Edible chestnuts: calorie content, chemical composition and beneficial properties, harm from eating fruits. Recipes of dishes from them. Interesting facts about the plant. External use of the decoction of the fruit increases the regenerative capacity of the body and blood clotting, improves the tone of the skin, helps to get rid of rheumatic pain in the joints.
The glycemic index of fresh chestnuts is not very high - 54 units, which makes it possible to use them for diabetes.
It is worth adding nuts to the diet, albeit in a few pieces, and you can forget about depression, insomnia and emotional instability.
Harm and contraindications to edible chestnuts
Despite the many beneficial properties, not everyone can introduce fruits into the daily menu.
Edible chestnuts can cause harm in the following diseases and conditions:
- Renal failure;
- Peptic ulcer during an exacerbation;
- Diabetes;
- Cardiovascular diseases occurring against the background of hypotension;
- Individual intolerance;
- Violations of the menstrual cycle, if the endometrium is practically not separated and menstruation is limited to blood smearing;
- Obesity;
- Pregnancy, lactation and childhood.
When using the product, vascular spasms are eliminated, the outflow of fluid from the body increases, but useful substances - calcium and potassium - are washed out.
Chestnuts are considered heavy food. Abuse can lead to an increase in the production of intestinal gas, the development of constipation, bloating and nausea, symptoms of intoxication. During pregnancy and childhood, digestive disorders can cause intestinal obstruction.
If the child wants to introduce a new dish into the diet, then the chestnut pulp should be softened and rubbed through a sieve. Little by little, mashed potatoes are added to potatoes or soup, analyzing the baby's condition. And even then, you should not do this until he is 4-5 years old, so as not to cause diseases of the pancreas and stomach.
How chestnuts are eaten
In fresh chestnuts, the shell is difficult to separate. If you plan to cook some kind of dish, then remove the skin from the fruit, almost like from tomatoes. That is, a longitudinal incision is made, the nut is dipped in boiling water and the varnished skin is removed with a knife.
There is another way how to get to the sweetish pulp and how to eat edible chestnuts:
- The top of the fruit is cut from the side of the "peak";
- Boil the fruits in boiling water for 3 minutes;
- Freeze for 5-6 hours in a freezer;
- Immersed in boiling water, and then doused with running ice water.
After that, the peel is easily removed and the nucleoli can be eaten raw. But it is better to take your time and cook various tasty and healthy dishes from the fruit.
Edible chestnut recipes
It is a versatile product. Nuts can be served as a side dish, added to desserts, ground into flour to flavor baked goods, or used as an ingredient to stuff meat.
Edible chestnut recipes:
- Pilaf … Long-grain rice, 500 g, washed, ensuring that the water becomes clear, re-fill with cool water and leave for 2 hours. 0.5 kg of lamb is cut into portions and boiled until tender, skimming off the foam and salting. Dried apricots and raisins, just a little more than a glass together, are poured with boiling water for 10 minutes. Chestnuts, about 100 g, are peeled. The fruits are boiled in boiling water for 5-7 minutes. 2 medium-sized onions are finely chopped into strips and fried until golden brown in 80 g of butter. When the onion becomes beautiful, soaked dried fruits are spread into the pan, squeezing out the water. After another 15 minutes, add the meat and stew for another 15 minutes. Soaked rice is boiled until half cooked, it is not recommended to overcook. Throw it back on a sieve to remove the liquid. Set aside 5 tablespoons of rice, mix with half or a third teaspoon of turmeric and a raw egg. This mixture is called gazmah. In another cup, mix 80 g of oil, another third of a teaspoon of turmeric, salt and melt in a water bath or in the microwave. The bottom of a thick-walled saucepan is greased with butter, smeared with a layer along the bottom with gazma, and then the rice is laid out in layers, laying with the remaining mixture with salt and turmeric. Push the chestnuts into the top layer with your finger so that they completely enter the rice. Cover the pot with a waffle towel, then put the lid on and simmer until the rice is cooked. Meat and rice are combined in bowls when serving.
- Roasted chestnuts … The oven together with the baking sheet is heated to 220 ° C. The fruits are washed, a cruciform incision is made on the side of the peak. Spread out on a baking sheet with the smooth side down and bake for about 20-30 minutes, until the peel is peeled back with petals. Finished "nuts" are tightly wrapped in a clean waffle towel. After 5 minutes, when the roll is unrolled, the rind remains on it. Chestnuts can be served with salt or paprika.
