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Entries in nuts (10)

Friday
May142010

a new nibble - egyptian dukkah

a few weeks ago i did another cookery class with jennifer at eat drink talk. as ever it was great fun and i came away having eaten delicious food and inspired to be more creative in the types of food i cook.

the course was about cooking with spices* and had been sold to me (at a previous class on malaysian cookery) on the basis of the dessert option – chinese five spice doughnuts. however, it turned out that i was more enamoured by jennifer’s take starter option - egyptian dukkah. this is a blend of toasted nuts**, seeds and spices plus a little brown sugar and seasoning. to eat it we made flatbreads which, while still warm from the pan, were dipped in olive oil  and then the dukkah. it is such a delicious combination and i’m not surprised that this is a popular pre-meal nibble in a number of places including australia, where jennifer says it is increasingly common.

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Tuesday
Feb092010

walnut and cocoa nib brownies

 

i had a real chocolate craving on friday and having finished the box of geranium dainty dollops that a friend gave me a few weeks ago (thanks sue, they were delish!) i decided to get baking. i’m not sure how i found jennie’s recipe for walnut fudge brownies but having read her descriptor i had to give them a go. i particularly love the idea of putting the walnuts on top so that they become slightly toasted.

i followed jennie’s recipe but added cocoa nibs for a bit of interest. i also fiddled with the sugar content and used a mixture of milk chocolate and a dark chocolate with orange oil and spices – this was instead of the coffee powder which she uses.

the resulting brownies were really wonderful – i had mine with cream and david went for ice cream. thanks jennie.

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Saturday
Nov072009

cobnut, apple & cinnamon cake

i used my cobnuts to make an apple and cinnamon cake. the recipe i used was a nigel slater one for moist plum cake (see here for a cherry & almond version, including the recipe which you can adapt if you fancy giving this a try) which uses a mix of flour and ground almonds.

i blitzed the cobnuts in my food processor and used this in the place of the almonds. a teaspoon of cinnamon into the mix and pieces of apples on top of the cake mix and that’s it. the cobnuts added an extra depth of flavour, similar to hazelnut. because i used the nuts fresh they were quite coarse which added a really nice crunch to the cake texture.

Sunday
Aug092009

rosewater meringues with pistachio

aren't they pretty? i added a couple of teapoons of rosewater and a few drops of pink food colouring to my meringue mix then dusted them with pistachio crumbs before baking. we ate these with berries and cream. a real taste of summer.

 

Friday
Dec052008

roasted jerusalem artichokes with goat’s cheese, roasted tomatoes and agresto

 

i loved skye gyngell’s first recipe book and am now working my way through her second, finding many, many recipes which make my toes curl with pleasure.

 

my absolute favourite so far has been this roasted jerusalem artichokes with goat’s cheese, roasted tomatoes and agresto. as ever there are many layers of flavour – pungent garlic, the nutty sweetness of roasted artichokes, the tang of the tomatoes and wow, wow, wow, the magic that is agresto.

 

in skye’s words, “agresto is a soft, rounded pounded paste made with very fresh young creamy walnuts” but it also so much more. the walnuts (it’s too late in the year for wet walnuts but this was fine made with older fresh walnuts) are combined with anchovy, garlic, lemon, chilli, parsley and olive oil and result in a wonderfully fresh zingy paste with the base flavours of anchovy and nuts.

 

we ate this two days running and it is a serious contender for any festive meal which needs a starter. i am also really excited about trying the agresto in different forms. i love the idea of tossing it with pasta, perhaps replacing the anchovies with crumbled blue cheese.

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