Oh Nuts Blog

Being a dessert lover, I admit I am sometimes guilty of ignoring the savory side of nuts in favor of my beloved sweets. Sure, there are a million different desserts that benefit from the taste and texture of nuts, but the same could easily be said of savory foods.

Let's take fish, for instance. Fish is a staple of healthy diets everywhere, but let's face it--it can be a little bland. Folks don't often get excited about fish the way they do about a plate of fudgy brownies. But when you take that bland fish, add a nutty, spicy coating of chopped pecans, and fry it until it has a crunchy golden crust, you turn a mediocre dish into a must-have!

This pecan-crusted fish recipe is a perfect weekday dinner. With only 6 minutes of cooking time, it can be on the table in half an hour, leaving you plenty of time to steam some rice and throw together a salad to accompany it. I like to make this dish with tilapia, but any mild white fish will do nicely.

Pecan-Crusted Fish
yield: 4 servings

• 1/4 cup pecans, well-toasted
• 1/2 cup seasoned breadcrumbs
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp garlic powder
• 1/2 tsp black pepper
• 1/4 cup flour
• 1/2 cup buttermilk
• 2 tsp hot sauce
• 4 tilapia fillets, about 6 oz each

Finely chop the toasted pecans until they're in tiny pieces. You can also use a food processor for this step, but I like the irregular sizes and different textures you get with a knife. Either way: just make sure your pecans are very well chopped!

Combine the chopped pecans with the breadcrumbs, salt, pepper, and garlic powder on a plate or in a shallow bowl, and mix everything together.

Dump the flour on a separate plate or in another shallow bowl.

Combine the buttermilk and the hot sauce in a shallow bowl. I actually like to use a pie tin for this purpose, because it's shallow but wide enough to fit the fish or whatever else I'm dunking. Whisk the buttermilk and hot sauce together. If you're sensitive to spicy foods, you can reduce or eliminate the hot sauce and the fish will still be great.

So after your preparations, your setup should look something like this: one plate with the pecan and breadcrumb mixture, one with plain flour, and a shallow bowl or pie tin with the buttermilk/hot sauce mix. Let's start dippin'!

First, dredge both sides of a fish fillet in the flour so that it's covered with a thin coating of flour.

Next, dip it in the buttermilk so that both sides are covered. If you haven't done much battering and frying before, here's a quick tip: to keep things neat, it's easiest to have one "dry hand" and one "wet hand." So one hand is in charge of dipping the fish in the flour and the breadcrumbs, and the other hand is in charge of putting it in the buttermilk. This prevents both hands from getting crusted with layers and layers of flour/breadcrumbs/buttermilk mixture, which can be frustrating and messy.

Finally, press both sides of the fish in the pecan and breadcrumb mixture. Things have started getting interesting! Leaving aside the fact that the fish is raw, isn't this looking delicious already?

Repeat until all of the fish fillets are coated with pecans and ready to go. Now you'll see the true genius of this recipe: how quickly you can go from raw fish to cooked dinner!

Heat a large saucepan over medium heat, and add a good-sized knob of butter or glug of olive oil. I'm sorry, but this is completely necessary. Don't think that a little spritz of cooking spray is going to help you here. The butter or oil helps give the fish an amazingly crisp crust with a lot of flavor, so please don't skimp.

Cook the fish for about 3 minutes, until the bottom is golden brown with a nice crust. If your pan is large enough you can do all four at once, but if not--don't crowd them. They cook fast enough that it's not a huge deal to cook them in batches.

Flip the fish and cook for another 3 minutes, until the bottom is golden.

The exact cooking time will depend on your fish and the thickness of the fillets. One good way to tell when the fish is done, aside from visual cues, is to cook it until it flakes easily with a fork.

After your pecan-crusted fish is cooked, serve it immediately! One of the best parts of this recipe is the contrast between the crunchy, nutty crust and the moist fish inside, so don't let the fish sit around getting soggy!

I love this pecan-crusted fish with a simple squirt of lemon, but you can add tartar sauce, or even a nice fresh homemade salsa. And if you have extra pecans left over, why not put them to good use in a giant chocolate chip cookie?

