Check out my new show on PBS here! ru-vid.com/group/PLQMKh4LBO6xP1567JcnbM5NfAHpeOg48O&si=0jeYrCI_2ZGs5wgi And leave a comment in the video for PBS to see :)
My first thought! I love a mixed accent, love working out which part of the English speaking world a person has learned their English, because it always shows through in their accent.
Note : Walnuts go rancid EXTREMELY QUICKLY. They can be stored longer in their shells in airtight containers, but from the moment you expose them to oxygen you have about 3 weeks to use them, less than that if it’s hot, even stored in airtight containers. Longer than that you have increasingly bad tasting walnuts (plus rancid oils are not great for your health). People have different sensitivity to the taste of rancid oils, but I am very sensitive to it and often the walnuts I find in industrial cakes taste a bit (or a lot!) bad. If you have deshelled walnuts the best is to store them in the fridge/freezer or vacuum sealed.
To remove the bitterness try soaking the walnuts in salted water for 4-5 hours, drain and rinse well and dehydrate (dehydrator 105°) for 18-24 hours to recrisp them. I didn’t like walnuts until I discovered this method! Try it, I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised.
@@auntieFilo it’s not a matter of the bitterness of the walnuts (it’s a tannic bitterness, that I like !) The walnut oils just go rancid very quickly. Some people don’t taste it AT ALL, even when they’re completely rancid; I taste it very very strongly. Similarly I can’t eat butter that has been opened and left in the fridge for more than a few days, because it has oxidised. Sometimes removing a good layer of the butter does the trick but it’s quite wasteful. The majority of the people I know can’t tell the difference but I can 🤷🏻♀️ Boiling the nuts removes the outer bitterness, the tannins that are in the skin. It does very little for the oxidation.
It can be difficult sometimes to try new foods. There's nothing wrong with being able to admit you don't love every food ever. My daughter has very particular food preferences. At 15, she's just now willing to try certain foods. And even when she doesn't like them, I tell her I'm proud that she's willing to try. It's lovely that you're able to try and poke fun at yourself a bit and to give yourself some grace
Fifteen was the age at which my tastes began to expand, although partly it was the influence of a best friend whose tastes were broader than mine. I'm always amazed by youngsters who are willing to try anything -- so unlike me!
A pretty common walnut recipe here in Appalachia is something called roadkill jam (stay with me here). It's a jam made from blackberries, sour apples, and black walnuts, all things that you'll find on the side of a country road here. That, along with a bit of morbid humor about how the crushed walnuts and raspberries look like bones and gore, is where it gets its name. It's really tasty, especially when the slightly rough texture of the walnuts and blackberry seeds contrasts with a fluffy biscuit or English muffin
@@nevinmcc it's actually pretty easy to make too! Just make a standard blackberry jam and add finely chopped granny smith apples or crab apples along with crushed toasted walnuts! If canned properly it'll keep for up to a year in the fridge
The Irish phrases that you sprinkle though your video, combined with your Turkish/Irish accent are so beautiful to listen to. Thank you for being part of this episode.
Fun little walnut fact: There's a famous hungarian dessert called Gundel crepes (or Gundel palacsinta) that'd make anyone love walnuts. Made famous by Gundel Károly more than 100 years ago, it has walnuts, raisins, orange peel, rum, cocoa, a whole lot of eggs and served flambéed. And although there are quite a few recipes for making it, the original recipe is still a secret, only known by people working in the Gundel restaurant.
Have an upvote, but Gundel crepes can sometimes be so sweet, even sickly sweet, I would say. Another fun fact: made famous by the restaurateur, they may originally have been a family recipe brought on by the wife of a famous Hungarian writer, Sándor Márai.
The raisins would also ruin it for me. Mind you, I do like walnuts in small doses. Too walnut -forward, count me out. And it isn't an issue of bitterness... I love bitter melon!
Walnuts can almost always be replaced by pecans with far superior results. If you can find some of the branded cantaloupes such as sugar kiss, Craze, gem, Tuscan... their flavor is typically more flavorful and sweeter.
