Chestnuts Aren’t Only for Roasting

A Few Essentials and Other Approaches

HOT CHESTNUTS, WITH THEIR delicate, luxurious aroma of honey, straddle the line between savory and sweet. Only fresh chestnuts in the weeks after the harvest carry such clear flavor. Toward the end of September, the remarkably hostile, spiked green husk splits open to reveal, typically, two to four ripe nuts inside their brown shells. By Christmas, the …