Tsk, tsk.

Chestnuts are wonderful. Haven't had them in years, but oh my gosh they were such a treat when I was young and they were available. Whitest nut meat, just delicious!

You better tell me ahead of time when you have them, Vic. It's a long trip to make on the spur of the moment.

Do you always have to roast them or can they be eaten out of the shell?

They need to be roasted.
Let me check something . . . BRB.

Tannic acid. They have a high content of it. I couldn't remember for sure what it was and had to look it up.

Anyway, you have to treat them like veggies because they are very starchy in the first place and taste really bad raw. So, the drying and then the cooking help sweeten them, also removes the high tannic acid content.

Otherwise, upset tummy!

Very interesting. Thanks for the info. on that. I bet they're really good hot. Do you remember how long & how to roast them?

I've seen them for sale in the store at this time of year but never bought any because no one knew how to roast them. Now wouldn't you think the people in the produce dept. would/should know that kind of thing? I would think the produce mgr. would make sure every produce employee knew.

This is what I remember. Dad roasted both in the oven and in the fireplace.

He cut an X in the shell, then placed the whole thing (X side up) on a cookie sheet for the oven. I think they roasted maybe 20 - 30 minutes. The shell sort of opens up from the X so the inside is exposed. When it's cool then peel it, be sure to get the inside brownish skin off too. It will be sweet to taste. Looks a little like a brain. (!)

He did the same thing when roasting on the fire, but used an iron skillet and left the lid on. Seems like about the same time too. Maybe 30 minutes. There was a grate over the coals, and the skillet had a very long handle I remember.

Guess we could look it up.

Sorry Tee, we got a little sidetracked from Sweet Potatoes.

Hmmmmm.... wonder if they would explode if you didn't cut the X?

Sorry Tee.

We'll continue this conversation elsewhere.

They go with sweet potatoes and Christmas and all things healthy.

I seem to remember the chestnuts falling in September here - Is that enough notice?

Heh! Look out! I might just show up on your doorstep.

425° oven. : )

I was grocery shopping today and they only had the white sweet potatoes, of course because I wanted both to compare. The white ones are purple on the outside and really, really large. They had cut the tubers into pieces that were still about a kilo each. I took some pictures and I'm trying to decide how I want to cook them.



I put a regular sized coffee spoon next to them so you can tell the size.

That's BIG!

I'll say. Thanks for posting the picture.

I used the recipe above last night. I was baking chicken anyway so I sliced one of them fairly thick, put them on a baking sheet with some olive oil and put salt and pepper on them. Dinner was delayed so I had turned the oven way down after about an hour and they got nice and crispy. They were really good, kind of sweet but more savory. That's a great way to cook them and I didn't even have any goat cheese to put on them.

Good to have the feedback, Jonna. I'm going to try that recipe soon.

I tried it the other day --- just roasting them like that with salt & pepper & oil & they were YUM! DH loved them too.