Ingredients :
For dough ;
3 glasses of flour (1 glass=200ml.water)
2,5 tablespoonful powdered sugar (NOT heaping)
1 pack of margarine (1 pack=250gr.)
For filling (The amounts are for approximately three parties);
1 kg. date (preferrably Iran date)
½ pack of butter (1 pack=250gr.)
¼ glass of rose-water or plain water
Instructions :
Preparation of the date filling :
1. Take the pits of the dates out.
2. Chop the dates to gain a paste texture.
3. Cook the date-paste with butter and rose-water for a couple of minutes, by constantly stirring.
4. Get it cool.
You prepared the filling.
___________________
Preparation of cookies :
1. Put the flour, powdered sugar and margarine in a bowl and knead until you get a creamy dough.
2. Take a walnut-big piece of dough, first make a ball of it, and later flatten roughly in your hands.
3. Put this piece of dough in a cookie mold (which is gotten wet before every use, to avoid sticking).
4. Put half a dessertspoonful date filling right in the middle of it.
5. Close the filling with the dough around and press gently.
6. Turn the mold upside down to get the raw cookie out of it (and with help of your fingers “encourage” it to get out).
7. Put the raw cookie on an oven pan.
8. When the pan is full, put it in the oven heated at medium level.
9. Cook them not to fry, but to dry.
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Tips :
1. This dough is a very soft, creamy one. Don’t try to get it harder by putting more ingredient. At the beginning of kneading, you won’t easily gain a firm dough; contrarily it will be crunchy for some time. Don’t let it intimadate you, go ahead and knead more until you see that it’s turning to a soft creamy dough. This creamy texture is the reason of its high dissolvability in your mouth.
2. In mesuring the powdered sugar amount, don’t heap the table spoon with powdered sugar, as long as you don’t want to gain a fainting- sweet cookie.
3. To avoid it to stick in the cookie mold, it’s beter to wet inside of the mold before every process.
4. This is a generic cookie dough. With little adjustments you gain another dough for another cookie. For instance, instead of 2,5, if you put 3 tablespoonful powdered sugar (since you won’t use a sweet filling this time), add at least a glass of walnut crunches, and some powdered sugar and cinnamon over.. voila! now you’ve got another cookie named “Military Officer Button”.
5. If you put too much date filling, the cookie becomes too sweet. On the other hand, if you put too little, then you taste the dough more. In time you will catch the catchy taste :)
6. This cookie is not supposed to have a pinky colour. It’s cooked just to dry. But if you love it pinky, then let it be.
7. You must chop the dates well enough to gain a pasty texture.
8. During cooking the dates, the criterion is this; it should absorb all of the butter and rose-water and you shouldn’t see anything liquid in it.
9. Iran dates are the best for the filling, since its very soft and also 5 to 7 times cheaper than Madina and the likes in Turkey.
10. You can keep the rest of the date filling in your deep-freeze for next use.
11. As a rule of thumb, put your sweet works in an oven heated earlier at medium level and cook at medium level as well, and put the salty works in it heated earlier at high level, and cook at medium level.
Sunday, January 10, 2010
Friday, November 27, 2009
Leavened Dough (As a Base for Many Doughworks)
.
Ingredients :
3 glasses of milk (1 glass = 200ml)
1 glass of liquid oil (preferably sunflower oil)
xx glasses of flour
1 pack of fresh yeast (42gr.)
2 tablespoonful sugar
1-2 dessertspoonful salt (if dough is planned to be used in salty products)
Instructions :
Preparation of the leaven ;
1. Get a little pot with lid. Put ½ glass of milk and 2 tablespoonful sugar, by stirring get the milk lukewarm on the oven and melt the sugar inside.
2. Put the fresh yeast and either with a spoon or your hand (with glove) melt it as well.
3. Put a 2-3 of spoonful flour, mix again with the liquidized yeast and gain a very slushy dough.
4. Putting a lot of flour over this slushy dough, make a little flour-dome and put the lid on the pot.
5. When you open the lid back approximately 5 minutes later, you will find the flour-dome broken with the pressure of raised yeast below.
You prepared the leaven.
