The walnut is one of the oldest and most revered nuts on earth – archaeologists in France, more particularly the Dordogne department in Aquitaine (once known as Périgord), discovered petrified shells of nuts that had been roasted during the Neolithic period, more than 8,000 years ago.  Whilst both nut and the oil extracted from it have been known since ancient times, it probably disappeared in parts of northern Europe during the glacial period, to be reintroduced by the Greco-Roman conquerors and invading Barbarian hordes. Walnuts belong to the Juglandaceae family and are deciduous trees that can grow

up to 40 meters. There are 21 species in the genus that range across the north temperate Old World from southeast Europe east to Japan as well as from southeast Canada to California and south to Argentina. Today, the leading commercial producers of walnuts are the United States, Turkey, China, Iran, France and Romania.

WALNUT AND  HONEY CREAM WITH QUICK APPLE QUINCE TART

Ingredients

• 50 g chopped walnuts
• 150ml double cream
• 3 tbsp runny honey

For the tart:

• 450g ready made puff pastry – buy at the local patisserie
• 6 golden delicious apples, peeled, cored and cut into thin slices
• 110 g quince jelly
• 50g melted butter
• 25g  caster sugar

Method

• Whip the cream with an electric whisk until thick and then fold in the chopped walnuts and the hone, allow to rest in the fridge.
• Preheat the oven to 200 C.
• Roll out the puff pastry thinly and prick the surface with a fork and then cut out four rectangles sized about 10 x20cm
• Put the pastry rectangles onto a non-stick well buttered baking tray and brush the edges of the tarts lightly with some of the melted butter –  spread out the quince jelly in the middle.
• Place the apple slices on the pastry and dribble the rest of the melted butter over the apples, sprinkle with sugar and put in the oven for about 6 – 7 minutes and bake until golden brown.
• Remove from the oven and put on the plates to serve with a dollop of the walnut and honey cream.

• In Mesopotamia, around 2000 BC, the Chaldeans left inscriptions on clay tablets that prove the existence of walnut groves in the Hanging Gardens of Babylon and even the Hammurabi Code provides proof that walnuts had been eaten.*
• The Greeks were the first people to record improvements  to the Persian walnuts and through careful selection and cultivation created the English walnut we know today.
• King Solomon also mentions it in his Songs of Solomon (6.11) and says “I went down into the grove of walnuts to see the fruits of the valley, and to see whether the vine flourished, and the pomegranates budded”.  It is, however, more likely that the nuts were almonds simply because almond trees were more likely to succeed than walnut trees in the Israeli terroir.
• In Greek mythology, the “ walnut appears …. in the story of Carya, with whom the god Dionysus fell in love. When she died, Dionysus turned her into a walnut tree. The goddess Artemis carried the news to Carya’s father and commanded that a temple be built in her memory. It’s columns, sculpted in wood in the form of young women, were called catyatides or nymphs of the walnut tree-so the tree furnished the image for a famous Greek architectural form.

WALNUT AND CHOCOLATE SEED ICECREAM

Ingredients

Seed mixture

• 25g pumpkin seeds
• 25g sunflower seeds
• 25g seasame seeds
• 75g hemp seeds
• 75g linseeds

Ice  Cream

• 100g dark chocolate (70 % cocoa solids)
• 1 tbsp chopped walnuts
• 200 ml coconut cream
• 2 tbsp mixed glace fruit
• 50g dates, chopped
• 50g soft, ready-to-eat dried apricots, chopped
• 1 tbsp Cointreau
• 2 tbsp maple syrup
• 2 tbsp fresh lime juice
• 2 tbsp flax oil
• 2 tbsp whole oats
• 100ml milk
• 2 tsp dark, unsweetened cocoa  powder
• 1 tbsp Greek yoghurt
• 1 tbsp vegan unsalted butter

Method

• Combine all the seeds and grind them lightly in a food processor – you may need to grind the linseeds and the hempseeds separately in a coffee or seed grinder and then mix the two kinds – take care not to over grind otherwise you will have a paste when you’re looking for a coarse grind.
• Break the chocolate into pieces and put about 75g into a bowl and melt over simmering water.
• Chop the rest of the chocolate into chips and combine with the walnuts – set aside.
• Put all the other ingredients (including 2 tbsp of the seeds mixture) in a bowl and mix with a hand held mixer fro a better result.
• Stir the melted chocolate into the fruit mixture and then combine it with the walnuts and the chocolate chips.
• Transfer this mixture to a lidded container and place in the freezer for an hour, after which you remove it and break up the mixture with a fork to get rid of (or, at least reduce) the  ice crystals. Repeat this process every hour for the next four hours.
• Should it be frozen for more than   24 hours, remove it from the freezer about 10 – 20 minutes before serving – serve with a little cream and maple syrup – even fruit if you like.
• The name of the tree and its nut was given by the Romans who called the tree juglans regia** and the nut, nux juglandes – it became the Royal Nut of Jove. The word for nut itself comes  from the Latin word, nux or nucleus (fruit of the shell). They also established the a improved Persian walnut trees throughout their empire.
• These English Walnuts were taken to America in the beginning of the 1800’s by Franciscan monks, who emigrated to the Californian coast and became known as Mission walnuts. Today 99% of the English walnuts grown in America, come from California which amounts to 65% of the world production.

