Cooking chestnuts

Cooking chestnuts

Some people complain about the difficulty of cooking chestnuts. Roast chestnuts are delicious, but not very easy for some people to make them at home. On top of that, they are more digestive boiled or, easier, cooked in the microwave oven. Moreover, if you eat them frequently, you should consider avoiding the carbon parts that the roast chestnuts have. Just in case! Have you heard the many questions about the possible relation between the barbecue and the cancer? It could be applied to any burnt food.

Heterocyclic amines and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, created when grilling or roasting certain types of food, in a word, exposing them to a hot coal source, were added by The National Institute of Health, Dept. of Health and Human Services, in 1995, to the list of cancer causing agents.

Of course that a few barbecues in a year, or several packages of just made roast chestnuts are not a great risk. But if you have the habit of eating chestnuts, make them either boiled or better in the microwave. It’s the quicker way of cooking chestnuts.

To use the second method, you have to slit their skin before exposing them to the heat. It is better to draw an X with the knife, put the chestnuts in a bowl, add some water just to cover 3-5 mm of the bowl and… place it in the microwave…for ten seconds.

Don’t forget to slit the chestnut

This is very important to let the steam be released. and avoid a chestnut may explode. It will not destroy your microwave, but will produce a big mess. In function of the results, try again keeping records of the number of chestnuts, the number of seconds and the texture you want to get. I prefer the chestnuts crunchy. I only want them to get peeled easily. No more. Other people like them soft. The characteristics of you oven also counts.

Trial and error is the base of the Research and Development, even in cooking chestnuts!

The following one is a picture of peeled chestnuts after exposing them to the microwave heat. It can be eaten like that, more cooked, or can be used for another recipe.

Three pieces of average chestnuts have 65 calories, 1 gram of proteins, 14 grams of carbohydrates, 1 gram of fat (20% saturated, 50% polyunsaturated and 30% monounsaturated), 1 gram of sodium and some Vitamin C… that can be destroyed by heat. If you need vitamin C, eat fresh fruit.

Enjoy the chestnuts.!

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Falafel

We want to present you the genuine receipt of Falafel and the original way of making it. It is the best video about falafel that we have found in Internet. The scripts are in French, but we are going to translate it into English:

Ingredients and processes:

• 1 Onion
• 1 Bouquet of parsley
• A little bit of green pepper
• 4 cloves of garlic
• 2 tea-spoon of cumin
• 2 tea-spoon of coriander
• Salt and pepper
• 500 grams of dry chickpeas
• 2 spoons of sodium bicarbonate (baking soda)
• Soak the chickpeas a during one night in water with sodium bicarbonate
• Drain the chickpeas and smash them to get a puree
• Mix the puree with the mélange of parsley, garlic and green pepper
• Add the cumin
• Add the coriander
• Add salt and pepper
• Make small ball with the dough
• Fry the balls in very hot olive oil during several minutes until it is brown
• Serve hot or cold accompanied by salad and yogurt sauce. Many people like to have it with hummus.

Good appetite!

Note: You can do the yogurt sauce with:

• 2 cups of natural yogurt
• 1/2 cup of chopped cucumber
• 2 tablespoons of chopped onion
• 1 crushed garlic clove,
• 1 teaspoon dried mint
• 1/2 teaspoon of salt