Roast chestnuts

Name: Roast chestnuts
Cook time: 65 min
Total time: 65 min
Yield: 6
Cuisine: Española
Ingredients: 1 kg Chestnuts; Water

Castañas asadas

Easy

Incomplete allergen information: some ingredients have not been reviewed yet. Always check the labels before cooking.

Author: Equipo Cocinoa
Preparation time: 65 min
Servings: 6

Summary

Fresh chestnuts scored through the shell, roasted in the oven or in a pan with holes until they split open, then wrapped in a cloth so they almost peel themselves. The smell of Spanish streets during the castanyada and the magosto.

Ingredients

6 servings

Add to Bring!

1 kg Chestnuts (fresh, large and of a similar size)
Water (hot, for soaking)

Instructions

Tip the chestnuts into a large bowl of cold water and discard any that float. Drain the rest and dry them with a tea towel.
5 min
Preheat the oven to 220 °C. Place each chestnut flat side down on a board, hold it with a folded cloth and cut across the domed side from one end to the other with a small sharp knife or a chestnut knife. The cut should go through the shell and the inner skin without digging into the nut.
15 min
Put the scored chestnuts in hot water and leave them for 10 minutes: the moisture they absorb turns to steam inside and helps the inner skin come away. Drain well.
10 min
Spread them out on a tray lined with baking paper, cut side up and without piling them on top of each other. Roast until the shells open and curl back along the cut and the nut looks golden; halfway through, shake the tray so they colour evenly. Try one: it should be tender and floury. If you are using a chestnut pan with holes, roast them over medium-high heat, covered, shaking the pan every few minutes, for the same length of time.
25 min
Tip them into a clean tea towel, wrap them up tightly and leave for 10 minutes. The trapped steam finishes cooking them and loosens the skin.
10 min
Peel them while still hot, removing the shell and the inner skin together, and serve straight away, street-style, in paper cones.

Notes

New-season chestnuts reach Spanish markets in early October from El Bierzo, Galicia, the Genal Valley and the Montseny, and November is when they are at their best: freshly fallen, they are plump, sweet and peel more easily than ones that have been stored for weeks. Choose chestnuts that feel heavy for their size, with a glossy, taut shell and no holes or patches of mould, and throw away any that float in water, as they are usually hollow or have a grub inside. The cut is not just for show: there is water inside a chestnut that turns to steam as it heats, and if the shell is intact the pressure makes it burst in the oven or, worse, in your hand as you open it. Always rest the chestnut on its flat side and cut with your fingers away from the blade. In Catalonia they are eaten on the eve of All Saints, 31 October, at the castanyada, along with roast sweet potatoes, panellets (little marzipan sweets) and a small glass of muscatel; in Galicia, El Bierzo and Asturias they are roasted outdoors in November at the magosto (amagüestu in Asturias), in drums full of holes over a bonfire, with the new wine. Peel them while hot: once cold, the inner skin sticks fast. Raw, they keep for a couple of weeks in the fridge in a paper bag; roasted and peeled, 2 days in the fridge or several months in the freezer, ready for stews, purées or a stuffing.