Food: Use delicious walnuts in the pastry of a cheese tart, in a mustard dressing or in a meringue

All around mainland Europe fresh walnuts are to be found, heaped high on stalls at produce markets. Nothing in the nut world tastes as good. And an added plus-point about walnuts, at any time of the year, is that they, above all other types of nut, (almonds come a close second) are extremely good for us, so we should eat them every day.

Walnuts are incredibly versatile, enhancing such a wide variety of foods and flavours that this is easy. For instance, a piece of cheese, eaten with a teaspoon of honey and a handful of walnuts, makes the most delicious snack on the run. Accompanied by a couple of oatcakes and a bowl of soup, this becomes a feast, albeit a very simple one but nonetheless, utterly satisfying in every way.

Walnuts are every bit as useful in savoury dishes as in sweet. They can be bashed into crumbs – in a tough poly bag with a rolling pin – and mixed with oatmeal, then fried in butter with demerara sugar and this mixture spooned over stewed fruit, then baked, to give a crumble which is far more delicious than the more usual flour-based crumble.

All walnuts, when bought in packets, ready shelled, benefit from being dry-fried (with no oil or butter), shaking the sauté pan over a moderately high heat for several minutes, to refresh their flavour.

Cheese tart with walnut pastry

SERVES 6

4oz/110g butter, hard from the fridge and cut into bits

5oz/140g plain flour

1 level teaspoon salt, about 15 grinds of black pepper

1 level tablespoon icing sugar

3oz/85g walnuts

Put the bits of butter, the flour, salt, pepper and icing sugar into a food processor and whiz to fine crumbs. Then add the walnuts and whiz briefly, to break them up but not to pulverise them. Press this mixture firmly over the base and up the sides of a flan dish measuring 9in/22cm in diameter.

Put this into the fridge for at least an hour, then bake straight from the fridge into a moderate heat, 180C/350F/Gas Mark 4, for about 20 minutes – the pastry will slip down the sides of the dish, but, with a metal spoon, scrape the pastry back into place and bake for a further few minutes. Then cool the pastry.

For the filling

2 large eggs beaten with 2 large egg yolks

½ pint/285ml single cream

6oz/170g cheese of your choice – this can be grated cheddar, (I use Isle of Mull cheddar), or it can be a soft brie-type of cheese, sliced into thin strips, rind and all, or a blue cheese, cut or crumbled

a grating of nutmeg, about 20 grinds of black pepper – the cheese will provide sufficient saltiness

Cover the base of the cooked and cooled pastry with the cheese. Mix the nutmeg and black pepper into the beaten eggs and yolks, and mix in the single cream. Pour this over the cheese, and bake in the same moderate heat as for the pastry, until, when you gently shake the tart case, the centre (the last part to set) barely wobbles. This should take about 25-30 minutes.

Take the tart from the oven and cool, and serve just warm, with a mustardy-vinaigrette dressed salad.

Pear, watercress and celery salad with walnut and mustard dressing

This makes a first course before a more filling main course at a lunch or supper.

SERVES 6

6 ripe pears, each peeled – easiest done using a potato peeler, halved and cores scooped out with a small teaspoon, and each pear half brushed with lemon juice

3oz/85g watercress, torn into bits

6 sticks of celery, washed and trimmed and sliced on the diagonal into bits just less than ½ in/1cm in size

For the dressing

6 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

3 teaspoons lemon juice

1 teaspoon salt, about 15 grinds of black pepper

2 teaspoons Dijon mustard

3oz/85g chopped walnuts, dry fried for several minutes to refresh their flavour and slightly toast them

1 rounded tablespoon finely chopped parsley and finely snipped chives

Divide the chopped watercress evenly between six plates. Put the lemon juice brushed pear halves, two on each plate. In a jug mix together the dressing ingredients thoroughly, then spoon them, even in amount, over each pear half on each plate.

Walnut meringues

These meringues are delicious served with an accompanying fruit compote, such as plums stewed with red wine and cinnamon.

MAKES 12, SERVING 6 PEOPLE

4 large egg whites and a pinch of salt

4oz/110g granulated sugar

4oz/110g demerara sugar

3oz/85g chopped and dry fried walnuts

¾ pint/450ml double cream, whipped quite stiffly, to sandwich together the meringue halves

Whisk the egg whites and the pinch of salt till fairly stiff, then, whisking all the time, add the combined sugars, a spoonful at a time. Quickly fold the chopped walnuts through the stiff meringue. When all the sugar and chopped cooled walnuts are incorporated, either spoon the meringue mixture in even-sized blobs onto a baking parchment-lined baking tray, or, and much easier, fill a disposable piping bag, having cut off the pointed end leaving about a 1½ in/3.5cm opening – no need for a nozzle – and pipe even-sized meringues onto the baking parchment.

Bake in a low temperature oven, 100C/250F/Gas Mark 2 for 1½ - 2 hours, or until you can lift the meringues off the parchment. Cool. Store in an airtight container till required – these can be made up to a week before eating. Sandwich the meringues together with the whipped double cream.