Superb Food Combinations with Hickory Nuts

Hickory nuts are a precious nut, which are capable of being combined with other amazing ingredients, to produce savory and mouth watering foods.

With hickory nuts, just a little creativity will yield amazing food combinations, which will be appreciated by many. Hickory nuts can be used with a myriad of many other foods in this planet. This includes chicken, turkey, wild rice, oats, apple, wheat germ, coconut and many other foods. The foods that would be yielded out of these combination, includes wild rice hickory nut salad, Maple hickory Apple crisp, Maple hickory granola, hickory pie and sandiness and many other.

Hickory nuts with wild rice

Here one can have the wild rice Hickory nut salad or the Hickory wild rice stuffing. They all abundantly feature wild rice, which make them another exotic experience from the wild.

Hickory wild rice stuffing

This is the ideal wild stuffing recipe to be used with chicken or turkey. Incase one opts for the turkey stuffing; all the ingredients in the recipe will have to be doubled. Think along preparing a turkey stuffing. It will definitely be one great experience. Of course for the turkey stuffing, you will need someone in the family who knows how to hunt turkey.

Ingredients

The main ingredients here are 2 cups of hickory nuts and 1 ¼ cups of dry wild rice. Other ingredients are:
8 oz ground sausage (optional)
2 large celery ribs, diced
1 medium onion, minced
1 Tbsp butter
1 tsp salt
½ tsp black pepper

Preparations
1.) The wild rice is cooked in 3 ½ cups of water until it becomes tender, add more water if needed. Wild rice takes up to an hour to cook.
2.) Then cook sausage in a skillet and add it to rice.
3.) To the sausage drippings, add butter, onion and celery and sauté until tender.
4.) The sauté is then added to the mixture of the rice and the sausage. Salt and pepper and hickory nuts are then added.
5.) Mix together well then stuff you chicken or turkey with these mixture.
Remember: To make these stuffing more interesting, add mushrooms, about 1 cup sliced and/ or 1 cup diced wild apples and cranberries.

Wild rice hickory nut salad

There are many ways to savor the combination of hickory nuts and wild rice, and this seems to be another amazing way.

Ingredients
The main ingredients are 1 cup of wild rice and 1 cup of long- grain brown or white rice. Another main ingredient is 1 cup of Hickory nuts. Alternatively black Walnuts can be used with this recipe. Other ingredients are:
6 scallions, minced
2 cups of diced apples
2 cups of chickweed and other tender wild salad greens (or parsley)
6 Tbsp lemon juice
3 Tbsp olive oil
1 ½ tsp salt

Preparation
1.) The wild rice and brown or white rice are cooked in separate pans, until they are done.
Remember; Use ½ cups of water to 1 cup of dry wild rice and use 3 cups of water to 1 cup brown or white rice.
2.) Don’t stir while cooking or cooling. Make sure cooling is complete before mixing salad. This is to ensure the rice, does not become sticky or gummy.
3.) Add all of the ingredients not used, to the mixture in 2 and mix thoroughly.
4.) Chill and serve, or serve at room temperature.
Remember: This recipe can be adapted freely as long as the same amounts of olive oil, lemon juice and salt are used.

Hickory nuts with flour and baked

The remaining preparations all involve some sort of baking.

Hickory pie

Hickory nuts make an amazing wild version of the pecan pie, because they are closely related to pecans.

Ingredients
The main ingredient is 1 cup white flour. Other ingredients are:
3 eggs
1/3 cup butter or shortening
1/3 cup melted butter
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup dark corn syrup
1 teaspoon vanilla
2- 3 Tbsp cold water
1 tsp salt (½ tsp for the crust and a pinch for filling)

Preparation
Preparation involves, two stages, one is preparing the pie crust while the other is filling the piecrust.

Preparing the pie crust<
Flour, butter, ½ tsp of salt and the cold water are used here. To make the pie crust, quick and easy, make them in a food processor.
1.) Flour, butter and salt are put in the food processor.
2.) The food processor is turned on medium to high, until a course crumby mixture is formed.
3.) To this mixture, add 1 Tbsp of cold water at a time and blend until it forms into a lump. Care should be taken, not to add too much water.
4.) Roll out as for any pie crust.

Filling the pie crust
Eggs, sugar, dark corn syrup, vanilla, melted butter and a pinch of salt are used here.
1.) The pie crust is rolled out and lined in a 9- inch plate to form a pie shell.
2.) The brown sugar and eggs are beaten until thick.
3.) Corn syrup, vanilla, butter and salt are then stirred into the beaten eggs and brown sugar and mixed well.
4.) Stir in Hickory nuts.
5.) The mixture of 3 and 4 is then poured into the pie shell.
6.) Bake at 325 for 50 minutes or until filling barely jiggles when shaken lightly.
7.) The pie should be let to cool after which it is served.
Serving this pie with a dollop of whipped cream or ice cream makes it extra yummy.

Hickory nut pemmican

This recipe is 100 % free of any artificial sugars. It features only natural sugars which are the raisins of dried fruit. The texture of the hickory nut pemmican is just like that of the traditional pemmican. The traditional pemmican is a high- protein survival food made from nuts, berries and fats.

