How to store and cook chestnuts. Traditional methods, sterilisation, vacuum sealing, freezing: everything for preparing and preserving chestnuts at home.
If you are lucky enough to find yourself taking a stroll through the woods on a beautiful autumn afternoon, why not gather some chestnuts. If they are correctly prepared, you will have put your hands on something that will make great winter dishes.
Chestnuts are the fruit of the forest par excellence. Make the most of them, their taste is beyond compare. Here are some tips that will allow you to make the most of them all year round, preserving them uncooked or cooked.
In the fridge
Like any other fresh fruit or vegetable, chestnuts can be stored at the bottom of the fridge. Their outer shell protects them from drying and you can store them for a week or two without any problem.
Freezing
To store your chestnuts for a longer period, you can freeze them. If you plan to cook them in water, you will need to peel them and if you want to grill or roast them over the fire, simply make an incision before cold storing them.
Sterilising
Once peeled, you can put them in jars with two soup spoons of water. Boil for 90 minutes and you will have chestnuts as nature intended.
Cooking before preserving
- In water, simply leave the peeled chestnuts to boil for half an hour.
- Grilled over a fire, chestnuts acquire an inimitable aroma and you can keep them for making other recipes. When they are still burning hot, leave them to sweat inside a newspaper or damp cloth. This improves them and makes them easier to peel.
- The same applies if you roast them (20/25 mins at 220°C.) in the oven. In the same way as baking bread, leave a dish with water in the oven to moisten them. This makes the shell less brittle and your chestnuts will be softer.
Once cooked, you can vacuum seal them and freeze them.
Cooking and vacuum sealing
This is the absolute must! Clean your chestnuts and vacuum seal them. Either freeze them so they will be ready to cook or vacuum seal and then cook them at a low temperature before freezing them. Cook for 1 hour at 80°C. Once cooked, you can heat them in butter, incorporate them into a mushroom sauce or make a delicious cream.
The tip for peeling
Once cooked in water, you can easily remove the bitter second skin by leaving the chestnuts in the microwave oven for 1 minute. Roll the chestnuts between your hands and the skin will come away by itself.
The fastest solution
If you have a strainer, you can prepare large quantities of pureed chestnut without peeling them. Make an incision in the chestnuts and plunge them into boiling water for 3 minutes before removing the outer shell. Once cooked in bubbling water for half and hour, vacuum sealed, steamed or in the oven, put the chestnuts through the strainer. How to make my chestnut cream.
