Oh nuts!

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Among the many good things about autumn and winter are nuts. I usually buy a big selection in for Christmas, and I put them in cakes and salads, too. I mostly buy them in shells, but the selection pictured looked tempting, with walnuts, brazils, almonds, hazelnuts and pecans. It’s more fun to crack their shells yourself, especially the brazils, which have a lovely fresh, oily taste when newly cracked. Unfortunately a 1998 EU regulation set the level of aflatoxins at 4 parts per billion (compared with 20 parts per billion allowed in the US and Australia). This means I can’t get any brazils in shells unless I bring them in personally (which I do).

On the Saturday nearest to Dec 22nd, the town of Bastogne celebrates its ‘foire aux noix’ (nut festival) to commemorate the one-word reply Gen McAuliffe sent to the Germans demanding the town’s surrender in the Battle of the Bulge (he said “nuts”).

Nuts are fairly calorific, but they are pretty good for you. Their protein is high in arginine, an amino acid that relaxes blood vessels. They have mostly unsaturated fats which lower cholesterol, and they inhibit fatty acid absorption in arteries. Added to that, some studies have shown them to fight cancer. None of this is why you eat them, though. You do that because they’re completely gorgeous. And yes, they seem to go quite well with a glass of port.