Wednesday 22 October 2014

Chestnuts, cranberries and the dreaded sprouts!

It's really been a brilliant year for sweet chestnuts, a lovely wet spring  started them well. The trees at the end of our road have proper shop-sized ones, not the usual mousey ones, worm-free too. How sad that conkers are suffering so badly from the leaf miner, really positive to get school children involved in the research. How many will end up in related careers? Back to the edible ones, if you have to many to roast and eat now, drop them in a saucepan boil for a couple of minutes then leave them for half an hour, take out a few at a time and they peel easily while still warm. Ready to freeze for the turkey. I've just found a large one on my desk from a visit to Chartwell on Sunday, by today (Wednesday) it's quite dried out, I wonder what the importers do to them to keep them fresh.
Make Brussels sprouts edible, don't overcook them, slightly crunchy is best then toss them in butter, ground black pepper and a handful each of chestnut pieces and cranberries (frozen is fine). Sizzle gently until the cranberries turn them a festive magenta.
On the theme of cranberries, L has a passion for cranberry sauce, could eat a whole jar with a veggiething and roast potatoes, so I came up with a recipe for home-made which works quite well, it's on my post about chutney, have a go and enjoy it.

No comments:

Post a Comment