Grex Kitchen Conference

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Grex Kitchen Item 181: Cooking with nuts and seeds
Entered by keesan on Sat Oct 27 21:45:05 UTC 2001:

Please suggest ways to use nuts (especially peanuts, almonds, and black
walnuts) in cooking.  Vegan recipes are particularly welcome.  Also pumpkin
and sunflower seeds.

13 responses total.

#1 of 13 by dunne on Sat Oct 27 23:12:40 2001:

Feed them to a chicken, then cook the chicken?  (Sorry).

#2 of 13 by orinoco on Sun Oct 28 00:08:46 2001:

Slivered almonds are traditional on vegetables, especially green beans.  I've
seen them in spinach lasagna, and they tasted better than you might think.

Peanuts are used in a lot of African food -- makes sense, since that's where
they come from.  They go well in thick stews and in curries.  I've got a few
recipes for sauces involving peanut butter that I could post if I can find
them.  The best one is a garlic/ginger/soy sauce/peanut butter/sesame oil mix,
plus fish sauce if you've got it (Worcestershire sauce if you don't or if,
like Mary, you're easily traumatized), throw it in a food processor and put
it on top of something.  I don't know if it would work as well using actual
peanuts, but it could happen.  You'd probably have to add salt, and maybe
sugar.

Honestly, I don't think I've ever cooked anything with walnuts, black or
otherwise.  I've heard of walnut pesto, but it sounds like a bad idea.

#3 of 13 by glenda on Sun Oct 28 23:37:28 2001:

Actually peanuts are new world, South American in origin.  Africans just took
a great liking to them and quickly made them a part of their culture.  Sort
of like hot peppers added to Asian cuisine.

#4 of 13 by keesan on Mon Oct 29 01:39:00 2001:

Or Irish potatoes (Peruvian in origin), or Italian tomatoes (central
American).  We have stir fried peanuts and almonds with vegetables, and I
tried chopped almonds in a vegetable stew for crunch.  The Russian Orthodox
used to fast three days a week, which meant no eggs or milk, and they used
almond milk as a substitute, but it seems rather a bother to make.  You can
add any nuts to oatmeal (or to chocolate ice cream if you are not eating vegan
at the moment).  Has anyone tried any combination of nuts or seeds with
potatoes, instead of, say, sour cream?  Does peanut butter melt when warm?

#5 of 13 by gracel on Mon Oct 29 13:00:38 2001:

The peanut butter we use softens when warm, but tends to *separate* when 
really warm -- the oil comes out entirely, and the remainder gets very hard.  
When I use it as an ingredient, it has to be thoroughly mixed before it 
reaches the separation stage.

Chopped nuts could be added to almost anything, surely.

#6 of 13 by keesan on Mon Oct 29 14:59:33 2001:

I wonder whether to try cooking them with grains or adding them afterwards.

#7 of 13 by orinoco on Mon Oct 29 20:20:10 2001:

Re peanuts from South America: I had no idea.  Way cool.

#8 of 13 by keesan on Mon Oct 29 21:55:52 2001:

They also grow in Canada, but the yield is pretty low because of the shorter
growing season.  We stopped by the growers, where he was also selling FLorida
grown peanuts, cheaper.  We were apparently the only ones that year interested
in seeing the plants grow, so he pulled some up to show us how the seeds grow
underground (they burrow in after being pollinated above ground).  The first
frost kills them.  They like sandy soil so ours failed.
        Almonds are a lot better in oatmeal than are banana chips.

#9 of 13 by md on Thu Nov 8 02:02:21 2001:

This is probably not what you had in mind, but when my mom, rest her 
soul, used to make cannoli she would sometimes put pignoli, or pine 
nuts, in the filling.  I believe she used Mediterranean pine nuts, but 
I'm sure the North American pinyon variety would do.  I would guess a 
cup of confectioners sugar, a pound of riccota cheese, and a quarter 
cup of pine nuts.  You can make the shells yourself if you have the 
tubes, or you can buy them premade at any Italian market.  "Leave the 
gun, take the cannoli."

#10 of 13 by keesan on Thu Nov 8 02:22:35 2001:

Sounds good except for the fact that vegans don't eat cheese, Jim does not
eat sugar except at other people's houses, and we don't buy noodles.  The ones
we make are 'pretty clunky' (Jim's words).  My mother used to make noodle
pudding with egg noodles (precooked), cottage cheese, sour cream and raisins,
a homogenized version of the above.

I have been putting chopped raw almonds into stir-fry dishes and into oatmeal
(along with our home-dried apricots).  And eating them plain.

We got some pine nuts in the shell when we visited the Grand Canyon.
Also tried boiled salted peanuts in Virginia - way too salty.
Jim remembers canolli - we ate breakfast in Italian restaurants for a week
while attending a translators' convention in NYC.  The excuse was that the
electricity was turned off in my grandfather's apartment where we stayed.
He also recalls fresh anise toast and everything else the bakery had for sale.
This was in pre-vegan days.  'They were yummy'.

#11 of 13 by md on Thu Nov 8 16:33:48 2001:

(Cannoli shells are pastry shells, not pasta shells.)

#12 of 13 by orinoco on Tue Nov 13 16:16:21 2001:

(Out of curiosity, how long ago did you and Jim become vegan?)

#13 of 13 by keesan on Tue Nov 13 19:30:58 2001:

Jim became vegan (mostly) when he turned 50.  Tomorrow he will be 54.
He was vegetarian (mostly) since about 1980.  I did not become vegan but I
cook and eat with Jim.

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