Fresh Roasted Piñon Nuts. Yes. One of the signs that life is simply good. And life is good simple. Interesting to note that pine nuts have never struck me as a simple food. The cost alone steps them into the 'special occasion' category in most cases. I made homemade pesto this summer with our abundant basil harvest and opted for using local almonds instead of pine nuts. Made good sense. Significant savings, local, and delicious. Perfect. It didn't occur to me at that time fresh,local, and free could all be ticked with pine nuts. I now know. Yes. Life is simply good. And life is good simple.
One of our friends, an old timer who is sure to tell us exactly how we are doing everything wrong but is thrilled we are trying at all, gave us a couple of very green Piñon cones. Toss them in the fire and smack them with a hammer after they open up. Those were the instructions which were relayed to me by my husband from our friend. And be careful of the sap. It is sticky. Knowing how some messages get passed along in our family and that said message was from a man who told me I pop popcorn incorrectly and should use my pressure cooker to do it right (yikes!) ... I went straight to google to find out a bit more about roasting fresh pinon cones.
I make awesome popcorn for the record.
There was quite a bit of information about roasting fresh nuts that had been harvested from open cones, but not too much about getting from green cone to roast nut. What I did find, much like when I first started researching how to cure olives a couple years ago, was that everyone has their own method and each has merit. None will suit what is available to you exactly - be it the equipment or the specific variety of ingredients / raw material - You do what you can with what you have, guided by the experience of those who have shared their own. In that light I offer you my experience.
Wrapping in foil to cook in the oven or in the fire, over a charcoal grill in a grill pan, over an open fire in metal pot, straight in the fire. All seem like fine routes to take when roasting a green piñon cone. While I researched I was leaning towards using the same pot that we roast castañas in over the fire. It seemed to me like a reasonable compromise for tossing it directly in the fire. What if my precious cone burst into flames? But they were indeed very sticky and aromatic. Would the sap burn off so that future chestnut roasting was not pine scented or flavored? In the end, I opted for tossing it in the fire. We had nice coals in the fireplace after a long rainy day. Those were after all the instructions we were given with the cones. So in the fire it was.
A little more than 2 hours, several hammer whacks and lots of picking apart, we have a modest bowl of pine nuts (in the shell - for which I need to acquire a gentler nut cracker for extraction than our household hammer if I hope to have more than nut splat.) and 2/3 of the remaining now open and empty pine cone. I only did one just in case I ruined the first one. Luckily it turned out well so I have more to look forward to roasting.
And they are good. So good. So very very good. Many thanks to our friend for sharing this gift and exciting new treat with us. Tossing in the fire works. It takes a long time and it is worth it.
Time to go forage for more cones. They are going to be so good in my pesto next summer.
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