Roasted walnuts
At my house during the holidays, I hope to find small bowls of pecan with toasted pecans and chocolate candies placed where family and friends can enjoy them while “visiting.” Although my family loves roasted pecans enough to love them year-round, we don’t acquire pecans until they are freshly harvested in the fall and early winter. Tip: Commercial walnut growers offer tempting summer sales to get rid of older, drier walnuts they stored from the previous harvest.
Did you know that the walnut is the only original edible nut from North America? The colonials found out from the Algonquin natives, that they called the walnuts “walnut”, which meant “to break the shell and then eat the nut”. I wonder how pacane was pronounced, because there are differences in how people pronounce the word pecan. I am particularly amused by people who imagine there is a “U” or a “W” in the spelling. I offer a “made up word” for they: “sophisticated”.
The Algonquin natives collected nuts from the nut forests, which were groups of trees in nature. Nuts tend to be smaller and have a different flavor. Look up varieties of walnuts on the web and you will find several named after Native North American tribes, most of which had connections to the Algonquin nation. I remember having access to wild nuts grown on my grandfather’s farm. The nuts were small, but very tasty. The region was located in northwestern South Carolina, where the Cherokee and Blackfeet tribes once roamed.
Unfortunately, unless you can find a local source, you are most likely sourcing your nuts from a major producer who emphasizes size and ease of opening the shell over flavor and variety. Expect to see the words “mammoth” and “meaty” in your descriptions of nuts. Do not panic. Buy them during the harvest season and grill them anyway!
I like the simple recipe – place the pecan halves in a bowl. For melted butter on them. Sprinkle sea salt over them. Use a spoon so that the salt and butter stick to the nuts. Place the buttered and salted pecan halves on a foil lined baking sheet. Preheat your baking oven to 325 degrees. The bake setting will roast your nuts. Take them out of the oven after ten minutes. “The delicious aroma will tempt you to nibble, but be careful: they are hot right out of the oven. Don’t call them ‘puhcawns’.
The Christian Bible mentions pistachios and almonds, but not walnuts. In the Old Testament, the Bible mentions roasting as a cooking method that pleases God. Web search Leviticus 2:14. In that verse, Moses gives an instruction to the newly liberated Hebrews that it will please God if they offer him the roasted grains of fresh grain (the best) before feeding. God was visibly with Moses and the Hebrew people for a long time (during the 40 years after they fled Egypt). God used Moses as a scribe to write and explain his relationship to humanity and to awaken the current generation of Abraham’s sons and daughters to who they were and what they were expected to do. Moses wrote the first five Old Testament books of the Christian Bible.
When you take the toasted walnuts out of the oven, close your eyes; smell the heady fragrance of roasted walnuts. Realize that God made us in his image. Is it an exaggeration to believe that he would love that fragrance too?
