Currant And Pine Nut Relish Recipes

CURRANT-AND-PINE-NUT RELISH

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 350°. Toast pine nuts on a rimmed baking sheet just until pale golden and fragrant, 8 to 10 minutes. Let cool completely. Meanwhile, in a small bowl, combine currants, saffron, and hot water, adding more water as needed to just cover currants; let stand 10 minutes. Strain, reserving saffron water.
• Heat oil in a medium saucepan over medium-low. Add celery, onion, chile, and fennel seeds; season with salt. Cook, stirring occasionally, until mixture is soft and sticky but not taking on any color, about 15 minutes. Remove and discard chile. Transfer onion mixture to a bowl.
• Pulse currants in a food processor 3 to 4 times, just until coarsely chopped. Add pine nuts and pulse 2 more times (mixture should be chunky and sticky). Stir currant mixture into onion mixture. Stir in saffron water, a little at a time, until relish has desired consistency; season to taste.

CURRANT AND PINE NUT RELISH

Steps:

• Warm the olive oil in a small sauté pan over medium-high heat, add the onion, chile, and rosemary, and season with the salt. Sauté, stirring often to prevent the onion from browning, for about 5 minutes, until the onion is tender and translucent. Add the garlic and cook for 1 minute, stirring constantly to prevent it browning.
• Meanwhile, place the currants in a small saucepan. Add the vinegar, making sure there is enough to cover. Bring the vinegar to a simmer over high heat, reduce the heat, and simmer for about 5 minutes, until they are soft and plump. Add the currants and vinegar to the sauté pan with the onion. If there is so much vinegar that the relish is runny, bring the vinegar to a boil over medium-high heat and boil it until there is just enough liquid to bind the currants. Turn off the heat and allow the currants to cool to room temperature. Remove and discard the chile and rosemary and stir in the pine nuts just before serving. Note: In order to ensure that they keep their crunchy texture, you want to add pine nuts only to the amount of relish you will be using at the time. Transfer the remaining relish to an airtight container and refrigerate for up to one week.

CEDAR PLANK SALMON WITH CELERY SALAD AND CURRANT PINE NUT RELISH

Steps:

• For the salmon: Preheat a smoker for cooking to 225 degrees F and preheat your oven to 425 degrees F.
• Remove the cedar planks from the water and pat the surfaces dry. Put the cedar planks on a baking sheet. Place the salmon portions skin-side down on the cedar planks. Drizzle with the olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Evenly top the salmon with the parsley and lemon zest. Place the baking sheet in the smoker and allow the salmon to smoke just until it has been slightly infused with smoke flavor, about 15 minutes. Remove from the smoker and immediately transfer to the oven to finish cooking, about 15 minutes. Remove from the oven and let sit until room temperature, or refrigerate and serve the next day.
• For the currant and pine nut relish: Combine the vinegar, currants, honey, shallots and mustard seeds in a small pot. Heat the pot over medium-high heat until bubbles begin to form, then lower the heat to maintain a slow simmer. Continue to cook until the currants have plumped and the liquid has reduced and become slightly viscous, 10 to 15 minutes. Remove from the heat and fold in the pine nuts. Season the relish with salt.
• For the salad: Dress the celery, celery leaves and cilantro in a medium bowl with the olive oil, Meyer lemon juice, flaked salt and pepper. Top the salmon with the celery salad and a spoonful of the currant and pine nut relish and serve.

COUSCOUS WITH PINE NUTS

Steps:

• Melt the butter in a large saucepan. Add the shallots and cook them over medium-low heat for 3 minutes, until translucent. Add the chicken stock, salt, and pepper and bring to a boil. Turn off the heat. Stir in the couscous, cover the pan, and set aside for 10 minutes. Add the pine nuts, currants, and parsley and fluff with a fork to combine. Serve hot.

