More Sherbhert Local and Seasonal in November….
Walnuts
British grown walnuts, in their dry state, become available from October in each year and they will keep well for Christmas and beyond, if you can resist them that long. They are delicious simply cracked with some able nutcrackers and eaten from the shell or try the recipes below.
Roast walnuts
200g shelled walnut halves
4 cloves of garlic, un-peeled but crushed slightly
2 or 3 sprigs of rosemary
Salt
Preheat the oven to 180c.
Mix the nuts, garlic and rosemary together and put them on a baking tray. Bake in the preheated oven for 8 – 10 minutes. Be careful as nuts burn very easily. They should be golden brown and will smell delicious.
Sprinkle with salt and allow to cool.
Store the nuts in a clean jar in the fridge for up to 3 weeks or freeze them for up to 3 months.
Serve them at room temperature.
Walnut and Parsley Pesto
Use this pesto to brighten plain pasta, a casserole or soup, roast or grilled meats or vegetables. If you like it, you will probably find many other uses for it too.
A handful of parsley – it can be the curly or the flat type but, whichever you use, make sure it is clean. You can use the stalks if they are thin and soft, but you need to remove them if they are thick and coarse.
2 large cloves of garlic – peeled and crushed
A handful of walnuts
Rapeseed oil
Salt
Ideally, you need a food processor for this. However, it could be done the traditional way using a pestle and mortar. But, honestly, if you haven’t got a processor, just chop the parsley, garlic and walnuts as finely as you can and mix in some of the oil and salt to get the flavour and loose consistency of a sloppy sauce and it should work.
Chop the parsley in the food processor with the crushed garlic and the walnuts. With the motor running, pour the oil in a slow, steady stream until it is a sloppy sauce.
Most importantly, mix in some salt, a little at a time, tasting as you go until it just right.
Store the pesto in a clean jar with a layer or rapeseed oil completely covering the top, seal with the lid and store in the fridge until needed -it should keep well for a week or more.
