Walnut - description
A walnut is first and foremost a strong tree, with a spreading thick crown and a very developed and powerful root system, whose diameter exceeds the size of the crown five times. Fruits - an oval shape, the size of an apricot. The edible kernel of a walnut is enclosed in a hard shell, which in turn is in soft green peel. If you scrape it off with your hands, trying to remove a nut, your skin will turn dark brown, which is not washed off for several days. Therefore, it is better to wait for the moment of full ripening of the fruit, when the green rind burst itself and the nut falls to the ground.
The homeland of a walnut is considered to be Central and Asia Minor, from where it spread throughout the world, including in Russia. In Russia, it was called Voloshsky, royal and mahogany, but the name “walnut” got accustomed, because Greek merchants in their time supplied overseas walnut to Russia.
This tree is unpretentious, propagated by seeds, the very walnuts, which, getting into the soil, take root and take root. Despite the fact that it is a fast-growing culture, the tree begins to bear fruit only in the eighth or tenth year. Walnut tree - long-lived. It lives for four hundred or five hundred years or more, continuing to harvest all this time. Nowadays, and nut groves, and wild trees can be found everywhere in the Crimea, Moldova, Central Asia, the Caucasus, Tien Shan, and North India. In some countries, such as China, Iran, Turkey, Egypt, the United States, Romania, Ukraine, walnuts are cultivated and exported, as well as engaged in selection. It was thanks to the breeders that the walnut varieties with a thin shell appeared at one time, which is very convenient, and a high content of oil - a valuable food product.
Walnut - useful properties
For a product to be both tasty and healthy at the same time, this is not so common. Walnut is exactly the case. It is pleasant to the taste and very useful - it contains antioxidants, amino acids, iron, cobalt, iodine, zinc, phosphorus, vitamins of groups B, C, PP, E. Especially it is necessary to use for people engaged in mental, hard physical labor, as well as living in places with an increased radioactive background. To meet the body's need for useful elements, it is enough to eat four or five nuts each day. Walnuts should be used to strengthen the immune system, as well as the prevention of anemia, heart disease, blood vessels, atherosclerosis. They help to increase the potency, especially if taken with raisins, prunes and dried apricots. For the treatment of the thyroid gland, mastopathy, fibroids, benign tumors, diabetes mellitus, tincture of walnut walls is used.
No matter how healthy and useful a walnut is, some people should use it with caution or be completely excluded from the diet. First of all, it concerns allergic people suffering from psoriasis, neurodermatitis, as The nut is a pretty strong allergen. It is not recommended to use walnuts for children under three years old, pregnant, with enteritis, colitis, ulcer. The disadvantages include the rather high caloric content of the product, which is higher than chocolate, so people with obesity and overweight need to eat them sparingly. In order to avoid unpleasant moments, such as heaviness in the stomach, allergic rashes, vasospasm, headache, it is not recommended to use more than 8-10 nuts per day.
Walnut - Calorie
The caloric value of 100 grams of walnuts is: 648 kcal.
Walnut - use in cooking
Walnut nuts are tasty by themselves, they can be clicked at leisure. But no less popular they are in cooking. Nuts have long been widely used in the preparation of various dishes, giving them an exquisite taste. Be it sauces, soups, meats, vegetables, salads, desserts, not to mention baking. Especially widely used in cooking nuts are used in Eastern and Caucasian cuisine. Who does not know such dishes as satsivi, baklava, nougat, churchkhela. Without nuts, it is impossible to imagine some types of ice cream or sweets, as well as cakes, pastries, cookies, halva.
In cooking, they use not only the kernels of nuts, but also peanut butter, which is filled with fruit, vegetable salads and added to pastries. And from the young unripe fruits enclosed in a green shell, they cook tasty jam.
Recipe examples with Walnut
Recipe 1: Veal chops with walnuts
Useful and tasty dish - tender diet meat in spicy nut breading. Veal can be replaced by young beef. Mayonnaise, mustard and honey, included in the breading, serve as a link for viscosity and contribute to the originality of taste. If the honey crystallizes, it needs to be slightly heated, it will again become liquid.
Ingredients: 600g veal (tenderloin), 2 table. lie honey (liquid), 3 table.lozh. mayonnaise, 1 tea.lozh. mustard, salt, half a cup of nuts, vegetable oil.
Method of preparation
Chop the nuts into a rather fine crumb - mince, chop with a blender or crush with a rolling pin (like rolling dough).
