I had a really creative dish at a local restaurant that was radishes that where dipped in butter and then rolled in hazelnuts that looked like dirt. Obviously it wasn't dirt but hazelnuts that had been ground up and then cooked some way to make it look like dirt.
Any ideas on how to replicate this?
Here is a pic
Dry roast the nuts in a pan or skillet until golden, keep them moving at all times. Let them cool completely on a paper towel. Grind them to the right particle size you need. Spread them thinly and evenly on an oven tray and bake at somewhere around 140-160C. You will likely end up with some parts a little burnt. Or do whole nuts in a coffee roaster.
I've tried with pumpernickel bread and had good result.
I toasted the bread to give it a more black color (and flavor), and also added some finely chopped black olive and some crushed sunflower seeds.
You'd get the same result (different taste) by using roasted nuts.
I ended up putting about a 1/3 cup of unsalted whole roasted Hazelnuts in a food processor and ground them up fine. Then I toasted them in a small frying pan stirring constantly until golden. Then I put them in a 9x9 baking pan in the oven for about 15 minutes at 300 degrees.
The result:
Crush the nuts first (for more surface area) and then dry toast them on a barely oiled cookie sheet. {jelly roll pan, actually}
I use a toaster oven for small batches (stirring them once or twice), since a handful of roasted/toasted nuts is often all I need. WATCH them carefully while toasting; burning yummy ingredients is a major sad! :-(
