Chestnuts

Chestnuts soft flesh teeters between sweet and savoury. As a result, they are brilliantly versatile. On the savoury side, they can be blitzed to become a classic component in Christmas stuffing with roast turkey, used in winter soups to add a creaminess or fried alongside brussels sprouts. For dessert they can be candied (which the French having a particular penchant for at Christmas), puréed to make traditional Italian puddings like Monte Bianco or ground into chestnut flour which can be used to add a nutty twist to a chocolate sponge cake.

Chestnuts will always be inextricably linked to Christmas, but in our general rush today we have more or less lost touch with the festive rituals of Christmases gone by. How many of us can say they’ve picked chestnuts from the forest floor, peeled away their spikey husks and roasted them on an open fire until their mahogany shells char? How many of us have even considered what they look like before they’re pulped into our stuffing mixes? Regardless, given how readily we can get hold of them in vac-packed bags (pre-cooked and peeled), or pick up a tin of chestnut purée, there is ample opportunity to experiment with using chestnuts over the festive season to make your table just that little bit more special.