How to Cook Chestnuts

CHESTNUTS contain more starch and less fat than most other nuts, as well as being rich in vitamin B so are worth adding to your diet.

They are the versatile nuts used is savoury and ,sweet dishes as well as traditional snacks.

Chestnuts are available late autumn- early winter. They are traditional cold weather snacks when roasted in their shells. Chestnuts can also be served as a vegetable or chopped in a stuffing or as puree in soups or deserts.

 

Purchasing Chestnuts: Chestnuts should look shiny and feel firm and cool. Don't buy dull and crackly nuts because you will be disappointed.

Storage: Chestnuts are best used fresh. Store in the refrigerator crisper in a paper bag. They are best frozen after cooked and peeled. Frozen, cooked chestnuts can be thrown into a stir-fry or a curry. Nirvana Organic Produce also has dried chestnut pieces available all year, which can be used in most recipes calling for fresh chestnuts.

Roasting Methods: The trick to the best roasted chestnuts is to understand that you have to dry the skin while you cook the starchy nut and convert the starch into sugars. All roasting requires the nut to be cut, usually along the scar to allow the skin to shrink and peel back, and allow steam to escape.

Method 1. Oven. Spread a single layer of equal sized and cut nuts over a baking dish. Place the tray on the highest shelf in the preheated oven @ 200c for 20-30 minutes. Give the tray a good shake at half time. If you have an electric oven with a top heat element, use that to par-grill and singe-shrink the skins. This will speed up the cooking process but requires more attention.

Method 2. Griller. Select and cut the nuts and place on the griller tray. Requires attention with continuous shaking-rotating, 10-15 minutes.

Method 3. Traditional. Some European communities roast chestnuts with a special fry pan with lots of small holes drilled in the bottom. The nuts are roasted in the fry pan over naked flames /coals /gas and can be tossed /rattled to ensure even cooking. Variations of this method include using the BBQ grill section, on top of the slow combustion stove, in a jaffle iron or using a rotating wire basket.

 

  Preparation:

Fresh Chestnuts: To peel chestnuts put a small slash on the bottom of the nut, cover with cold water, and bring to the boil. As soon as the water is bubbling briskly, remove from heat and peel off the shell and inner skin. This is easier to do while hot -hold in a cloth. Don’t allow them to continue boiling or they will turn floury and be impossible to peel.If you don’t need whole nut e.g.  making purees or soups the cut in half before adding them to water as above. The process will be much quicker.

The chestnuts are now ready to use in various recipes. Here are a few ideas

Chestnut bread rolls

Chestnut puree

Chestnut,chocolate and orange cake

Breakfast at Nirvana

Breakfast at Nirvana

Breakfast is always an important time. Like all meals it reflects the seasons. Those fleeting flavours that come and go so quickly.

Sure we preserve various things to enjoy latter like fruit to add to the porridge in winter.

Although we mainly have some form of oats and fruit and yogurt, pancakes on Sundays and once a week usually Saturdays (This reminds us what day it is) we have a cooked breakfast.At this time of the year it’s

Eggs Poached in Fresh Tomatoes

Cover the bottom of a small saucepan with small tomatoes (we use principe bourghese) cook gently till they burst add a couple of chopped garlic cloves and two eggs, poach till eggs are firm but soft. Serve on rye bread.

Elderflower Champagne

no added yeast, non-alcoholic version

A great drink for a hot afternoon on the veranda.

20 elderflower heads

5 lemons

150ml vinegar

1.5kg sugar

20 litres water

Cut most of the stems from the flowers. Shake any bugs, dirt etc.

Squeeze lemons and cut rind into strips.

Add all ingredients to a large container, stir until the sugar is dissolved. Steep for 24hrs, then strain, bottle and seal*. Store in a cool place. Keep at least 3 weeks before drinking.

Make sure the bottles are very clean. You can use champagne or beer bottles both of which have crown seals to fit-There are tool to put the caps on. PET soft drink bottles can also be used. The bottle needs to be strong to hold the fizz.I prefer champagne bottles with a crown seal.

Yogurt cake

A delicious, moist, simple cake for all occasions.

1 ½ cups SR flour

11/2 Shredded coconut or ground nuts (almonds, walnuts, hazelnuts)

1 cup  sugar

11/2 cups Yogurt

200 g fresh fruit*. berries, kiwifruit,peaches etc., in small pieces.Frozen berries work well, add without thawing.  or 11/2 cups  Dried fruit(mixed or one type)

Mix all ingredients together. Cook in ring tin in a moderate oven 45 minutes. Can also be made in muffins tins. Cook 25min (for small size)

optional- sprinkle top with sesame seeds.

* . Reduce amount of yogurt in juicy fruit or add an extra ½ cup of flour!.

