For dinner tonight, I made Rick Bayless’s trout with macadamia nuts, which I’ve been meaning to try for a while. It was great. I’ve hardly ever made a Bayless dish that wasn’t at least pretty good. While I ate, I thought about two things:
1. Is there anything that doesn’t taste better with a ton of lime juice? It’s like the bacon of fruit.
2. Why don’t food people talk about macadamias much? Is it because they overdosed on mediocre chocolate-covered ones on a trip to Hawaii? I think they’re every bit as good as almonds or walnuts, albeit not as good as pecans or hazelnuts. Come to think of it, I also love Brazil nuts. I have never, ever seen a recipe calling for Brazil nuts.
I ask, Food Network answers:
**edit:** I forgot to mention that Iris, upon seeing the trout fillet with chopped macadmias, serranos, and cilantro, said, “Wow, that fish looks like you’re going out somewhere.”
“It’s like the bacon of fruit.”
aaaaand now i know what my next embroidery project will be! thx, mamster! (wanders off to google-images limes…)
The raw food use macadamia nuts and brazil nuts (cashews too) to make “cheeze” (which kind of has the texture of cream cheese mixed with hummus).
One of the BEST RECIPES EVER was a chocolate cabernet tart in a macadamia crust. From Chocolatier magazine in the mid 90s. MMMmmmmmm… The only downside: I fed it to a friend prone to migraines, and only then did we realize that nuts, red wine, and chocolate will each help bring one on, let alone all three ingredients in concert. Now I call it Migraine Tart. Still good though.
You can also do one with macadamia nuts, nutritional yeast, and red peppers. This gets dehydrated and then becomes Kraft Macaroni and Cheese powder flavored (uncanny valley style, yo).
i looooove macadamia nuts. my guess the reason they aren’t called for much is ’cause they are ridiculously expensive usually. on par with pine nuts. at least here in the midwest.
Yep–I’m sure the price is going to be a factor for many people. I live in Hawaii and the price is still high.