Preparing Chestnuts: You can buy then fresh or dried. If buying dried, you'll need to soak them for 12 hours to hydrate and then cook for another hour and a half. If buying fresh, slit the chestnuts at the top and boil for 20 minutes. You can also heat fresh chestnuts in the oven for 20 minutes, but they can explode (well, pop) or burn if you're not careful, so for me, boiling is best, and I like to do the boiling in the slow cooker to prevent boiling them dry and/or a super steamy kitchen. In a slowcooker, they take and hour and a half for fresh chestnuts and two hours and a half for dried chestnuts (on high). They'll start to crumble a bit as you peel them, but that works out pretty well for this recipe. Once done boiling rinse under cold water but return to the emptied warm crockpot to keep warm. Chestnuts get more difficult to peel as they cool.
The Ingredients:
- 500g of Turkey mince
- 100g ground chestnuts
- 90g gluten free breadcrumbs (I used Organ, which I found at Uhuru whole foods in Oxford)
- 1 egg
- 1 leek, or onion, chopped.
- a good glug of olive oil
- a few sprigs of thyme
- salt and pepper
Method:
Preheat oven to 200C. Rub a little olive oil into a roasting tin and place in oven so the oil gets hot.
Fry the leek or onion gently to slightly caramelise. 4-5 minutes. Put Aside. Pulse chestnuts in a food processor to chop, but don't let them get to breadcrumb size. 2-3 pulses should do it. In a bowl, combine breadcrumbs, chestnuts, seasoning, thyme and raw mince and the egg and mix together. Bring the roasting try out from the oven and press the turkey mixture into the roasting tin. You don't want it to be too flat, just compressed so it holds together well. Top off with a little more herbs and put in oven for around 30 minutes. It should be nice and brown on top without looking too dry.
We served this with some roasted root veggies -beetroot and parsnip- and a side of mashed potato. We had enough for a generous lunch the next day and plus little more for snack.
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