Walnut Orgeat

About this syrup

Tuyserkan, in the hills of Hamadan, is walnut country: nine households in ten live from the orchards, and the FAO lists the valley’s traditional walnut system as world agricultural heritage. The Zagros eats walnuts with everything, from fesenjan to a torn sheet of lavash with cheese and herbs. This orgeat is that flavour as a syrup: toasted, creamy, with the pleasant bitterness of the skin.

How to make it

1. Toast the walnuts on a tray at 160 °C for 6–7 minutes, until fragrant but not dark. Cool.
2. Blend with the water for a minute, then rest for an hour.
3. Squeeze through a cloth or nut-milk bag; discard the pulp.
4. Warm the walnut milk gently with the sugar, stirring, until dissolved. Do not boil.
5. Cool, add the orange-blossom water, bottle and refrigerate.

Yield and storage

• About 350 ml.
• Refrigerate up to 2 weeks. Shake before use; it separates.

Tips and troubleshooting

• Fresh walnuts only; old walnuts taste of paint. Keep them in the freezer.
• For a cleaner, less bitter syrup, soak the toasted walnuts 10 minutes in boiling water and rub off some skins before blending.
• It goes well with grape molasses, coffee, bourbon and dates.

Different concepts of this syrup

1. Classic walnut orgeat

The recipe above.

2. Walnut and cardamom

Add 3 cracked cardamom pods while warming the sugar.

3. Walnut and shireh

See the grape molasses page: the two together are the Zagros winter table.

4. Beyond cocktails

In coffee, or over ice with milk as a walnut sharbat.

Allergen note

Contains tree nuts (walnut).

Development notes

• Status: draft recipe, not yet taste-tested.
• First proposed formula; measure your own yield and adjust.