A large bag of pistachio

[Monica Bhide]

HI all, someone gave me a gift basket over the weekend that has a HUGE bag of shelled unsalted pistachios... any suggestions as to what i can make? Pistachio crusted something.. or a dessert maybe?

BTW, I must remember to look at where the nuts are from.. they are superb tasting!

Any help would be appreciated

[JosephB]

I adore pistachio ice cream, which lots of chopped nuts in it.

[Monica Bhide]

I do too! I make a lot of Indian iceream with pistas.

Any savory suggestions?

[vengroff]

Pistachio brittle, although it's not savory. You could crust a rack of lamb with them and roast it. You can also use them on a pork loin. The only problem with crusting is that you'll need to crush them first. If you have big beautiful whole pistachios, you probably want to use them that way and save crusting for cheaper pre-crushed ones.

[Monica Bhide]

Pistachio brittle, although it's not savory.  You could crust a rack of lamb with them and roast it.  You can also use them on a pork loin.  The only problem with crusting is that you'll need to crush them first.  If you have big beautiful whole pistachios, you probably want to use them that way and save crusting for cheaper pre-crushed ones.

I love lamb.. and lamb with pistachio sounds divine.. do you have a recipe you can share?

[beans]

I recently searched and printed a bunch of pistachio recipes from FN.

Here are a few savory ones I found that were of interest:

North African influenced Lamb Shanks with Pistachio-Mint Couscous (Emeril)

Shrimp Sates with Spiced Pistachio Chutney (Sara Moulton)

Pisatchio Crusted Rack of Lamb with Goat's Cheese Mashed Potatoes and Peasant Style Sauce (Emeril)

Fragrant Green Chicken Curry (Jamie Oliver)

Here's the whole search list for some other ideas.

Enjoy!

Edited June 16, 2003 by beans (log)

[Monica Bhide]

Thanks.. what wonderful ideas.. I might try Sara Moulton's recipe!

I will update you all with the results.. thank you!

[FoodMan]

Monica-

We discussed a Pistachio-cardamom cake in egullet before and I know there is a recipe somewhere. It was excellent.

I also like them in rice pilafs with some saffron and dried fruits.

FM

[FoodMan]

OK here is the recipe for the Pistachio-Cardamom cake:

3/4 cup shelled natural pistachios (4 oz)

1 cup all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

2 teaspoons ground cardamom

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup whole milk (2% works well too)

1/4 teaspoon vanilla

1 1/2 sticks unsalted butter, softened

1 cup sugar

3 large eggs

Preheat oven to 350°F.

Butter a 9 by 6 pan, then line bottom with wax paper. Butter/flour routine.

Pulse the pistachios in a food processor until finely ground, I've also bought ground pistachios and it's worked well too.

Add the flour, baking powder, cardamom, and salt and pulse once or twice to mix.

Cream the butter and sugar with an electric mixer until pale and fluffy. Add the eggs 1 at a time (beating after each addition).

Then add the milk and vanilla, mix well, then add the flour and beat till combined.

Spread the atter evenly in cake pan and bake in middle of oven til the tester comes out clean, should take about 20 minutes.

Cool the cake in the pan for roughly 10 minutes and flip it out onto a platter. Glaze it if you wish. It doesn't need much, just enough for a beautiful sheen.

It's excellent warm (if you can't wait) but it's delicious at room temperature.

FM

[swissmiss]

Monica, if you don't have it yet it is time to invest in How to Be a Domestic Goddess by Nigella Lawson. She has tons of recipes that include pistachios, very often in combination with chocolate. I've also made a variation of Marina Chang's Pinones (link to recipe) with a pistachio filling and a chocolate outer dough. Delicious!

[vengroff]

Monica,

Much as I hate to admit it, I've done something much like Emeril. Olive oil, crushed pistachios, and some herbs. Slather it on the lamb and then roast it.

