Brussels sprouts and chestnuts

Spruitjes met kastanjes

500 grams chestnuts
1000 grams Brussels sprouts
salt
25 grams butter
100 grams raisins
nutmeg

Put the (European, Chinese or Japanese) chestnuts in a pan of cold water and discard the bad ones that rise to the surface. With a sharp knife, cut a cross into the ‘flat’ end of the remaining, good chestnuts. Put them into a pan, cover with water and boil the chestnuts for about 40 minutes.

Wash and pat the raisins dry. Add them to the boiling chestnuts for the final 10 minutes. Cut a slice off the bottoms of the sprouts and peel off the outer leaves. Boil them for about ten minutes in salted water, then drain.

Drain the chestnuts and rinse them in cold water. Peel, and mix them with butter and raisins. Add the sprouts to the chestnuts, add some more butter and nutmeg.

Introduced to Northwest Europe by the Romans, the chestnut there also received the Latin name: castanea, which in Dutch became ‘kastanje’. Originally a tree from the Middle East, in the English language it transformed from ‘castain’ or ‘chastain nut’.