Happy Water Chestnut Day!

We’ve skipped over Plow Day and White Salsify day of Brumaire, Foggy Month. Salsify seems to be available in the U.S. in cans, but I was unable to find any in my usual grocery stores. Which brings us to water chestnuts! I’m pretty sure I’ve only had them sliced in Chinese food, so I attempted to use them in a slightly different way here. A popular dim sum dish is water chestnut cake which uses flour made from water chestnuts and sliced chestnuts. The end result is a translucent aspic of water chestnuts. Water chestnuts themselves do definitely resemble chestnuts, but are grown underground in marshes.

I’m using a Joy of Cooking recipe for water chestnut rumaki. Rumaki is a Don the Beachcomber/Trader Vic’s faux Polynesian dish. The water chestnuts are crunchy and an added bonus is – homemade teriyaki sauce!

Water Chestnut Rumaki 

1 can of water chestnuts

1/2 cup soy sauce

1/4 cup water

2 tbs mirin

1/4 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup granulated sugar

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 tbs ginger, minced

3 strips of bacon

First, make the teriyaki sauce – combine the soy sauce, water, mirin, sugars, garlic and ginger in a small saucepan and bring to a boil. Let it simmer until the sauce has reduced and become syrupy. Drain the can of water chestnuts and marinate with two tablespoons of sauce for 20 minutes in a small bowl. Meanwhile, arrange a cooling rack over a baking tray and slice your bacon strips into three or four pieces each. After the 20 minutes are up, wrap a piece of bacon around each chestnut and pin with a toothpick. Place the wrapped water chestnuts on the tray and cook under the broiler until the bacon looks crisp. Enjoy!