INDIAN SPICED WALNUTS

Serve this with drinks instead of the usual chips and peanuts.

Ingredients

• 850 g walnut halves and pieces
• 2 large egg whites, lightly beaten
• 2  tsp teaspoon garam masala
• 1 tbsp ground cumin
• ½ tsp Demerara sugar
• 1  tsp salt

Method

• Pre-heat oven to 180 C.
• Use a large flat, non stick baking tray or alternatively, spray the tray with non-stick spray.
• Combine the egg whites with the spices and combine with the walnuts thoroughly to coat the nuts well – spread out in the prepared tray.
• Bake for 15 to 20 minutes until they are dry and crisp – obviously cool before serving.

VARIETIES

• Black walnut (Juglans nigra) is native to America and can live for over 100 years. The trees are usually  grown for making expensive furniture and the crunchy, spicy nuts are used in food and nuts can be easily shelled if soaked overnight in water – they are rich in oil.
• Butternut or White walnut (Juglans cinerea) is closely related to the black walnut and considered by many to have the best taste – it can grow much taller than the black walnut – about 40 metres. It is more suited to the cold but, like black walnut trees, the roots emit a poisonous chemical that can kill plants growing near it – it’s not a good idea to plant anything to close to the tree. The wood isn’t often used because the quality isn’t too great.
• Paradox walnut tree (Juglans x Paradox) created by Luther Burbank in 1893, a fast growing walnut tree hybrids that takes only required 15 years to reach maturity.It’is used as a grafting understock for commercial cultivars.
• Royal walnut tree (Juglans x Royal)a cross of the American black walnut tree with the Californian black walnut and can produce almost a ton of nuts per year.
• Heartnut walnut tree (Juglans ailantifolia) – an interesting feature is that this tree can bear strings of nuts (often 30 or more) in a single cluster and the kernels drop out into a container completely intact when the thin shells are cracked (Burbank considered it to be an intermediate variant of the Japanese walnut.
• Manchurian walnut tree(Juglans mandshurica) –  a variety of the Japanese walnut that was introduced during the American Civil War

For best results buy fresh and in-the-shell, cracking them open before using them – should  you decide to shell them before use, refrigerate them immediately – never buy shelled walnuts because they usually taste rancid. Toast them before use in an oven at about 180 C or dry-toast in a pan for a minute or two. Walnut oil is delicious and the best oils come from France – buy the tins and check the expiry date. Walnut liqueur is popular in most countries and this is made from the green walnuts (image above).

HEALTH PROPERTIES

Walnuts contain are many antioxidants that will lower cholesterol in the body cause a dramatic reduction of fatty coagulants in veins and arteries.  Throughout the ages, the leaves have been used as a laxative, to induce vomiting, stop diarhhoea, ringworms, herpes and bleeding, to lose weight and to cure a host of skin diseases. Walnut hull extracts have been used to treat liver problems, to kill ringworms, and to help lose weight. They are rich in Vitamin B, Vitamin E and important minerals.

BASIC WALNUT COFFEE CAKE

Ingredients

• 65g walnut, broken
• 175g butter
• 175 Demerara  caster sugar
• 3 large free-range eggs
• 175g cake flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 2 tsp best quality instant coffee granules
• Icing and filling
• 600ml double cream
• 1 tbsp best quality instant coffee powder, dissolved in about 2 tbsp boiling water

Method

• Preheat the oven to 180C.
• Line the base of two 20cm loose-bottomed cake  tins with baking parchment.
• Beat the butter and caster sugar until light and fluffy – use an electric mixer – it takes for ever if you do it by hand.
• Break the eggs up with a fork, then add them, gradually to the butter and sugar mixture, beating well after each addition.
• Sift together  the  flour and the baking powder and add to the butter and sugar slowly – putting the mixer on slow speed at first to prevent a flour storm.
• Dissolve the coffee granules and stir into this mixture and then fold the walnuts  in gently
• Divide the cake mixture between the 2 tins and bake until the cake is  springy to the touch and a skewer inserted inside should come out clean – around 20 minutes, then remove from the oven and transfer to a wire rack to cool.
• To make the icing and the filling, simply whip the double cream and add the coffee mixture and spread half over one of the cake halves to sandwich the cakes together and smooth the rest over the top of the cake.

*There is evidence of walnut consumption dating from the same era on carved stelae containing, in a section devoted to food.

** In Old English it meant foreign nut (wealhhnutu) which wasn’t a bad name, because it fit the description pretty well.