Ingredient: Pistachio nuts
Category: Nuts
Season: All
The pistachio (Pistacia vera L., Anacardiaceae; sometimes placed in Pistaciaceae) is a small tree up to 10 m tall, native to mountainous regions of Iran, Turkmenistan and western Afghanistan.
Pistachios (as part of the pistacia genus) have existed for about 80 million years
The fruit is a drupe, containing an elongated seed (a nut in the culinary sense, but not a true botanical nut) with a hard, whitish shell and a striking kernel which has a mauvish skin and light green flesh, with a definitive flavour.
When the fruit ripens, the husk changes from green to an autumnal yellow/red and the shells split partially open. This is known as dehiscence, and happens with an audible pop.
Each pistachio nut weighs around 1 gram, and each pistachio tree averages around 50 kg of nuts, or around 50,000, every two years.
More recently pistachio has been cultivated in California (first commercial harvest in 1976) and Australia.
Uses
The kernels are often eaten whole , either fresh or roasted and salted, and are also used in ice cream and confections such as baklava.
On the Greek island of Chios, the husk or flesh of the pistachio fruit surrounding the shell is cooked and preserved in syrup.
The shell of the pistachio is naturally a beige colour , but it is sometimes dyed red or green in commercial pistachios.
Originally the dye was applied by importers to hide stains on the shells caused when the nuts were picked by hand.
However most pistachios are now picked by machine and the shells remain unstained, making dyeing unnecessary (except that some consumers have been led to expect coloured pistachios).
Roasted pistachio nuts can be artificially turned red if they are marinated prior to roasting in a salt and strawberry marinade, or salt and citrus salts.
Pistachio nuts are highly flammable when stored in large quantities , and are prone to self heating and spontaneous combustion
These pretty green and pink nuts are a delicacy with salt or unsalted.
If you are using them in a sweet recipe, buy unsalted pistachios,
The shell of a ripened nut is slightly ajar , so can easily be prised apart with the fingers and remove the nut. |