[Marlene]

The Pistachio-Cardamom Cake has been added to the archive

[torakris]

The Pistachio-Cardamom Cake  has been added to the archive

this cake is wonderful!

I have made it quite a few times and always gets rave reviews.

It was my first egullet recipe!

[JAZ]

They're good added to a salad of beets and oranges.

[Toni10]

Why, baklava of course.

[Monica Bhide]

Any Bakhlava recipe -- that wont make me put on 20 pounds just looking at it -- .. is most welcome

[Jason Perlow]

Monica, make pistachio ice cream, italian style. Or kulfi....

Or use some of them to make pistachio baklava.

[fifi]

I did a boneless pork loin once similar to the Emeril recipe. Roughly crushed the pistachios, olive oil, herbs... I forget what else. I had "spiral sliced" the loin (lengthwise, basicallly unrolled it), Spread it with a LIBERAL amount of pistachios (I had a lot to work with) and rolled it back up and tied it. I roasted it with the fat on top and it was gorgeous. It was a pistacio and pork pinwheel. The loin is so lean I used quite a bit of olive oil. I want to try it with fresh lard!

[Monica Bhide]

I made the cake last night Foodman.. it was awesome.. everything you said it would be. And really easy too.. I am not much of a baker and even I could bake it and well at that!!

Thanks again.. still have lots to pistachios to go.. thinking lamb and maybe an icecream...

Jason... how do you make Italian style pista icecream?

[FoodMan]

I'm glad you liked this fantastic cake, and it is very easy and tasty.

I would defenitly try the pistachio ice cream next (Claudia Roden has a recipe in her Middle Eastern cookbook). I am sort of kind of not in favor of using pistachios with meat (I had pistachio coated softc shell crabs once and will never do it again), probably because I was raised eating them with all kinds of sweet middle eastern pastries (baklavas, maamool, sweet pies with rosewater syrup, ice cream,...) but never in a savory dish.

Keep us posted

FM

[Sandra Levine]

I recently marinated some boneless chicken breasts in buttermilk, then coated them with ground pistachios before sauteing them. I would have added a sprinkle of pistachio oil after cooking if I had had any.

[polly]

How about making pistachio chilli praline and sprinkling it over grilled chicken or calimari?

I have never actually done this but it's been in my head for a while...

Pour toffee (with a pinch of salt in it) over lightly toasted pistachios and slivers of red chilli.

Then break apart the toffe and pulverize in the food processor.

I think the sweet/hot/nutty flavour would be really good with smokey grilled calimari and a bit of sharp lime dressing.

[kpurvis]

Zuni Cafe Cookbook has a recipe for a pistachio sauce, sort of like a pesto, served over asparagus. I really wanted to make it, but it calls for "fresh pistachios," which I am finally concluding are a myth. Has anybody ever seen "fresh" pistachios? Don't they have to be roasted to make it possible to open the shells?

[Monica Bhide]

I recently searched and printed a bunch of pistachio recipes from FN. 

Here are a few savory ones I found that were of interest:

North African influenced Lamb Shanks with Pistachio-Mint Couscous (Emeril)

Shrimp Sates with Spiced Pistachio Chutney (Sara Moulton)

Pisatchio Crusted Rack of Lamb with Goat's Cheese Mashed Potatoes and Peasant Style Sauce (Emeril)

Fragrant Green Chicken Curry (Jamie Oliver)

Here's the whole search list for some other ideas.

Enjoy! 

I tried the Pistachio chutney.. was dissappointed.. sad.. I normally love Sara's stuff. The recipe worked fine.. maybe my taste buds are just not sophisticated enough!!

Now I have 2 large cups of ground pistachios leftover... help!

[bloviatrix]

Hi! Newbie here.

How about a mesclun salad with pistachios, kumquats, papaya, with a citrus vinagrette? I had this at Greens last year and have recreated it at home numerous times since.

Additionally, if you have access the the Francois Payard cookbook, he has a delicious recipe for pistachio-almond biscotti.