HELP! .... sprouts & chestnuts

My error ... thanks to When for the lovely sprouts!

River, that sounds delicious. My report back is that I think the half the sprouts and fry in butter with chestnuts was When's recipe, and one I wish we had used, rather than the one MrIam used, the Jamie Oliver shred the sprouts recipe.

Iam I was just about to report back that I followed your recipe .... halved cooked sprouts, sauted in butter with quartered chestnuts. They were so delicious that unfortunately there's no leftovers for today!

Hope it worked Riverwalk, I didn't get chance to play out on gransnet yesterday. Mr Iam decided to do some sprouts as he'd seen Jamie Oliver do them on tv. He shredded the sprouts, stir fried them and added worcester sauce. He reduced the amount of worcester sauce (thankfully). He had a moments panic, and did half the sprouts in the usual way - all were eaten. Well, everything was eaten. We didn't have any vegetarians here yesterday, though almost everyone sitting round the table has had a vegetarian period in their lives. It made gravy making much simpler. Hope everyone ate well, I love festive food.

Thank you all for your helpful tips - seems that chopping up the chestnuts is the way to go

They were quite tender after about 40 minutes granjura but there was no disguising their sproutiness.

Must say I would parboil them first to roast.

Hugh Fernley-Whittingstall (sp) suggested roasting spouts with other veg, eg carrots, potatoes, parsnips etc. I roasted 2 in goose fat while I had the oven on for something else. They still tasted like sprouts but with crispy, burnt outers.

I'm doing them without bacon as we have a vegetarian for dinner. I halve the sprouts and toss them in butter for a few minutes in a frying pan, add quarter chestnuts and season, toss them a few times again to make sure they're hot, and serve. Even the sprout-deniers don't mind them like this.

We normally do them with broken pieces of chestnuts and no bacon- and a bit of black pepper.

Could you do them without the bacon, just in a little butter, then separate out hers and add bacon to the rest? Perhaps you could have fried the bacon earlier, and kept it in the fridge in a small dish, with any melted bacon fat.

Would hers cook in the microwave?

I was thinking of that Gaga but I already have to do separate gravy and separate veggie chippolatas and I run out of pans and space!

Are chestnuts tasty enough on their own with the sprouts?

I need a glass of wine whilst I think about this!

You could do some for her in a little pan with just the sprouts and chestnuts. Should be OK done in butter or olive oil.