Monday, September 29, 2008

little treasure

As I was walking to the train station on Saturday, I passed by a house in our neighborhood that has several kuri (chestnut) trees. Most times when I pass by, the kuri are either not ready and fall off the tree as green "sea urchins", or they are dried brown "sea urchins" and the birds have already taken whatever chestnuts were inside.

On this day though, I didn't see any "sea urchins", just this.

A perfect chestnut. Just lying there.

I looked around to see if anyone had dropped it or was watching me, then I picked it up and put it into my bag and went on my way.

When I came home, I thought, "now what do I do with my treasure?"

I looked in a basic cooking book and it said to peel the chestnut, soak it in water then add them to be cooked with rice. Another method was to just leave the shell on and boil in water.

I didn't have enough to make a rice dish with and I couldn't see boiling water just for this one chestnut, so instead, I peeled the chestnut up until the furry skin, then threw it into a steamer basket with some sweet potato and steamed them for 15 minutes.

After the 15 minutes, I gingerly peeled the fuzzy skin from the chestnut, the chestnut fell apart...but it was really sweet and delicious.

It was definitely a delicious little treasure.

14 comments:

Anonymous said...

That is priceless :)

Jenster said...

I love chestnuts but rarely get the opportunity to eat any. Do they sell roasted chestnuts in Japan? I love to get them during the holidays -- They're the perfect foil for a cold day.

K and S said...

Thanks Shar!

Yes they sell roasted chestnuts here, Jenster and they are so easy to peel, no fuzzy skin to mess with! I hope you get to enjoy some this season :)

Take care you two.
Kat

Rowena said...

Kat you are the queen of sweet treats and spontaneous cool (although I should say differently regarding that 'teasing the monkey' incident with Satoshi!).

It is full on chestnut season here and over the w/e we had a whole bunch of people poking around in the chestnut grove, gathering whatever was fallen. Whenever I walk the dogs, those chestnuts are literally messing up the road, having been crushed from cars! I'll see what I can find today, that is if any new ones fell to the ground overnight!

Phoebe said...

water chestnuts!!! nuts about it hehe

Chestnuts and sweet potatoes are a good mix, Kat

K and S said...

Thanks Rowena, I still razz Satoshi about staring at the monkeys...I hope you were able to find some chestnuts :)

I love water chestnuts too, Phoebe.

Take care you two.
Kat

OkiHwn said...

Way back when in New York City when I visited often during college, there were food carts that sold bags of hot roasted chestnuts during the winter. As jenster says, what a great thing to have when out - warm the hands, warm the tummy!

K and S said...

Nate that sounds so nice to be able to stop buy some chestnuts and enjoy them while walking :)

Take care.
Kat

Anonymous said...

The chestnut is just so perfect. ~Kireii-ne~

Haha, i enjoy reading your blog posts... helps me to learn much more about life in Japan.

Thanks (:

Anonymous said...

on the topic of chestnuts..the chestnut people at marukais have been missing lately..when asked where they were..found out that they are out gathering nuts in China, they bring back an entire shipping container load. Thats a whole lotta nuts..dont ya think ? wow.

that is nuts ! ;)

Anonymous said...

Either your hand is really titchy or that chestnut is ginormous o___O

What a cute story though!

K and S said...

Thank you Ally!

Wow Anon, that IS a lot of nuts!

My hand is pretty big for a girl, P-T...

Take care everyone!
Kat

Kay said...

I'm just jumping over from Jalna's blog. We used to have a horse chestnut tree in Chicago, but only the squirrels could eat those chestnuts. What fun to be able to actually find an edible chestnut on the ground.

K and S said...

Thanks Kay for stopping by! it really was nice to find an edible one:)

Take care!
Kat