All text and images (c) Elizabeth LaBau

"What's in a name? A cookie, by any other name, would taste just as sweet."
--with apologies to William Shakespeare

Are you familiar with these cookies? They have a crumbly, sandy texture, a rich cinnamon-pecan flavor, and a snowy white coating of powdered sugar. Describing them is easy...but deciding on a name is not. I grew up calling them Mexican Wedding Cakes or Mexican Wedding Cookies. Some people call them Russian Tea Cakes. Others know them as Butterballs, Snowdrops, Swedish Tea Cakes, Snowballs, or Italian Butter Nuts.

So what's the real story? Are they cakes or cookies? Do they hail from Mexico, Russia, or Italy? Should you enjoy them at a wedding, or during afternoon tea?

I can't answer all of these questions, but I can tell you that they are most definitely cookies, not cakes. And in answer to the final query, you should enjoy them ALL the time! They're delicious! They're also a perfect way to showcase fresh, sweet pecans. So grab a bag of your favorite pecan halves, and let's make cookies...or cakes...or whatever you want to call them!

Mexican Wedding Cakes
yield: about 40 cookies

• 8 oz (2 sticks) butter, room temperature
• 2 cups powdered sugar, divided use
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1-1/2 cup pecan halves

You may notice that there aren't too many ingredients in these cookies, and most of them are your standard butter-flour-sugar variety. The mildness of the other ingredients means that the pecans really shine in this recipe, and are responsible for all of the flavor and the great crumbly texture of the cookies. So let's make sure our pecans are really amazing.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Spread the pecan halves on a baking sheet and bake them until they're toasted and deep brown, about 10-15 minutes. Stir them every 3-4 minutes so they don't burn, but don't pull them out too early. They should be very fragrant and a deep mahogany color! A well-toasted pecan is a flavorful pecan, as my grandpappy always used to say.*

*Okay, he never actually said that. But he did own a grove of pecan trees. True story.

Let the pecans cool completely, then place them in a food processor (preferably) or a high-speed blender (not optimal, but you can make it work.) Pulse them in two-second bursts until the pecans are in tiny pieces. Don't run the processor too long, or you run the risk of making pecan butter instead of chopped pecans.

Time to mix our cookies! Place the softened butter in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment. Alternately, you can use a hand mixer and just mix everything in a large bowl. Beat the butter until it is smooth and light and creamy, for about 2 minutes.

Stop the mixer and add 1/2 cup of powdered sugar to the bowl. This is important! Most of your powdered sugar will be used to cover the cookies once they're baked, so don't go throwing it all in at once. Just 1/2 cup will do for now. Beat the butter and sugar together for another 2 minutes until light and fluffy.

After the sugar's mixed in, add the vanilla and beat for another minute, until it's well-incorporated.

Now stop the mixer and add the flour, the salt, and the cinnamon. Mix the dough on low just until the streaks of flour disappear.

Finally, for our finishing touch...the ground, toasted pecans. Add them to the dough and mix it again on low, until the pecans are well-distributed throughout. Scrape down the bottom and the sides and give it a few more good stirs to make sure everything's well-mixed.

Divide the dough in half and wrap each half tightly in cling wrap. Refrigerate the dough until it's cold, for about 45-60 minutes. It should be firm but not rock-hard, because you want to be able to shape and roll it.

After the chilling time, preheat your oven once again to 350 degrees. Use a cookie scoop or a tablespoon to roll the cookies into balls about 1-inch in diameter. You should get between 3-4 dozen cookies out of this batch. Place them on parchment-lined baking sheets, and since they don't spread much, you can put them about an inch apart.

Bake the cookies at 350 for 16-18 minutes, until they feel set in the middle and are golden brown on the bottom. Depending on how cold your dough was when you baked them, they should keep their round shape fairly well. Let them rest on the baking sheet for just 5 minutes.

While the cookies are still quite warm, toss them in the remaining powdered sugar until they are coated. The warmth of the cookies will cause the powdered sugar to stick to the outside and form a smooth, sweet layer. If you've waited too long to roll them in sugar and they're no longer warm, place the cookies back in the oven just for a minute or two, then roll the warmed cookies in the sugar.

Let the cookies cool completely on a wire rack. Before you serve them, dust them with a little more powdered sugar to fill any holes and give them a snowy white appearance.

These delicate, sophisticated little cookies are the perfect accompaniment to a cup of afternoon tea, or a mug of after-dinner coffee. Mexican Wedding Cakes can be kept for up to a week at room temperature in an airtight container. If you're storing them for a period of several days, sprinkle them with another dusting of powdered sugar to freshen them up before serving them.

All text and images (c) Elizabeth LaBau