____________________
Preparation of the dough ;
1. Put 2.5 glasses of milk, 1 glass of sunflower oil, salt and the prepared leaven and mix them altogether. Put the flour and knead.
2. Wait for it to raise.
__________________
For questions : bidi@isnet.net.tr
Ingredients :
3 glasses of milk (1 glass = 200ml)
1 glass of liquid oil (preferably sunflower oil)
xx glasses of flour
1 pack of fresh yeast (42gr.)
2 tablespoonful sugar
1-2 dessertspoonful salt (if dough is planned to be used in salty products)
Instructions :
Preparation of the leaven ;
1. Get a little pot with lid. Put ½ glass of milk and 2 tablespoonful sugar, by stirring get the milk lukewarm on the oven and melt the sugar inside.
2. Put the fresh yeast and either with a spoon or your hand (with glove) melt it as well.
3. Put a 2-3 of spoonful flour, mix again with the liquidized yeast and gain a very slushy dough.
4. Putting a lot of flour over this slushy dough, make a little flour-dome and put the lid on the pot.
5. When you open the lid back approximately 5 minutes later, you will find the flour-dome broken with the pressure of raised yeast below.
You prepared the leaven.
____________________
Preparation of the dough ;
1. Put 2.5 glasses of milk, 1 glass of sunflower oil, salt and the prepared leaven and mix them altogether. Put the flour and knead.
2. Wait for it to raise.
__________________
For questions : bidi@isnet.net.tr
Pumpkin Dessert (Turkish Style)
.
Ingredients :
3 kg. pumpkin (peeled and 1 to 2 finger-thick sliced)
1 kg. sugar
For decoration : walnut crunchs
Instructions :
1. Settle the pumpkin slices side by side as a layer in a wide pot, and over one more layer if necessary, and sprinkle all of the sugar over pumpkins.
2. Put the lid over the pot and keep it aside for a night (or 12 hours).
3. The next day (or 12 hours later) you will see that the pumpkins exuded and swimming in their own juices (nearly 1 litre).
4. Now put on the oven and high level of heat to get it boil vigoriously, just for a couple of seconds, then get the heat to a low level to keep the pumpkins boiling, but not vigoriously.
5. Depending on the type of the pumpkin, it gets softened approximately in an hour. But still you must check with a fork time to time.
6. Wait for it to cool, then get out of the pot gently.
7. Sprinkle walnut crunchs for decoration, if you like.
__________________________________________________
Tips :
* The pumpkin in my location, Turkey, is a typical fat pumpkin :) The pumpkin/sugar proportion is for that classical pumpkin. But there are a lot of variety of squashes, of which I can’t know the proportions with sugar.
* Pumpkin is e very juicy fruit. When we blanket it with a sugar layer, from low concentration in pumpkins to high concentration of sugar covering them, its juice exudes and approximately in 12 hours (or roughly an overnight), amazingly you can see that the pumpkins are shrunk and floating in its own juice. Every drop of extra water you add will dilute the taste. Its always better to be a little bit patient, wait for an overnight for it to exude its own juice and cook the pumpkins in their own juice.
* Don't wait for all of the juice to dry. There will be some juice left in the pot at the end and as the dessert gets cooled, you will see that the juice will get concentrated as well. If you dry it all at cooking phase, the pumpkins will be too dry, sticky and hardened as they cool.
* At the beginning its better to chose a wide pot, for all of the pumpkins should be cooked in the boiling juice. You can settle the pumpkins in two layers, but no more. Otherwise the topmost third layer cant be cooked.
* After cooking the pumpkins, some uses them to prepare other kinds of desserts, and some (as it’s done classically in Turkish cuisine) sprinkles a lot of walnut crunchs over and services as is.
____________________________________________________
For questions : bidi@isnet.net.tr
Ingredients :
3 kg. pumpkin (peeled and 1 to 2 finger-thick sliced)
1 kg. sugar
For decoration : walnut crunchs
Instructions :
1. Settle the pumpkin slices side by side as a layer in a wide pot, and over one more layer if necessary, and sprinkle all of the sugar over pumpkins.
