Make your own home-made chestnut cream: nothing could be easier. The stages, the cooking process and tips for rapidly turning your chestnuts into jams and sauces.
"If you have some nice chestnuts and are wondering how to keep them all year, you could consider making your own chestnut cream.
- for 1 kg of chestnuts.
- syrup with 20 cl of water and 1 kg of sugar.
- half a vanilla pod (steep in the syrup if you like vanilla flavour).
Firstly, nick the chestnuts to prevent them from exploding. Toss them into a large saucepan with cold water and bring to the boil for 2 or 3 to rapidly remove the brown outer shell.
Once peeled, put your chestnuts to cook over a low heat in half a litre of water. They will be cooked once they reach the stage at which you can mash them.
You can also steam cook them or cook them in a vacuum for one hour at 80°C if you can place them in a single layer.
This is where the strainer comes into action. If you have never used a straining machine to remove the second skin, you will soon see what a difference it makes.
When you turn the handle, the pulp goes through the holes in the cone and the waste is automatically expelled at the end.
This considerable time saving is not the only reason to choose a strainer. The calibration of the pulp through the holes will give you the perfect texture: not too smooth, not too mashed. In contrast to a blender, you will not get a paste that will weigh down on the palate, but a fine purée that will reveal the aromas of the chestnuts.
This leaves the syrup.
Dissolve the sugar in the water and bring to the boil at an even temperature, not as high as for caramel.
Leave to boil to concentrate the sugar and reach 115 / 120°C.
Turn down the heat, add the chestnut purée and mix.
Your cream is now ready. Let the heat rise again while stirring and then fill your jars.
With just a few turns of the spoon, the cream becomes homogenous.
You will also notice that once the chestnuts have gone through the strainer and are mixed with the syrup, they will cook very quickly. This is yet another advantage.
The flavours remain intact, the aromas are powerful, and if you keep your jars in a dark place, you can store them for up to one year.
Although if there are some people with a sweet tooth around, they won´t last that long!
Tip: before cooking, steep the chestnuts in water and remove any that float. This is a sign that they are bad.
This recipe is taken from Tom Press Magazine Issue 10 from October-November 2015. ""See Tom Press Magazine issue 10""
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