Hazelnut ideas?

Just back from a business trip to Oregon, with 2 pounds of freshly roasted hazelnuts in tow. So far we have eaten:
--Green beans with hazelnuts and butter
--Salad of hazelnuts, green beans, lettuce and swiss cheese

We have good recipes for hazelnut cookies and a hazelnut pound cake. What else can you do with good hazelnuts?

Christian

Just back from a business trip to Oregon, with 2 pounds of freshly roasted hazelnuts in tow. So far we have eaten:
--Green beans with hazelnuts and butter
--Salad of hazelnuts, green beans, lettuce and swiss cheese

We have good recipes for hazelnut cookies and a hazelnut pound cake. What else can you do with good hazelnuts?

Christian

Besides mailing them to me? I like them as a snack just as they are best of all.

Can you grind some up into fine meal, and use it instead of flour to make a cake?

Something like this -

1/3 cup cocoa powder
1/3 cup hot water
150g dark chocolate, melted
150g unsalted butter, melted
275g dark brown sugar
1 cup fine hazelnut meal
4 eggs, separated

Blend together the cocoa and water in large bowl . Add melted chocolate and butter, sugar and hazelnut meal. Stir mixture until combined. Add egg yolks, one at a time, stirring well after each addition.

Beat the egg whites in separate bowl until soft peaks form, and fold into the chocolate mixture.

Pour the mixture into a greased and lined 10 inch cake tin. Bake in moderate oven - about 180°C - for about 1¼ hours. Let it cool in pan before lifting out and slicing. Serves 8.

[Jenise]

You can ask Bill Spohn for his recipe for steamed leeks with hazelnut-cream sauce.

And you can make this soup, in which the hazelnut sounds like a garnish but in fact imparts an absolutely indispensable flavor:

(Recipe from FLDG CLassic)

Date: 04-Sep-2000 18:50
Author: Jenise
Subject: Some thoughts on what to do with the contents of the cornucopia
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I second Bryan's nomination of cauliflower in soup. It's far more divine than you'd think. I make one by sauteeing one carrot and one celery stalk chopped up with about a quarter cup of onion in some butter, then I add chicken broth and a stem of thyme and simmer all for about 30 minutes. When the vegetables are tender, I puree them and adding a few tablespoons of cream for enrichment. The soup will have a lovely pale apricot color. Then grind some hazelnuts and butter together, and place a hazelnutbutter ball in the midle of each bowl of soup. Serve with chardonnay, and watch your guests who heretofore believed they hated cauliflower positively melt in appreciation.

The cauliflower relish sounds good, too. I do something similiar when I have a bunch of cauliflower on hand, with red onions and red bell peppers tossed with garlic, oil, vinegar, salt and pepper. After a few days, the cauliflower tenderizes and the flavors meld beautifully.

Christian,

make a Pesto. In addition to the hazelnuts, add some basil,parmesan, garlic and olive oil. Of course perfect for pasta, but also as a sauce for all kind of fish&meat dishes.

Cheers,
Martin

Hey, I know, Christian! Put them into your coffee!

(Ducking)
Mark Lipton

Some good ideas above. Here's a dessert suggestion - crush the nuts coarsely and use them in making fresh vanilla or strawberry ice cream, mixing in the nuts just before the ice cream solidifies.

Best
Rogov

Am I the only one who likes them best just roasted and munched?

Can you grind some up into fine meal, and use it instead of flour to make a cake?

This sounds delicious, but all I have is an old coffee grinder, so the nuts would be nowhere near as fine as flour. How "nubbly" can the hazelnuts be and still have this recipe work?

Christian,

make a Pesto. In addition to the hazelnuts, add some basil,parmesan, garlic and olive oil. Of course perfect for pasta, but also as a sauce for all kind of fish&meat dishes.

Cheers,
Martin

Very interesting, thanks, and my daughter is a total pesto fan. I think I might tone down or remove the garlic though, it seems like it would interfere with the hazelnuttiness.

And you can make this soup, in which the hazelnut sounds like a garnish but in fact imparts an absolutely indispensable flavor:
...I second Bryan's nomination of cauliflower in soup. It's far more divine than you'd think. I make one by sauteeing one carrot and one celery stalk chopped up with about a quarter cup of onion in some butter, then I add chicken broth and a stem of thyme and simmer all for about 30 minutes. When the vegetables are tender, I puree them and adding a few tablespoons of cream for enrichment. The soup will have a lovely pale apricot color. Then grind some hazelnuts and butter together, and place a hazelnutbutter ball in the midle of each bowl of soup...