2. Put the lid over the pot and keep it aside for a night (or 12 hours).
3. The next day (or 12 hours later) you will see that the pumpkins exuded and swimming in their own juices (nearly 1 litre).
4. Now put on the oven and high level of heat to get it boil vigoriously, just for a couple of seconds, then get the heat to a low level to keep the pumpkins boiling, but not vigoriously.
5. Depending on the type of the pumpkin, it gets softened approximately in an hour. But still you must check with a fork time to time.
6. Wait for it to cool, then get out of the pot gently.
7. Sprinkle walnut crunchs for decoration, if you like.
__________________________________________________
Tips :
* The pumpkin in my location, Turkey, is a typical fat pumpkin :) The pumpkin/sugar proportion is for that classical pumpkin. But there are a lot of variety of squashes, of which I can’t know the proportions with sugar.
* Pumpkin is e very juicy fruit. When we blanket it with a sugar layer, from low concentration in pumpkins to high concentration of sugar covering them, its juice exudes and approximately in 12 hours (or roughly an overnight), amazingly you can see that the pumpkins are shrunk and floating in its own juice. Every drop of extra water you add will dilute the taste. Its always better to be a little bit patient, wait for an overnight for it to exude its own juice and cook the pumpkins in their own juice.
* Don't wait for all of the juice to dry. There will be some juice left in the pot at the end and as the dessert gets cooled, you will see that the juice will get concentrated as well. If you dry it all at cooking phase, the pumpkins will be too dry, sticky and hardened as they cool.
* At the beginning its better to chose a wide pot, for all of the pumpkins should be cooked in the boiling juice. You can settle the pumpkins in two layers, but no more. Otherwise the topmost third layer cant be cooked.
* After cooking the pumpkins, some uses them to prepare other kinds of desserts, and some (as it’s done classically in Turkish cuisine) sprinkles a lot of walnut crunchs over and services as is.
____________________________________________________
For questions : bidi@isnet.net.tr
Wednesday, November 25, 2009
A Special Version of Buhara Pilaf_________(Rice with Chestnuts and Chicken)
.
Ingredients :
2 glasses of rice (preferably jasmine)
1 kg. chicken thigh or drumstick (with or without bones,but certainly without skin)
3 – 4 carrot (medium size)
1 can of boiled chickpea (net 400gr of boiled chickpeas)
30-40 chestnuts (shelled)
½ - 1 glass of liquid oil (preferably sunflower oil)
2 tomatoes (medium size, grated or chopped)
1 tablespoonful tomato paste
1 teaspoonful black-pepper
1 teaspoonful cinnamon
1 teaspoonful ginger
1 teaspoonful allspice
7-8 cloves
salt (amount is up to you)
Instructions :
Preparation of the ingredients ;
1. Get the chestnuts shelled (you may like to refer to Chestnut Shelling Technique)
2. Put the tomato puree and tomato paste (by first mixing well the tomato puree and paste with a little bit water), chicken meat, and 2lt.of water in the pressure cooker and cook for 20 to 30 minutes, to get them well cooked. If you will cook the pilaf later, you should get it warm again before use.
3. Peel the carrots and chop them in half-a-finger length and width.
4. Wash the chickpeas.
5. This is the last step must be taken half-an-hour earlier to the last stage; rest the rice in a warm, salty water. Half-an-hour later wash the rice thoroughly (and gently) to wash out the white water of it.
Last stage ;
1. Put the liquid oil and carrot sticks in a wide deep pot and by stirring gently, cook for 10 minutes.
2. Get the heat to the lowest level and pull the carrots to the sides to make a ring of carrots on the base of the pot, put the well cooked chickens right at the middle of the pot, in the carrot ring.
3. Put the chestnuts over the carrot ring and around the meat.
4. Put the chickpeas on the chicken meat and spread.
5. Put the rice over the chickpeas and spread.
6. Sprinkle the spices and salt.
7. Pour the hot chicken extract you got by cooking the chicken meat in pressure cooker. If necessary add more hot water just to surface the rice layer, no more.
8. Get the heat level high and when it starts to boil, get to the medium level and cook at that level until it loses its water. Then get the heat level to the lowest level and dry the pilaf by cooking at this level for 5minutes more.
