When some food new crosses my path that I've never seen before, I can't help myself: I buy it. Sometimes it turns out well, sometimes it doesn't.
When I saw these Harvest Song preserved fresh walnuts - shells and all! - they seemed so strange I couldn't resist. They looked like huge black olives in thick syrup, and I tried to imagine what I might do with them. Put them over ice cream? Serve them with cheese? Pair them with pate?
Yes, to all of the above. They turn out to taste exactly the way you'd expect infant walnuts to taste - fresh, nutty, full of promise. They're particulalry good with powerful blue cheeses - Stilton comes to mind, but they're also great with gorgonzola. They make a very interesting topping for vanilla or coffee ice cream (and I imagine they'd be terrific swirled into home-made ice cream). They're wonderful with chunky pate. And I'm thinking come fall, I'll dice them into an intriguing topping for thick butternut squash soup.
