38 After the storm, the chestnuts

& a recipe or three

Just as each of the seven sweet chestnut trees at the edge of the garden before the woodland plunges to the stream has its own character, so each one’s loss of leaves has its own pattern and timing.

Coming back from the market today I have a sense I’m catching the last of the colour in the trees from this year. Hazels are holding on to their lemon, lime and old-gold roundels of leaves; oaks are mostly still full-pelted in russet and fox-red; many of the woodland chestnuts are still crowned in their own particular sienna-gold.

Chestnuts, Castanea sativa, here, as in other rural areas like the Cévennes and the Swiss Alps, naturally occurring in Europe for 10,000 years, were also planted prolifically from at least Roman times on, as their nuts were ground into flour for bread or sometimes animal feed. It seems there were, or are, many cultivars, some specific to a particular valley.

We have many on the land here. The first autumn storms bring a load of nuts down in late September or early October. I have to remind my greedy self, the one who is seduced sometimes by a myth of scarcity, that there will be many more, and bigger, riper, ones that will fall later in October.

As always, there were. And as always, I spent several weeks with our early pot of tea peeling them each morning with my trusty Opinel chestnut-peeler – though I have still to discover, after years of trials, whether they’re easier to peel raw or cooked. Both are tricky, actually. Most of our chestnuts have now been used, but some are in the freezer (alongside about 60 bags of beans and a few containers of stewed apples and cooked squash) to be discovered later.

Chestnuts are rich in dietary fibre, minerals such as copper, potassium, phosphorus and manganese, ‘good’ fats, vitamins B and C, antioxidants and other important nutrients, and lower in calories than many other types of nuts. They are a good source of protein amino acids, monounsaturated fatty acids, antioxidants and phenols, all of which are linked to numerous health benefits. There’s evidence that these nutrients may help improve heart health, blood sugar control, weight loss, inflammation, and digestive health. It seems they may also have potential anticancer properties. And – they’re delicious.

I use them in lots of ways. Early on in these posts I gave at least one chestnut recipe, for soup.

Here are three more: one for chestnut-stuffed squash, two for desserts. Apologies that I forgot to take a photo of this former dish.

NB: these recipes, along with many more, will appear in my vegan cookbook next year.

Stuffed Baked Squash
for 4 with sides

You could, of course, use any squash for this. However, it pleases me to use our little roundish orange potimarron (the deep-orange-red ones in the photo above; 5th generation seed now). I believe they’re also known as uchiki kuri, or onion squash. They also divide nicely into two each, cut in half and with the stem removed. You can use the sweet dumpling ones, too (bottom right in photo).

2 small round squashes
1 lime (lemon is OK)
olive oil
pinch chilli
1 medium-large onion
1 mug cooked chestnuts
1 mug breadcrumbs
1 red pepper
2 cloves garlic (more to taste)
generous amount of dried or fresh herbs, plus 6–8 chopped fresh sage leaves if possible
1/2 block vegan cheese, ‘feta’ if you can find it (optional)
yeast flakes
salt & pepper

Cut the squashes in half. Remove the seeds. Put the squeezed juice of the lime, a glug of olive oil and a pinch of chilli into a small jar. Shake it then brush the contents onto the rim and in the ‘bowl’ of the squashes.

Put the squash halves into a big ovenproof dish.

Put the oven on to 180º.

Chop the onion finely, and fry it in a little oil. After three or four minutes add the chopped garlic, then the chopped red pepper, the chopped chestnuts and the breadcrumbs. Fry for a few minutes. Stir in the herbs. Off the heat, stir in the finely-chunked vegan cheese and a couple of tablespoons of yeast flakes (more if you’re not using ‘cheese’).

Press the mix into the squash ‘bowls’. Drizzle olive oil over the top of each.

Put 1 cm of water into the dish and cook for around 40 to 45 minutes, till the squash are soft if you insert a knife into the outer flesh. If the squash look as if they’re catching, turn the heat down or loosely fold foil over the container.

Squash are quite filling. I thought about roast potatoes as sides, but for our harvest supper with friends I served them with halves of roasted onions and greens. My current favourite greens (even for breakfast, with scrambled tofu), are sprigs of green broccoli, cavallo nero and curly kale, and rainbow chard, all chopped finely and sautéed in a little olive oil, with a clove of garlic, for no more than two or three minutes. A squeeze of lemon juice on the greens is an optional extra.

Creamy Chestnut & Apple Dessert
for 4
This is a lovely pairing, simple and delicious, made from the seasonal abundance of autumn fruits. I like to serve this in large wine glasses. Prepare it in advance; it’s best served chilled from the fridge.

There is one problem I have with this, an ethical one: the best thick cream by far is coconut milk, put in the fridge for several hours first. However, coconut milk, apart from the food miles issue, is often obtained through the exploitation of trained and chained monkeys. Before I discovered this, many of my recipes included it, and to be honest I have no idea what to substitute for coconut milk. Any ideas, I’d love to know. At the moment, this recipe contains it. I gather it’s possible to source ethical coconut milk: anyone having a lead on that, please also let me know.