I remember growing up my mom would always make me eat soaked walnuts in the morning cause they were "good for my brain" and I never believed her and just thought it was some Iranian wives tale, turns out though that even Harvard vouches for Walnuts for brain health Thanks mom!
Honestly I love that Leia's been showing up in videos more frequently. You both have different ways of describing things, and I think it is nice to get the additional perspective on the flavor notes and texture of the dishes.
Here in northern California, we are surrounded by walnut orchards and one trick we learned years ago was make sure all the 'skin' is removed from walnuts, because this is what can make walnuts taste 'dusty', bitter, or gritty. To do this I simply place in a jar with a lid and shake, which will remove any small bits of 'skin'. Have even soaked the amount of walnuts a recipe calls for in water for ten minutes. But WILL try boiling them now We make so MANY of the recipes from your channel and our family wants to make the Iranian Fesenjan dish! Sounds and looks amazing! Just ordered the Cortas Pomegranate Molasses.🙂 Thank you!
I love seeing people try new things, especially when they don't like an ingredient. Open-mindedness allows for new beautiful experiences (or lasting memories, at least!) Thanks for continuing this series! I think you missed anchovies though 😉
Just to let you know the cup of water is meant to continue growing your long green onions and not meant to keep your herbs fresh. The towel method is what ,y family does to keep herbs, lettuce and cabbage fresh at all times.. @@BerylShereshewsky
I never knew someone could feel so strongly about walnuts haha. I love them and I have trouble picturing what could be so divisive about them, they are pretty benign, unless rancid of course.
tbh i've tried walnuts multiple times, even fresh out the package they taste bitter like oversteeped black tea with no sugar, with an aftertaste of (as beryl mentioned) dust. it could be that i'm particularly sensitive to tastes, in fact, i'm pretty sure this is the case, but a lot of people really dislike walnuts and always substitute them or generally won't eat any recipe with them in unless they would feel rude refusing (they're a guest over for dinner at someone's house, etc)
I've always preferred pecans to walnuts when eaten whole, especially on their own, but I've never minded them when finely chopped (like in baklava) or roughly chopped and cooked/baked into something else. I've learned to appreciate them a lot more in the past year. One thing that has helped is storing them in the fridge.
Im so happy you made this video! It brought back some amazing memories i have of picking, cracking, and scooping out walnuts from our tree with my Grandmother when i was a little girl. My gram passed in 2009 and i still miss her every day. She was one of the most amazing and caring women in my life.❤
In England we LOVE a coffee and walnut/ carrot and walnut cake. Maybe find a recipe and give this a go? Also Walnuts instead of pine nuts in pesto is wonderful. This would be a good one for if you now have lots of walnuts left needing to be used up,
@@erzsebetkovacs2527 I wouldn’t have thought about rocket. I did once make pesto with walnuts and parsley, though. I often explore alternatives to pine nuts because they are so expensive where I live (by weight, they cost between 3 and 6 times the price of walnuts)
Hi Beryl I’m from Guilan myself, for fesenjun, the walnuts absolutely MUST be ground to a paste (until the natural oil comes out), the onion should be a white onion and it also should be finely grated. The stew should simmer on very low heat for at least 4 hours and the final color should be a dark brown. The walnut oil come to the top and the chicken also cooks in the sauce for the last half of the cooking time. The molasses could be sour, as we use it in Guilan, or on the sweeter side, as the rest of Iran do.
I know adamant defenders of both, smooth ground paste and grainy method, but both sides agree on long cooktimes, the oils will cook out either way if you simmer it adequatly long. You get things cooked through in less time in an instant pot, but it will not develope the same depth in flavor
@@SingingSealRiana yeah long cooking time for sure. However, real, authentic fesenjun is made with walnut paste. I believe the grainy method began outside of Iran when the diaspora lost touch with recipes and went for what was convenient.
