Majida Rashid
"You are not being a sweet potato!!!"
"Yes I yam."
Every new year is filled with hope, uncertainty, a desire to soar and make a difference in one's life in a new and unknown way.
Some people get gym membership, others start a healthy diet or vow to observe their own behavior. But the reason I look forward to January 1 is slightly different from the ones I mentioned above. My goal on a new year day is to visit as many stores as possible. If you have been enjoying reading my monthly columns since 2020, and hopefully creating yummy dishes with my recipes, you would know that I love food stores.
Whoever guesses the purpose of my visits I would gladly send them the Italian walnut pie for which I shared the recipe in my December 2021 column. I'm going to brag that my editor made that pie and couldn't rave enough about the fact that it was delicious and easy to make. He even took it to a party where it proved popular with the guests. Too bad I wasn't there to bask in the compliments or gloat about it later.
I won't keep you in the dark for much longer. I'm spilling my secret new year goal. I go nuts when it comes to eating nuts. I do not care about American chocolates because they are too sweet but I take a bite right away if they have nuts.
During snowy winter afternoons in Abbottabad, Pakistan, I loved sitting in front of an Angeethee containing red hot glowing coals that would heat my mother's room. Angeethee is a special round container with three legs that are raised a few inches above the floor. My mother would give me a small lump of brown sugar called gurrh which was a specialty of the city called Daira Ismail Khan.
Walnuts, almonds and black pepper corn would be buried inside the lumps. I would dig my teeth in a piece of gurrh and roll my tongue to sort the treasure of the nuts first. The allure of the nuts was so strong that even the sting of black pepper corn would fade away from my memory. Sometimes mother gave me a snack of almonds and thin long green Afghani sultanas. I would eat a couple of almonds and a sultana at a time. Nothing matched that flavor.
Drum rolls because I'm going to spill my secret! Around Thanksgiving, big stores bring packets of whole walnuts, almonds, hazelnuts, pecans and occasionally Brazilian nuts in their shells.
Nuts have short shelf life because they go rancid quickly.
Every January 1, these stores have huge sales on nuts. Guess what? A pound of every type of nut costs only 99 cents. What else could I want? I empty shelves. You may think it is not possible to eat so many nuts before they go rancid. Nothing is impossible has always been my life motto.
Let's say I can eat a pound of nuts in a day or two. I also roast them and then enjoy peeling the shells. Nuts also freeze successfully. Now that my secret is out I would like to share a quick and delicious recipe for nut lovers
Sweet Potatoes with Nuts
2-3 servings
Ingredients
2 pounds whole organic small-sized purple sweet potatoes
4 6 oz. butter
5-8 cloves, roughly crushed
A handful of walnuts or pecans
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 - 1 teaspoon Thai hot sauce
Directions
1. Wash and dry the sweet potatoes.
2. Sparingly puncture them with a fork.
3. Microwave them for 5-7 minutes. Time depends on the power of microwave. The potatoes should be soft but not mushy.
4. Melt the butter in a wide frying pan.
5. Add the cloves and nuts and fry for a minute or so.
6. Stir in the cinnamon and hot sauce.
7. Cool the sweet potatoes and cut them either into thick slices or wedges.
8. Mix them with the other ingredients in the pan.
9. Cover and let them soak the flavors for about 10 minutes.
10. Serve hot with tea or coffee.
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Foodie Majida Rashid lives in Texas. Food and cooking are her passion. Her philosophical writing can be read at apakistaniwomansjourney.wordpress.com. @Frontiers_Of_Flavor
