For creative cooks, roasted nuts ground with spices extend and leverage small amounts of salt, such as in the Middle Eastern spice mixture dukkah.
A chocolate version of the macaroon, it has a dark chocolate shell filled with almond and hazelnut praline, the nuts ground coarsely to give a rich, grainy texture.
The Peanut Butter Maker (£49.99, Prezzybox.com) funnels shelled nuts on to grinding discs, while oil from a pipette is periodically administered; the resultant paste is collected below.
I use it almost every other day, for pestos, smoothies, chopping fresh herbs and grinding nuts – staple techniques in Iranian cooking.
It's great for grinding nuts like in this peanut soup.
Toast them lightly, then grind in a processor or a coffee grinder used for grinding nuts and seeds.
Another idea is to purchase a small coffee mill that you only ever use for grinding nuts (it is no use for coffee once you start doing this).
This involved soaking the almonds overnight, pinching the skins off one by one, grinding the nuts, pouring water through the meal, and — are you still with me? — straining the liquid through an organic, unbleached cheesecloth.
Pesto Genovese is made by grinding pine nuts, garlic and basil to a paste, which is then enriched with olive oil and Parmesan (or a combination of Pecorino and Parmesan).
(My online advisers forbade the store-bought kind, which contained carrageenan or xanthan gum). This involved soaking the almonds overnight, pinching the skins off one by one, grinding the nuts, pouring water through the meal, and are you still with me?—straining the liquid through an organic, unbleached cheesecloth.
