NZはもうすぐ秋[あき]ですね。秋[あき]と言[い]えば栗[くり] (= chesnut)! 日本人[にほんじん]は栗[くり]が大[だい]好[す]きです。私[わたし]は以前[いぜん]、栗[くり]のケーキ、モンブランについて書[か]きました。
Autumn is just around the corner in New Zealand! Autumn means the season of chestnuts for many Japanese! I wrote about Mont Blanc, chestnut cake, in this blog.
栗[くり]を食[た]べるためには鬼皮[おにかわ] (= hard skin of chestnut)と渋皮[しぶかわ] (= soft skin of chestnut)をむかなければいけません(muku means to peel (skin) off)。この皮[かわ]をむくのは大変[たいへん]です。それで、日本[にほん]のある研究所[けんきゅうしょ]が簡単[かんたん]に皮[かわ]がむける栗[くり]を2006年[ねん]に作[つく]りました。そして、今[いま]、その栗[くり]を使[つか]って簡単[かんたん]に皮[かわ]をむく方法[ほうほう]を考[かんが]えました。
この栗[くり]はポロタンという名前[なまえ]です。渋皮[しぶかわ]と果肉[かにく] (= fruit)の間[あいだ]にある接着[せっちゃく]物質[ぶっしつ] (= adhesive substance; Note: I am not sure if this translation would be suitable for this but I hope you would understand what I mean here)が少ない種類[しゅるい]の栗[くり]で、普通[ふつう]の栗[くり]より簡単[かんたん]に皮[かわ]がむけるそうです。そして、この度[たび]、素晴[すば]らしい方法[ほうほう]を発見[はっけん]しました。皮[かわ]に少[すこ]し切[き]り込[こ]み(= cut)を入れて、熱湯[ねっとう] (= boiling water)で3分[ぷん]ゆでると、とてもきれいに皮[かわ]がむけるそうです。朝日新聞[あさひしんぶん]のこのページにアクセスすると、ポロタンの写真[しゃしん]が見[み]られます。
You have to peel off the hard skin (called onikawa in Japanese) as well as the soft skin (called shibukawa; as you might guess, kawa means skin in Japanese in this case) to eat chestnuts. Peeling off these skins, particularly shibukawa, is not so easy. Because of the high demand, a Japanese research institute produced special kind of chestnuts which was easier to peel than most of the normal chestnuts in 2006. This special chestnut is named porotan. Chestnuts contain some sort of adhesive substance between the fruit and shibukawa. Porotan contains less amount of this substance comparing to any other kinds of chestnuts.
Now another institute has found the best way to peel off the skins of Porotan; so the agonising peeling job is now even easier than ever! The best way is that you give slight cut onto the chestnut (it has to be very precise; 3.5mm cut!) and boil it for 3 minutes. This way enables us to peel skins off easily and very very neatly. Do you want to see how neat it would be?—access to this page of Asahi Shimbun Newspaper!