 

 

Raspberry yogurt cake

Winter Favourites

The main ingredients we use come from our gardens and orchards as well as the wood to cook it. In addition we preserve our harvests. These preserved foods come into their own during winter and early Spring where we can savour past harvests.Seasons can be very localised for example here in the Adelaide Hills the rainfall drops an ‘inch a mile’ (in the old money) so after driving in any direction from Mt Lofty  for 20 minutes the rainfall has halved! an so the growing conditions.

So here are a few of our favourite winter dishes featuring our own fresh harvests.

Winter Greens Salad

There is nothing better in winter than a crisp green salad straight from the garden. Over winter there is an abundant supply of fresh greens from the garden. Although the lettuce appear to grow outside, they are just sitting around getting bitter. For this reason they are best grown in the tunnel or cold frames.

Mix of greens including lettuce, miners lettuce, mache, watercress, green wave mustard, leaf chicory,rocket,  nasturtium (leaves and flowers), fennel tops.

Peeled and sliced kiwi fruit.

Toss all together. I prefer this salad undressed, remaining crisp and fresh like the outside in the garden. If I dress it I use Nirvana farms own raspberry vinegar but no oil.

Fennel, Orange and Macadamia Salad

1 fennel bulb sliced,

1 orange, peeled and sliced

3 tbsp. macadamia cheese*

Dressing: 1tbsp olive oil, juice ½ limes or lemon. Seasoned to taste.

Mix all ingredients well. Leave for ½ hour before serving. Garnish with sprigs of fennel top.

*Macadamia Cheese: Cover 1 cup of fresh macadamias with water, simmer gently for 20- 30 minutes, remove from heat and cool or soak overnight. Add to blender and blend well. Strain and sieve. Store in refrigerator. It can be seasoned with salt, lemon juice and or herbs.

 

Rhubarb and Kiwifruit with Goose egg Custard.

3 sticks rhubarb cut into pieces

6 Kiwifruit, peeled and sliced

Honey

Put fruit in ovenproof dish, drizzle with honey and bake in a moderate oven for ½ hour.

Custard: 300ml Milk: 1 desert spoon sugar: 1 goose egg. Beat egg add sugar and milk. Beat well.

Pour over fruit and return to oven for ½ hour or until custard is set.

Goose eggs make the BEST custard. The blend of the kiwifruit and rhubarb is just sensational.

The goose egg season begins around early July and extends to around mid September. Today the first hatched goslings are out and about the orchard with their parents. The eggs are uses for omelettes (1 egg serves 2 adults) pasta, custards, quiches and frittatas.

1 goose egg = 3 hen eggs.

They make great omelettes as well!

Nirvana Lemonade

The odd warm day reminds me to put a batch of lemonade on so that when summer arrives I have a refreshing drink ready for relaxing on the veranda at the end of the day.This alcoholic lemonade (around 4%) could just as well be called a beer-(similar to ginger beer ) It can be made out of any citrus or a mix- lemon and lime is excellent. In fact we have used the same recipe with plums.I prefer this drink fairly tart but if you have a sweet tooth you can use less tart fruit like myer lemons or oranges. or rather than adding the whole fruit,peel off the rind thinly,then peel off the pith from the fruit before proceeding.  

NIRVANA LEMONADE

2Kg lemons * cut into quarters.

1.5 Kg sugar.

Beer Yeast

Cover lemons and sugar with water, bring to boil, simmer 10 minutes (to neutralise any wild yeasts). Decant into brew bin and top-up to 20 litres. The brew temperature should be between 25-35c. Add ‘Coopers’ beer yeast, or similar. Brew takes between 7-9 days.

Brew should be kept between 25-35c. There are commercial heaters for home-brew, or use a light bulb in a tea chest, or an old electric blanket

Into clean sterilised bottles add one level teaspoon of sugar to each bottle and then siphon lemonade into the bottles. Seal and wait at least 10 days before drinking. Lemonade will keep for months.

*Lemonade can be made from most citrus. Try a mix of lemons and limes, Myer lemons and rough lemons, oranges, blood oranges, cumquats, whatever!

Brewing at Nirvana

Home Brew Box.This is a converted  sewing box.	As well as a door Its lid lifts to allow siphoning from the top without having to move and therefore disturb the brew.
There is a light for heating inside.Its connected to a dimmer switch to allow for adjustments.	The siphon has a block of wood on the end so it floats on top. avoiding disturbing the dregs.

Mulled Apple Juice

A great warming drink while soaking up the afternoon winter sun on the veranda  or for sipping  around the campfire.

2 litres apple juice

4 whole cloves

1 teaspoons whole allspice

1 cardamom pod, hulled

2 cinnamon sticks (Extras for serving)

1 orange, thinly sliced- optional for serving

Freshly grated nutmeg to taste

Place apple juice, cloves, allspice, cardamom, and 2 cinnamon sticks in a heatproof jug or saucepan, simmer 10 minutes

Serve hot apple in warmed mugs. Optional -Put an orange slice and 1 cinnamon stick in each mug.

Grate the nutmeg on top and serve.