These days, with storage always at a premium, I
tend to read a lot of cookbooks and food magazines in their digital forms,
downloading them from the local library website, and reading regional and
independent offerings on the Issuu app (a recent discovery that has thrilled me
beyond words). Nothing, however, can replace the food section of the Wednesday
paper. On Wednesdays I need the tactile, the color pictures, the newsprint-y
fingers, and the feel of scissors in my hands as I cut out the recipes that I want
to try. It's a homey, satisfying feeling that takes me back to my early days
when I used to cut and paste recipes from newspapers and magazines into the
homemade cookbooks of my mother and grandmother.
I don't currently have a place to paste them,
so I put mine in a basket on the counter in the kitchen where, weekly, the pile
grows. Occasionally I rummage through to see if there is something of
particular interest to try. This morning a recipe that I'd cut out in September
caught my eye. With thoughts toward a harvest salad that I've been ruminating
about, I decided to give these vanilla walnuts a try. Mr. O-P looked at me
warily. “You're not really going to make those, are
you?” (Mr. O-P is not a fan of the sugar-coated nut.). But indeed I
did, a half batch, and they were wonderful! So much so, that I was sorry
I didn't make the entire batch because the doubting Mr. O-P had to be
restrained from devouring the entire batch.
The seasoning on these is just right, and I
will admit to being a bit addicted myself. The recipe, from the The Frog/Commissary Cookbook by
Steven Poses, Anne Clark and Becky Roller, was published in
the St. Louis Post-Dispatch on September 10, 2014. It is reproduced below. As I mentioned, I cut
it in half, very successfully, but made a couple of other changes as well. With
the smaller batch, the baking time was only about 22 minutes. I did bake mine
in a countertop convection/toaster oven, so that may have made a difference,
but do watch them as they bake, and make your own determination. Once they were
dry and the sugar had crystallized, I figured the time was up. I also did not use
a vanilla bean, as I consider them far too precious for experimentation, so
instead used vanilla bean paste, mixing it in with the sugar and corn oil (and
I really used canola because I was out of corn oil), as was suggested for
vanilla extract in the recipe.
I plan to use these to top a salad (stay tuned
for that), but imagine these would be delicious stirred into yogurt, added to
granola, used to top ice cream, or chopped finely and added to streusel
topping, or a sour cream coffee cake recipe that I have been considering. Or,
as like Mr. O-P, you can just gobble them up right from the tray.
Vanilla
Walnuts
½ cup granulated sugar
2½ tablespoons corn
oil
1 pound walnut halves
1 (4-inch long) vanilla bean,
pulverized or very finely minced to a paste*
¼ teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon black pepper
¼ teaspoon ground coriander
¼ teaspoon cinnamon
¼ teaspoon nutmeg
¼ teaspoon allspice
Preheat oven to 325°F. In a large bowl, mix together
sugar and corn oil.
Blanch the walnuts for 1 minute in boiling
water. Drain well. While still hot, toss with the sugar and corn oil. Let stand
10 minutes.
Arrange in a single layer, if possible, on a
rimmed baking tray. Bake 30 to
35 minutes, turning every 5 to 10 minutes,
until light brown and crispy.
Meanwhile, combine vanilla bean, salt, pepper,
coriander, cinnamon, nutmeg and allspice. Put the still-hot nuts into a bowl
and toss with the seasoning mixture. Spread in a single layer to cool. Store in
an airtight container.
Yield: 4 cups
*Instead of a vanilla bean, you can substitute
1 tablespoon vanilla extract, blending it first with the corn oil in step 1
before tossing with the nuts.
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