9. Cooking phase is over. Now, by putting a paper or a towel over the pilaf and right under the lid, keep for half-an-hour more, to let the paper or towel get the excess steam.
__________________________________________
* You can keep the pilaf in the pot for a couple of hours at this state, and before service, you can get it warm on the oven at the lowest level of heat.
__________________________________________
10. Whenever you want to make the service of it, you will need a wide pan, because this pilaf is serviced as a dome of pilaf, meat at the top, carrots and chestnuts around, making a crown. Get the lid of the pot and put instead the pan, inside turned down to the pilaf. Hold the pot and pan fixed and turn the pot upside down over the pan carefully and put the pan and the pot altogether on the table. With anything hard (like the handle of a big knife or a scoop) hit everywhere on the bottom of the upside-down pot. Slowly get the pot up and by shaking gently, let the stuff stuck inside drop. If still there are some stuff stuck inside, with the help of a spoon get them gently and put over the pilaf dome properly.
________________________________________________
Tips :
* To use just the meats of chicken is better, for the bones take a lot of space in the pot.
* You can cook this pilaf without the spices as well and it still will be delicious. But if you use spices, besides their benefits on health, you get a taste beyond imagination :) Those spices are good not for just this rice, but they fit very well to all of the rice recipes.
* If you get the chestnuts from the freezer, its better to wait for them to thaw, for otherwise it will get the temperature down in the pot. But still its ok if you get them out of the freezer in the last minute.
* I can't give a specific amount of water, for it depends on the shape of the pot or the ingredients you use (like bony or lean meat). Generally speaking, the water level must be same with the rice level at the beginning.
* You may use another kind of meat, but you may have to cook them more. I prefer chicken thigh or drumstick for it's a soft and delicious part of chicken.
* Instead of chickpeas, you may use pinenut (first by frying them like you do with carrots) in a less amount, bot notice that the amount of the meal will decrease.
* The meats touching the bottom of the pot will be fried a little bit. Its ok, for it adds a color and taste more to the pilaf.
* After cooking, if you cover the pilaf with paper, use a couple of layers of it, for one single layer wont be enough to absorb all of the excess steam.
* If you dont wash the rice thoroughly, the starch inside will make your rice sticky. At last, you get one pilaf block, instead of in seperate particles.
* Also if you dont get the water and at last point, the steam of the rice, the excess water or steam inside turns the rice to something sticky.
* To cover the pilaf with a towel, here is a technique ; get the lid, put the towel inside the lid flat, catch the edges of the towel from outside of the lid. Put the lid back on the pot. Over this way you will get the towel stretched right under the lid and the towel wont touch the pilaf itself.
Ingredients :
2 glasses of rice (preferably jasmine)
1 kg. chicken thigh or drumstick (with or without bones,but certainly without skin)
3 – 4 carrot (medium size)
1 can of boiled chickpea (net 400gr of boiled chickpeas)
30-40 chestnuts (shelled)
½ - 1 glass of liquid oil (preferably sunflower oil)
2 tomatoes (medium size, grated or chopped)
1 tablespoonful tomato paste
1 teaspoonful black-pepper
1 teaspoonful cinnamon
1 teaspoonful ginger
1 teaspoonful allspice
7-8 cloves
salt (amount is up to you)
Instructions :
Preparation of the ingredients ;
1. Get the chestnuts shelled (you may like to refer to Chestnut Shelling Technique)
2. Put the tomato puree and tomato paste (by first mixing well the tomato puree and paste with a little bit water), chicken meat, and 2lt.of water in the pressure cooker and cook for 20 to 30 minutes, to get them well cooked. If you will cook the pilaf later, you should get it warm again before use.
3. Peel the carrots and chop them in half-a-finger length and width.
4. Wash the chickpeas.
5. This is the last step must be taken half-an-hour earlier to the last stage; rest the rice in a warm, salty water. Half-an-hour later wash the rice thoroughly (and gently) to wash out the white water of it.
Last stage ;
1. Put the liquid oil and carrot sticks in a wide deep pot and by stirring gently, cook for 10 minutes.
2. Get the heat to the lowest level and pull the carrots to the sides to make a ring of carrots on the base of the pot, put the well cooked chickens right at the middle of the pot, in the carrot ring.
