spicy
green
almonds

Although green almonds are spread across multitudinous cuisines for some reason, even though almonds are widely grown in Australia I haven’t found any Australian culinary references.

The Spicy Green Almonds are referenced to India, but they are especially celebrated in the Middle Eastern and Afghani kitchens. Curiously it has not been until recent cookbook publications that dishes using green almonds have rated a mention. To check on this I went back to my earliest Middle Eastern cookbook, ‘The New Book of Middle Eastern Food’, by Claudia Roden, first published in 1968, my edition 1976 to check and found no mention. That led me to go through several other regarded cookbooks including Roden’s ‘The Book of Jewish Food’ and several others including ‘Medieval Cuisine of the Islamic World’. There is an index mention in my favourite Syrian cookbook ‘Scents and Flavours, a Syrian Cookbook‘ however it does not coincide with the index and I am still searching. Surprisingly, even Australian Gourmet Traveller doesn’t have a recipe for green almonds.

My friend Diana Hetzel, an amazing cook and so very widely read offered this book ‘Food of Life, Ancient Persian and Modern Iranian, Cooking and Ceremonies’ by Najmieh Batmanglij. There is a very interesting sounding dish with green almonds and lamb, we both think worthy of further investigation.