Chestnut and Mixed Grain Rice

Every year when I see a lot chestnuts in the market, I know it’s officially autumn. Chestnut is my favourite food, not one of, so I treat it seriously. That means if they aren’t good enough I would rather not have it. Fresh chestnut would be out of season quickly so if the quality of the chestnut didn’t satisfy me, I wouldn’t have them that year. It was until the year before last year I found a chestnut planter who did online merchandising, and the quality of their chestnut has been stable. Since then, I have purchased a large amount of chestnuts from them every year and shared with family and friends.

For many people, chestnut may just be one decoration of Christmas or ingredient of Mont Blanc. But for most Chinese, it’s such a lovely seasonal food. The simplest way of having it is baking, poaching, or frying with sugar. Also, I love to stew it with chicken. Today, I am going to make a mixed grain rice with it.

Serve 2

Ingredients –
Mixed grain rice, 150g. I just have the packed mixed grain rice. It’s really no necessary, the common rice is good enough;
Chestnut, peeled, 150g. It took me a lot effort to peel the chestnut, though it was worth doing so. But peeled chestnut can be easily found in many Asian grocery stores or supermarkets;

How to do –
1. If you have an electric rice cooker, then it’s easy as how you make your rice normally – wash the rice, put in the cooker, add water, and don’t forget to add the chestnut, then just let the cooker do its work;
2. If you don’t have a rice cooker, you could steam it. Wash the rice, soak it in water for two hours, and let the rice absorb enough water. Then drain the rice, put it in a deep plate with the chestnut, and steam for half an hour;
3. Decorate with a pinch of toasted black and white sesame seeds;
4. Chestnut and rice have natural sweetness, I usually don’t season the rice. But a few drops of good-quality light soy sauce would be lovely as well.