I can hardly believe that just 35 short years ago, I actually thought that I was at the cusp of culinary genius, when, after one enlightening grade 10 Home Ec class, I ventured to reproduce an entire three course Chinese meal for my family.

            The fact that I inadvertently almost poisoned everyone by using a bottle of China Lily soy sauce that my Mom was obviously saving until her creative muse found her, did little to deter my enthusiasm. I did learn quickly from that experience that you really shouldn’t use sauces that go “pssssst” when you unscrew the cap. Despite this minor setback, and a slight malty flavour, I felt the meal a success. I served sweet and sour meatballs, fried rice and a vegetable stir-fry.

The astounding part of all of this was that 35 years, almost all of the ingredients I used were either dried or came from a can. Canned bean sprouts and mixed chow mein vegetables, canned bamboo shoots, canned water chestnuts, mushrooms, powdered ginger and powdered garlic.

Looking back at these ingredients, I cringe. But in the late ‘60s, we just didn’t have fresh ginger or garlic, bok choy, shitake mushrooms or snow peas in our grocery store. Perhaps, if you lived in a large city like Toronto, you would have had the benefit of Chinese grocers, but we had nothing like that in Windsor. Or at least I would never have even considered looking for fresh, “foreign” ingredients. I was pretty naïve.

            I thought that I had  come a long way, but it has only been in the past few months that I have recycled my last can of stir-fry ingredients; the water chestnuts. No one ever told me that you could buy them fresh. How was I supposed to know, I’m not in Home Ec anymore! I couldn’t even imagine what they would look like if they didn’t come in a can. I just kept on using them for stir-fries and other oriental-influenced dishes out of habit. I am not even really sure what redeeming quality they imparted to the meal, other than to bulk up my dishes and add a variety of texture and colour. I suppose that this is sometimes enough reason.

Once you have tasted fresh water chestnuts, you will know why they are used in so many great oriental dishes. I think that the Chinese must be laughing at us because they have successfully tricked us into thinking that the canned product is what they use, and they have been hording this little secret all along. The real thing tastes wonderful, has a pleasing crunchy texture and a beautiful white colour. Quite different from the canned version.

The water chestnut is not a nut at all, but a corm. The unappetizing term “corm” comes from the Greek word for tree trunk, and is the swollen portion of a plant stem that grows underground and functions as the storage structure of the plant, very much like a bulb or tuber. Unlike other tubers and corms such as the potato, yam, cassava, sunchoke and jicama, the water chestnut comes from a swamp grass, which grows in marshy mud flats. The name comes from the fact that it looks somewhat like a chestnut and grows in water.

The water chestnut doesn’t look like anything you should put in your mouth until you have pared away the muddy brown skin. It looks more like something you should plant for spring flowers. Once the rough skin is removed, you are left with a beautiful white “nut”. Its taste is nutty and sweet, and reminds me somewhat of fresh coconut. It can be eaten raw as a snack; sliced or used whole in soups, stews or sauté. Blanching the bulb with hot water makes removal of the skin easier.

The water chestnut has virtually no fat and is quite high in potassium and vitamin B. It is also quite inexpensive. I usually pay around a dollar a pound, which is actually less expensive than canned. If you pick the firmest ones, they will keep well in a plastic bag refrigerated for up to two weeks. Once peeled, they will start to turn brown, so you need to pop them into water while you finish peeling them.

            Toasting, as with any nut, intensifies the flavour. But don’t over cook; you want that great crunch. There is no need to hide these vegetables amid a lot of other ingredients and sauces. They make a lovely dish using only one other vegetable such as green beans for colour contrast and a simple sauce of fresh ginger and fresh orange juice.

            I will likely always keep one can of water chestnuts in my pantry; it’s historical. But after enjoying them fresh, it is going to be terribly difficult to go retro.