by Tom Stobart
[Vitamin – French: vitamine German: Vitamin Italian: vitamina Spanish: vitamina]
VIZIGA, vesiga or vyaziga. See sturgeon.
VODKA means ‘little water’ and is derived from the early Russian shizenennya voda meaning ‘water of life’. In fact, it has the same sort of origin as whisky and aquavit in monkish medicine. lt is not sure whether vodka was first produced in Poland or Russia. Unlike the other great spirits, it does not aim to be flavoured by *congenerics coming over in the still. It is the purest of all spirits and consequently may be distilled equally from grain, potatoes, wine or any fermentable mash. Colour and lingering flavour may be removed by animal charcoal or by distillation to a high degree of purity. Flavourings can be added afterwards by both the maker and the cook. Before World War II, vodka was little drunk outside eastern Europe, but now its popularity rivals gin, and it is distilled in Britain, the US, and almost everywhere else where people like to drink. One of its attractions is that since it contains virtually no congenerics, you can sober up quicker and with less hangover from it than from any other drink.
A Polish friend of mine let me into the secret of his own home-made vodka. He took the best pure grape spirit distilled in Italy – some 95% pure – and cut it with an equal volume of water, adding to each bottle a level teaspoon of sugar, which soon dissolved in the water. He told me with some glee how some Polish visitors, vodka connoisseurs, had complained that the vodka he offered, the best brand obtainable and bought specially for them, was not fit to drink. Rather upset, he had gone into the kitchen, unearthed a very old empty bottle of some pre-war brand from a cupboard, rinsed it and filled it with his home-made brew. ‘Fabulous,’ they said. ‘That’s the real stuff.’ I don’t think anyone could have pulled the trick with whisky, brandy, rum or even gin. Vodka can be flavoured. A coil of lemon zest or a sprig of wormword put into the bottle and left a few days will give it taste and a most potent effect. Flavoured and fruit vodkas are sold. Vodka is much used instead of gin in cocktails and is used for its own sake in a Bloody Mary. As vodka is more or less flavourless, it is rarely used for flaming, but is the best thing to use when an alcoholic solvent is required (unless you are in a country where you can buy strong potable alcohol).With it, you can make your own essences by infusion, and you can use it as a spirit for preserving fruit provided that the vodka is strong and the fruit not too watery.
[Vodka – French: vodka German: Wodka Italian: vodka Spanish: vodka]
VYAZIGA, Viziga. See sturgeon.
w
WAFER. A thin, crisp biscuit, in many respects similar to a waffle (which comes essentially from the same word via the Dutch) but thinner and crisper. They really need to be baked in wafer-irons which are made especially for the purpose. The irons are heated on both sides, rubbed with a little butter, and then filled with a teaspoon of batter. They are then closed almost immediately and put back on the heat. When it is cooked on both sides, the wafer is immediately removed, sometimes curled round a wooden spoon handle while it is still flexible but often left flat. After being trimmed and allowed to cool and dry, wafers must be stored in a dry tin. The simplest wafer batter consists of only flour and water, but most contain sugar, egg and cream. Nowadays, most people buy wafers that have been made by machinery. There are recipes for making wafers in the oven, but these are more like biscuits or cookies.
[Wafer – French: pain à cacheter, oublie German: Waffel Italian: cialdo Spanish: barquillo]
WAKAME. See seaweed.
WALNUT (Fuglans regia) is misleadingly named the English walnut in the US to distinguish it from the native American species. The walnut tree is a native of south-eastern Europe and its range extends across west and central Asia into China. Although walnuts were important to the ancient Greeks and Romans, they are said not to have been established in Britain until the 15th century. The early colonists took them to plant in North America. Walnuts have also been introduced into Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and South America. They are an important crop in China, where the papershell varieties are mainly grown. The leading walnut country, however, is France, although it is fast being overtaken by the US. Nuts are produced particularly in the departments of Dordogne and Lot as well as in the valley of the Isere near Grenoble. In the past, walnuts were an essential food in some districts, not only as nuts but also for their oil, which was once as important as olive oil in French kitchens, but today it is too expensive for general use. Italy is another important producer, with nuts grown in small areas over the whole country. The bulk for export come from the south – around Naples, Sorrento and Benevento. Strangely, in Italian cooking, walnuts are more used in the North. In the US, there are huge orchards in California and Oregon.
