Two Pounds of Pecans

Hello and welcome to my blog! It's a snow day here in beautiful Baltimore, and so I decided to start this thing. I'm pretty sure this "snow" would be called "rain" anywhere else, but I will take advantage of this extra day off! My wonderful husband and I recently joined a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) - which basically means we bought a (tiny) share of a farm. Starting in June, we will be getting a random assortment of crops each week. This blog was started to document our adventures cooking loads of radishes, squash, etc., but I couldn't wait until the summer to start posting!

Recently, my lovely parents (Hi Mom and Dad!) spent some time in Georgia, and they brought us back a big bag of pecans. What do you do with two pounds of pecans? Any suggestions? I am trying to figure out what to make besides pecan pie. So far, the only thing that has been made is:

Pecan Crusted Salmon

(or..a first attempt at cooking with pecans)

Ingredients:

• 1 lb salmon
• 1/2 lb pecans (in the shell) - approximately 8-12 pecans
• 1 Tablespoon brown sugar
• 1 egg

Directions:

1.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Beat the egg and set aside. Place salmon on baking sheet.

2. Shell your pecans - not sure the most effective way to do this, but I used a can opener to crack the small diameter of the shell. Then, I picked off the shell and tried to get the entire pecan out. Maybe a nutcracker would be more helpful next time?

3. Place pecans in food processor and grind until it resembles breadcrumbs. Be careful not to over process, as you will end up with pecan butter!

4. Mix pecans with brown sugar. Use egg wash to lightly coat the salmon, and then cover with pecan/sugar mixture.

5. Cook salmon in oven until done - roughly 25-30 minutes. Enjoy!

Serves: 2 

Total Time: 40 minutes (10 minute prep)

The finished product - served with a side of roasted parsnips and sweet potato!

We really enjoyed this dish - it was easy to make and very delicious! The brown sugar and pecans gave the salmon a nice crunch and a slightly sweet taste. I had never cooked with fresh pecans before, and I am looking forward to the next recipe! Only 1.5 pounds of pecans left!

The aftermath of shelling the pecans...time to invest in a nutcracker?