December
Ah! The seeds of a pomegranate are the jewels in nature's crown (and they're right tasty too!)
What seasonal foods should grace your dinner table this month? Be creative with turkey, or inventive with that poor, derided vegetable, the sprout.
Tom Norrington-Davies brings parsnips, sprouts, carrots, cabbage and Jerusalem artichokes centre stage, so they can take pride of place on your Christmas table.
Cranberries, pomegranates and quinces are magical ingredients around Christmas time, and their perfumed scent will fill your kitchen with goodwill, says Tom Norrington-Davies.
Celebrate... almonds
Blanch 'em, flake 'em, chop 'em, ground 'em, eat 'em.
The Moroccans like them in stews, the Indians in curries, the South Africans in bobotie, the Europeans in macaroons, and the Brits in baking, while gran likes them just sugared.
So it's no surprise that the almond – a versatile, fragrant nut – is King.
You can blanch 'em, halve 'em, flake 'em, chop 'em, ground 'em. If you toast 'em it
intensifies their flavour and gives them more colour and bite. 'Amandine' dishes are served with toasted blanched almonds; here's a varitation of the classic trout amandine.
Coming top of the taste league is one thing, but almonds are also the most nutritionally dense nut; a one ounce, 160 calorie serving of almonds (a handful), is a great source of vitamin E, magnesium and fibre.
It's also rich in protein,
potassium, calcium and monounsaturated fat (the good stuff); eating an ounce a day lowers a person's cholesterol by at least 4.4.% a day. What's more, these nuts may even help you to maintain – even lose – weight!
For peanut allergy sufferers, sweet almonds can also be used to make almond
butter.
There are two types: we eat and cook with the sweet variety and the bitter type can be consumed, but be warned – bitter almonds have to be processed; raw they contain fatal amounts of prussic acid.