How to: Confit Chestnuts
for my Chestnut Pappardelle and more
This forms part of the Chef’s How To series, an in-depth guide to cooking the main ingredient in my dinners at home. I want to share the magic that I absorbed in a restaurant kitchen; to approach food with the kind of love embodied by a Chef.
This recipe accompanies my winter Confit Chestnut Pappardelle, where confit chestnuts are chopped into a ragu and finished with a grating of nutmeg and parmesan. If wanting to do something different, confit chestnuts would be delicious alongside meat such as chicken, rabbit or pheasant. They would also sit wonderfully with the flavours of butternut squash and fried sage, perhaps in a salad with radicchio or on top of a risotto.
Confit Chestnuts
500g chestnuts
8 chestnut mushrooms, left whole
200g butter
300 ml chicken stock (or vegetable stock if vegetarian)
6 sprigs rosemary
4 sprigs of sage
a few strips of lemon peel
Preheat your oven to 180C.
Carefully score each chestnut in the shape of a cross (I find it easier to do this with a small serrated knife). Roast in the oven for 25-30 mins with their cross facing upwards. Wrap in a tea towel to steam and make them easier to peel.
Once cooled slightly, peel the chestnuts (we did this with a cup of tea while watching the football). Chestnuts have a dark, pithy membrane in between their exterior shell and light beige flesh. Try to remove this membrane, but if it is too tricky to peel, it will be just fine in the final ragu.
Combine all ingredients in a pan with 200 ml of the stock, reserving the remains in case a top up is needed. Allow the butter to melt, then cover with a cartouche and a lid. Turn the heat down to the lowest it will go, and leave to confit very gently for 2-2.5 hours. Try to ensure that all the contents are submerged, as anything above the liquid will not confit. (At the beginning, your pan will look quite full, but once the chestnut mushrooms and herbs wilt down, it should submerge easily). If at any stage the chicken stock reduces below the level of the ingredients, please add more to cover.
After 2-2.5 hours, strain the mix and discard the lemon peel and any butter that drips through. If making the Confit Chestnut Pappardelle, roughly chop all the contents to resemble a ragu. If using the confit chestnuts as an accompaniment to veg, meat or risotto, I would leave them whole.