Nuts - Growing & Cooking

Nuts – Growing and Cooking includes over seventy recipes from a spiced pecan and pumpkin salad, Christmas nut loaf to a walnut cake. Also included are storage and handling tips, and ways to make your own nut products such as nut milks and nut butters.

Traditionally, nut trees are planted for future generations, but this book shows how you can have a harvest within a season, even in a small space.

Health wise, nuts are not so much a super as a wonder food, easy to store, and one of the most concentrated foods available; a tiny, but delectable package.

A strict botanical definition of nuts is tricky excluding as it does peanuts and pistachios. However, the authors feel that if cooks and gardeners think of something as a nut so will they, so the book includes the full range you would find in your local health food store or park, from Brazil Nuts to Pecans, Hazelnuts to Acorns. Where it tastes good, they have included recipes and if you can grow it or forage for it in Britain or the temperate United States or Europe, the authors have provided planting and cultivation advice.

A lovely Autumnal recipe from the book can be found below:

Venison and chestnut stew with chestnut dumplings

This is a lovely winter warmer and makes a great Christmas Eve supper. Although chestnut flour is gluten-free and there is no reason why you could not use this to dust the meat as well as in the dumplings, do be careful as suet is often coated with wheat flour to prevent sticking, making the recipe unsuitable for coeliacs. You can peel your own chestnuts here but we find tins or vacuum packs of pre-cooked ones work well and save valuable time and effort.