The recipe for cooking edible chestnuts

Surely many read in books or observed personally in Paris numerous street vendors of roasted chestnuts. So almost everyone knows at least one way of making chestnuts - you need to fry it. But that's not all about what chestnuts are suitable for this.

So, many people say that, despite the well-known abundance of chestnuts in Odessa and Kiev, there is no street trade of their fruits. And the point here is not at all the lack of enterprise among local residents. Just a tree, admire the flowering of which tourists come, is called a horse chestnut. Preparing its fruits for food is impossible for the reason that they are not edible. And they eat nuts of a noble chestnut, which grows only in the southern regions. These trees, if you go deeper into the botanical jungle, even attributed to different species. Actually, the edible species is not even a chestnut as such, referring to the beech family.

But it does not matter now, we want to learn the recipe for chestnuts, and not to teach botany. In the people, both trees are called chestnuts solely because of the external similarity of the fruits, which are shiny brown nuts ripening inside the barbed shell.

Similarity is very conditional, and confusing edible chestnuts with horseback is difficult. Judge for yourself - on the left you see the fruits of horse chestnut, and on the right below - those that can be eaten. As can be seen from the photo, the edible variety is smaller in size and that one side of the fruit is flat.

The recipe for chestnuts

Frankly, they can not be cooked at all. These nuts are quite tasty and raw, but the tradition requires these chestnuts to fry, so that it will not deviate from the canons. Bought fruit with a dense and shiny skin is washed, on the flat part of the nuts is a cross-cut. This is necessary in order to prevent the fission of fruits during the frying, we want to get a normal dish, not chestnut popcorn. After cutting, place them in a frying pan, cover it with a lid and send it to the stove, where they have to spend about half an hour, just do not forget to shake them periodically. Readiness of chestnuts is determined simply - you need to press on the nut with your finger - if it's soft, you can turn off the fire and serve the table ready meal. Use them must be in hot form with salt.

But the recipe for chestnuts can be different. They can still be boiled, stewed, baked in the oven and dried. Of these, mashed potatoes and seasonings for meat dishes are prepared. They stuff a bird, make chestnut desserts and puddings. Even there is a recipe for cooking chestnuts with rice and soup with these fruits.

For lovers of culinary exotics, we will give you a recipe for chestnut soup. We make a roast of onions, carrots and celery. Chestnuts are cleaned, poured with broth and send to the stove. Separately fry a little flour and combine it with vegetables. After the chestnuts are softened, pour into the pan vegetables, salt pepper to taste and cook for about 10 minutes, after which we filter the broth. Stirred vegetable mass whisk in a blender to the state of gruel. We combine this puree with broth, mix it and serve it to a table with sour cream. For more "entourage" you can add sherry. Try it - you will not regret it.