Chestnut rice with Tianjin sweet roasted chestnut

Tianjin sweet roasted chestnuts (天津甘栗 (tenshin-amaguri)) or sweet chestnuts (甘栗(amaguri)) are one of popular snacks in Japan. They are available in any supermarkets, convenience stores, drugstores, etc. all year round. I thought for a long time that they were called so because the chestnuts were cultivated in Tianjin, China, but I was wrong. In fact, it is because the chestnuts were shipped from the port in Tianjin. They have been cultivated in Yan mountains in Hebei Province, which is known as a production area of good chestnuts.

The other day, I found a reasonable pack of Tianjin sweet roasted chestnuts, which contained 4 bags of 100g chestnuts.

They were organically cultivated and had a cut on the shells so that they could be removed easily. There are also sweet chestnuts sold without shells.

As I have introduced before, chestnut rice is a popular dish in autumn. It takes a long time to make it as it is difficult to remove the shells and skins of ordinary chestnuts. However, it is very easy by using Tianjin sweet roasted chestnuts. I made it with 360 ml of rice, one bag of Tianjin sweet roasted chestnuts (80g after the shells and skins were removed), a pinch of salt, and a little say sauce. I don’t know how much water was required, because I used a pot and added water later as necessary. But if you use a rice cooker, 400 ml of water may be enough. To add a flavor, you can also use sake.

As the name implies, chestnuts are sweet. They are good as they are but also suitable to use for chestnut rice. As they were moderately sweet, I thought it would be ok to add some other ingredients such as shimeji mushroom and tofu skin. As I have still three bags, I can do some experiment.