Beware the Pig Nut!

[Broch]

I have always enjoyed pignuts (Conopodium majus); eaten raw straight from the ground they have always seemed like a really good resource. At this time of year our woodland floor is carpeted in them.

However, today, for the first time, I had an allergic reaction to one. I can eat roast nuts but can't eat raw ones and a fresh hazelnut taken directly from the tree will make my throat and ears itch and my throat swell. I suspect a few could be quite dangerous; once cooked I can eat them. Up to now I've not reacted to pignut but today I did - not as bad as hazel just mild itching but I'm going to have to be carful. Shame

 

[Janne]

Be careful, your mild reaction can turn to a severe one, resulting in an Anaphylactic Shock.

If I was you, I would just stay away from them.

 

[Robson Valley]

I'm old. Hindsight tells me that my tolerance for raw nuts is lower and lower, all the time.
Even something as weird as coconut will give me the running green screamers.
Roasted is just fine = OK. Some nuts (peanuts & cashews) are usually roasted before sale.
The others that we buy are not (walnut, pecan, hazel and so on.)

Try this, Broch and let us know how it works with pig nuts.

Measure all this stuff first. The recipe comes together so fast, you can't fool around without burning the lot.
Preheat your oven to 325-350F
> you need a big sheet pan and a spatula

>Heat 2 tbsp veg oil in a deep pot. Medium Hi
Add 2-3 tbsp mustard seed (yellow & black, whatever)
Add 2-3 tbsp cumin seed
> stir unti they start to pop. DO NOT STOP STIRRING
Add curry powder, the brand I like, maybe 2 tbsp
Add 3-4C shelled nuts of your choice (almonds, hazel, pecan, walnut, pig nut?
> KEEP STIRRING
Sprinkle lots of soy sauce, it's the glue to stick the spice to the nuts.
BUT, keep your nose out of the fumes = very hard on the lungs.

Add some salt. Up to you. I like 1 tsp ( 2 beers thirst)
> STIR MORE to get good and hot. A few minutes, maybe.
>Spread on the sheet and roast 10 minutes in the oven.
>>> watch them, they burn easy beyond the darkness of the soy sauce.
{My kids claim that the grooves in the pecans and walnuts hold more spices)

 

[Broch]

I'll give that a go! I may have to let you know how I get on post-mortem

 

[Robson Valley]

Might be a plan to really sizzle/almost overcook/brown some to see what that did to the taste.
I'd like to do the experiments.

Very thorough cooking should denature (inactivate) most nut proteins, same as with chicken eggs.
Obviously it does not do them all (peanut allergy). Go easy to observe your tolerance.

With the autumn commercial nut harvests here, "Curried Nuts" became a Christmas tradition in my house.
I did pecans, almonds and hazel as a mix in the beginning but the kids complained about the almonds and hazels.
The smooth surface sheds the spices.
So the old man coughs up for pecans and walnuts and everybody is a happy glutton.

Now, I wonder what I might find in the bowels of my deep freeze?

Just might be a glasshouse crop of real peanuts this fall. I bid on the entire lot.
Looking forward to salting (curry?) and roasting those if the crop comes in.

 

[Janne]

Raw peanuts are vile. I bought some by mistake about a year go.
Too lazy to roast them. Birds were grateful though!

 

[santaman2000]

Raw peanuts are vile. I bought some by mistake about a year go.
Too lazy to roast them. Birds were grateful though!

I kinda like them. Not as much as when they’re boiled, but still, I like them. All that said, peanuts aren’t really nuts. They’re legumes.

 

[Robson Valley]

Raw peanuts you boil. Cook like peas in a pod. After all, they are a legume.
Talk about a Cajun staple!

Soak overnight is a coarse salt slush. Spread on a sheet pan and roast in a 350F oven.
Sample to figure out the time, varieties are really different.

Maybe you have to grow up on peanuts and corn?

 

[Janne]

Heard about boiled nuts, but not tried.
I think I will go and buy some and try.

Yes, growing up on corn and pealegumes helps understand what can be done with them..