Sounds like something we would like, but at what point does the cauliflower go in and how much?

Am I the only one who likes them best just roasted and munched?

We love them that way, but we've already gone through a half pound just out of the bag.

Am I the only one who likes them best just roasted and munched?

We love them that way, but we've already gone through a half pound just out of the bag.

I'd just be getting started at a half-pound.

There must be a way to turn them into either Frangelico or Nutella.....

They are great ground into a paste with figs.

rwj

Christian said:
all I have is an old coffee grinder, so the nuts would be nowhere near as fine as flour. How "nubbly" can the hazelnuts be

Hi - sorry about the late reply, I've been on the road.

The nuts don't have to be as fine as flour, in fact if you try to grind them up too fine I find that they start going into an oily paste. Try to get them powdered down to something like coarse sand, or white table sugar.

If you have a sweet tooth hazelnut and maple pie is to die for.

http://www.bonappetit.com/magazine/2008 ... zelnut_pie

wish I had some to use up!

Ruth

hazelnut and maple pie

Sounds good. Pecan pie is a favourite at extended family gatherings here - what is it with men and pecan pie? - so I might try this some time as an alternative for the sweet tooth crew. How do you think it would go if I leave out the corn syrup?

With coarsely ground nuts, you could make tartlet shells. There's a good recipe in the Williamsburgh (VA) cookbook for custard tartlets with a pecan crust.

One of my faves is a hazelnut mushroom soup, usually accompanied by an Oregon pinot.

hazelnut and maple pie

Sounds good. Pecan pie is a favourite at extended family gatherings here - what is it with men and pecan pie? - so I might try this some time as an alternative for the sweet tooth crew. How do you think it would go if I leave out the corn syrup?

It might end up as nut and maple soup -- adding an extra egg might be enough to compensate.

Louise bought a small (2 pound) pork roast and when we were looking around for recipes I thought of the fact that in the Piedmont they are famous for pork braised in milk. Well, the recipe that I had been thinking of was written for pork ribs. But in fact I came across a recipe by Roberto Donna -- "Carre di Maiale Brasato alla Nociole" -- it is a classic braise, you begin by giving the meat a good scorch and then adding a mixture of chicken stock and heavy cream for the braise. After a couple of hours (covered) in a hot oven, you toast 8 ounces (!) of hazelnuts in a pan until browned, and chop them up. Take the meat out of the oven and remove it from the sauce, strain the sauce and stir in the nuts and some extra cream. I haven't given all the details -- you will want bay leaves, garlic and rosemary in the braising sauce.

I think you can imagine how the richness of the nuts and the cream would bring out the best in that tender pork.

BTW I'm trying to diet so we didn't choose to do that. We are making the "marinade seche" pork roast from Julia Child's "mastering" -- an old favorite. No nuts are involved, you pat a mixture of salt and pepper and ground sage all over the roast and let it sit for a couple of hours before roasting. Somehow this always tastes fabulous.

F

And the winner is...Robert Reynolds! I faithfully gathered and compared your recipes and pondered which one to make, various obligations prevented me from actually organizing and cooking any of them, and meanwhile we just couldn't keep our hands off those light yet incredibly intense toasty-nutty Oregon filberts...and now they're all gone. So I have to find a decent source in the bay area to make those recipes. But I will, really, I promise, don't give up on me...

Louise bought a small (2 pound) pork roast... We are making the "marinade seche" pork roast from Julia Child's "mastering" -- an old favorite. No nuts are involved, you pat a mixture of salt and pepper and ground sage all over the roast and let it sit for a couple of hours before roasting. Somehow this always tastes fabulous.
F

Along the same lines, we have utterly enjoyed the following ultra-simple recipe for tenderloin of pork, based on a recipe from Beyond the Great Wall.

Preheat the oven to 350. Rub the pork loin (or butt) in lard or vegetable oil, about 2 Tbsp worth
Grind or crush and blend 2 teaspoons Garam Masala or nutmeg, 1.5 teaspoons Sichuan peppercorns, 0.5 teaspoons black pepper, 1 tspn salt. Rub the mixture all over the meat.
Roast for 40-60 minutes until done to taste. Slice thinly and serve. A black cherry or tomato chutney is a nice accompaniment, as is a pan gravy made with the drippings, some port or sherry and water and a pinch more Garam Masala. Makes good sandwiches the next day.