Nuts

Cobnuts At this time of year look out for cobnuts with their greeny brown, lacy outer coating, and pass them round with the cheese tray at a dinner party, or serve with fruit. Cobnuts are always served fresh.

Almonds These add a delicious crunchiness to recipes. The shelled nuts have a brown skin which is easy enough to remove if the nuts are blanched in boiling water for 1–2 minutes. Hot almonds are soft and easier to flake or shred finely for recipes.

Hazelnuts These are almost exclusively used in baking and confectionery. They give recipes a lovely flavour, but are the very devil to use unless you have a blender or a Mouli grater to grind them up in. Hazelnuts should be spread out on a tray and popped in a hot oven for a few minutes. Tip the hot nuts into a teacloth and rub well together, when the feathery brown skins will flake off.