Ingredients
The main ingredients are 1 cup whole wheat flour, I cup rolled oats and 1 cup of hickory nuts. Other ingredients are:
1 ¼ cups of finely chopped ground raisins/dried apricots/figs or other dried fruit of choice
1/3 to ½ cup of water
½ tsp of salt
¼ cup oil

Preparations
1.) First the oven should be pre- heated to 325 degrees.
2.) The flour, oats, salt and oil are blended until they are evenly mixed.
3.) To this mixture, the ground dried fruit is added.
Remember: The dried fruits or raisins are grinded by use of a meat grinder. 3 cups of raisins will be needed to produce the 1 ¼ cup paste for this recipe.
4.) By use of hand add the hickory nuts and 1/3 to ½ cup water to the mixture in step 3. The larger amount of water i.e. ½ cup should only be used; when extremely necessary to make it all hold together.
5.) The result of the above processes is pressed down into a greased 8x 8 pan and cut into 16 squares before baking.
6.) Bake for 30 minutes. Make two hickory nut pemmican bars, each measuring 2 inches.

Hickory sandies

These are simply made from the tiny bits and pieces and hickory nut dusts found at the bottom of the jar. These cookies are fantastic; they are in fact a wild version of pecan sandies.

Ingredients
The main ingredient is small pieces of Hickory nuts, which can fill ¾ of a cup. Other ingredients are:
1 cup butter
½ cup powdered sugar
1 tsp vanilla
2 ¼ cup of flour
¼ tsp salt

Preparation
It’s ideal to prepare the Hickory sandies in a food processor, as it will be fast and efficient. However if there is no food processor, manual means will still suffice.
1.) Cream together the butter and sugar in a bowl or in a food processor.
2.) Hickory nuts pieces, flour and salt are then added and mixed until smooth dough is produced.
3.) The dough is then formed into 1- inch round balls and the balls, pressed flat into an ungreased cookie sheet.
Remember: cookies should be about 2 inches in diameter and ½ inch thick.
4.) Bake at 350 degrees for about 10- 12 minutes, until the edges turn to golden brown.
5.) Roll in powdered sugar while still warm. (This stage is optional.)
Alternatively these cookies can be baked as 1- inch balls, resembling the Russian tea cakes.

Hickory nuts with apples and Maple Hickory Granola

These two are superb combinations of hickory nuts and other ingredients. They offer amazing treats, with the Maple hickory apple crisp, guaranteed to stimulate one’s taste buds, because of its extra yummy taste.

Maple Hickory apple crisp

This is the most delicious apple crisp ever; it will leave you wanting more and more.

Ingredients
The main ingredient is 8 cup sliced apples (9 or 10 medium- sized apples.) Other ingredients are:
1 Tbsp lemon juice
1 tsp cinnamon
3 Tbsp flour
½ cup of water or apple juice

Ingredients for topping are:
a. 1 cup hickory nuts or chopped walnuts, if you don’t have hickory nuts.
b. 1 cup whole wheat flour
c. 1 cup rolled oats
d. 1 cup brown sugar
e. 1 cup butter
f. 2 tsp cinnamon
g. ¼ - ½ Maple syrup

Preparations
This involves first preparing the apple crisp then topping it.
Preparing the crisp
1.) The apples are peeled, cored and diced to form enough apples to make 8 cups.
2.) They are then tossed with lemon juice, cinnamon and flour.
3.) Then place in a 9 x 13 baking pan and add the ½ cup water or apple juice.
Topping The ingredients for topping listed far above are used here.
1.) The oats are chopped coarsely in a food processor or blender.
2.) Flour, sugar, cinnamon and nuts are then added. Whizzing is done, until they are all mixed together thoroughly.
3.) Then add butter and mix until it resembles coarse bread crumbs.
Remember: Filling may get too wet, resembling a paste. To solve this just spread the paste as evenly as you can.
4.) Spread topping evenly over the sliced apples.
5.) The maple syrup is drizzled over the topping.
6.) Bake at 375 degrees for 45 minutes.

Maple Hickory Granola

This granola can be made easily and cheaply at home. However the commercial granola’s are more expensive compared to the home made ones. With an appropriate recipe, just as the one below, expect to get something wonderful and super yummy from your precious hickory nuts.

Ingredients The main ingredients are 5 cups of oats (not instant oats) and 2 cups of hickory nuts. Other ingredients are:
1 cup wheat germ
1 cup coconut
1 cup sunflower seeds
½ cup cooking oil
1 cup maple syrup or honey

Preparation
1.) All the ingredients are mixed together so that the oats and nuts are well coated with the oil and maple syrup.
2.) The mixture is then spread in layers, measuring ½ inch thick on cookie sheets.
3.) Then bake in the oven, set at 350 degrees for 40 minutes. The granola has to be stirred at least every 10 minutes, so that it’s toasted evenly.
4.) When finished, the granola should nice with a crunchy golden- brown color.
The Granola should be allowed to cool thoroughly before being stored in air tight containers.
The hickory nut is the perfect ingredient for many great meals. It is used in baking amazing cookies, Apple crisps and Granola’s and in the preparation of various wild rice recipes.