RICE PILAF WITH CURRANTS AND PINE NUTS

Steps:

• Melt butter in skillet. Add the rice and brown till slightly golden. Add broth and water carefully. Add the currants, bring to a boil and cover and cook on low heat for about 45 minute to an hour. Don't peek at it. Serve with the pine nuts on top.

CURRANT-PINE NUT RELISH

Steps:

• Preheat the oven to 375°F.
• Toast the pine nuts for about 8 minutes, stirring once or twice, until they're golden brown and smell nutty.
• Heat a small sauté pan over high heat for 2 minutes. Turn down the heat to medium, and add the olive oil, rosemary, and chile. When the rosemary and chile start to sizzle, add the onion and season with 1/2 teaspoon salt. Turn the heat down to low, and let the onions stew gently for about 10 minutes, until tender. Transfer to a small bowl to cool and discard the rosemary sprig and chile.
• While the onion is cooking, place the currants in a small bowl and cover with hot water. Let the currants soak for 10 minutes, and then drain well.
• Add the balsamic vinegar to the pan the onions were in, and reduce it over medium-high heat to a scant 1 tablespoon. Stir the reduced vinegar into the onion mixture.
• Add the toasted pine nuts, currants, and parsley to the onion mixture, and stir to combine. Taste for balance and seasoning.

SWISS CHARD WITH CURRANTS AND PINE NUTS

Steps:

• Place the raisins or currants in a bowl and pour on hot water to cover. Soak 10 minutes and drain.
• Fill a bowl with ice water. Bring a large pot of generously salted water to a boil and add the chard. Cook for 1 to 2 minutes, until just tender. Transfer to the bowl of ice water and let sit for a few minutes. Drain and squeeze out as much water as you can. Chop coarsely.
• Heat the oil over medium heat in a large, heavy nonstick skillet. Add the chard stems and cook 3 to 5 minutes, until tender. Add the pine nuts and cook, stirring, until they begin to color, 2 to 3 minutes. Add the garlic and cook, stirring, just until the garlic begins to smell fragrant about 1 minute. Add the chopped greens and raisins or currants and toss together until they are well coated with oil and heated through, 2 to 3 minutes. Season to taste with salt and pepper, and serve, or allow to cool and serve at room temperature.

PASTA WITH ROAST CHICKEN, CURRANTS AND PINE NUTS

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Arrange thighs in a large roasting pan, preferably nonstick. Thickly sprinkle with salt, pepper and paprika, and dot with butter. Bake until just cooked through and skin is crisp (if oven has a convection feature, use it), about 35 minutes.
• Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. When chicken is done, let cool slightly, then use hands (rubber gloves are helpful) to pull meat and skin from bones, making bite-size pieces. Reserve meat and skin in roasting pan; discard bones.
• Meanwhile, add pasta to boiling water and cook just until tender but not mushy. Reserving 1 cup cooking water, drain pasta and add to roasting pan with chicken meat and skin. Add 1/2 cup pasta cooking water to roasting pan on stovetop and turn heat to low.
• Add rosemary, currants and pine nuts to roasting pan and toss, adding more salt and black pepper to taste, and more cooking water if mixture seems dry. Sprinkle with parsley and serve immediately in shallow bowls.

COUSCOUS WITH PINE NUTS AND CURRANTS

Steps:

• Melt butter in a small saucepan. Add chopped shallot and simmer for about 2-3 minutes, stirring a few times.
• Add vegetable broth and bring to boil. Once boiling remove from heat and add couscous. Give it a quick stir and cover. Let it sit covered for 10 minutes.
• While it's sitting toast pine nuts. Put the pine nuts in a small pan and cook over low-medium heat for about 3-5 minutes, until the nuts are fragrant. Shake the pan around a few times too.
• Lastly, add the pine nuts and currants to the couscous and stir to combine everything.
• * TIP - You can buy the pine nuts and currants in the bulk section of Whole Foods or some supermarkets so that way you don't have to get more than need.