NUTS, FRUITS, FLOWERS, AND HERBS (WEEDS) are the kinds of food I get really excited about. They make a dish come alive. Here is what I mean.
Tree flavors: Many parts of the tree are edible, including roots, leaves, bark, and the inner water. I love tree water, which is the inner sap before it is boiled down to syrup; it has more flavor (and nutrients) than the sugar you buy in the store. We use a lot of birch in various places in the Northern Hemisphere, but you also have maple here in North America. Of course most people are familiar with tree nuts, but you may not appreciate how special fresh tree nuts are, because you can buy them stored, shelled, and roasted anywhere. True fresh nuts have a light, fresh, juicy flavor.
Black walnut trees are indigenous to the United States. Their wood is prized as one of the hardest in the forest. The nuts of the black walnut have a green hull when they first fall off the tree. If you touch the green hull, it can permanently stain. So to get to the nut inside, the hull must be removed with gloves; or, alternatively, leave the green “balls” outside and eventually the green outer husk will fall off. The inner shell can then be rinsed and stored.
To crack, soak the dry shells in water for 2 hours and then keep them covered and moist overnight. Crack on a stone base (not wood) with a small mallet or hammer and pick the nuts out with a nutpick. The nuts should be smooth and milky with a brown skin.
MAKES 1 CUP / TIME: 20 MIN
Black walnuts have a richer flavor than the English walnuts sold in the store. They can be used as a dessert flavoring in whipped cream, as a mousse, or a mixed savory as a yogurt sauce or spread.
2 cups black walnuts, shelled
2 cups konbu dashi (see first step of Vegetable Scrap & Peel Stock, here)
¼ cup brown sugar
¼ vanilla bean, halved and scraped
2 tablespoons walnut oil
2 teaspoons white wine vinegar
¼ teaspoon kosher salt
In a medium pot over medium heat, cook the walnuts, dashi, brown sugar, and vanilla until the nuts soften, about 20 minutes (the nuts may be quite variable, so this time is only a rough estimate).
Transfer the nuts and liquid to a blender and add the oil, vinegar, and salt. Blend until smooth. Store in a glass jar in the refrigerator for up to 2 weeks.
I love fruits in the wild. I couldn’t believe that you have fruit like the American pawpaw, with its mango-banana flavors for an exotic sorbet. And of course wild blueberries have much more intense flavor than cultivated types. But in my mind “wild” fruit includes fruit from trees that were originally planted. There are many old farmhouses or semi-urban untended fruit trees such as crabapples, plums, old quince, or mulberries. Although permission must always be obtained from the owner of the land or the tree, many owners or caretakers think these fruits are unsightly, a real nuisance. The fruits may look ugly and ill-formed, but I find them to be beautiful and open to delicious possibilities. And because they are not picked and sorted according to rules, I can get much more variability in type, flavor, and the entire cycle of ripeness.