Leonard Blaisdell wrote:
>
> Every region of the U.S. has certain foods that don't seem to make it
> elsewhere in volume. I've never eaten alligator, morels, collards,
> etc.. I simply don't live where they are generally available.
> In Nevada, we have pine nuts from the single leaf pinyon that aren't
> generally available nationwide. I have harvested them a few times, and
> it's free but dirty work in Nevada foothills. You use long poles to
> whack the tree and tarps to gather the nuts that fall. You come home
> smelling like a Christmas tree and sticky enough to act as flypaper.
> Luckily, they are harvested commercially, and a old man can buy them
> for $12.99 per pound around here. So I bought some.
> I cover them with heavily salted water in a skillet.
> https://www.dropbox.com/s/adhpom7txf...start.JPG?dl=0
> This is the finished product as soon as the salted water lightly boils
> off. I mean as soon as it boils off. There's no pan roasting going on.
> https://www.dropbox.com/s/gblji1l3fp...shJPG.JPG?dl=0
> The pan, don't use black iron, now needs a soaped steel pad. There's
> plenty of pitch along with the salt. The spoon needs the same
> treatment.
> https://www.dropbox.com/s/xxjr7ai1qe...utpan.JPG?dl=0
> And the finished pine nuts.
> https://www.dropbox.com/s/kdb7x0uqyq...oduct.JPG?dl=0
> They are salty to look at in the photos, but that's nearly all on the
> shell. You bite them a couple of times around the equator, and they
> break in half. They're delicious.
> I'm talking about U.S. pine nuts, not Italian pignoli. Ours are fresh,
> milky if not cooked, bendable if cooked recently, freshly off-the-tree
> and a different species, although they may taste the same. I've never
> tried the Italian ones.
> So what's your (any country, any region) specialty food that others
> here or in your own country are unlikely to be familiar with?
>
> leo
>
Oh! I am sooo envious about those piņons! I only have them when my
daughter or her dad bring some back from the (US) southwest. I can get
Mediterranean pinenuts here, but they aren't nearly as good as the ones
you are describing. (I avoid any pinenuts that aren't labeled and that
could contain those nasty things that leave a long-lasting bitter taste
in one's mouth.)