Festive Foods I

Roasted Chestnuts.

Selection.
Choose your chestnuts with care. Avoid ones that are split, or ones that rattle, or have little bug holes drilled into them. Those are not likely to be neither fresh nor appetizing. It makes little difference whether you choose large chestnuts or small chestnuts. I prefer smaller chestnuts as they are easier to roast and seem to pack a more concentrated flavour. A serving of chestnuts is probably around 8-12. For first-time chestnut eaters, this drops to about 4-6.

Preparation.
The back of the chestnut is characterized by a dark patch of shell, the front by a pointed shape. Between the front and back is the flat bottom and the domed top. Sit the chestnuts on the bottom, and split the top of the shell. Using a chopping board and a heavy knife (but not as heavy as a cleaver!), split the tops of the nut with a single well aimed chop. One need not use excessive force; the weight of the blade should be enough to split the shell. Ideally, you should aim to split the top of the shell without damaging the nut inside, but do not worry too much about it. The idea is to allow steam to escape the nut, preventing messy chestnut explosions during roasting. The secondary aim is to facilitate shelling prior to consumption. Preheat a toaster or conventional oven to 300 degrees farenheit.

Cooking.
Arrange the chestnuts on a foil-lined tray, split tops facing upwards. It is not necessary to cover them. Roast the nuts in the preheated oven for 45 minutes. Take one out and test-eat it. The nut should be soft, only slightly firmer than the consistency of baked potato. The raw chestnut has the consistency of an unripe apple. Any crunchiness in the test-chestnut would indicate that it has not been fully cooked yet. Test again at five minute intervals to get a feel for how long chestnuts need to be roasted. The fully roasted chestnut is soft, and slightly moist. The meat should separate easily from the shell and fuzzy membranous inner skin, while it is still hot. The nutty flavours and sweetness are maximized in this state.

Consuming.
Do not allow the chestnuts to cool. If they do, the meat will adhere to the fuzzy membranous skin inside the shell, and detract from the flavour. The skin is dry and bitter, and difficult to remove once the meat has cooled. Grip the nut by placing the thumb against the patch at the back of the nut. Fully crack the shell by applying force along the front-back axis. The split in the shell should widen. Pull the two halves of the shell away from each other and extract the meaty endosperm. For beginners, this process will not go smoothly, hampered by burnt fingertips and clumsy technique. With time and practice, you can build a tolerance to the piping hot nuts and remove the shell efficiently. Ideally, you should only roast as many chestnuts as you can shell before they cool enough for the skin to adhere to the meat.

Other methods.
There are many other methods for roasting chestnuts. One particular one practiced across europe and asia by street vendors is the slow-roast using sand and sugar. The chestnuts are roasted over a bed of sand and sugar, resulting in a moist and sweet chestnut that retains the flavour better than the previous method. Because the chestnuts are not split open, it is possible to slow-roast all day without fear of drying-out. However, this process is far slower and creates a mess out of the sticky melted sugar. The sand helps roast the chestnuts evenly over a greater surface.

For a great seasonal holiday treat, steeped in tradition, and celebrated in carols, roast your own chestnuts. Best enjoyed with a chilled desert wines with sweet, slightly nutty tastes and hints of figs and grapes.