As the walnuts fall from the tree out side the office and lie on the lawn, family members are found looking for stones to crack a nut on the concrete for this little treat. I start to think of all the possibilities these nuts have.
A fresh walnut is sweet. It is a great accompaniment with blue cheese and goats’ cheese and Parmesan. Walnuts work well with bitter greens as endive and radicchio as do pears, prunes and apples. A potato or green bean salad is made lively with walnuts.
Walnuts have two seasons for me.
At the beginning of December I have made pickled walnuts, green walnut jam or walnut leaf aperitif.
This is before the kernels have developed in the nut. The only way to test this is to pierce a needle through the centre diligently for days at this time. If you can feel the nut and it has started to form, it is too late and so you wait for late March and harvest the mature nuts.
Green walnuts stain you hands black with their juice so always wear gloves when pricking with the needle. The stain does not scrub off for days. Back in the seventies when everyone seemed to be dyeing everything, I once dyed a length of silk with the green walnut juice. It was a beautiful rich golden interesting green and the fabric remained incredibly fast.
I have made Walnut leaf aperitif in December with the young walnut leaf tips, made up with a combination of armagnac, red wine, orange peel and sugar. It is left to macerate for eight days, then strained and bottled and left for three months, if you can wait that long. Better to wait and enjoy it as an aperitif at Easter, rather than to steal a nip or two at Christmas.
I was told by an old timer once that they would tie up their horses up under walnut trees as walnut leaves sent act as a repellent against flies, so it is not such a bad idea to consider growing one in the back garden, of only for the purpose of having a nice place to have lunch on a hot summer day without being troubled by flies. For those of us who live in the country and are surrounded by stock in the paddocks, we flock to our shady cool walnut trees for some respite. The shade and the fly repellent qualities are one thing, but the wondrous nut the tree produces make it even better.
The recipe for this tart is made with fresh mature nuts of the new season. Walnuts can become rancid after some time. Dry roasting them and rubbing them in a clean tea towel will take away some of their bitterness, but the flavour does not have the intensity of fresh walnuts of the new season.
Walnut and Chocolate Tart:
Pastry (Pate brisee)
200 g plain flour
100 g unsalted butter
2 tablespoons caster sugar
1 egg yolk
½ teaspoon salt
3 table spoons cold water, or more if needed.
Filling:
250 g caster sugar
500 ml cream
350 g shelled walnuts
Icing:
175 g dark chocolate (Callebeut 811)
175 g cream
50 ml glucose
25cm tart tin with removable base
Toast the walnuts in the oven for approximately 10 minutes.
Rub the warm nuts in a clean tea towel to remove their skins. Reserve 14 whole half nuts for the top of the tart.
Make the pate brisee dough and chill. Roll out the dough, and line the tart tin. Chill for 15 minutes or until firm. Heat the oven to 200 C and bake blind for approximately 15 minutes.
For the filling, dissolve the sugar in a little water and bring it to the boil and let it caramelise. Pull the saucepan off the stove and very carefully add the cream. Stir and add the toasted nuts. Pour the mixture into the pastry shell and bake for approximately 10-15 minutes. It must bubble through to the centre of the tart; otherwise it will not be set in the centre. Then let it cool completely.
Make the chocolate topping by bringing the cream and glucose to the boil, add the chocolate at blood temperature and stir. Pour the chocolate topping on to the tart and garnish with the reserved nuts.