Every country has its favoured varieties, which are propagated by grafting and have been selected for such qualities as size, ratio of meat to shell, texture, flavour and absence of astringency. Some varieties are very hard and difficult to crack, while others have thin, papery shells, but all need to have a tight seal between the halves for good keeping. There are also freaks such as the French noix noisette, with nuts no bigger than a hazel, delicately flavoured and full of oil, and the gigantic bijou, which was once polished and mounted in metal to make elegant cases for jewels or, more humbly, cradles for little dolls.
Walnut trees are self fertile, and the fruit are borne on the outer branches. Towards the end of September, or in early October, the husks split open and the fresh, ripe nuts fall to the ground. Help can be given by shaking the tree or beating it, and the nuts must be picked up almost daily as any left lying on the ground quickly become discoloured and mouldy. In some unfavourable years there are many ‘stick-tight’ nuts which cause problems by being separable from the husk only with difficulty. Walnuts are usually washed and then dried outdoors, but they must not be left in the hot sun for more than two hours at a time, as the heat may make them split open, and they will then not keep. Commercially produced walnuts are often bleached and dried artificially in a stream of warm air at a maximum of 43°C (110°F).
Green walnuts are made use of at all stages of ripeness. For pickling, the fruit is taken green and the shells not yet formed. They usually reach this stage in late June, and the fruit are tested by pushing a skewer right through them in several directions (the shell begins to form near the end away from the stalk). Nuts for pickle should not be too young, as they tend to disintegrate or go mushy, but of course they are no use once the shell has gone hard. In between, there is a short period when the walnuts are just right. Where the recipe calls for the husk to be skinned this may be done by scalding and rubbing the skin off with a rough cloth. Products made from the green nuts in Britain are walnut pickle, walnut ketchup, and walnut jam – in fact, the bulk of home grown walnuts go for pickle and are not allowed to mature. In France, a cordial, brou de noix, is made from green walnuts. In Italy the equivalent is nocino, a stomachic that is especially popular in Lombardy and is also used to flavour ice creams. When the husk is still green, but the kernels are properly formed, the nut can be extracted, peeled and preserved in syrup – as they are in the Middle East – or used to make cerneaux au verjus, the skinned immature kernel marinaded in *verjuice for an hour or so, then seasoned with pepper, chopped shallot and sometimes vinegar-Elizabeth David’s French Country Cooking (Grub Street) gives recipes.
Nocino
Cut about 30 green walnuts into quarters and put them in a large screw-top jar with a good sliver of lemon peel, a couple of small bits of cinnamon stick and half a dozen cloves. Cover with 1 It of 90% alcohol (or as strong as you can get it), put the lid on and leave the jar in the sun for a month, shaking it every day. At the end of this time, add 500 g (1 lb) sugar and leave for another two weeks in the sun, shaking the jar every day as before. Filter and bottle the nocino, which should be left for a year before using.
Pickled walnuts. Pickled, unripe walnuts are well known in England but not at all, or rarely. in the countries further south where the nuts are mainly produce
d. The fruit are often prepared for pickling by scalding and skinning, but Mrs Beeton suggests pricking the skins well with a silver fork. Such treatment allows the vinegar to penetrate and accelerates pickling. The walnuts must now be put in brine strong enough to float a fresh egg, which means 100-150 g per It (2-3 oz per pt) of salt. They are left submerged, weighted down under a board, for 6 days and are stirred at least once a day; then the brine is changed and the walnuts are left for a further week A total of 12-13 days salting is usual. After this, the fruit are drained, spread out in a single layer, and put in the sun (if there is any).They are left exposed and turned occasionally until they go black all over, a process which may take up to two days, depending on the conditions. Now the black fruits are packed into jars, covered with spiced vinegar, sealed and left for at least a month, but preferably several months, before using.