- Soup … Transparent meat broth, 1 l, is prepared in advance using water, meat and onions for cooking. Be sure to remove the foam. Chestnuts, 500 g, are cleaned in the second way, pre-boiling. When the peel is completely removed, the fruits are boiled for another 3-4 minutes. The chestnuts are dipped in the broth, and while they are boiling, chop with strips (or grate on a coarse grater) 2 large carrots, 1 turnip and 1 onion. Vegetables are fried in butter. When the vegetables are fried, the chestnuts are taken out of the pan, mashed with a teaspoon of sugar. Vegetables and nuts are put back in a saucepan and boiled for another 3-4 minutes. Served with croutons.
- Christmas dessert … A little less than a bar of dark chocolate, 150 g, is melted in a water bath, cognac is poured in, 6 tablespoons, and half a teaspoon of vanilla and coffee extracts. Stir. Remove the container from the water bath and put 100 g of butter in it - it should melt on its own. Stir when the butter has melted. 500 g of peeled chestnuts are boiled until tender, interrupted with a blender in mashed potatoes with half a glass of sugar, mixed with a butter-chocolate mixture. Use foil to shape the dough into a log shape. Leave to harden in the refrigerator. Night is usually enough for it to harden. In the morning, the foil is removed, and the log is decorated. Prepare a water bath again, melt 50 g of butter, 150 g of chocolate, pouring a tablespoon of brandy. When a uniform consistency is obtained, decorate the log with patterns or cover it with an even layer of glaze. Put it in the refrigerator for another 2-3 hours so that the fondant hardens.
These are just a few of the recommendations on how to cook edible chestnuts. They can be fried, baked, boiled, steam and grilled, experimented by adding to various seasonings, used as an edible decoration.
Nuts can be used to prepare not only meals, but also drinks. Let's consider the most popular ones:
- Kvass … In a three-liter container, 40 pieces of cut fruits without a peel are lowered, poured with water, a glass of sugar is poured in and a tablespoon of sour cream is poured in (you can replace it with half a glass of milk sourdough). Leave to ferment for 2 weeks at a temperature slightly above room temperature - 25-35 ° C. This drink not only quenches thirst, but also helps to remove toxins and free radicals from the body.
- Cocktail … Prepare for the preparation of the drink in advance. Pour 200 g of chopped roasted chestnuts into a bottle of cognac and leave to infuse for 2 weeks. When the tincture is ready, you can start preparing the drink. Place in a shaker: 120 g of cognac tincture, 45 ml of fresh lemon juice, 60 ml of red vermouth, add a handful of saffron. All are mixed. Ice is poured into the glass, and then the cocktail is poured. You can reduce the amount of lemon juice and place the lemon wedge directly into the glass.
Roasted nuts can be served as a snack for alcoholic drinks.
Interesting facts about edible chestnuts
The fruits of the sowing chestnut have been eaten since ancient times. Fossilized capsules in ash were found in the Lower Tertiary sediments in the Ussuri region and the Black Sea region, in Bashkiria near Sterlitamak and in the Caucasus. It can be concluded that in those days, edible chestnuts grew throughout Eurasia.
When it comes to the edible fruit of chestnuts, clarification is imperative. Chestnuts are called the fruits of the stomach, horse chestnut, from the Sapindov family, or chestnut sperm from the Legume family, but their fruits are inedible, and even poisonous in the stomach.
In ripe edible chestnuts, the ossified shell opens, cracks, and the nuts fall to the ground, where they later take root or are eaten by artiodactyls. Trees grow fast enough and begin to bear fruit in the 4th-5th year. They can grow up to 50 m.
The oldest beech tree is listed in the Guinness Book of Records. Its trunk circumference is 57, 9 m. Biologists are still trying to accurately determine his age and wonder how old he is - 2000 or as much as 4000?
In the Middle Ages, the roofs of castles were made of beech wood. Spiders do not weave webs on the beams of its wood.
In terms of nutrients, fresh chestnuts are similar to brown rice. Therefore, it is not surprising that 40% of the fruits are eaten by the Chinese. The calorie content of the Chinese chestnut is higher than the European one - 224 kcal.
Chestnut is the only nut that contains ascorbic acid. And it tastes more like potatoes, there are too many starchy substances.
Watch a video about edible chestnuts:
Fresh edible chestnuts are now in supermarkets. They are not that expensive, so do not miss the opportunity to introduce a new dish into your diet. You just need to remember - there is moisture inside the nut. Therefore, before immersion in boiling water or hot, do not forget to cut the shell. Otherwise, an explosion will occur. 1 fruit will explode - not scary, but several can break a pan, microwave, break glass in the oven. For this to happen, you should learn how chestnuts are eaten before cooking.
