John Wright
LATIN NAME
Juglans regia
SEASONALITY
Wet walnuts: October–November
MORE RECIPES
Muhammara; Celery and walnut tapenade; Walnut and blue cheese soufflés; Baked mushrooms with rosemary and walnut butter; Cheddar, apple and celeriac salad; Henakopita with garam masala and eggs; Roasted sweet potatoes and aubergine; Roasted grapes; Mulberry and walnut cranachan; Pear and bilberry crumble tart
SOURCING
kentishcobnuts.com; orangepippintrees.co.uk
Originating in central Asia, the walnut does not grow with unbounded enthusiasm in the British Isles. However, you may be lucky and have a productive tree in your garden or access to an accommodating roadside tree nearby. The nuts are likely to be smaller than their more southerly cousins, but still a treat.
If you really like walnuts, though, you will likely have to buy them. Fortunately they are no longer the Christmas-only treat they once were. Increasingly available these days are British ‘wet’ walnuts, usually sold locally – look out for them in farm shops and at roadside stalls from mid-October to early November. These are walnuts that are fully formed but fresh off the tree: the shell is firm but the flesh inside is pale, not yet bitter, soft and not wet, exactly, but juicy. They offer a different eating experience to the standard shop-bought walnut, which has been kiln-dried and so is darker, crisper and more strident. Wet walnuts are best enjoyed one by one as you release them from the shell, with a crisp apple or some assertive Cheddar alongside. They do not keep well once exposed to air but can be stored in their shells for a couple of weeks if kept cool, preferably in the fridge or even freezer. Shelled nuts also need to be kept cool and closely packed in airtight bags or containers.
Very immature nuts – picked in the summer before the shell has formed – can be pickled. To check their suitability, gently push a pin into the end of the nut – if it meets strong resistance after a few millimetres then you are too late. The whole nuts must be soaked in brine for 2 weeks, changing the brine once. After that, they should be dried then boiled in malt vinegar with pickling spices. They are an acquired taste, but some people seem to like them.
The high calorific value of nuts can dissuade people from eating them, but the calories come from oils that are essential to health. Walnuts are a good source of beneficial omega-3 fatty acids – more so than other nuts. They also contain essential minerals and vitamins and are rich in antioxidants.
If that is not enough, walnuts are incredibly useful in the kitchen. Their relatively soft texture gives a pleasant bite, and their flavour is unique – rich and toasty but with a distinct, tannic bitterness from their paper-thin skins that makes them as much at home in savoury dishes as in sweet.
Perhaps the most everyday use for walnuts is in salads. They make great partners to everything from the classic celery and apple of Waldorf salad, through rocket and strawberry, spinach and caramelised onions, to green beans and sun-dried tomatoes, providing robust crunch and texture. They are particularly good in salads if lightly roasted first.
Walnuts are also excellent chopped for use in a stuffing. Peppers stuffed with breadcrumbs, sautéed onions, chopped dried tomatoes, feta cheese and walnuts and then slow-baked, take some beating, but this mixture, or something similar, works equally well in cannelloni or mushrooms.
Walnuts are by far the best nuts for that staple vegetarian fare, the nut roast. This can be made with any likely combination of ingredients you fancy provided that none of them are meat, at least one of them is a nut and the whole thing remains intact once baked. My ingredients of choice are walnuts (obviously), breadcrumbs, freshly cooked mushrooms, powdered dried mushrooms, onion, celery, carrot, a little chopped dried tomato, herbs and a beaten egg or two to hold everything together, though water will do this too if you prefer. This mixture, provided you lightly cook the onion, celery and carrot first, will also make excellent walnut burgers.
For dessert, I like walnut and honey ice cream, or apple with a walnut crumble topping, or walnut torte or walnut meringue. I always make my pancakes with half plain flour, half sweet chestnut flour, but this is even richer and nuttier with 1 tbsp of ground walnuts thrown in the batter too.
Walnuts make an elevating addition to what one might call the more industrial variety of home-made bread. You can even over-egg a pudding by serving it with walnut butter – mix ground walnuts with a little walnut oil, salt and sugar and pound to a butter in a pestle and mortar. Walnuts, ground in a food processor with flour, also give a nutty depth to shortcrust pastry for anything from a fruit tart to a game pie. And a good chocolate brownie is always so very much better with chopped walnuts.
You can even make a refreshing drink by blitzing 30g walnuts with 200ml semi-skimmed milk and straining out the solids through muslin. And of course I must mention the ubiquitous smoothie – a breakfast of date and walnut smoothie will keep you going until 3pm. Do take into account in all walnut dishes that bitter skin and use this wonderful nut with some restraint.
Hidden among the exotic and flavoured oils on the delicatessen’s shelf you may be lucky enough to find walnut oil. Not all walnut oils are the same – some are rather bland. But a good one is a rich delight. French walnut oil is often exceptional, and quite unsurpassable for dressings – better than olive oil, in my opinion. Walnut oil is expensive and does not keep for very long once opened – two good reasons to buy it in small quantities. Keep it in a dark glass bottle or a tin, in the fridge. Don’t cook with it; use it cold for dressings.
WALNUT, BARLEY, ROCKET AND BLUE CHEESE SALAD
Soaking nuts, rather like soaking dried fruit, makes them deliciously moist and plump. In this salad, walnuts are soaked in apple juice, which gives them a lovely fruity tang. Serves 3–4 as a starter, 2 as a main dish
125g walnut halves
200ml apple juice
150g pearl barley (or pearled spelt)
½ small red onion, very finely sliced
2 good handfuls of rocket
75g blue cheese, such as Dorset Blue Vinney or Cornish Blue
Sea salt and black pepper
FOR THE DRESSING
About 1 tsp thyme leaves
2 tsp clear honey
2 tbsp extra virgin olive or rapeseed oil
1 tbsp cider vinegar
Soak the walnut halves in the apple juice for about an hour. This will soften them slightly, and they’ll plump up and become fruity and sweet.
Meanwhile, soak the pearl barley or spelt in cold water for 20 minutes. Drain and tip into a saucepan, cover with fresh water and bring to a simmer. Cook for 25–30 minutes (a little less for spelt) or until tender but with a nutty bite. Drain and allow to cool.
To make the dressing, put the ingredients in a jam jar with a little salt and pepper and shake vigorously to combine.
Drain the walnuts (you can drink the apple juice, or use it for another recipe such as poached pears). Combine the nuts with the red onion, the cooled pearl barley and 2 tbsp of the dressing. Season with salt and pepper and mix well.
Spoon the dressed walnuts and barley on to individual plates or a serving platter. Scatter over the rocket leaves and crumble over the blue cheese. Trickle with the remaining dressing and serve.
