March 19, 2024

Charlotte Foraging #1: Chestnuts (Castanea dentata)

I’ve written posts about my shell and sea glass collecting, which I dearly love to do. Before we left for Singapore I was known to gather morels, bitter oranges, smooth river rocks, acorns, etc. Now that we are back in Charlotte, NC, and with my foraging buddy, Marty, we have been busy gathering for the winter, like all the squirrels around town. I thought I’d post a few of our adventures along with some recipes.

Photo from Wikipedia
Photo from Wikipedia

We are chestnut nuts, indeed. You have to be brave to gather chestnuts while still in their outer green spiky jackets. Nasty, nasty sharp but you need get them before the critters do. Not sure what kind of heavy gloves they wear but they forage efficiently and quickly.

A lot of time and effort go into chestnut preparation, that’s why they cost what they do in the grocery store. They put up a mighty fight all the way. Even with heavy leather gloves and long handled tongs we still got pinched and scratched.

From our initial batch Marty cooked up a great chestnut soup. The second batch went into a complex candying process. Two separate recipes and two different outcomes. See below for the combined recipe – the best of both worlds.

 
CANDIED CHESTNUTS – THE BEST OF BOTH WORLDS
 
INGREDIENTS
 
1 kilogram/2.5 pounds large, fresh chestnuts
5 cups sugar
5 cups water
1 tsp. vanilla extract (optional)
 
PREPARATION
 
Cut a shallow X in the flat side of each nut with a sharp knife, spread out nuts, cut side up, on a baking sheet. Bake in a preheated 425F degree oven for 15 minutes, turn nuts and bake for an additional 15 minutes. Let nuts cool and peal outer shell off carefully.
 
Place shelled chestnuts in a large pan with just enough water to cover them. Bring the water to a boil and cook the chestnuts for 10 minutes. After they have cooled, rub any additional thin skin off.
 
In another saucepan, combine the water, sugar and optional vanilla. Bring to a boil and stir constantly until the sugar melts. Add the peeled chestnuts and stir until the whole mixture returns to a boil. Continue cooking the chestnuts, frequently stirring, for 10 minutes.
 
Pour the candied chestnuts, along with the vanilla sugar syrup into a large container, and loosely cover it. Allow the chestnuts to soak in the syrup for 12 to 18 hours.
 
Add the chestnuts and syrup to a clean pan and repeat the process; this time boiling them for 2 minutes, and then soaking the mixture, loosely covered, for 18 to 24 hours.
 
Repeat the entire process a total of 3 to 4 times, until the sugar syrup has been absorbed by the chestnuts. Be patient, these steps are important.
 
Preheat an oven to 250F and arrange the candied chestnuts on a parchment-lined baking sheet. Place the baking sheet into the oven and turn off the heat. Allow the chestnuts to dry in the oven for 45 minutes to 1 hour, until they have firmed up and the surface of the nuts are dry. Store the chestnuts in an airtight tin. Enjoy!


Charlotte Foraging #2: Persimmons – coming soon…






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