Baked chestnuts are a very easy delicacy to make, and another quicker method to avoid using the appliance is to roast and peel chestnuts in the microwave. However, if we simply want peel them quicklythere is a very simple trick in which they almost peel themselves.
Obviously they require a little work on our part, but the technique allows the shell and inner skin to separate on their own, so we can finish peeling them by hand in the blink of an eye. If you have already peeled tomatoes with José Andrés’ trick, this system will sound familiar to you.
The goal we are looking for is to be able to peel the chestnuts without having to cook them completely first, for example to prepare brown glacé more easily or add them to other dishes and desserts without them dissolving too quickly. The Italian chef Stefano Barbato teaches us step by step. One has to scald them.
How to blanch chestnuts
For the process to be really fast, we have to have a pot full of plenty of boiling watera good iron frying pan or casserole with a lid on another heat already gaining heat – or chestnut pan – and the chestnuts clean and ready.
As always with this fruit, we have to give them a cut in the curved area of the shell, a horizontal transverse cut, leaving the opposite part flat without going through. It should not be very deep, just go through the shell and the inner skin.
Once with the cut, you have to boil them between a minute and a half and two minutes, if they are larger; As soon as we see that the shell has changed color a little, they will be ready. The pan must already be hot so that we can remove them with a slotted spoon and put them directly in it, with the cut facing up – important -.
Then you have to cover the pan with the high fire and wait for the shell to open and separate with the skin through the cut we have made. If the lid is glass, we can see it through the steam; that thermal shock and the play with humidity causes the two layers that cover the fruit to separate almost by magic.
Just another minute or two These are the ones we need to leave in the pan so they don’t cook too much. Finally, it remains to remove the shell with the skin, which will come out without problems through the crack. Yes, it has to be done hot; Leave the chestnuts covered with a kitchen towel while you peel them, and use gloves or another cloth to avoid burning yourself.
La Estrella – Enamel chestnut frying pan 26cm.
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Photos | iStock – azerbaijan_stockers
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