I made a version of the Turkish salad but didn't have walnuts and used pecans. It's an out if you like the salad but not the walnuts. I'm actually quite obsessed with this salad and make it every week.
fyi for Fesenjan you dont have to use pumpkin puree. in fact i'd say it's a niche way to make it since we never use it in my area. instead i think some versions use tomato paste and there are definitely manyyyy versions of this dish including with lamb instead of chicken or with lamb meatballs too. since you seem to enjoy it i suggest trying out some of the many versions it has to offer!
Kashmiri cuisine incorporates walnuts in a lot of it's dishes, each one delicious in its own way. Walnut is called doen in the Kashmiri language. If you ever find yourself in Kashmir, do not leave without tasting their varied walnut dishes especially the walnut fudge from Moon bakery in Srinagar. The recipe is a family secret passed down through generations of the bakery owners. It's made with Kashmiri walnuts and Kashmiri honey. It is said Kashmir is like heaven on earth. Moon bakery's walnut fudge takes you right there!
I usually have walnuts in my desserts or trail mix. My family doesn't cook with nuts in general, unless they're using chopped peanuts as a topping. Seeing how other people use them in savory dishes has been eye-opening for me 😊
Walnut oil is amazing. There's no bitterness, and doesn't have the dry waxy mouthfeel of raw walnuts. It is pricy though, and should be kept in the fridge for optimum freshness.
Considering you liked the walnut soup but prefer sesame seeds to walnuts, there is also a popular variant of that dish using roasted sesame seeds as the soup base instead. I grew up with that version using black sesame and it's an amazing dessert.
The textures of the two nuts are really similar, and there’s not as much bitterness. I love walnuts (particularly black walnuts), but I can absolutely understand why someone would dislike their flavor. I think I was actually ambivalent until my mom had me try black walnuts (her family is from Indiana, and the nut is indigenous to the northern US) and a whole world was opened to me. It’s a completely unique flavor profile that sorta tastes like a liqueur, but if you don’t like walnuts, you most definitely will not like black walnuts. They’re strongly earthy, musky, and lean toward the bitter side.
Heh, I’m the opposite. Pecans has this, Idk, greasy, buttery-ness that’s I find highly unpleasant. If there’s pecans in a nut mix, those are always the last to go, with brazil nuts being second to last.
You mean green walnuts? Those can be made into a sweet compote, but that requires quite a lot of work, soaking them several times in order to get rid of their bitterness before infusing them with sugar.
Beryl there's also a Turkish dessert called "kalburabastı". It is a baked dough with walnut filling which then gets soaked in sherbet. It's one of my fav desserts of all time + baklava with walnuts are also amazing :)
I love all your videos! About the knife skills: I used to cut myself all the time until I learned that you’re actually supposed to hold the knife at the base of the blade (where the blade meets the handle) rather than just holding on to the handle. You get better control over the knife that way.
I'm fascinated that Beryl perceives these flavor and texture issues in walnuts. They are such an everyday part of my food landscape, and I don't think I've ever met anyone who shared those concerns. Never occurred to me. Is there a whole portion of the world who feels the same as Beryl?! If so, I'm sure I have forced walnuts on my poor guests. Changing my worldview one episode at a time...
I can taste the dustiness and the astringency in the skins, but I really like walnuts nonetheless for the other tastes present. I’m the same way with cilantro/coriander: I can taste the soap but I still like it.
I'll take an educated guess that it's particularly an American thing not to like walnuts and it's to do with the ubiquitousness of pecans, which are used in the same way as walnuts in American cuisine. If you are used to pecans in your salad, changing to walnuts might be jarring.
When I saw the title of the this video, I immediately thought of a dessert I tried in Bosnia Herzegovina last year, apples poached in syrup and stuffed with a walnut cream. It was called Tufahija. I secretely hoped it would be one of the featured recipes. The three recipes included look amazing and as an Irish person, the first one I will be trying is the one from the Turkish lady with the big Irish accent.
