Chef Daniel Angerer's Blog

Pine Nuts
…nut series continued…

(nice texture - pork belly sprinkled with pine nuts, with red wine braised red cabbage) 

Pine nuts come from pine cones. The harvest is labor intensive since the cones have to be heated to open up their scales and loosen the nuts free, then each small pine nut has to be peeled. They are high in protein (up to 35%) and have a high amount of good fat. I recommend buying refrigerated or even frozen pine nuts to preserve their flavor. Pine nuts can get rancid in a few days in warm storage conditions. I was fortunate to grow up close to the Italian border where we were able to buy a great deal of superb pine nuts. In my opinion Italian pine nuts are terrific and have a consistently good quality compared to pine nuts from elsewhere. Asian pine nuts can give you the “pine mouth” which is a bitter taste that can linger for several days on your taste buds! Surprisingly no one has found an explanation why this happens sometimes.

(pine nut crusted fluke with spaghetti squash and cranberry leather)

Pine nut & fish cookery
I revisited cooking with pine nuts a few days ago. It started to snow and I knew from the past that would change the number of people what will come to the restaurant that night. Originally I had planned an elegant raw fluke-fish appetizer which would have been enough fish for about 30 appetizer portions – meaning at the end of the day that is usually gone – but that day it wasn’t going to happen with the snow storm moving into New York City! We changed course and the fluke became our entrée du jour – pine nut crusted fluke so that we’d have no leftovers. I knew pine nut crusting the fish worked since in the past years one of my signature dishes was halibut crusted with pine nut. The richness of the pine nuts is an ideal barrier to protect lean fish such as fluke or halibut from drying out in a hot skillet. When you squeeze a single pine nut between your thumb and pointer finger you’ll see a great deal of natural pine nut fat keeps the fish dish beautifully moist. The dish received rave reviews from our guests that night.

Chef’s nut crusting tips:
- Toast pine nuts on a baking sheet for 8 minutes at 300 degree Fahrenheit
- Fold toasted pine nuts into a towel then crush gently with a heavy object such as a sauce pot
- Season skinless fish filet with salt and a touch of cayenne
- Gently press fish inside (inside of fish filet versus side where skin was attached) into crushed pine nuts
- Cook fish on medium to low heat setting (ensures that nuts won’t burn and get bitter)

Italian-American cookie language
You can be assured if you go into an Italian bakery you’ll find a pine nut-sugar cookie – a pignoli. My American family is part Italian so  when I’m cooking with pine nuts it makes me smile since I often have to think about how my spouse’s mother Marie pronounces pignoli with an Italian accent
“pēn-yō'lē”. 

 (pignoli cookies) 

 

WHAT LANGUAGE DO HAZELNUTS SPEAK

…January nut series continued...

(sweet potatoes with maple candied hazelnuts) 

Hazelnuts
Turkey is by far the biggest producer of hazelnuts and a decent amount come from Italy. Domestically they are produced in Washington and Oregon. Mid-summer is harvest time when hazelnuts fall from the trees and are swept from the ground. The little branches and dust are cleaned from the hazelnuts with blowers and a vacuum technique on manufacturing belts. It’s a rather cumbersome process because the machinery is very sensitive to weather fluctuations (lending to their high cost no doubt). 

(hazelnuts in a grinder)    (ground hazelnuts)
 
Tortes & Pastries 
Spending time in Vienna as a young cook I became quite familiar with hazelnut laden tortes and pastries such as Esterhazy torte and Linzer cookies which have a rich, sweet taste without being too sugary. The rich hazelnut fat (it has 60% fat!) seems to be the perfect “mortar” ingredient lending moistness and flavor to pastries.

(house-made hazelnut spread with a sprinkle of sea salt on top)

Nutella
I had the pleasure of growing up with Nutella -- the Italian hazelnut spread – you’ll know what I mean once you dip a spoon into Nutella and then let it melt in your mouth. It’s

rich, sweet and has a heavenly velvety texture. Even now – grown up (arguably) I treat myself frequently with a warm pannini sandwich layered with Nutella at a local wine boutique.
Back in the day it was advertised as being healthy to eat Nutella for breakfast. Being a daddy myself today I read my daughter’s food ingredient lists (if it’s not home cooked). I was a little horrified when I read the ingredients of this “healthy snack” - artificial flavoring, modified palm oil, a substantial amount of sugar (over 50%). So I decided to make my own home-made version of hazelnut spread since I prefer for my family to eat such ingredients in a limited amount. 

Every Day Hazelnut Spread
(yields about 2 cups spread)

2 cups blanched/skinless hazelnuts
½ cup whole fat milk
4-6 tablespoons powdered sugar (to taste)
½ vanilla bean (scraped) or 1 teaspoon vanilla extract may be substituted

1. In a skillet toast hazelnuts on medium heat setting (constantly move hazelnuts 4-5 minutes with a spatula – so that hazelnuts don’t burn)
2. Transfer toasted hazelnuts into a kitchen processor and blend until pasty textured then add milk slowly and continue to blend. Add sugar and vanilla.

 

Steaming hot hazelnuts
One of my favorite hot beverages in freezing, wintery January is a steaming hot hazelnut flavored coffee. The toasted nuttiness of hazelnuts compliment and balance the roasted bitterness of coffee beans perfectly. 

(hazelnut flavored coffee)  

WHAT A NUT CASE!

January will be nut month on this blog; I’ll explore different recipes and variations.

The Season of Nuts
It’s winter and the multiplicity of fresh seasonal vegetables is somewhat limited so I explore items on the pantry shelf where seasonality is not such a big deal. Nuts are a hot item when it comes to cold season cookery - house made nut milk in soups, sauces enriched with nuts, nuts in salads to give that crunch, desserts containing nuts – frankly nut variations are endless.

