Braised Chinese Celery Cabbage and Chestnuts

When you cook this famous Shandong dish, you can use either fresh chestnuts, which no doubt are used there, or frozen ones. If you choose the former, do the usual thing of inserting a cross into the I skin with a pointed knife, then boil them for about 20–25 minutes, refresh them and then shell them. As I loathe this procedure with a passion, I have opted for the easy way out, having discovered that in some supermarkets it is possible to buy excellent, whole but already shelled chestnuts in