S T A R T E R S
wALNuTs
THE WORLD IS FULL OF FAMOUS SECOND-PLACE FINISHERS – SUSANNE BOYLE, SCOTT OF THE ANTARCTIC, THE DUTCH FOOTBALL TEAM OF THE ’70S – BUT FEW ARE AS APPEALING AS THE WRINKLY WALNUT, A CHRISTMAS STAPLE THAT DOESN’T JUST LOOK LIKE A BRAIN, BUT IS GOOD FOR YOURS TOO…
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ll nuts have a place at the Christmas table, but one of the most delicious and popular is the walnut – and with good reason. Walnuts are, you see, supremely versatile and, though a baking mainstay, actually appear in any number of unlikely recipes, sweet and savoury, where they respond to crushing, toasting, chopping, blitzing – whatever you please. Walnuts generally come in two forms. There are the young, ‘wet’ ones, which are in season over the Christmas period and are pale, milky sweet and mostly used for pickling – though they’re rather fine when eaten as they are too, or added to a simple salad. And then there are the far more common brown, kiln-dried versions, available shelled or unshelled all year around (although, again, you’ll mostly find the unshelled versions at Christmas). These, too, are great raw – they have a nutty, tannic, slightly bitter flavour – but are even better when cooked.
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