Although it is only the middle of November, thoughts have very much turned to the festive season. The way that you can tell it is imminent is because chestnuts suddenly put in an appearance in green grocers everywhere. Until the chestnuts appear Rudolph is about as real as an ice cube in a furnace. After they appear you can break out the tinsel and dance the conga. Santa is back in town.

Chestnuts are deceptive. Nay devious creations. They look like your normal, everyday nuts. And yet they are very different. Both in the fact that the fat levels in them are much lower then most other nuts, and hence are actually quite good for you, even if you are on a strict calorie controlled diet (which I'm not, but some of you fat people out there may well be - Fat People Unite!) And also because they are more complicated to turn into something edible then your average crack (the shell), chew (the nut), and slam dunk (the empty shell into the bin) approach. They require a grill, some time and most of all some luuuurve to make them delicious.

So, in the spirit of giving back, here is the Stuart Brown guide to cooking perfect roast chestnuts.

1/ Cut chestnut in half.

2/ Examine the inside to see if it is rotten or has a worm. An amazingly high percentage of chestnuts do. It is as though the worms know a good party nut when they see one and all pile in. Very bizarre. Of course if you like eating worms then skip this stage and enjoy yourself.

3/ Place on a hot grill slit side down. The reason for this is simple. Chestnuts have an inner membrane that clings to them. In order to get them, 'just right', you need to dry out the shell sufficiently so that that membrane loosens its grip on the nut and becomes crispy. However, if you cook them slit side up you will just end up with a nut that is dried out and overly crispy. So you need to cook the shell. The shell will then cook the nut.

4/ Longer is better then shorter in terms of cooking time. Depending on the oven and the amount of nuts it may take up to 45 or 50 minutes to get the shells cooking away just right. This is a judgement call. But you will notice that the shells are at least browning nicely, and that the chestnuts slip easily in and out of their shells like perfect dinner jackets.

Then eat them. (Apply salt if desired)

Drink sherry.

Throw up.

Simple!

Copyright - Stuart Brown

Editor's Note - Added 29th Nov 2004 - Someone wrote to me to ask for an oven temperature. Well, I just grill them for about 40 minutes shell side up, split side down. And it works great.

I have never tried them in an oven as such. If you want to give that a try then try out 180 degrees centigrade (approx 360 F) and keep checking them to see how it is working out. That temperature seems to work for just about everything else I cook, so I see no reason why chestnuts would be any different!