Roasted Chestnuts

Have you ever had fresh roasted chestnuts? I don't think I've ever had them before. I've eaten them from a Korean supermarket where they came in a foil sealed pack, already roasted and scored for your convenience. I really liked them when I had them, sweet, nutty, slightly crumbly when eating and I just generally enjoy eating foods that require peeling like mandarins, shelled peanuts or oranges. Not crustaceans though, that's a different thing.They are too much trouble for what you get.

Such a pretty colour

I got excited when I saw these so cheaply at the Rocklea markets so I decided to buy some. They were a huge tray of them for, I think about $5 a kilo. I had no idea how to pick them but I did a lot of on the spot googling and my Boyfriend called his parents and the trick to it is, a nice glossy, unblemished shell, a heavy weight for their size and nice firm feel. I also read on one Italian site, that you should the younger ones should be able to bounce when thrown on the floor. I've not read that on any other site, so I don't know how true it is haha.

Ready for stabbing

These ones that we picked were a little on the small side with most of them being around the size of a 50 cent coin. It makes sense to pick the largest ones possible when you consider the amount of work involved, risky knife slashing, roasting, peeling the darn things and then eating them.

Like this, with a hand supporting cause I can't take a photo with my mouth

Anyway, all you do is cut a cross into the chestnut with a knife. As wide and as long a cut as possible. This allows steam to escape the nut when roasting and prevents it from exploding at you. I found the easiest way for me to do this with the flat side up, was to firmly hold the pointed end of the nut down against the bench whilst wrapped up in a tea towel and slice downwards. I had a very small sharp fruit knife with a sharp point, I basically poked a hole through the shell before slicing downwards.

There were actually a lot more

I put the oven up to 180C for about 15 minutes. My house started smelling like roasted chestnuts, their skins had curled back and I pulled them out to wrap them into a tea towel. This allows them to steam a bit and allow the skins to be easier to pull off. I just kept putting them back into the oven when they got a bit cool so that they warmed up and were easier to peel.

Yay~

The same day I roasted chestnuts, we also washed all the windows on the outside and inside of our house, so Siri was kicked outside in case she knocked over a window when we took it out of the frame. She wasn't very impressed and didn't understand why she had to stay outside while we were inside.

):

);

She kept sleeping on the ledge and opening one eye to stare at us, as if to see if we were letting her in yet, before she fake slept again.