Wild Chestnut & Thyme Risotto
By next week they’ll be gone. But while you can, there’s a bounty of smooth, nutty, sweet Autumn Chestnuts ready in abundance and littering the floor of the woods… Don’t mistake them for conkers (or worse vice versa)… You’ll know a sweet Chestnut by it’s green shell of fine spines, which is almost impossible to penetrate without impaling a finger. Inside you’ll find 3 cosy chestnuts, slightly tear-dropped in shape (compared to their more spherical conker cousins). You’ll have to be creative getting in to them…. my preferred method is a sort of stamp squeeze with a foot, so that the chestnut pops free and my fingers are saved… It’s worth it though. Take a bag, collect plenty, top and tail them and roast them in the oven for 30 minutes and enjoy warm. Or, add them to this delicious autumnal risotto… Ingredients: 1 tbsp olive oil 1 tbsp butter 1 large onion 2 cloves garlic 1 cup arborio rice 1 glass dry white wine 2 large chestnut mushrooms Roughly 24 Whole Sweet Chestnuts …