Japanese style low sugar chestnut compote (栗の渋皮煮; Kuri no shibukawani)
Healthier makeover of Japanese Autumn favorites, Chestnut compote made low sugar using sucanut sugar.Polyphenol-rich chestnuts' brown membrane (渋皮) adds extra benefits to this compote as antioxidants as well adding nice and rich flavor!Great to be used in baking such as muffins, tarts or scones or be eaten by itself of course.
600g (21oz)fresh shelled chestnuts - see recipe note below (*1)
4tspbaking soda - (2tsp×2)
100g (3.6oz)sucanat sugar - See the recipe note below (*1)
1/2tspsalt
2tbsprum or brandy - (optional)
Instructions
Preparing chestnuts
The night before;Fill a big mixing bowl with warm water and add shell-in chestnuts. Leave for 8-12 hours to help soften the shells.
After soaking, drain chestnuts and peel the outer hard shells.Be careful not to remove thin brown membrane. Remove JUST OUTER SHELLS by making a “slit” in the shell near the top of chestnuts with the edge of the knife and detach from the meat by pulling toward yourself. Keep the unshelled chestnuts in the water while working on other ones.
Removing excess polyphenols (Shibu 渋)
Place unshelled chestnuts in a large pot. Fill with plenty of water to cover chestnuts, add baking soda and bring it to boil. Lower the heat and cook for about 10 minutes. You will see large amount of dark purple bubbles come up to the surface. These are polyphenols or Shibu渋.
Gently drain the chestnuts. Rinse and rub off the skin (Shibukawa 渋皮) each chestnut with freshwater **Chestnuts can be fragile after being boiled a few times so treat them as gently as you can to avoid chestnuts getting broken.**
Remove the thick “veins” of chestnuts that run from the top to the bottom of chestnut using needle like stick such as toothpick. Be careful not to remove the Shibukawa 渋皮!
Repeat the same boiling process of step 1 and draining part of step 2 (no “removing skin” part). In the last boiling, use just water without baking soda to remove excess baking soda. By this time you have done boiling three times.
Cooking chestnuts
Wash the pot before starting cooking.Place chestnuts back to the same pot, add water that is just enough to cover the chestnuts together with half amount of the sugar.
Bring to boil over medium heat, turn to lowest heat once it starts to boil and cook for 10 minutes.
Add the rest of sugar and cook another 10 minutes or until the water reduced in half.
Adding liquor(optional);If you choose to add liquor, add it after cooking total of 20 minutes. Rise the heat until it starts to boil to allow alcohol to evaporate, and remove from the heat.
Leave final product overnight or about 8-12 hours to help the chestnuts absorb the syrup.
Now you can enjoy chestnut compote or transfer to sterilized glass container to keep them. See the recipe note below(*2)
Notes
*1; If you are going to make the compote with less or more chestnuts, I recommend you to weigh un shelled chestnuts to come up with the amount of sugar you are going to need. Amount of sugar used: 20% of weight in contrast to chestnuts. For example my 600g (21oz) of shell-in chestnuts weighed 504g(18oz) after un-shelled. So I am going to use 504g× 0.2(20%)≈100g of sucanat sugar. (180z×20%≈3.6oz) For sucanat sugar, I wold recommend Wholesome's Organic Sucanat sugar. *2; To sterilize the jar, simply place it in a pot with water, bring to boil and leave for 1-2 minutes, and drain.*3;This chestnut compote is mush lower in sugar than regular compotes and thus, it does not keep well. You can keep it in fridge for 3-4 days. If you want to keep it longer please keep in the freezer.