Please, could you tell me how you cook chestnuts and what are your favourite recipies with them?

[fedda]

I bought some raw chestnuts and I heard that they need roasting, steaming or boiling but I've never cooked with chestnuts. All I know is they could taste wonderful if you cook them corectly. Please, could you help? Thank you.

roast them in the oven at 180 for about 20/25 minutes - then eat them (with some salt if you like).

Loads of recipes use them - v.nice with sprouts , part of stuffing or mixed with chocolate in cakes/puddings. Delia has some good recipes as does nigella- I think they are on the bbc website but I'll try and post a link.

the smell is sooo christmassy

boil them for I think about 15mins?, drain and then peel. Can use them in soups and baking.

more recipes suggestions here

Link this link

Whatever you do- if you're going to roast them remmeber to prick a hole in them first with a sharp knife, or they explode! we roasted them last year, they exploded so hard one actually push my over door open an inch, and almost took my nephews eye out when I took the roasting tin out. I'm still finding powdery chestnut shrapnel all over my kitchen one year on so you have been warned!

Thank you very much. I can't wait to try them.

you can eat sweet chestnuts raw

Really?

never done it but my reliable source is todays guardian!

I'm not sure so I better cook them and see what happens.

Do I need to cut a cross if i boil them?

okay, I boiled chestnuts for 25 minutes and roasted for 30 minutes. Both were awful! May be i should know where to get them from.

aren't chestnuts a bit over-rated?

We've seen the Cratchits eat 'em, think they're going to be the essence of Christmas but in fact they're a bit crap?

You see, I tried them when they were cooked in the street, hot wraped in a paper bag and they were delish. I asked the ma how to cook them at home and he said he wasn't sure, probably roast for 1,5 hours. Since then i went on the net searching and at the most it was suggested 45 minutes for big once and 30 for normal size. That's what I did and they were totally awful. May be I bought the wrong type?

exacylt wondering. Buy a can if you need a little of the stuff. Just not worth the fiddle. They just stick to the roof of your mouth and taste like charcoaly sawdust

don;t you think you enjoyed them so much because you were in teh street, it was cold and lovely, your hands got a warm and you were so hungry you'd have eaten anything?

I like half the thing with chestnuts is the romance

I buy the vacuum packed Merchant Gourmet ones - nicest way of using them (apart from in stuffing!) is stir-fried with savoy cabbage, onion, grated carrot and bacon.

i also use the merchant gourmet ones - i use them in my gravy with mushrooms and port - v nice

you can also add them to sprouts and i have used in a chicken casserole/stew

we do have roast chestnuts but they are just such a faff to peel

I was in the street but because my DH wasn't with me, I brought them, still hot in the bag home and we both loved them. No, I think I probably picked the wrong once. As for cooked once I remember hating the can once I bought and i dind't enjoy vacuum packed either.

maybe the street seller had sprinkled a load of sugar or salt over them to try and make them a bit tasty

if you bought them from a supermarket it's very unlikely you bought the wrong ones! What didn't you like about the taste? How where they awful compared to the street ones?

it's difficult to discribe but the taste was just intensly sweet and unpleasant. The street once were sweet and tasty. i bought raw once in the market, not in the supermarket where I only saw cooked once.

fedda when we have them we just prick them with a sharp knife then put them under a med grill until they darken both sides then peel them

Thank you everyone. I think I wouldn't have them for a while as I put myself off them. Hopefully one day I'll be able to taste them again.