable” are only expensive restaurants. On the streets, we will be offered simpler options, and we need to be prepared for this.

And immediately advice

It is best to buy chestnuts not on the main streets, which are actively visited by tourists, but in remote areas or small towns, where they are mainly prepared for the local population. Visiting guests come and go, but if the product is not liked by regular customers living in the trading area, the seller will be left without revenue.

Chestnuts are recognized as one of the most valuable products of the autumn-winter period. With regular use, they are quite capable of replacing vitamin complexes, which are often prescribed to us at this time of the year. Saturating the body with carbohydrates and proteins, unique nuts energize us, improve the functioning of the cardiovascular system, normalize blood composition, and also help fight the blues caused by lack of sun and cold weather.

If we do not plan to travel during the chestnut season to where they are a familiar food, it is worth going to the market or supermarket and cook the delicacy ourselves. Fry or bake fruits on the shoulder, even for novice housewives. Of course, if they know what to do with chestnuts and can figure out some of the intricacies of the process.


About culinary secrets - well-known and not so, later in the article.

Cooking methods

Fundamental rules:

1. Raw nuts are hard to digest and hard to peel. Therefore, they are recommended culinary processing. The most delicious fried and baked fruits - they can be eaten as a separate dish or served as a side dish, but boiled ones are best used for making soups and mashed potatoes.
2. First, nuts brought from the store are sorted, removing spoiled specimens. The easiest way is to send your purchase to a large bowl of water, and then throw away everything that floats to the surface as unusable.
3. Immediately before the heat treatment, the chestnuts are washed and dried with a paper towel. The shell is cut or pierced, otherwise, when heated, it will break the resulting steam. Some culinary specialists recommend that after that soak the nuts for 2-3 hours in water, which will make their taste more tender and richer.
4. You need to peel the fruits warm as soon as they stop burning your hands.
5. Hot, freshly cooked chestnuts are much more aromatic and tastier than cold ones. For this reason, it is undesirable to cook "in reserve". You need to take a portion that you can eat right away.
6. It is very important to “do not overexpose” the fruits in a pan or in the oven so that they do not lose moisture.

Cut the shell correctly

If we do not violate the integrity of the shell before cooking, we are unlikely to be able to eat chestnuts. The steam formed during heating will turn the fruit into small crumbs, which will scatter in different directions no worse than an artillery shell. And we will not only be left without a delicacy, but we can also suffer if we fry on an open fire and do not use a lid.

There are several ways to avoid this kind of trouble:

• pierce the nuts deeply with a fork (about 1/3 deep)
• make a cross cut with a knife
• remove the sharp "nose" of the fruit, while capturing some pulp

The last option is the easiest and fastest, it will save our fingers if the rounded chestnut slips out from under the knife. In addition, the cross-shaped incision opens during frying and the nut dries out more. And with a fork it is not always possible to completely pierce a hard shell and the risk of explosions increases during the cooking process.

In addition to the hard upper shell, the fruits must also be freed from the thin elastic peel underneath. Only in this form are they suitable for use.

How to fry in a pan: culinary subtleties

If we cook on the stove, it will take us no more than a quarter of an hour for the delicate product to reach its condition and not dry out.

The classic roasting algorithm found on the Internet and tested by me for training purposes:

1. We put the prepared fruits in a thick-walled deep frying pan, preheated. It is better that the nuts fit in one layer, but you can do two. Important: in no case should you take a pan with a Teflon coating, otherwise it will be hopelessly damaged. Ideally, the cookware should be cast iron.
2. Fry over low heat (so that the chestnuts do not crack), stirring constantly for 12-15 minutes. As it cooks, the shell of the fruit will acquire a light shade, and some places will char to black - this is a normal phenomenon that should not be feared.
3. The readiness of the product is indicated by a characteristic crackle, a very appetizing potato-nut smell spreading throughout the house and the appearance of small cracks on the shell.

Option number 2, with oil:

1. Pour into the pan vegetable oil, warm it up, and then spread the prepared nuts in one layer. We cover them with moistened paper towels to protect them from drying out, and simmer under a lid over low heat for 20 minutes. In some recipes, it is suggested to do without oil, using a dry frying pan.
2. From time to time, the fruits need to be shaken without opening the lid. We moisten the wipes as they dry.
3. On ready-made nuts, the shell is deeply cracked and easily removed.
4. If the fruits still seem harsh, you can peel them and additionally boil them in milk. The liquid should cover the main ingredient by about 2 cm. Honey (2 tablespoons) and cinnamon (1 stick) are used as natural flavors.

Wash and dry the sorted chestnuts. We cut off the "spouts" or make cross-shaped incisions.

I liked the method with cutting off the spouts more. Less hassle, faster, and the result is the same.

Place in a thick skillet. Our alternative to wet wipes is a thin, about 2mm layer of water on the bottom of your cooking utensils. It will create a moist environment that will keep the nuts from drying out.


Covering the future cooking masterpiece cover and put on a small fire.


The chestnuts are first steamed and only then roasted. At the end, the lid can be removed, and the fruits must be stirred so as not to burn.