There are many formulae for making the vinegar, one of which is as follows. For each litre (2 pt) of vinegar add 1 small onion, 1 crushed clove of garlic, and 20 grams (¾ oz) each of bruised ginger, black pepper corns, cloves, allspice, cinnamon stick and mustard seed, plus a large blade of mace and 2 bay leaves. Bring to the boil, simmer for five minutes and allow to cool, preferably overnight. Strain the vinegar and cover walnuts with it. If hot vinegar is poured over the walnuts, they will take less time to mature but the results are marginally less good.
Ripe walnuts are sold whole or shelled and as ground or broken nut meat. When buying walnuts in the shell, look carefully to make sure that the seal between the halves of the shell is good -you should certainly not be able to pull the two halves of the shell apart. Without actually opening some nuts, it is impossible to tell if kernels have been over-dried. New walnuts, on the other hand, have sometimes been soaked in water to make them heavy and moist. They are good for immediate use but will not keep. Shelled nuts quickly go rancid – dark, bitter, stale kernels are an abomination and will spoil any dish they are put in.
New walnuts are very digestible, but the skin of the kernels is bitter and should be removed. In some varieties, it will easily peel off after a short soaking in cold water, but others may have first to be scalded for a few seconds in boiling water and then dropped into ice-water. Skinned, fresh walnuts are a great delicacy in the Middle East.
With time, after drying and maturing, walnuts become more oily and less easily digested, but the skin loses much of its bitterness. Even so, the skins should be removed for any delicate walnut dish. You can pour a kettle of boiling water over the kernels and take off the skins with your fingers as soon as the nuts are cool enough to handle. Alternatively, they may be put into a gentle oven until the skin becomes brittle and can be rubbed off with a cloth.
The best known use of walnuts is in sweets, cakes and ice-creams. Whole or chopped walnuts are now also commonly used in salads, as part of a garnish for stews and even as the main ingredient in walnut soup. They are excellent both for their flavour and to give texture when they are pounded or minced. From France there is sauce raifort aux noix, l’aillade toulousaine (walnuts pounded with garlic and stirred into an emulsion with olive oil), and sometimes they are used to make the traditional raïto of Provence. In Italy, walnuts are pounded with the pine nuts for pesto alla genovese and form the nut base of a pesto variant, the pasta alla fornala of Tuscany. Skinned walnuts pounded with soaked bread, a lot of parsley, salt, oil and a trace of garlic (½ clove to ½ kilo of nuts), diluted with cream or curdled milk, form the salsa di noci of Liguria. It is used on a local type of ravioli, which is stuffed with a cooked mixture of herbs such as Swiss chard, borage and wild chicory. A sauce from Piedmont uses pounded walnuts moistened with broth and mixed with mustard and honey as an accompaniment for a bollito misto (mixed boiled meats). In all cases, the walnuts are first peeled after blanching in boiling water.
Walnuts are grown in the Balkans, especially in Albania and Romania, Bulgaria has a sauce very similar to the Italian salsa di noci. Greece has a walnut sauce to use with hare. From Iran comes the superlative fesenjan in which lamb, duck or chicken has a sauce of pounded walnuts and sour fruit juice. Rather similar combinations are found in Kashmir.
Khoresh Fesenjan or Faisinjan
Koreshtha (the plural of khoresh) are Iranian dishes that are eaten with rice. They are something between a stew and a sauce and usually combine meat, nuts and fruit.
Chop a large onion and fry it gently in 1 tablespoon of butter till just soft, then add 500 g (1 lb) walnuts, skinned and ground fine. Mix them in, continue frying gently for 2 minutes, then add 500 ml (1 pt) of water and simmer gently for about 30 minutes.
Meanwhile finely chop a small onion and add it to 500 g (1 lb) finely minced lamb. Fry the mixture in as little fat as possible until the meat browns. Add it to the simmering walnut mixture, adding more water if necessary. Season with salt and pepper, and continue simmering for an hour. Now add 250 ml (½ pt) pomegranate juice and 200-250 g sugar (depending on the sourness of the juice) and continue to cook gently until the oil separates and comes to the surface. Make a final adjustment of seasoning with sugar or lemon juice, and serve with rice. As a substitute for pomegranate, the juice of sour cherries or even plums could be used, but the taste would not be quite the same.