My favourite way to eat walnuts is fresh in the autumn. The skin is cream colour and you can easily remove it from the rest of the nut. The fresh nut itself has a different flavour aswell.
I grew up with walnut trees around my house and my grandparents house and I hated them because my grandmother made all cakes with walnuts. Eating them now reminds me of her❤
I hated walnuts as a rule for a long time, until I found that soaking and roasting them changed them entirely. It totally removes the bitterness, and changes them from a pasty bite to a delicate crunch!
It's often described as roasted red pepper dip, but try muhammara, from Lebanon. I think that the bitterness of walnuts are a key part of the flavor, and I just love it.
Beryl, I feel like we have very similar likes and dislikes. I do not like walnuts very much. If the recipe calls for walnuts I will use pecans instead. You are a lot more adventurous than me but I feel like you are opening my world and I appreciate your opinions and hard work you put into all of these episodes. Thank you!
I absolutely love this community and love your work, Beryl! I think that one factor we don't usually consider with produce is that the land it grows in makes a huge difference in its taste. So one thought I keep having when I see you disliking foods, Beryl, is that perhaps they aren't grown in land that is conducive to their good taste. Of course, no one can like all foods, but I remember myself liking certain types of gourds only when my mom started growing them herself organically rather than store bought.
Have you ever tried eating a walnut without the skin? When you get walnuts in shells just picked up from the tree and deshell it, it is often possible to remove the skin and leave just the very white nut. It's the skin that is bitter, the rest of the walnut is then fresh, sweet and really lovely. Try that sometimes. And thank you for this episode. I really love walnuts, but they are quite pricey in my country, so I am looking forward a few years in the future when my walnut tree is bigger and I can get my own walnuts. I use them in baking, but I will definitely try these recipes as well.
My Pop used to take a walnut, vegemite and cheese sandwiches to work. Oh and the bread was will of seeds and grain. He was a healthy man who lived a very long life. He always had walnuts in his workshop at home and some times used the bench vise to crack them open. I use to collect walnuts from around my area and sold them on the side of the road with an honesty box. I hate walnuts but made money off them as a 13yr old. Along with lawn mowing, that was my pocket money. I'm now 50 and a business owner of 30 yrs.
I enjoy seeing Leia on camera and find it a great juxtaposition to see her reaction to tasting the dishes. I also think she has a striking natural beauty.
i like your tip in order to keep herbs fresh. I use damp paper towels to do this. And YES, the herbs stay fresher longer but the trick is keeping the damp towel or paper towel damp.
Beryl I am always looking if you have posted something and rewatching your video's all over again. It's super satisfying and I love replaying it because I might not be inspired to make that recipe today, but might like it in a month or so. I had tried my own cooking channel once and it takes up so much time, which makes me appreciate even more. Thank you so much.
That Fesenjan made my mouth water! Chopped walnuts also work well in bread and buns, and go especially well with almond flour-mixes They are high in allergenes, though
Yeaaaa that smooth texture of the Walnut Paste (核桃糊) is so satisfying! There's also a peanut version, a sesame paste, a version using Chinese almonds... And since they end up different colours, you can serve them together in the same bowl and they look great.
Tarator dip/sauce from Turkey is a must try. It's made of bread crumbs, crushed walnut, olive oil, strained yogurt, mayonnaise, lemon juice, garlic, salt. It's served as a chilled dip for fried calamari but any fried fish would do.
Walnuts are one of my favorite nuts, even when they are raw and by themselves. I also really like liver and cantaloupe. I've never tried bitter gourd, however. I've also never tried pomegranate molasses but really want to.
