Yep. Walnut ketchup. Ketchup used to be a lot more varied than just tomatoes. This is a classic British recipe made with young, green walnuts – black walnuts, here – results in a sauce that tastes astonishingly like A1 steak sauce. Give it a go!
walnuts
Butternut Cookies
It’s nut season all over the country, and one of my favorites is the butternut, a relative of the black walnut. These cookies are by far my favorite way to eat them — and yes, they are wonderful with black walnuts, too.
Pickled Walnuts
Pickled walnuts? Yep, you read right. Pickled unripe, green walnuts is a British thing that originated because in parts of Britain the climate’s too harsh for walnuts to fully ripen. They take a while to make, but once you do, they are a great sweet-sour condiment to cheeses as well as cured and roasted meats.
Duck Breast with Wild Rice Pilaf
Fall has finally hit, and I find myself in the Upper Midwest: wild rice country. It seems amazing that after all these years, I don’t have a recipe pairing wild rice and duck, which is a classic. Well, better late than never.
Black Walnut Snowball Cookies
Snowball cookies were my favorite Christmas cookie when I was growing up. My mum made them with regular walnuts, but my rendition of this classic cookie uses wild black walnuts, plus a little orange liqueur.
Black Walnut Ice Cream
Black walnut season has started, and my favorite thing to do with these hard-to-crack nuts is make ice cream. My version gives you a double-dip of black walnut flavor.
Bulrushes and Flyway Fried Rice
Foraging for bulrush shoots gave me the inspiration to make a truly unique duck fried rice – almost every ingredient is from North America, and most live all in the same marshes.
Black Walnuts and Holiday Cheer
Of all the things I hunt, fish or forage for, nothing requires as much effort as shelling black walnuts. But it’s worth it. Black walnuts are to regular walnuts as a diamond is to cubic zirconium.