Have you cooked with dried chestnuts? I love the way they add sweetness and texture to brown rice. As our weather turns from late summer to autumn, I start pressure cooking my rice more frequently. Adding chestnuts is one of my favorite variations.
I love the delicious, sweet dried chestnuts from Ladd Hill Orchards in Oregon.Another place to find them is from Natural Import Company in Asheville, NC. This link provides a lot of information about chestnuts as well.
If you are thinking about picking chestnuts yourself, make sure you get the edible ones. Here’s a post showing how to tell the difference. This recipe is for dried chestnuts with shell already removed.
Brown Rice with Chestnuts
1 cup short or medium-grain brown rice
1/4 cup sweet brown rice
1/4 cup dried chestnuts
2 1/4 cups water
2 pinches sea salt
1. Rinse the rice and place in a large bowl with 2 1/4 cups of water. Rinse chestnuts and place in a smaller bowl with water to cover 2″ above the top of chestnuts. Soak both rice and chestnuts for 8 hours or overnight.
2. When they are done soaking, drain the chestnuts. Look them over to see if pieces of brown shell are in any of the cracks. Use a chopstick or wooden skewer to carefully remove those bits of shell.
3. Pour the rice with its soaking water and the chestnuts into your pressure cooker. Cook according to the instructions for Pressure Cooked Brown Rice.
4. Enjoy!