As temperatures drop below the 25 degrees there's a welcome chill thats reminiscent of winter, christmas and all the hype that surrounds this magical time of year.
I was seriously peeded off last week as the halloween decorations in our residence were quickly and quietly disposed of and replaced by an army of men and enormous cardboard boxes. We all knew what would be coming from these boxes and amazingly enough, I wasn't at all excited - proberly because of the sweltering weather and the thought of having to stare at these -sometimes monstrous - decorations for a whole 2 months. Not to forget that tiny hands are forbidden to touch, so its all just one big tease!!
But, today all that changed.
The sky was grey (not the polluted grey we normally see around here) and full of fast moving clouds. It was damp with a chill , the chill that normally get me all excited. My girls got to wear leggings and their raincoats. A chill that reminds me of winters in France, China and Switzerland.
I bought the girls advent calendars but as always, these ones won't be the last. They normally go through atleast 1 before christmas. When we lived in South Africa Olivia would go through about 3 before christmas and heaven knows how many Lindt snowmen, santas and reindeer were enjoyed before the 25th.
This year, so far, so good. No lindt chocolate in the shape or form of any festive figures has past through our door.
Don't get me wrong, every time we go to the shop up the road in Cyberport, I'm bombarded with ' I want that gold teddy, snowman, reindeer and santa '
But like I said, so far so good!!
Back to the chestnuts.
This chilly weather has me dreaming of roasted chestnuts.
Not only do these golden little nuggets taste delicious they also serve as winter hand warmers as the paper wrapped nuts warm the frosty fingers.
Sometimes - quite often - giving you burns as you try to pry them open to pop into your mouth.
When we lived in China they would bake the sweet potato in their skins and give them to you in a brown paper bag. These were delicious and quite often another one was bought just for one sole purpose... to warm the hands of a weary shopper!!
In France whenever we're out we always by our little cone of chestnuts and also always buy fresh ones to take home and cook ourselves.
To cook our own....
We go to the forest and pick some bruyere - which is a kind of fynbos. We have a special pan made from cast iron with holes in it and an extra long handle.
In winter there's always a fire roaring in the fireplace and what better place to cook these beauties than on a open flame.
We make a small incision into the rounded part of the chestnut shell - this is to release the steam as they cook otherwise, you guessed it, they explode.
Now for the hard part, you place the nuts in the pan over the fire and cook, tossing and turning so that they don't burn. Adding 'bruyere' every so often so that it burns away. We have tried it without the fynbos and works equally well (thats my opinion ) but for generations they have used fynbos, so fynbos it is!!
Now for the really hard part .....just sit back while the other slaves over the hot fire and wait. Keep taste testing - not so hard - and once cooked, pour out onto a sheet of newspaper and wrap. Leave until warm enough to handle - or atleast until you can peel and eat them without scorching the skin off your fingers and tongue.
The last time we were in France for christmas, Alex cooked the chestnuts. Olivia was so excited and so intrigued by the whole process. After that, the lights were dimmed and we watched old films from when Alex was a wee boy. And not just any TV film, it was projected onto the wall. It was a great memory for my little girl. Everyone snuggled around, eating, laughing and just being together. Not to mention the funny hairdos everyone had, they caused squeals of laughter!!!
If you don't have a open fireplace these can also be cooked in the oven in a baking dish. Don't forget to slit the shell otherwise you'll have one hell of a mess to clean!
This afternoon I'm off to Sheung Wan search for my fix.
Let the chestnut hunt begin.
No comments:
Post a Comment