We clean the finished nuts from the shell - it is removed very easily and immediately proceed to the feast.


Chestnuts are very tender and pleasant in taste. I recommend to try!

On the grill

In imitation of street vendors, exotic nuts can also be baked on the grill.

1. Place the washed and sorted chestnuts in warm water for 10-15 minutes.
2. Cross-cut the shell on the convex side of the fruit.
3. If there is no special frying pan with holes for roasting chestnuts, you can limit yourself to ordinary cast-iron dishes with thick walls, placing it on the wire rack. In any case, the fruits should be laid out cut down and placed in a brazier on a high layer of coals.
4. After frying the product for 6 - 7 minutes, with occasional shaking, turn it over to the other side and bring it to readiness.
5. When the fruits have cooled slightly, they are peeled and served at the table.

How to bake

Baked fruits are the most delicious and healthy. They are added to salads and main courses, make a complex side dish for meat or pour over with sweet sauce and serve as a dessert. Roasting chestnuts is a little easier than frying in a pan, especially if the oven is equipped with a grill. But you can do without this function.

There are recipes where chestnuts, before being cooked in the oven, are kept in a solution with spices or heavily sweetened water.

We offer a variant of the Mediterranean cuisine, the dishes of which are not only appetizing, but also healthy.

1. Pre-sorted and washed chestnuts should be cut along the round side, preferably crosswise, so that they are easier to peel later. The depth of the notch must be at least 5 mm.
2. Lay the fruits on a baking sheet, cut side up. Spray lightly with water.
3. We heat the oven to 200ºС and send our chestnuts into it. After a quarter of an hour, the fruits must be turned over and wait another 5 minutes, and if they do not seem soft enough, then more.
4. Strongly opened cuts indicate the readiness of the nuts.

Roasted chestnuts are best served with semi-sweet red wine.

Microwave to the rescue

When this miracle device is at hand, cooking chestnuts takes about 10 minutes, reducing our labor costs to a minimum.


We wash the nuts, select the spoiled specimens. We make deep cross-shaped notches on the convex side or cut off the spouts.


We spread the fruits in a special dish for the microwave. We add our workpiece if it will not be used as a dessert.


Pour a little water at the bottom of the dish, literally 2 mm.


Cover with a lid and send to cook at full power for 6-8 minutes.


That's how beautiful our chestnuts look in the microwave now! Neither give nor take the flowers that open in the morning sun!


Let's taste this splendor. If the pulp of the nuts is not soft enough, keep them in the microwave oven for another 2-3 minutes.


We clean the fully prepared fruits and call the family to the table. Let everyone enjoy this exquisite delicacy.

Dietary product: how to cook in a peel

For diet menu boiled fruits are ideal. They contain the least calories.

Cooking chestnuts is very simple: after cutting the shell, they are thrown into boiling water, salted to taste, spices are added: bay leaf, peppercorns, etc. Cooking time ranges from 30 to 40 minutes, depending on the size of the fruit.

Ready nuts are best taken out of hot water one at a time so that they do not have time to cool down and the shell is easier to remove.

How to clean

If we want to freeze southern nuts for future use or try them raw, we need to get rid of the tough skin. You can do this in the following way:

1. We make, as usual, an incision on one side of the fruit.
2. We throw them into boiling water for 3-5 minutes.
3. We take out and send to the freezer for 4 - 6 hours.
4. After that, blanch again and immediately substitute under a stream of cold water.

After this contrast shower, the kernels will literally "jump" out of the shell.


Roasted or baked chestnuts are one of the easiest dishes to prepare, but, unfortunately, quickly become boring.

Multiple Recipes

What other delicacies from this product can you treat yourself and your loved ones?

Cream soup according to an old recipe

Nothing warms up in cold weather like a thick and rich first course. It is this soup - nutritious, delicate in texture and incredibly fragrant, that we want to offer.

We will need:

• 400 g raw chestnuts
• 700 ml poultry broth
• 1 st. l. melted butter
• 1 tsp flour
• 100 ml cream, 10% fat
• salt and spices to taste

How to cook

1. Peeled as described above, place the chestnuts in a saucepan. There we also add dressing from butter, pounded with flour.
2. Pour in the pre-prepared broth (from chicken or turkey to choose from), add salt if necessary, put spices and cook the chestnuts until soft.
3. Then we puree the fruits in a blender, adding a little liquid so that the mass does not turn out to be dryish.
4. Put puree on water bath, reduce the fire to a minimum. Stirring constantly, combine the chestnut mass with the remaining broth.
5. Having brought the mixture to a homogeneous consistency, we introduce cream into it and lightly beat everything together, without removing it from the water bath.
6. The soup is immediately served to the table, garnished with greens.

Vegetarian roast

Such a dish will decorate any table, worthy of competing with the usual potato-meat duet. Light and satisfying, it is equally suitable for those who follow the figure, and those who prefer plant foods, and just connoisseurs of everything new, refined and original.

