Shelled Walnut Halves (Charmaghz)

These are walnut kernels out of the shell, in halves and large broken pieces, ready to use as they are. The flavour is rich and buttery with a tannic edge in the papery skin, and the texture breaks softly instead of snapping, closer to a pecan than to an almond.

The important word is shelled. There is no nutcracker, no shell to pick out of the bowl, and the kernels arrive as halves and broken halves rather than fine crumbs, so they still look like something when you scatter them over a cake or a salad. Whole walnuts in the shell are sold as a separate product.

How to use them

Grind them into the walnut base of fesenjan, or into muhammara, baba ganoush and Georgian satsivi. Chop them through halwa, sheer payra, baklava, banana bread, brownies and coffee cake, scatter them over a salad with pomegranate and feta, or stir them into yogurt and granola. Technique tip: toast them dry for a few minutes and rub the loose skins off in a tea towel, that is where most of the bitterness sits.

Details

Also known as

Charmaghz, Chaar maghz, Akhrot, Gerdoo, Walnut halves, Shelled walnuts, English walnut, Common walnut, Noix (French), Nuez (Spanish), Walnuss (German)