Meat cut into chunks, beat off, salt.
Mix honey, mayonnaise, nuts and mustard, coat the pieces of meat and let them stand for about fifteen minutes.
Heat oil, put slices of meat and fry, as usual chops, from two sides until cooked - ten to fifteen minutes.
Recipe 2: Walnut Cake Salad
Meat salads, which include walnuts, are becoming increasingly popular. And our salad is no exception. It is laid out in layers, and the shape is very similar to the cake. After tasting it, guests will surely ask for a recipe. This salad has several cooking options, but they are not significantly different, because The main ingredients remain constant. Among the experts, he bears the name “Fairy Tale”, and fully justifies it. Indeed, this is not just a salad - it's a fairy tale!
Ingredients: 400g chicken breasts, 1 processed cheese, 400g fresh champignons, 1 carrot and onion, 2 potatoes, 3 eggs, 3 large garlic cloves, half or third cup of nuts (walnuts), salt, mayonnaise , vegetable oil, black pepper.
Method of preparation
First of all, boil the breast, carrots and potatoes. In the meantime, they cook, do mushrooms. Cut mushrooms not too coarsely, fry in butter, waiting for the water to boil away from them. Transfer to a sieve or colander to make the glass oil. Cool it down. You can begin to assemble the salad. This should be done immediately on a round or square dish, spreading the layers alternately. Each layer is a bit to add:
- boiled meat. It is necessary to cut it into small cubes or break it into fibers with your hands;
- chopped garlic;
- plentiful layer of mayonnaise;
- finely chopped onion, sprinkle it with black pepper;
- coarsely grated potatoes;
- mayonnaise;
- fried mushrooms;
- mayonnaise;
- coarsely rub the eggs (whites and yolks together);
- mayonnaise;
- large grate carrots;
- mayonnaise;
- coarsely rub the cheese. Beforehand, it should be put in the freezer for a short time, it will be easier to rub it;
- plentiful layer of mayonnaise;
- Sprinkle with chopped nuts.
The salad is ready, it remains only to cool and leave to soak for two to three hours.
Recipe 3: Pear Pie with Walnuts
Amazingly delicious cake. Moreover, the assessment of “five plus” for the taste deserve not only pears in caramel, but also the dough, which gives the refinement of almond flour from ground nuts.
Ingredients: 3 large pears, 150g butter, 1.5 cups flour, 250 g sugar (half caramel and half dough), 4 eggs, 1/2 cup walnuts, a handful of almonds (50g) , 1/2 tsp. lies baking powder dough, salt and ground cardamom.
Method of preparation
Pears can not be cleaned, but the core must be cut, cut into slices. They should be caramelized, i.e. boil in melted sugar. Why pour 2/3 cup of granulated sugar on a hot frying pan, when it starts to melt, put pears on it and let them boil, occasionally turning them over in syrup so that they are soaked. When caramelization make a small fire. Ideally, the caramel should be liquid, but sometimes grains appear in it. It's not so scary, because when baking the cake, the pear will give the juice, and they will dissolve.
While pears are caramelized, make a dough. Grind the almonds in flour using a blender. Beat the remaining sugar with softened butter. Without stopping beating, add cardamom and baking powder, you can still a pinch of salt. Next, add the eggs, introducing them one by one, so that the previous one can soak into the dough. Then, parts crushed almonds and flour. Stir until smooth. Lightly grease the form. Lay hot, straight from the pan, slices of pear. For beauty, they can be arranged in a circle, like rays of the sun, or as flower petals.
Add salt to the remaining boiling caramel (1 / 2chl.), And let it boil a little, or rather boil down. Do not be afraid that it will become salty. As is supposed to be caramel, it will remain sweet, but from the salt it will pass the flavor of zest.
Put walnuts on pears. Just as it is, in large pieces, halves. It is not necessary to grind into flour, well, it can only crush a little with hands, that is, the nuts should be large. Pour boiling caramel on top of them, then lay out the dough and smooth it. Bake forty-forty-five minutes (180C). Let the cake cool a little and turn it over, covering the form with a large plate or dish.
Walnut - useful tips from experienced chefs
- To make a quickie treat, you need to fry a handful of walnuts in a dry frying pan, then mix with two spoons of honey.
- In order to quickly chop the nuts into small crumb with improvised means, it is necessary to put them in a plastic bag, and the bag itself - in a towel and roll it with a rolling pin, periodically shaking.
