Collected some nice chestnuts today, it seems to be a better year for them than last year. Now all I need is some nice tried and tested recipes to use them up!

They're great in a nut roast and obviously a classic in several stuffings.

We've had quite a few rich and substantial casseroles with chestnuts in them. Sorry - no recipes to hand at the moment.

Thank you Colin, maybe I will start with a nice nut roast. I once tried to make marron glace for Xmas, but they didn't stay whole, thought I might collect some more and try again.

Yes, reckon you should try again. My memories of marron glace are that it tastes so good, I wouldn't mind how many pieces it was in

Colin, yes we ate them - delicious, but I was hoping to give them as gifts

Found this recipe to test drive Colin

Parsnip chestnut and cranberry loaf

# 3 onions , chopped
sage leaves shredded, reserve a few whole
# 250g cooked chestnuts
# 100g walnuts
# 100g breadcrumbs
# ½ tsp mace
# 2 eggs, beaten
# 500g cranberries
# 175g caster sugar
# 550g parsnips , choose long, thin ones if you can, peeled then halved lengthways
# 1 tbsp honey
Method

1. Melt 1 tbsp butter in a large non-stick pan, add the onions and gently cook for 10-15 mins until very soft. Stir in the sage for 1 min, then tip into a large mixing bowl. Pulse the chestnuts in a food processor until chopped into small bits, then tip these into the bowl with the onions and repeat with the walnuts. Now add the breadcrumbs, mace, beaten egg, 1 tsp salt and some pepper and mix everything together well.
2. Tip the cranberries and sugar into a pan and simmer for about 8-10 mins over a high heat. The sugar will melt and cranberries will pop and become saucy - keep bubbling until sticky. Set aside to cool. Grease a 900g loaf tin, line with a long strip of baking parchment that covers the bottom and two ends, then grease this as well.
3. Bring a large pan of salted water to the boil. Throw in the parsnips and boil for 3½ mins. Drain well. From the thinner ends, cut off lengths of parsnip that fit widthways across the bottom of your loaf tin. Keep going until you have enough to snugly line the base of the tin. Roughly chop all leftover parsnip and mix into the nut mixture.
4. Heat oven to 180C/160C fan/gas 4. Mix the parsnip lengths with 1 more tbsp butter and the honey to coat, then fit them into the tin. Top with ¹/³ of the nut mixture - pack it down well and smooth the surface. Spread ¹/³ of the cranberry sauce on top, leaving a small gap around the edges. Top with the remaining nut mixture and pack down as before. The loaf can be made up to 24 hrs ahead, then covered and chilled, before continuing. Cover with foil then bake for 1 hr.
5. To serve, melt the remaining 2 tbsp butter in a small pan and sizzle the reserved sage leaves for a minute. Splash water into the remaining cooked cranberries until saucy. Loosen around the sides of the loaf with a round-bladed knife if you need, then turn out. Drizzle with the sage butter and leaves. Serve in slices with extra cranberry sauce.

I'd be happy to eat this.

Let us know how you get on.

Castagnaccio = Sweet Chestnut Bread
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3 cups chestnut flour
1 cup water
4 tablespoons olive oil
Pinch of salt
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Handful of pine kernels
Handful of raisins
Generous sprig fresh rosemary
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Heat oven to Gas Mark 4, oil a shallow baking dish. Mix the dry ingredients, then gradually add the water, stirring well to avoid lumps. Stop adding water when you have achieved a thick pouring consistency.

Stir in the pine kernels, raisins and some fresh rosemary leaves. Spread the batter in the dish and garnish with plenty of rosemary. Bake for 40 mins or until deep cracks appear in the surface.

Allow to cool before cutting into wedges.


Now, I can't say whether you can attempt to make your own chestnut flour from what you're harvested. Otherwise apparently it's available for a few months from September.

I've found 3 other recipes using ordinary chestnuts - send me a PM if you'd like further details.

We use them in a pheasant and orange caserole, but find them a bu**er to peel whole and get that horrible inner brown skin off, so tend to cheat these days and use the ready peeled ones. I find that splitting the outer skins and cooking for a couple of minutes in the microwave first helps the process but have not yet found an easy way of skinning them.

Sadly the huge sweet chestnut tree that used to reside in a front garden near us was chopped down by developers and there are now new houses on the site so I've lost my source of collecting them as they used to drop on the verge outside. However, I planted one of the chestnuts in a pot and now have a little sapling ten inches high which I plan to plant secretly in a woodland area nearby sometime just to make sure that its heritage lives on.

A canny bit of guerrilla gardening Primrose, I plan to spread some foxglove seedlings around this weekend in a few places where thy won't be mown down by the hedge / verge trimming. I agree the chestnuts are a b... to peel