Ingredients:

• 300 g raw peeled chestnuts (can be replaced with canned or boiled ones)
• 500 g champignons
• 50 g hazelnuts
• ½ large onion
• 2 - 3 garlic cloves
• 50 ml cognac
• favorite hot spices

Cooking

1. Fry sliced ​​mushrooms. Add cognac and simmer until all liquid has evaporated.
2. Grind onion and garlic, fry them together, add spices.
3. Finely chop the chestnuts and nuts.
4. We mix all the ingredients, put them on a baking sheet and, adding a little water, send them to the oven preheated to 180ºС. Bake for approximately 40 minutes.

Sweet snack with coffee sauce

We have already tasted the first and second of the wonderful southern fruits, it's time for dessert. We offer a very simple quick recipe. Cooked nuts can be served as an independent dish or as a spectacular addition to ice cream.

We will need:

• 500 g boiled chestnuts
• 100 ml strong, freshly brewed coffee
• 2 egg yolks
• ½ cup 35% cream
• 3 tbsp. l. cognac and powdered sugar

Cooking method

1. We already know how and how much to cook chestnuts, so there are hardly any difficulties with their preparation.
2. For the sauce, we need to beat the yolks well with cognac, cream and coffee.
3. We put the resulting lush, airy mass in a water bath, add powdered sugar and, stirring often, cook until it thickens.
4. Drizzle our nuts with sauce and serve.

Chestnuts are worth trying even for skeptics who are suspicious of unfamiliar, little-used products in our kitchen. These fruits give great scope for creativity and culinary experiments. Bon appetit everyone!

One of the favorite delicacies of the Parisians are hot chestnuts. They are prepared and sold right on the streets of the most romantic city in the world. Residents and guests of Paris buy them and eat from a bag, closing their eyes with pleasure. And then they ask the French how to roast chestnuts in order to pamper themselves more often when they return home.

These reddish-cinnamon fruits are good not only as an independent dish. They are also included in the recipe for many other dishes. But before we talk about how to cook chestnuts, let's talk about which ones you can eat.

After all, this name hides several different varieties nuts that look alike.

All of them are covered with a spiky green shell, under which shiny fruits of a characteristic shade are hidden. Here are just those that are edible, more elongated, shaped like an onion, at the sharp end they have a tiny tail. The tree on which they grow has long, toothed leaves attached to the branch with a cutting. You can cook chestnuts of this variety without any fear.

But the fruits of trees with large spreading leaves, somewhat reminiscent of maple leaves, are not worth eating - you can get poisoned. Their nuts are round, sometimes bumpy. And, unfortunately, it is they who grow in abundance in central Russia. So it is better for residents of this region to buy chestnuts in the store.

Method 1

1. First of all, regardless of the chosen cooking method, they need to be cut. This can be done with special scissors, or an ordinary sharp knife. Carefully make a longitudinal incision on the side, so as to slightly capture the pulp of the nut. You can pierce with a fork or cut the brown peel crosswise from a sharp edge. Almost any recipe for chestnuts begins with this action.

Now there are holes in the nut for the release of steam and they can be fried in a pan. It's a good idea to use a regular thick-walled bowl with a heavy lid, like the one you're using for popcorn. Great choice there will be a grill pan. It needs to be heated over moderate heat without oil and put chestnuts on it.

If they are old and dark, wrinkled flesh is visible through the cut, you can splash a tablespoon of water on them or lay a damp towel on top. So they are steamed at the first stage of cooking and will not be dry. But even without these manipulations, the result will be successful. The main thing to remember is that it is right to fry chestnuts in a frying pan under a lid, over moderate heat, stirring from time to time. When they begin to bounce and burst with loud pops, you can simply shake the container.

Check the nuts. If they have darkened, the brown shell has charred in places, and the cut has parted, revealing light flesh, the chestnuts are ready. Now you can cool them slightly, remove the peel (this is easy while they are hot) and eat. Do not wait until they have completely cooled down - the taste will greatly lose from this.

Method 2

1. If desired, you can cook chestnuts in the oven. For her, it is better to make a cruciform incision on the fruits from one of the edges.

Put the prepared nuts on a dry baking sheet and put in the oven, heated to 220 degrees.

After 15-20 minutes, check their condition. If the incision opens like a flower, you can turn off the fire - everything is ready.

Trying not to burn yourself, put on kitchen gloves, remove the peel from the nuts.

Method 3

1. You can also cook chestnuts in the microwave. It is fast, modern and, if you are not too lazy and make the necessary cuts on each of them, it is safe.
2. Having prepared the fruits in this way, put them in a wide, but shallow container for microwave ovens.

Slightly salt them and pour a few tablespoons of hot water into them. Since it is almost impossible to roast chestnuts in the microwave, it is better to steam them and peel them. Then, if you really want to, fry the kernels a little in oil or without it.

In the meantime, cover the container with cling film or a lid (preferably not glass) and put in the microwave for 6-8 minutes at full power. Try one thing, cook for a few more minutes if necessary.

Serve the peeled chestnuts hot beautiful plate. Eat them with soft music or a good old French comedy, and enjoy the Parisian romance in your home.