Me, it is Roast Pork, Sauerkraut, potato dumplings.
Had my first Orange in early -68. Cuban, with rotten bits. Banana in -71.

Avocado ( unripe, parents did not know) in -73 or 74.

I think I had peanuts in -71 too.
Corn? First time - grilled over open fire ( dried Corn stalks and leaves) by the little boy guarding the field. In Rumania. He grilled to all of us. Dad gave him half a pack of cigarettes, Made In Czechoslovakia. The boy cried out of pure happiness. That was in 1966 or 67.

 

[santaman2000]

Raw peanuts you boil. Cook like peas in a pod. After all, they are a legume.
Talk about a Cajun staple!

Soak overnight is a coarse salt slush. Spread on a sheet pan and roast in a 350F oven.
Sample to figure out the time, varieties are really different.

Maybe you have to grow up on peanuts and corn?

I’ve never soaked peanuts before parching (roasting) them. Just spread them on the tray and bake. The commercial companies don’t really “roast” them. They deep fry them in peanut oil and sell them as “roasted.”

 

[Janne]

Or ruin them by Dry Roasting. Is that using superheated air?

 

[santaman2000]

Or ruin them by Dry Roasting. Is that using superheated air?

No. Just another way of saying roasted that implies they really do roast them instead of frying them. Roasting (or parching as we call it in the South) is a very good way to cook peanuts. Second best after boilong.

 

[Janne]

So the Dry Roasted are fried in oil too?
Do not look or taste as te normally treated nuts.

 

[Robson Valley]

I'm planning to roast the peanuts in the shell. I don't even know which variety they planted.
I guess some are shelled first then roasted and salted ?
I see a big difference with the dry ones = they are GROSS!
I like the little Valencia/Spanish red-skins, bought 5 kg and just about done.
Not quite oily enough to make a mess.

I want to learn how Broch gets along with the pig nuts.
If they stored OK raw, they would be a wonderful resource for leaner times.

 

[santaman2000]

So the Dry Roasted are fried in oil too?
Do not look or taste as te normally treated nuts.

Not all “dry roasted” are fried. But that’s an industry standard. I don’t really know what you mean by “treated.”

 

[santaman2000]

I'm planning to roast the peanuts in the shell. I don't even know which variety they planted.
I guess some are shelled first then roasted and salted ?
I see a big difference with the dry ones = they are GROSS!
I like the little Valencia/Spanish red-skins, bought 5 kg and just about done.
Not quite oily enough to make a mess.

I want to learn how Broch gets along with the pig nuts.
If they stored OK raw, they would be a wonderful resource for leaner times.

Yeah, we parch them in the shell too. But still no soaking beforehand. I also prefer the redskin ones but I’ve never bought any to parch; we always just grew our own when I was a kid.

 

[Woody girl]

R V pig nuts are a tuber rather than a nut. They are the root of a flower a bit like wild chervil or cow parsley ie an umbellifer. Not realy a nut at all.

Broch I wonder why you should have such a reaction to a tuber when you have a nut allergy. Seems strange to me. Can you eat water chestnuts? Again not realy a nut but an aquatic root. Piig nuts remind me of water chestnuts a bit.

 

[Robson Valley]

Thanks Woody Girl. I had just decided to look them up Google to see what could be done with them.
Grouped with plants of a carrot habit. Roasting was a common suggestion.
My recipe #3 might be a real treat. I have had curried carrot soup on many occassions.

Broch: maybe you ate one that was "off?"

 

[Janne]

Not all “dry roasted” are fried. But that’s an industry standard. I don’t really know what you mean by “treated.”

Treated as in cooked. Oil, heat, steam.

Checked online, and dry roasted peanuts are roasted the same way as coffee, some tea.
Hot surface without oil or water.

Cross Atlantic confusion.
North Americans call the nut from Hickory ’pignut’
British Islanders call the tuber from a plant ’pignut’

 

[santaman2000]

.....North Americans call the nut from Hickory ’pignut’
British Islanders call the tuber from a plant ’pignut’

We call the nut from a hickory hickory nuts. I had never heard the term pig it at all until I joined this forum.