Çerkes Tavugu (Circassian chicken)
There are many variations on this famous dish. lt may be served hot or more usually cold, and is highly recommended for a cold buffet. The quantity of sauce in the following recipe is sufficient to go with 2 kg (4½ lb) chicken, which has been cooked by being carefully simmered with flavouring vegetables in its stock and cut in suitable pieces, or boned and diced for a fork supper. Finely grind 150 g (5 oz) peeled walnuts and mix with 1 tablespoon paprika or pimentón. Pound or press a little to bring out some of the oil from the nuts. Use a cloth to squeeze out some of the red oil, which is kept aside for decoration. (Additional oil can be used for this, but it makes the dish a little too oily.) To the walnuts add about 150 g (5 oz) bread soaked in chicken stock. Pound together (or liquidize), adding more chicken stock to make a thick sauce. Season to taste. Mix half the sauce with the chicken, and spread the other half on top. Dribble red oil over the dish in a decorative pattern.
Walnut oil, which was once important in France, Switzerland and North Italy (Piedmont) for salads and cooking, is now becoming scarce as it is even more expensive than olive oil. It has a very individual taste and goes rancid rather easily.
American walnuts. There are a number of species of walnut found growing wild in North American forests, two of which have some gastronomic and commercial importance, and are also cultivated. Members of the walnut family and similar in many respects are the *hickories, including *pecan. The Black walnut (Fuglans nigra) has a large nut, but the shell is very hard and special crackers are necessary. The flavour is strong and is not lost in cooking. The White walnut or butternut (Fuglans cinerea) has a shell that cracks without difficulty, and the flavour is excellent.
[Walnut – French: noix German: Walnuss Italian: noce Spanish: nuez negal]
WARBLER. See birds.
WASHING SODA (N2CO3.10 H2O) is crystal-line sodium carbonate. In the past, it was used in every home as a cleaner, but its place has largely been taken by modern detergents. In Kashmir, my cook liked to put it in his tea (which it turned blood red), a local custom that I cannot recommend. Washing soda dissolved in water would produce the nearest thing to old fashioned *lye, which was mainly potassium carbonate, but it is more usual to use caustic soda as a substitute.
[Washing Soda – French: soude de commerce German: Bleichsoda Italian: soda per lavare Spanish: sosa para blanquear]
WATER (H2O). From the point of view of the hydrologist, there are various sources of water. Surface water, which runs off without sinking down into the ground, is unlikely to contain much in the way of minerals, but is likely to contain silt. It comes from lakes and rivers. Mountain water can be very pure but can also contain powdered rock, especially if it comes from melting glaciers. Such water looks milky and should
be stood to allow the particles to settle, as drinking it can irritate the intestine. Bog water, a practical rather than a scientific classification, usually comes from moorland areas where the rocks are impervious. It is sometimes brown with peat and may tend to be acid but contains very little dissolved mineral – it is very soft.
Water from underground has soaked down through porous rocks and become part of the water table. lt comes from wells, artesian wells and springs. Unless it has come from a limestone cave (when it may be a river that has flowed through tunnels from a pot hole in the hills above) or has flowed through fissures, it is likely to be bacteriologically pure but will contain dissolved minerals. The nature and quantity of these minerals depends on the rocks through which the water has passed. Soft water is very good for washing and cooking, for making tea and whisky – it is good in whisky too – but may not be quite as healthy as hard water, which contains dissolved minerals. Statistical studies have shown heart disease to be more prevalent in areas with soft water than in those with hard water. The reason is not understood at the moment and may have no direct causal connection with the water itself but might, for instance, possibly be due to the fact that soft water dissolves lead from lead pipes, which should not be used for it.
Distilled water is the ultimate in soft water, as it has nothing at all dissolved in it. Apart from its flat taste, one Italian professoressa has written that it is damaging, a ‘true poison’, because in the long term it dissolves and removes essential minerals from the body. The point is purely academic, because most people meet distilled water only as something to put into car batteries and steam irons. (For such purposes, the water distilled in the refrigerator when moisture condenses to ice around the freezer compartment can be saved when the refrigerator is defrosted). Distilled water makes very good tea, especially cold tea which never goes cloudy on standing; there is no harm in using it for this.