3. Put the chestnuts over the carrot ring and around the meat.
4. Put the chickpeas on the chicken meat and spread.
5. Put the rice over the chickpeas and spread.
6. Sprinkle the spices and salt.
7. Pour the hot chicken extract you got by cooking the chicken meat in pressure cooker. If necessary add more hot water just to surface the rice layer, no more.
8. Get the heat level high and when it starts to boil, get to the medium level and cook at that level until it loses its water. Then get the heat level to the lowest level and dry the pilaf by cooking at this level for 5minutes more.
9. Cooking phase is over. Now, by putting a paper or a towel over the pilaf and right under the lid, keep for half-an-hour more, to let the paper or towel get the excess steam.
__________________________________________
* You can keep the pilaf in the pot for a couple of hours at this state, and before service, you can get it warm on the oven at the lowest level of heat.
__________________________________________
10. Whenever you want to make the service of it, you will need a wide pan, because this pilaf is serviced as a dome of pilaf, meat at the top, carrots and chestnuts around, making a crown. Get the lid of the pot and put instead the pan, inside turned down to the pilaf. Hold the pot and pan fixed and turn the pot upside down over the pan carefully and put the pan and the pot altogether on the table. With anything hard (like the handle of a big knife or a scoop) hit everywhere on the bottom of the upside-down pot. Slowly get the pot up and by shaking gently, let the stuff stuck inside drop. If still there are some stuff stuck inside, with the help of a spoon get them gently and put over the pilaf dome properly.
________________________________________________
Tips :
* To use just the meats of chicken is better, for the bones take a lot of space in the pot.
* You can cook this pilaf without the spices as well and it still will be delicious. But if you use spices, besides their benefits on health, you get a taste beyond imagination :) Those spices are good not for just this rice, but they fit very well to all of the rice recipes.
* If you get the chestnuts from the freezer, its better to wait for them to thaw, for otherwise it will get the temperature down in the pot. But still its ok if you get them out of the freezer in the last minute.
* I can't give a specific amount of water, for it depends on the shape of the pot or the ingredients you use (like bony or lean meat). Generally speaking, the water level must be same with the rice level at the beginning.
* You may use another kind of meat, but you may have to cook them more. I prefer chicken thigh or drumstick for it's a soft and delicious part of chicken.
* Instead of chickpeas, you may use pinenut (first by frying them like you do with carrots) in a less amount, bot notice that the amount of the meal will decrease.
* The meats touching the bottom of the pot will be fried a little bit. Its ok, for it adds a color and taste more to the pilaf.
* After cooking, if you cover the pilaf with paper, use a couple of layers of it, for one single layer wont be enough to absorb all of the excess steam.
* If you dont wash the rice thoroughly, the starch inside will make your rice sticky. At last, you get one pilaf block, instead of in seperate particles.
* Also if you dont get the water and at last point, the steam of the rice, the excess water or steam inside turns the rice to something sticky.
* To cover the pilaf with a towel, here is a technique ; get the lid, put the towel inside the lid flat, catch the edges of the towel from outside of the lid. Put the lid back on the pot. Over this way you will get the towel stretched right under the lid and the towel wont touch the pilaf itself.
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
Lentil Balls
Ingredients :
__________________
(To cook the lentils) ;
2 glasses of red lentil
4 glasses of water (1 glass = 200ml)
2 tablespoonful liquid oil
__________________
1 glass of fine-grained “bulgur” (or cracked wheat)
2 big onions (chopped)
½ to 1 glass of liquid oil
2 tablespoonful tomato paste
1 tablespoonful red pepper paste (not hot pepper!)
chopped parsley (a handful)
chopped mint (a handful)
1 teaspoonful black pepper
1 to 2 dessertspoonful cummin
1-2 teaspoonful salt
Instructions :
1. Wash the lentils thoroughly to wash out its white water, and put in a pressure cooker with 4 glasses of water and 2 tablespoonful liquid oil.