(shaved red cabbage, arugula and maple candied walnuts)

(herb rolled goat cheese with walnuts) 

Why Nuts?
Nuts are plentiful available, they boost your energy and bring protein, vitamins and good fat into the belly.  This is why squirrels collect hazelnuts in autumn  -- nuts keep them from starving during winter and carry them through early spring. Nuts are a terrific source of vitamins E and B and are rich in protein and essential minerals such as magnesium. Nuts are high in omega-3 and 6 fatty acids and reduce high cholesterol. And let’s face it nuts might keep us away from all that junk food!

(walnuts marinated in balsam vinegar and toasted)

Walnuts
Cracking walnuts with a wooden nutcracker soldier and sipping hot spiked apple cider definitely got me into the holiday spirit this past December. I use a lot of walnuts in my cooking in savory and sweet dishes. The walnuts I use most often are the ones that are de-shelled and sealed into airtight containers for freshness. Since nuts are high in oil they can becomes rancid quickly especially in warm temperature – it’s that old moldy cardboard smell when nuts are rancid. Rancid nuts are not useable anymore and have to be thrown out. Check the expiration date of bagged nuts when getting them from the supermarket shelves. Most of the walnuts we consume in the US come from the Sacramento valley in California. Black walnuts versus English or ordinary walnuts are richer and tastier. They have a harder shell to crack though and they’re a bit more expensive but if you can get your hands on then they are well worth the price because of their excellent taste.

(chocolate/walnut cake with pears and raspberry cream) 

The sweet side of walnuts
Following is a recipe of my favorite walnut cookie which will keep your belly warm and the moods high during the cold winter months.

Chocolate Walnut cookies
(12 large cookies 4-inch diameter)

8 ounces flour   
½ cup cocoa powder
1-1/4 teaspoons baking soda
3 pinches salt
1 cup chocolate chips  
2 sticks butter (8 ounces)
½-cup sugar
2 eggs     
1 teaspoon vanillas extract
1 cup chocolate chips 
¾ cup walnuts toasted and coarsely chopped

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degree Fahrenheit.
2. In a bowl combine dry ingredients flour, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt
3. Melt 1 cup chocolate chips in a microwave then stir to make smooth. Cool chocolate for five minutes on kitchen counter (melt chocolate in 10 seconds intervals in this way it won’t burn in the microwave).
4. In an electric kitchen mixer bowl mix room temperature butter and sugar for five minutes on high speed setting then add melted chocolate and eggs (one by one). Add vanilla extract
5. On low speed setting add mixed dry ingredients then add 1 cup chocolate chips and walnuts. Cool mixture in refrigerator then shape balls (3 ounces). Cover a cookie tray with baking paper then place dough balls on it (leave 2-inch spaces around every dough ball – dough will expand during baking).
6. Bake dough balls in hot oven 15-18 minutes then let cool on cookie tray.
 
Chef’s Note: These chocolate/walnut cookies can be stored in an airtight container for up to three days.

THE FAT OF DUCK

I like cooking with duck fat, especially duck leg confit, which is the cooking process where duck legs cook in their own juices mingled with spices, garlic and herbs. It yields a very satisfying moist and tender duck meat and you end up with a serious amount of super tasty duck fat goodness.

(duck confit with shaved red cabbage, beets and cranberry beans) 

Fattened liver
I used to make foie gras pate on a weekly basis in the restaurant then guests started to comment about the cruelty of force-feeding ducks or geese. This is done with a funnel stuck down the animal’s throat to get more food into their system which results in an unusually enlarged liver hence the French words “foie gras” which translates to “fattened liver.”   Foie gras is about 15-20x larger in size that a normal liver would be!  Ok we see what the comments are about…

(tasty rendered duck leg confit fat: front of picture chilled, back heated duck fat) 

Liquid gold
So you see it would be a great loss to pour duck fat down the gutter so I was longing to find a way to use the excess fat since it was so tasty.

I like foie gras very much but did not want to get into the controversy and have some guests picketing in front of my restaurant – along with my spouse and partner who is a vegetarian -- so we changed the style of our duck pate. We came up with a recipe of duck liver enriched with it’s own confit fat which gives you a similar flavor sensation to foie gras pate without the force feeding. 

recipe yields 3 cups of pate - plenty for four people

Duck Pate
Spice reduction

2 cups dry white wine such as Pinot Grigio
1 stick cinnamon
1 branch thyme
1 teaspoon honey
10 grindings black pepper                       
10 coriander seeds (optional)                       
2 garlic gloves (peeled and sliced thinly)

1. Combine all ingredients in a pot (1-quart sized) then cook on low heat setting (reduce wine spice mixture to one cup)
2. Strain mixture through a fine mesh sieve

Making the pate
2 cups  duck liver                       
1 ½ teaspoons salt (more to taste)
1-2 tablespoons vegetable oil such as canola
2 cups duck fat or duck confit fat if available (heated) 

1. Rinse duck livers with water then dry on kitchen towel (this will rinse off blood) then season with salt
2. In a skillet heat vegetable oil then cook duck livers quickly (skillet must be very hot). Duck livers should be browned on the outside and rare in middle when cut in half
3. Transfer cooked duck livers into a kitchen processor then add hot spice reduction (from recipe above). Add hot duck fat slowly then adjust seasoning with salt and pepper to taste.
4. Pour duck mixture into a porcelain dish then cover with plastic seran wrap. Cool in refrigerator overnight

Chef’s tip: If you’re inclined to make duck pate at home you definitely must fry some potatoes in a bit of duck fat and sprinkle with minced parsley leaves and sea salt – you’ll realize the wonders of duck fat.