Sweetly cooked green walnuts – light version

Ingredients for 1 servings:

• 2 kg walnuts, unripe
• 2 kg sugar
• Cinnamon
• Carnation(s)
• Cardamom, to taste

Instructions

Working time approx. 2 hours; Total time approx. 2 hours

something exotic

Green walnuts are used, which should be picked by mid-June at the latest, before they develop hard shells. The nuts must be shelled down to the white inside – meaning the green shell must be completely removed. I must warn you that peeling them will cause blackened fingers – I got this despite wearing rubber gloves, and the discoloration lasted for 1-2 weeks. The only way to remove this discoloration is to exfoliate vigorously with coarse salt – but I didn’t try it, as my fingers slowly returned to their normal color after 2 weeks. So, immediately place the shelled nuts in a 0.3% tartaric acid solution (3 grams of tartaric acid (about 1 level teaspoon) for 1 liter of water). The walnuts must remain in the tartaric acid solution for a total of 14 hours, changing the solution every 3-4 hours. This prevents the nuts from turning black. Then blanch for 15 minutes in a 0.3% solution (freshly prepared). Place in a sieve, rinse thoroughly with cold water, and dry slightly. Pierce each nut 10-15 times with a toothpick. Make the sugar syrup: for 1 kg of prepared (shelled) nuts, use 200 ml of water + 1 kg of sugar. Bring the mixture to a boil, stirring constantly (the sugar must dissolve). Pour hot sugar syrup over the nuts and boil three times for 10-15 minutes each (with a 6-8 hour break between boils). Before the final boil, place a gauze bag containing spices (cinnamon, cloves, cardamom to taste) or a little tartaric acid into the pot. If you feel the syrup is too concentrated, you can dilute it with a little cooking water—but not too much—and bring it back to a boil. While the nuts are still warm, pour into clean jars and let cool.