Trick or treat

If you’re a chestnut fan, the time is here. Tweenhills at Hoskinstown (about half an hour out of town, on the Captains Flat Road) is open for farm-gate sales (weekends only, 10am-3pm), and owner Heather Kane says the nuts are a little smaller than last year but quality is great. They’re harvesting de coppi marone, the variety for roasting.

Chestnuts, like all the foods you crave most, are tricky – they don’t have a long shelf life, so you need to get them fresh and process them as soon as you can. Which is not easy – peeling chestnuts is a job more suited to a time before things happened at megabit speed, at a time when you might expect a response to your letter within a month, rather than a text in 30 seconds or something’s wrong.

Once they’re peeled, though, you can throw them in the freezer and you’re set, and can have chestnut soup – crazy rich, unexpectedly luxurious – whenever you feel the need. You can also buy them online at tweenhillschestnuts.com.au, for $5.50 to $8 a kilogram depending on size, and roasted nuts will be sold at the Fyshwick Markets from mid May. On Mother’s Day, Sunday, May 12, they will be at the Hoskinstown Chestnut Roast, a community fund-raiser than raises money to maintain the Hoskinstown War Memorial Hall (10am-3pm).

Alternatively, just let Le Tres Bon restaurant at Bungendore do the hard work for you. Chef Christophe Gregoire holds a Tweenhills chestnut dinner on Friday, May 10. He’ll serve chestnut crepe, chestnut soup, braised chicken with chestnuts, and a chestnut creme brulee. Wines are from the nearby Domaine Rogha Crois wines. $80, 6238 0662.
Gregoire shares his chestnut soup recipe here:

Chestnut Veloute

Serves 4

The chestnut variety bouche de betizac are in season at Tweenhills; they are large chestnuts and easy to peel.

300 g fresh chestnuts – peeled

1/2 litre of chicken stock

2 ecshalots

1 knob of butter

5 tbsp fresh cream

salt and pepper

Dice the ecshalots Using a stew pot add the butter and sweat the eschalots. Add the chestnuts and leave to soften for about five minute. Add the chicken stock, salt and pepper. Reduce the heat and simmer for 20-30 minutes until the chestnuts are soft enough to puree. Add the cream and blend the soup using a blender. Whisk cream and add a dollop to the soup to serve if you like.