With the arrival of cold comes the desire to eat chestnuts, a fruit that is already in season. Many of us may have memories of buying roasted chestnuts at street stalls, with their classic paper cone. Or maybe you are one of the lucky few who could enjoy them on dates in the frying pan or fireplace. But you can still enjoy some chestnuts from the comfort of your home, without them burning and in just half an hour. And the chestnut is a delicate fruit, which can burn quickly if we do not pay attention to it or use inappropriate methods.
If you want to roast chestnuts at home and get them perfect without burning, there is a trick that will simplify your life: you only need aluminum foil. This method guarantees juicy, soft chestnuts without the risk of burns, as if they had been roasted over a traditional fire.
Before starting to prepare our chestnuts in the oven, we must give them an initial wash. This will remove all traces of dust and dirt. During this process check that no fruit is damaged, rotten or has bugs inside. Holes in the skin of the chestnut can be an indication that there are bugs lodged inside. We also recommend that you discard flat chestnuts, as they are often difficult to peel and have little fruit to eat.
Next you must make a small cut in each chestnut, in a cross or with a straight cut. Try to go through the inner skin, but without going too far through the flesh of the fruit, as it could dry out during cooking or split in half. Once cut, it is advisable to soak them in cold or warm water with a teaspoon of salt. This will make them hydrate a little and roast better, in addition to giving them a final salty touch that will contrast with the sweet flavor of the chestnuts. We can let them soak for between 15 and 30 minutes. Meanwhile, you can preheat the oven to 180ºC with heat up and down.
After time, drain your chestnuts. They don’t have to be completely dry, it doesn’t matter if they have some moisture left. If you are roasting a lot, divide them into groups of 20 or 30 and wrap them in packages of aluminum foil, similar to a papillote Don’t overlap several layers of foil when wrapping the chestnuts, and make sure they are well sealed, but with room for the inside to puff up. After this, all that remains is to place them on an oven rack at half height.
Once in the oven they should be cooked at 180ºC for about 20-25 minutes. Remember that it is normal for packages to inflate a little. If after time you want to check if the chestnuts are done, you can open one of the papillote carefully and check that the chestnuts are at the desired point. With the help of a fork or toothpick, pass them through until you feel the desired consistency. You should be able to sink your chopstick or fork with ease. Steaming them in the oven will make them juicy and tender, but you can fry them over medium or high heat if you prefer an extra toasted touch. And so, thanks to the aluminum foil, the chestnuts cook in their own steam, achieving that classic touch without the need for a professional roaster.
How to make chestnuts in the pan
Although it is true that the oven is ideal for cooking large quantities of chestnuts at a time, at home you can also roast chestnuts on the stove if you have a gas stove and use a special pan for roasting chestnuts. You may not want to invest money in new kitchen utensils, but you can cook chestnuts over the fire anyway. To do this you just have to rescue one of the old pans that you have in your home and that you were going to throw away. The peel of this fruit can greatly damage the coating of our pans, so it is important that you only give it this new use.
If your kitchen is a ceramic or induction cooker you shouldn’t have any problems when roasting chestnuts, but you should be very aware of the temperature. You must cook the chestnuts at a lower temperature to achieve a good result.
Just as if you made them in the oven, to roast chestnuts at home in a pan the first thing you have to do is wash this fruit, dry them well and then give them a deep cut that goes through the skin. Again, cross cuts and linear slashes are very effective techniques, but you must make sure they are not too deep to prevent the chestnut from splitting or drying out when cooking.
Next, put the chestnuts in the old pan or chestnut pan. If you have a gas stove, as we have mentioned, put them on high heat, if it is a vitro or induction cooker, opt for medium heat. It is advisable to move the pan insistently so that the chestnuts roast evenly and do not burn on the outside. If you don’t, they could burn on the outside while still being raw on the inside. This process should take you about half an hour, depending on the size of the chestnut. Once cooking is finished, wrap the chestnuts in a clean cloth so that they maintain their temperature and stay warm for longer.
How to make chestnuts in the microwave
If we don’t have or don’t want to use the oven we can always make the chestnuts in the microwave. The result will not be as uniform as when roasting them in the oven or frying them, but we will have chestnuts ready to eat in record time. This method is also highly recommended if you need the chestnuts to make another recipe, such as a meat sauce or for a dessert.
Just as if we made them in the oven or in the pan, remember that the chestnuts must have a cut that goes through both skins so that, with the steam they give off and the heat to which we subject them in the microwave, they open and we can peel them easily. As we have mentioned, you can make a cross cut or a straight cut.
The cooking time will have more variables than if you did it, for example, in the pan. You must take into account not only the size of the chestnuts, but also the wattage of your microwave. With a 1000 watt microwave power you will only need two minutes of preparation to have the chestnuts ready. If the maximum power of the device drops to 800 watts then you will have to cook them for two and a half minutes. If it is 600 watts, it will take three minutes. The lower the power of the micro, the longer you should cook your chestnuts.
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