4 Bramleys or other cooking apples
1 dstsp raw brown sugar
200 gms chestnuts
200 mls plant milk
1 tbsp maple syrup
1 tsp vanilla extract
200 mls thick plant cream
30 gms pinhead oatmeal
1 heaped tbsp brown sugar

Core and slice the apples (peel if you like; I don’t bother as they are organic anyway). Gently simmer them with the sugar and a dash of water till soft, about 10 to 15 minutes. (Check occasionally to make sure they don’t end up dry.)

Meantime chop and then cook the chestnuts in the milk (also about 10 to 15 minutes). Drain if necessary.

Cool both lots of ingredients.

At this point I toast the oatmeal with the tablespoon of brown sugar until lightly golden (this doesn’t take long; be careful not to burn it), shaking frequently. Set aside (once cooled, put it into a sealed container to sprinkle on the top for serving once you bring the glasses out of the fridge).

Whip the plant cream with the vanilla and the maple syrup. Blend together the apples and chestnuts briefly in a food processor (or use a stick blender). Gently fold this into the cream mix, spoon into glasses and chill until needed.

Top with the oat mix just before serving.

Beetroot & Chocolate Cake (with or without Sweet Chestnuts)

I’ve said before that I’m an enthusiastic rather than skilled baker. But this worked. I first made it with beetroot and chocolate to celebrate Lammas, Lughnasadh, the early-harvest-time, the barley harvest in the northern hemisphere, that comes at the 24-hour period from the evening of 31st July to 1st August. Here in Brittany the barley harvest had just been gathered in (loudly, through the night), which was just as well because it then tipped down.

This cake was particularly good with the inclusion of foraged sweet chestnuts this autumn (in fact at another Celtic cross-quarter date, Samhain, the old New Year), for my partner’s birthday cake.

The quantity of plant milk you’ll need varies according to the size and moisture content of the beets. You need a thick purée, so use as little as possible to achieve that. If you add cooked chestnuts (see below), add 2 tbsps more plant milk, and 1 extra of aqua faba.

The recipe seems fiddly but is worth it. It’s like a melty chocolate brownie, moist in the middle.

By the way, cider vinegar and aqua faba are often added to cakes to help the rising process when there are no eggs being used.

2 level tbsps coconut oil* (I use virgin, i.e. cold-pressed)
50 gms dark chocolate, broken up
1 tsp cider vinegar
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 medium-large beets, boiled, peeled, cooled and cut into small pieces
12 – 15 chestnuts (optional), chopped
3 – 6 tbsps plant milk
3 tbsps aqua faba – liquid from 400 gm jar or tin of cooked chickpeas or beans (if using tins or jars with added salt, omit the salt in the recipe)
100 gms ground almonds
100 gms buckwheat flour (or any other flour, preferably whole grain, to taste)
50 gms pure cocoa powder
250 gms raw brown sugar
1/2 tsp bicarb
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon or cardamom
pinch salt

Topping (optional)
100 gms dark chocolate
1 tbsp plant cream
1/4 tsp vanilla extract

Start by cutting a circle of baking parchment to fit a 20 cm round cake tin, preferably one with a detachable base. Then grease the sides with (extra) coconut oil. You can sprinkle cocoa powder all round, too, if you like – also in addition to the quantity above.

If you are cooking the sweet chestnuts from scratch as I do, simmer them gently, lidded, in just enough plant milk to cover them. After about 10 – 15 minutes, drain them and retain the liquid to count as part of the plant milk called for.

Break the chocolate into a small heatproof basin, and add 2 tbsps coconut oil. Melt gently in a small saucepan of water over a low heat. Remove from heat once melted.

Put oven to 170º.

Mix all the dry ingredients into a large bowl.

Beat or whizz the aqua faba until it’s frothy and stiff. Put aside into another medium-sized bowl.

Whizz the beetroot with plant milk: start with 3 tbsps and increase as needed. The result needs to be a thick purée. Add the beetroot to the aqua faba and stir. Mix the vinegar and vanilla into this liquid mix and pour in the melted chocolate.

Stir this into all the dry ingredients. If it seems very liquid, add a little more flour; or another tbsp of plant milk if it’s too dry.

Pour into the cake tin. You may need to bake it for an hour, until a skewer in the middle comes out clean. (Check it after 45 minutes.) It will probably rise just a little.

Leave to cool in the tin for about 15 minutes, then loosen the edges with a wooden spatula or a knife and invert onto a wire rack. Leave to cool completely, then place the cake onto a plate.

This cake is even better for putting in the fridge for a few hours, once it’s cool.

Topping
We find that this is rich enough without any topping. Make this by melting the broken chocolate and vanilla together, very gently, again over hot water in a saucepan. Stir.

Remove from heat once melted, and cool, though not to set. After about 15 – 20 minutes stir through the plant cream and, working fast as it will begin to set immediately, spoon and pour the topping over the cake, beginning in the middle. You can tilt the cake a little to have some drip down the sides.

For an extra touch of luxury, you could put some chopped fresh berries or cherries on the top.

* Given concerns about the animal/environmental impact of coconut oil, it might be possible to use sunflower oil. I haven’t tried yet.

I’d love to know if you try any of these. And don’t forget that these recipes and many more will appear in my vegan cookbook next year.

Thank you, my friends, for reading.