“Wait, wait!” a man called out as he briskly walked down the hill. I stood by the Land Cruiser as he handed me a bag of chestnuts.
What a treat! I now had a choice: eat them raw or cook the chestnuts.
Harvesting Chestnuts
I was grateful for the gift and we exchanged a few words in a mix of gestures and simple language. We had been running and hiking some nearby trails, but other hikers had been quicker in collecting all chestnuts and so we had missed out.
We remember chestnuts well from our Baekdu-daegan hike. We didn’t even know they were edible until a Korean hiker pointed it out to us. During that hike we spent hours harvesting, cleaning and devouring them. Such a treat – and a super nutritious one at that!
Only later we did we learn that cooking chestnuts in a pressure cooker worked great, too.
How?
Let me tell you!
Read More: Why Hike the Baekdu-daegan Trail in South Korea
Books on Using a Pressure Cooker
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Products from Amazon
Cooking Chestnuts in the Pressure Cooker
Cleaning raw chestnuts is a lot of work, requiring both patience and care with a sharp knife to avoid cutting yourself.
“There must be another way,” Coen said.
I agreed. Peeling that many chestnuts would take two days. I turned to Google.
Google had answers. We learned that cooking chestnuts makes peeling them easier. However, after some experimenting, we discovered an even better method: steaming. This method requires less water and less cooking time. How awesome is that?!
Thank you, pressure cooker, once again!
Read More: Unleash the Dragon – Why Bring a Pressure Cooker on your Overland Trip
Two Options to Facilitate Peeling Chestnuts
1. Cooking chestnuts
- Wash the chestnuts.
- Score each chestnut partly with a sharp knife to prevent them from exploding.
- Place the chestnuts in a pressure cooker and cover them with water.
- Close the lid, bring to a boil and cook for 8 minutes under pressure
- Turn off the heat and let the pressure cooker sit for another 5 minutes.
- Release the pressure, then take out the chestnuts.
- Peel them with ease.
2. Steaming chestnuts
- Wash the chestnuts.
- Score each chestnut partly with a sharp knife to prevent them from exploding.
- Fill the pressure cooker with 1 centimeter of water and place the steaming rack at the bottom.
- Add the chestnuts on the rack
- Close the lid, bring the pressure cooker to its boiling point and steam for 5 minutes.
- Turn off the heat, let it sit for another 10 minutes.
- Release the pressure, then take out the chestnuts.
- Peel them with ease.
Tip of the day
We next found a way to eat them without peeling: simply spoon the chestnuts out, like you would do with a boiled egg!
Overland Cooking Equipment
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Products from Amazon
Read More: Pressure Cooker 101
Pressure-cooker Recipes
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Oh, wow, not only in South Korea but also in Switzerland Chestnuts (Maroni we call them) are growing. What a surprise. In Italy and Switzerland it was in earlier times the “bread of the poor people”. In winter Maroni are sold everywhere. Since we moved back to Switzerland, we have a huge Chestnuttree in our backyard. So I prepare Maroni / Chestnuts like this:
Soak them 1 hour in cold water – cut the skin horizontally on the round bellyside with a sharp knife – put them into the oven, middle temperatur (Omnia as well / Colemann oven) with a bit water – after 20 minutes put a wet towel over the Maroni and bake for another 15-20 minutes. Try one, if it is tender it’s ok, otherwise let them bake for another moment. Make sure that the towel stays always very wet.
Happy meal!!
Hi Iris, so good to hear from you.Thanks to sharing this!
i just cleaned them and x cut then oven @ cooked” about 40 min a little less,
then peeled and roasted in 400 oven to “ toasted”
removed the membrane by rilling in my cupped hands
then wait till hardened and put thru a burr mill for wonderful flour!! Its a “ trade item” when things go tough out there!!!
It will do well in vacuum pack and freezer for long storage
I put super dry flour into Qt size Ball Jars for storage !
You make a 2:1 flour and chestnut flour for cakes cookies etc
We have a 90 year old twin chestnut tree my husbands father planted in the back yard! Its a super shade tree
and leaves are the last to drop! Need gloves to protect hands from the barbers hull
clean up!!
Thanks for the share! I love chestnut tree, they are so magnificent and in a way demand respect.