The soup looked so interesting! I would never imagined a walnut desert like that. I love learning about new foods and cultures through the different foods. I just love your channel ❤
My friend,and I had Fesenjoon in a fairly new NYC restaurant,and we didn’t enjoyed it,it seemed so sweet,and really that’s all we could taste,we tried another beef type stew as well that we also didn’t like,we were disappointed.Both my friend,and I are adventurous eaters,so it’s most unusual for both of us not to like the dishes,but it was the sweetness that was a problem for us.You say in your comment that the sweet,or sour aspects of the dish vary depending on where in Iran it’s made,I would love to try a more sour version of it.😊
I got one for you from Karnataka, India It is called congress peanuts. But I adapted It for walnuts In a mixing bowl add Chick Pea Flour - 2 tbsp heaped Rice Flour - 1 tbsp - heaped Chilli powder - 1 1/2 tsp Cumin powder - 1/4 tsp Salt - 3/4 tsp Pinch of asafetida powder (optional) Add just enough water to make a paste (not runny) Add 1 1/2 cups chopped walnuts and Mix well to coat In a wide bottomed glass (or any microwave-proof) bowl heat 4 Tbsp coconut oil in Microwave oven for 4 mins. Add the peanuts prepared above and mix well with The oil and nuke it microwave for 2 minutes, 2 minutes And 2 1/2 minutes. Mixing well in between. Let it rest for 5 minutes. You can eat it as a snack.
So excited about the new recipes! I should have already told you, though, that buying and using unshelled walnuts is preferable to shelled. It's quite easily to learn to dislike walnuts, when they are usually sold shelled, in a little plastic bag, which is also when they tend to go rancid, quicker than other nuts. Luckily, they tend to remain fresh if stored unshelled.
The sweet walnut soup is sooooo tasty. I usually order this at hong kong dessert cafes with mochi rice cake balls. Its silky and chewy and good for the brain. If you like mochi, I recommend adding them to your next batch.
When I had walnuts while living in Mexico I didn't like how they were a bit bitter. I was told to peel off the skin and it wouldn't be a problem. They taste fine without the skin. Walnuts always remind me of the book "Like Water for Chocolate" . Strange and fantastic story about love and each chapter has a recipe including one that uses walnuts in a chicken dish. And they peel the walnuts in that dish. The story takes place in Mexico. You might like it. I liked the recipes but at the time I couldn't try the recipes due to the fact that I was poor. But they sounded so good. If I'm going to eat walnuts I have to peel them. But I prefer pecans. Especially the hard shelled ones. So much tastier than the paper shell pecans. The hard shell pecans have a little more oil in the nuts which gives them more flavor.
Agree. Fresh walnuts are easy to peel (you know, the brains). Later when they have been stored they dry out and it is very difficult to peel but the bitterness is much less pronounced. Perhaps you can soak them like almonds. After taking the skin off the almond it is completely different taste. They taste like hazelnuts. Brill!
Greetings from Texas! I happen to enjoy raw walnuts myself. However. My all time favorite dish containing walnuts is an American Chinese dish called crispy walnut shrimp. Panda Express, though not one of my favorite restaurants, has their own version of this dish only they call it " Honey Walnut Shrimp." It's almost as good as the actual restaurant version but for a chain fast food joint. It's pretty good. That's all I ever order from Panda Express when I do, once in a blue moon go sluming, have a craving for the dish.
Green walnuts (not dried) are delicious if you can get them but, if you can't, then soaking walnuts overnight makes them taste amazing. I put them in my tea to warm them through. Delicious.
Nice! I would like to try that last dish-the walnut soup. I’m glad you found something you liked. I do like walnuts, I don’t think of them as bitter, but they’re definitely earthy, similar to how mushrooms and espresso are earthy(and both I also like). I enjoy walnuts in green salads especially in a salad with apple, pear, or pomegranate; I sometimes add walnuts to couscous or quinoa dishes; and I especially love walnuts in dessert like brownies, oatmeal cookies, and chocolate chip cookies. Also, Italian cuisine has a lot of walnut recipes to enjoy, such as pumpkin ravioli with brown butter and walnuts, and Dolci di Noci (Italian walnut cookies with only 3 ingredients).