2. Upon boiling, cook it for 10 minutes at medium heat, no more, no less.
3. After opening the lid, immediately put in the bulgur and stir thoroughly to get all of the bulgurs mixed with the lentil puree. Close the lid back and keep it aside for an hour (dont try to cool). Inside, the bulgurs will swell with the juice of liquidized lentils and the whole will turn to a lentil-bulgur paste.
4. Put the chopped onions in a pot with the ½ to 1 glass of liquid oil and by stirring with a spoon, cook them for 10 minutes.
5. Put over it the tomato and red pepper pastes and mixing them all, cook 1 more minute, take from the oven.
_____________________
*You can keep the ingredients at this point for hours before the last stage ; preparation of the lentil balls.
_____________________
6. Put the lentil paste (it gets hardened in time, so you will have to scramble back) and hot, oily, red onions in a wide, deep pot. Put over them the spices and mix them very well. They should turn to a sticky thing, so that you can make balls). Put the chopped parsley and mints, make the last arrangements of spices and mix again thoroughly once again.
7. Get 1-2 walnut-big pieces from the whole, roll in your hands (with gloves) and give a shape of either a ball or a thick stick.. or whatever you like.
_____________________________________
Tips :
* Bulgur is pronounced somewhat like “bull – ghur”.
* It may be sold in markets with its original name, “bulgur”. The fine-grained quality is named also “bulgur for meatballs”, for its the proper form of bulgur to use in meatballs.
* Out of lentil and bulgur proportion, all of the amounts can be arranged as you like, but onion and cummin should not be in little amounts for they fit very well to lentil and bulgur.
* To be able to give shape in your hands to something sticky and to avoid it to stick on your hands, you will need a little cup of water to wet your hands slightly every now and then.
* If you find the amount of onion too much, here is the thing ; the taste of onion gives the lentil balls a sweet taste.. its totally up to you to put little or much. You can put every ingredient little by little, and by tasting the result, you may catch the taste you like the most.
* If you put oil a lot, besides health concerns, because it gets the substance softened, you may not be able to keep the balls in shape.
* To boil the lentil with a little amount of oil helps it to turn into a lentil paste easily, so we put some oil in the pressure cooker.
* The liquid oil is prefferably sunflower oil, for its lighter taste, but olive oil is more health.
_____________________________________
Chestnut Candy
.
Ingredients :
1kg. chestnut
700gr.sugar
(For broken chestnut candy) Various complementary stuff like chocolate souce or crunchs, hazelnut crunchs, grated coconut etc.
Directions :
1. Shell the chestnuts (You may like to refer to the Chestnut Shelling Technique).
2. Put the sugar in a pot and pour water to the level of approximately 2cm (or a finger width) above the sugar.
3. At high level of heat, without stirring, let it boil vigoriously once and get down the heat to medium level and let all of the sugar cristals melt and turn to syrup.
4. Get down the heat to the lowest level and put the chestnuts in the syrup, not to break, gently.
5. Get the heat level high again and wait for it to come to the boiling point (but NEVER roll, otherwise all of the chestnuts will lose their integrity and break in pieces).
6. Keep the syrup at simmering heat for 1 to 2 hours (up to the hardness of chestnuts).
_________________________________________
Tips :* You can keep the chestnuts in the syrup as long as a month or so, in refrigerator. Whenever you want to use them you can get the whole chestnuts with your fingers gently (with a glove), and if you consider to use the broken pieces, filter it over colander (keep on colander for at least an hour).
* You can keep the syrup in freezer for a next time.
* In any case some of the chestnuts will be smashed and break in pieces. You can evaluate them in cakes or after filtering them over a colander, you can get walnut-big chunks of it, get them rolled in your hands and turn to little balls, and roll thoroughly in hazelnut, pistachio or chocolate crunches, grated coconut or dip in chocolate souce (or anything else you like).
* To be able to give shape in your hands to something sticky and to avoid it to stick on your hands, you will need a little cup of water to wet your hands slightly every now and then.
__________________________________________
Ingredients :
1kg. chestnut
700gr.sugar
(For broken chestnut candy) Various complementary stuff like chocolate souce or crunchs, hazelnut crunchs, grated coconut etc.
