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Recipes with cooked peeled chestnuts

3 recipes that use cooked peeled chestnuts, with photos, step-by-step instructions and cook times. The quickest, Sopa de castanhas, takes 60 minutes. It is most often cooked with onion, saffron threads and basmati rice.

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Sopa de castanhas

Before potatoes reached the high plateaus of Trás-os-Montes, chestnuts were the staple, and in villages around Bragança and Vinhais this thick soup is still made in November, when the magusto festivals roast the new crop. Farm versions are cooked with a piece of cured pork; this one is meat-free, built on dried or cooked chestnuts, white beans, onion and a little rice, finished with olive oil. It is sweet, nutty and filling enough for supper. Chef's tip: mash a third of the chestnuts into the broth to thicken it and leave the rest in pieces.

by KrazyBadal 0 views

Shaki piti

Piti belongs to Shaki, the old silk-road town in the green foothills of northern Azerbaijan, where it is still cooked in individual clay pots and served in restaurants near the caravanserai. Each pot holds lamb on the bone, chickpeas, a chestnut or two, a little tail fat and saffron water. It is eaten in two stages: first you pour the broth over torn bread with sumac, then you mash the meat and chickpeas and eat that as a second course. Rushing it at a high heat is the error to avoid; the broth turns cloudy and the lamb tightens. Chef's tip: if you have no clay pots, a heavy casserole works, and you can ladle it into bowls to serve.

by KrazyBadal 0 views

Shah plov

Shah plov, the "king's pilaf", is the showpiece of Azerbaijani weddings and Novruz feasts, especially in Baku, Shaki and Ganja. Saffron rice layered with butter-glazed apricots, raisins, prunes and chestnuts is packed into a pot lined with overlapping sheets of thin lavash, then baked until the bread forms a crisp golden dome. It is carried whole to the table, the top is cut like a crown, and everyone gets a crisp shard with their rice. The classic version also has lamb; this one keeps the fruit and nuts that already make it festive. Chef's tip: brush every lavash sheet generously with butter and overlap them by at least a third; thin spots tear when the plov is turned out.

by KrazyBadal 0 views

Goes well with cooked peeled chestnuts