When you marry someone, it is because they are “the one.”
Same thing can happen with cookbooks. Oh, Nuts by Patrick Evans-Hylton has lots of good things in it. But there is “the one” — that one recipe that you see and immediately know you must make. The recipe here is Fried Apples on Sweet Potato-Pecan Biscuits with Maple-Cinnamon Butter. That’s a dish going on my Christmas table. [Maybe I’ll just test it before.]
Are you still with me? Or have you already headed to the pantry?
Published earlier this year, Nuts is a slim book but a tour de force for nut enthusiasts. Author Patrick Evans-Hylton was a banker but reformed, went to Johnson & Wales, and has been a prominent food writer since 1995.
There are fifty recipes here, divided into chapters including Spice Blends, Snacks, Soups and Salads and Sides, Meat and Poultry, Seafood, Cookies and Other Sweets.
Before the recipes arrive, you get a tour of nut varieties and how to cook with them. Patrick includes some seeds in the inventory, like pumpkin. So, you’ll get a solid presentation on techniques for roasting and toasting nuts of all kinds.
I know, you see a recipe calling for roasting nuts and either you pass on the recipe or you just toss in raw nuts. You are missing out on superior flavor when you take that pass or do a bypass. The directions here are very precise, down to the ways to toast or roast individual varieties: pine nuts, pumpkin seeds, sesame seeds, and various tree nuts.
The first chapter, Spice Blends, is a running start to nut enjoyment. Simply roast or toast some nuts and then toss in a spice blend for a targeted flavor: Cajun, autumn spices, mole, … For your holiday party, you can offer some nuts or NUTS. NUTS are better.
Patrick’s Staples include homemade peanut butter and a pretty awesome sounding Hazelnut-Bourbon-Chocolate Sauce.
Incorporating nuts into your sides and main dishes is something we do, of course, but we can do more. Ideas here include:
Watermelon, Feta, & Toasted Pine Nut Salad with Champagne Vinaigrette
Lamb Chops with Pistachio Gremolata
Thanksgiving Burger
Oh, that burger! If you are going to do Turkey #2 for Christmas, and you expect some leftovers, here’s an idea. A turkey burger with dried cranberries, dried cherries, and chopped walnuts. Imagine that as your new “turkey leftovers” go-to recipe.
Dessert ideas surely improve with nut components. There is that Fried Apple idea that intrigues me so much. Nuts offers much more:
New Orleans Bread Pudding with Pecan Crumble & Rum Sauce
Martha Washington Jumble Cookies [historic cookies with raisins and pecans]
Chocolate Walnut Bark S’Mores [no Hersey bar, homemade bark instead]
Pineapple Upside-Down Macadamia Cookies
Nuts is a lovely book, one that will both please and inspire. It’s one of those “smallish” volumes from Sasquatch books that is the perfect stocking stuffer. Even for your own stocking.