Directions :
1. Shell the chestnuts (You may like to refer to the Chestnut Shelling Technique).
2. Put the sugar in a pot and pour water to the level of approximately 2cm (or a finger width) above the sugar.
3. At high level of heat, without stirring, let it boil vigoriously once and get down the heat to medium level and let all of the sugar cristals melt and turn to syrup.
4. Get down the heat to the lowest level and put the chestnuts in the syrup, not to break, gently.
5. Get the heat level high again and wait for it to come to the boiling point (but NEVER roll, otherwise all of the chestnuts will lose their integrity and break in pieces).
6. Keep the syrup at simmering heat for 1 to 2 hours (up to the hardness of chestnuts).
_________________________________________
Tips :* You can keep the chestnuts in the syrup as long as a month or so, in refrigerator. Whenever you want to use them you can get the whole chestnuts with your fingers gently (with a glove), and if you consider to use the broken pieces, filter it over colander (keep on colander for at least an hour).
* You can keep the syrup in freezer for a next time.
* In any case some of the chestnuts will be smashed and break in pieces. You can evaluate them in cakes or after filtering them over a colander, you can get walnut-big chunks of it, get them rolled in your hands and turn to little balls, and roll thoroughly in hazelnut, pistachio or chocolate crunches, grated coconut or dip in chocolate souce (or anything else you like).
* To be able to give shape in your hands to something sticky and to avoid it to stick on your hands, you will need a little cup of water to wet your hands slightly every now and then.
__________________________________________
Chestnut Shelling Technique
.
2. Check and eliminate the wormy ones, during and after the cutting process.
3. Wash thoroughly to get them clean.
4. Soak in water for one day (and wash a couple of times, to avoid colouring the chestnuts by their own shells exuding their color).
5. Next day wash them again as a last time and put them in a wide oven pan wet (the chestnuts should touch on the pan by their round sides, as much as possible).
6. Put the pan in the oven, hot at the beginning and at normal heating level during cooking and cook them for 25 minutes.
7. When you get the pan out of the oven, immediately shell the chestnuts (the chestnuts somewhat should be seen inside their shells.. get them off as soon as possible, for as they get cool, it becomes harder to shell them).
8. In any case some can’t be shelled. Don’t spend time over them and put aside, and after shelling the ones getting out easily, put those hard ones in boiling water for a couple of minutes, and then shell them.
9. Put the shelled chestnuts in your deep-freeze to be used whenever you like.
______________________________
Tips :
* During shelling the chestnuts, to avoid burning your fingers, its better to use latex gloves and a cup of cold/normal water to get your fingers cold by dipping every now and then.
* The ones that are cooked in the oven are harder and more proper for meals. The ones that are boiled are softer and more proper to be chestnut candy.
* You may need a spiky knife (or anything spiky) to get the little pieces of inner fluffy layers sticking on the chestnuts.
* If you cook in the oven more than 25 minutes (30-35 min), then they cook well enough to enjoy directly.
* If some of them break in your hands and lose their integrity, then you can cook them in syrup and give shape of little balls and get a kind of chestnut candy (from whole ones you can get another kind of candy).
* And if you are unlucky enough, the type of the chestnuts may not allow the fluffy layer to leave itself and to be shelled.. In case of this, boil them and enjoy eating them and watching tv :)
______________________________
Tips :
* During shelling the chestnuts, to avoid burning your fingers, its better to use latex gloves and a cup of cold/normal water to get your fingers cold by dipping every now and then.
* The ones that are cooked in the oven are harder and more proper for meals. The ones that are boiled are softer and more proper to be chestnut candy.
* You may need a spiky knife (or anything spiky) to get the little pieces of inner fluffy layers sticking on the chestnuts.
* If you cook in the oven more than 25 minutes (30-35 min), then they cook well enough to enjoy directly.
* If some of them break in your hands and lose their integrity, then you can cook them in syrup and give shape of little balls and get a kind of chestnut candy (from whole ones you can get another kind of candy).
* And if you are unlucky enough, the type of the chestnuts may not allow the fluffy layer to leave itself and to be shelled.. In case of this, boil them and enjoy eating them and watching tv :)
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