As the chill deepens, the aroma of sugar-fried chestnuts is like opening a single loop mode, which is repeated in the streets and alleys.
Smell it? (Image source: Internet)
Nowadays, the processing process of sugar fried chestnuts seems to be difficult to see. But I vividly remember when I was a child, there was a state-run food store near my home. Every early winter, a large cauldron like a jar is placed at the entrance of the store, which is always rolling with brown-red chestnuts and dark and shiny sand.
"Fully automatic" is like this, I have even seen the "artificial version" stir-fried with a shovel (image source: network)
"Oily" is because of the sugar - "sugar fried" chestnuts. But these sugars are really not used to add sweetness, but to make the chestnuts evenly heated, and then to add some unique flavor of "caramel" to the chestnuts. In fact, the sweetness of sugar-fried chestnuts is mainly dependent on the chestnuts themselves.
So which chestnuts are sweeter, oil chestnuts, or chestnuts?
Although chestnuts have a higher starch content, in terms of sweetness, it is the oil chestnut that wins - this interesting phenomenon may be similar to the contrast between waxy corn and fruit corn. In short, sugar fried chestnuts are made with oil chestnuts. Although it is smaller than a chestnut, in addition to being sweeter, the oil chestnut has another advantage: it is easy to peel. So it is suitable for stir-frying.
But chestnuts have their own chestnut benefits. This larger chestnut is not as sleek and worldly as its cousins, and it is also awkwardly sweet; its advantage lies in its solid, powdery texture. Braised pork, yellow braised chicken, grab a handful of chestnuts and put them in and stew together, chestnuts are more fragrant than meat. Once ate chestnut braised pork in Huairou. At the end of the table, when the meat was basically untouched, but half of the chestnut was not left.
Yam chestnut chicken with brandy stewed sydney pear (Image source: 321cooking)
Plain is just as delicious. I like to boil chestnuts as a staple when making cabbage and tofu pots. When the pot is cooked, the soup is sweetened and the chestnut kernels are stewed to a crisp and soft taste. It's really fresh. For more elaborate, I have tried a "thick chicken soup chestnut cabbage pot" for three minutes before. The baby cabbage is blanched and then added to the chicken broth thickened with pumpkin paste, and simmered with chestnuts and oil gluten. The process is slightly more complicated, but the taste is extremely rich and mellow.
Chestnut cabbage stew with thick chicken soup (Image source: 321cooking)
In addition to stewing, stir-frying, simmering, and roasting, chestnut filling is also good. When I went to a wonton chain store in Tianjin a few years ago, I was hit by his chestnut pork ravioli and remembered the sweet and rich taste ever since. Later, I also bought wontons stuffed with chestnuts several times online - it was Shanghai wontons. Fortunately, you can now pack it yourself.
Own wrapped ravioli
Chestnuts also have advantages in "begging color" (see "Good Days and Good Intentions: Peace and Joy, Come to the Bowl"): itself is "profit", and stewed with pig's feet, which symbolizes "catching a sum", is to make a fortune; stewing with chickens is more straightforward, auspicious, everyone likes it. The most pleasing thing is to stir-fry with chestnuts and rapeseed, and the profits on the board and the proper wealth are all good things. Except for the simple taste, there is nothing wrong with it.
Chestnut Pig's Foot Fairy Chicken (Image: 321cooking)
In Western food culture, chestnuts do not seem to have any special meaning, "delicious is enough". Therefore, the application of chestnuts in Western-style cuisine and baking is also very extensive. For example, ground chestnuts can be used to thicken the soup, usually with cream, or wine and sugar stains and then used in desserts, the taste, think about it, it is fascinating. It's like a condensed autumn, with a slightly drunken little mood.
Candied chestnuts (Image source: Internet)
Speaking of which, I remembered that in late November, Maggie recommended me a cognac chestnut sauce recipe. It was roughly seasoned with brandy and vanilla, with cream, butter and brown sugar, which made me hungry. Unfortunately, the shelf life is too short, and I have no love for sweets, so I have not made it. But vanilla, cream, brandy, all ingredients that can bring a strong sense of happiness, I feel that this sauce is for sharing with my lover. If you have the chance, always try it.
Speaking of chestnut sauce, it is better to say "chestnut paste" or "chestnut mud" (Image source: Internet)
In the past, chestnuts were said to be untouched, because there were so many unsatisfactory things associated with it. However, in the past two years, the scar has forgotten the pain, and I have begun to worry about its taste again. Soups, stews, yogurt salads made with fruit, or even just soaking it in milk with cereal are all good. Chestnuts are also ingredients with a clear seasonal meaning, and when the time comes, if you don't eat them, you will always feel that you have missed the biological clock of nature.
When making the vegetable soup, put two chestnuts, and even have vegetables with staple food
The literary association derived from chestnuts is also interesting. Reading "Little Women" in school, the author likened the grown-up heroine jo to a chestnut, "there are thorns on the outside, but as long as someone can peel it off, they will find out how sweet and soft the chestnut kernel is inside." ”（you are like a chestnut burr, prickly outside, but silky-soft within, and a sweet kernal,if one can only get at it. love will make you show your heart one day, and then the rough burr will fall off.... The second half of the sentence is not happy with the translation. Throw the original text directly)
show your heart... then the rough burr will fall off (Image: web)
In this metaphor of chestnuts, the imagery is simple, and the words have a kind of simple beauty. But I don't like it. But the little girl of the friend Xiaofei's family, the nickname is chestnut. I don't know if it has anything to do with this allusion.
Hopefully not. For chestnuts, wearing such a layer of skin is helpless, and being stripped of defense is damage. So I really hope that every cute girl can directly make a sweet and soft chestnut, guarded by her parents, cared for by fate, without trouble...
Long music is still in the air.
December 12, 2020
【Words written at the back】
I swear that when I wrote this article, the heart I wanted to express was sincere, but the helpless thing was that the energy was very low, so I finally couldn't hold on to it in the end, so my voice gradually weakened.
I can't say that this winter is the hardest winter I've ever experienced – it's too far off! But the confusion, anger, and even despair in the heart show a strange deviation from the objective state; and this strange contrast further strengthens all kinds of negative emotions.
But maybe I can say it now: don't give up. Everything is showing signs of getting better again. First the article, then the self. I hope so...... (Claw)
Ah, yes. Yesterday, yesterday. Finished the 100th article after the kitchenette resumed operations.
If you continue to pay attention to your partners here, you will be more impressed by this number that I have repeatedly mentioned. To be honest, even before I started writing, I was very troubled, not sure if it would be the last one. But when I tried to say such a thought, I knew in that instant that I wouldn't.
No. The road is still very long. The delay in writing is not that I can't write, but I am entangled and can't pick out the most suitable topic for "as the end".
If you can't end it, you can't end it, so keep writing.
So, when it is clear that "100 is just a number, it no longer has a special meaning", everything is completed again. Pick a topic to write about (spoilers: ten corianders) and prepare to continue writing the 101st article after today's article is sent.
Don't go. The above is not the end, but the beginning.
January 28, 2021 A mao tuan (seriously stepped on a paw print)