Cowgirl Chef: Holiday nuts to make and share
Every Christmas, my mom bought a big sack of mixed nuts at the Piggly Wiggly and poured them into a wooden bowl with a leggy nutcracker pushed halfway down, an invitation for whoever had the courage to take on this nutcracking business.
Usually — and solely — this was my father, who enjoyed cracking nuts the way my younger brother and I loved ripping open presents under the tree. For him, nuts were part of the holidays. I wasn’t interested in all the work required.
Now I get it.
The other night in Paris, at my friend Catherine’s flat, she and I cracked open walnuts that had just fallen from her trees in Normandy — still fresh and the insides a little bit soft — and nibbled on them as we drank champagne. They’ll be even better in a few months, when the meat firms up a bit, she told me. She keeps them in a basementlike cave so they won’t spoil and uses them throughout the next year, until a new crop is ready.
Winter, indeed, is the season of nuts — walnuts, almonds, hazelnuts, chestnuts and, in Texas, pecans. No wonder we all get so crazy for nuts this time of year, baking all sorts of nutty pies, tossing them into cookies and cakes and, of course, roasting them on an open fire — as the famous Christmas Song says.
Even simpler is making nuts for snacks at cocktail parties or while watching a favorite late-night movie, and nuts to pour into jars and give as gifts for the holidays. Here are some of my favorite recipes for homemade nuts to share from the kitchen.
Ellise Pierce is the author of “Cowgirl Chef: Texas Cooking With a French Accent” (Running Press, $25); www.cowgirlchef.com, @cowgirlchef.
Buying and storing nuts
It’s often tricky to know how fresh nuts are — there’s nothing worse than opening up a package of bad ones — so simply ask your grocer, or buy from a reputable nut vendor. I put nuts in the freezer immediately, then once I open them, put the bags in plastic zip-top freezer bags, labeled with the date. Freezing nuts usually keeps them quite fresh for up to six months, but when in doubt, just taste.
Jane’s Nuts (or Cristina’s Nuts)
Makes 4 cups
My friend Jane gave me these nuts for Christmas last year, and I could not stop eating them. Hers had pecans, too, which I’ll add next time. I adapted these from a recipe in Food & Wine magazine.
4 cups raw nuts (almonds, cashews, pecans, walnuts)
32 sage leaves, torn
1 (8-inch) twig of rosemary, leaves removed
3 tablespoons olive oil
Salt and pepper
Preheat the oven to 200 degrees. Toss all of the ingredients together in a bowl, then spread out on a cookie sheet and bake for 3 hours, turning them over after an hour and a half. Let cool before storing in airtight jars.
Nutritional analysis per 2-tablespoon serving: 116 calories, 11 grams fat, 4 grams carbohydrates, 4 grams protein, no cholesterol, 2 milligrams sodium, 2 grams dietary fiber and 77 percent of calories from fat.
Sweet hot peanuts
Makes about 2 cups
1/3 cup sugar
1 tablespoon water
2 cups raw peanuts
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon chile powder
1 teaspoon fleur de sel
1. Put the sugar and water in a skillet over medium-high heat. Stir to combine. Add the peanuts and stir again. Let this cook until the sugar-water mixture reduces, stirring every now and then.
2. It won’t be long until the peanuts are coated with the sugar and there’s very little, if any, liquid left in the pan. You’re almost done. Keep stirring until the peanuts start to change color and the sugar begins to look sandy.
3. Add the spices and salt, stir like crazy, and pour the peanuts out onto a piece of parchment or wax paper. Taste and add salt, if needed. Let cool completely, then store in airtight jars.
Nutritional analysis per 2-tablespoon serving: 123 calories, 9 grams fat, 8 grams carbohydrates, 4 grams protein, no cholesterol, 283 milligrams sodium, 2 grams dietary fiber and 62 percent of calories from fat.
Brown butter nuts and popcorn
Makes about 10 cups
3 tablespoons butter
1 cup raw pecans, walnuts
or a mixture of the two
10 cups popped popcorn
(about 1/2 cup unpopped)
1 cup tiny pretzels
2 tablespoons
Worcestershire sauce
1/2 teaspoon smoky paprika
1/4 teaspoon cayenne (or a bit
more if you want it hot)
Salt, to taste
1. Melt the butter over low heat until it browns and smells nutty. This should take about 15 minutes, and make sure to do this slowly, watching it carefully so the butter doesn’t burn. Let this cool.
2. While the butter is browning, preheat oven to 400 degrees. Put the walnuts or pecans on a cookie sheet and lightly toast them, which will take about 10 minutes.
3. Pour the nuts in a large bowl to cool. Add the popcorn and pretzels.
4. Add the browned butter, Worcestershire sauce, smoky paprika and cayenne, and toss. Add salt if needed. Pour this back onto the cookie sheet and bake in oven — now reduced to 200 degrees — for 30 minutes or so, until the mixture has dried out.
Nutritional analysis per 1/2-cup serving: 76 calories, 6 grams fat, 6 grams carbohydrates, 1 gram protein, 5 milligrams cholesterol, 65 milligrams sodium, 1 gram dietary fiber and 63 percent of calories from fat.
Chocolate-covered hazelnuts
Makes about 30 candies
1 cup raw hazelnuts
1 cup good chocolate
pastilles, such as Callebaut
(Recommended: 66 percent
cacao)
Fleur de sel
1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Toss the nuts onto a cookie sheet and toast them until lightly browned, about 10 to 15 minutes. Be sure to watch them carefully so they don’t burn. Let them cool completely.
2. When the nuts are cool, melt the chocolate over a double-boiler.
3. Put the nuts in the chocolate and with a fork, pull out three at a time and lay them on a piece of parchment or wax paper. Repeat until you’ve used all the nuts. Sprinkle the tops with fleur de sel. Let nuts cool and harden completely before storing in an airtight container.
Nutritional analysis per candy: 65 calories, 5 grams fat, 4 grams carbohydrates, 1 gram protein, no cholesterol, 5 milligrams sodium, 1 gram dietary fiber and 67 percent of calories from fat.
This story was originally published December 9, 2014 at 10:08 AM with the headline "Cowgirl Chef: Holiday nuts to make and share."