Hi, Beryl. I have so many comments on this video! But I have to start my day very shortly, so let me quickly just say that I loved the way you looked adoringly at Leah while she tried the dessert soup. It's obvious she is not just an employee but also a treasure in your life. 20:10
Beryl, I appreciate how open you are to trying so many things. Let us remember that Andrew Zimmern, of Bizarre Foods fame, loves liver, but cannot stand walnuts. Having said that, I love walnuts, enjoy Durian, cannot stand liver, and have yet to find a means of turning eggplant into something that resembles food. Btw, you need to use the steel on your knife....or sharpen it. It's not sharp. Walnut's aren't bitter. You can get one that's bad, or old, or rancid, but good ones aren't bitter. I find it interesting that there are classic asian dishes using English walnuts..... LOL Bitter melon is bitter as a warning not to consume it.
In Syria we use walnuts in a lot of dishes especially meze type dishes and I really recommend trying Syrian muhammara (red pepper and walnut dip) i think it has a lot of other components that you would really enjoy! my favorite way to eat it personally is to dip cucumbers in it. ❤️
I’m from HK, and the walnut paste is one of the classic and best old school dessert or “tong shui” which literally translates to sugar water. I would suggest to add a bit more water to thin it out and it would feel even smoother. There are different versions of this dessert for example with black sesame, chinese almond, even cashew. I would think of it as the OG Chinese version of nut milks😂😂😂 so happy it convinced you to enjoy walnuts ❤
I love that you are determined to keep trying all food in hopes of understanding why people love it and to learn to enjoy it yourself. I've always heard you should try foods at least 3 times: first time your brain is just trying to determine if it's going to kill you, second time it's just figuring out the flavors and textures, and not until the third try does it have enough info to even start figuring out if you are enjoying it. I think this is a pretty good rule, but also think if all these tries fail, you should wait a few years and try once again. Someone who has a broader experience with different flavor profiles and textures can probably trust their instinct when they try something once and don't like it, but I think (unless they found it gaggingly horrible) in a decade or so they should try again. I'm not convinced I will ever love eggs, but I raise chickens and keep trying different ways every year in hopes someday I will be a convert lol
I'm so glad you're trying foods you don't like! I'm still a very picky person and I often don't even look at foods just because I think they won't be good but your amazing attitude has convinced me to try appreciating the foods I don't eat! (love your vids ❤)
I love all the savory recipes! My food culture always associated walnuts with baked sweets or an afterthought topping on a salad. Blew my mind when I had them savory. The recipe I’d recommended to try was a Korean banchan, basically ground beef, gochuchang, and chopped walnuts. My husband calls it “Korean chili” and even though I make a variety of banchan, he’ll spoon a ton of only that over his rice lol I believe it’s Yak-gochujang and it’s got some variations, but freaking delicious
Beryl I admit the fact that you are clear about what you don’t like or hate, but if you taste a version of that ingredient which you like, you are big enough to admit that you like it. That is amazing. And very forward-looking I think. Also, perhaps you need to expand the variety of your knives…. That might make it easier to chop??? I don’t know, I don’t have a bunch of knives either, but you do so much cooking, chopping. You should look online about what a chef needs in the way of knives…
As a Texan and a Southerner, I really like pecans much more than walnuts. But I agree that the skin of both are where the bitterness lies. Also wondering how you feel about black walnuts ? To me they're a completely different taste. My aunt used to make a Middle-Eastern black walnut cookie at Christmas called Ka'ak. There are apparently many different recipes for this, but my aunt's was basically a shortbread cookie with black walnut pieces mixed in, dusted in powered sugar. Here in Texas we have a pecan shortbread cookie that's very similar called "Mexican Wedding Cakes".
I love walnuts. Toss a small handful on my cereal or oatmeal every morning. Chocolate chip or oatmeal cookies, brownies, stir fry - all kinds of ways. I'm glad I do because they are so healthy for you. One of the best non-fish sources of Omega 3, antioxidants that help inflammation, properties for brain health, fiber.
I highly recommend if you can find red English walnuts, especially local farm grown! They are richer, sweeter, and way less bitter. I used to shy away from walnuts until having local ones and especially red walnuts!
