How to Make Traditional Hickory Nut Milk (Kanuchi)
Traditional hickory nut milk made from ground, whole hickory nuts and water. Try it with a little maple syrup and a pinch of cinnamon. Makes about 3 ½ cups.
Crack each nut individually, inspect for (and discarding) any that smell off, are hollow, or have dark interiors. Take the cracked nuts and put them in a high-speed blender and process into a coarse meal—it will be loud. Add the nut mash to the water and bring to a simmer, stirring occasionally.
When the pan starts to simmer, a raft of frothy nut cream will form on the top. Virtually all of the shell particles sink, but inevitably some will be caught in the foamy cream, so I like to spoon this off and add it to the “second wash” for extra flavor, and to remove nut shells from the finished milk.
After you’ve skimmed the foam, let the mixture simmer for another 15 minutes or so, then turn off the heat, wait a few seconds to let the larger shell pieces fall to the bottom, and start ladling off nut milk.
There’s a real art to ladling off the milk; you want to wait just long enough to let the large shell pieces settle, but not so long all the nut meats go with them.
Gently swirl the pan a bit, and you’ll get the hang of it. Eventually you’ll need to tilt the pan to continue scooping off nut milk, but don’t try to get it all or you’ll get shell particles.
Season the finished nut milk with maple syrup to taste and a tiny pinch of cinnamon.
Save the remaining nut meats and milk to make the second wash—a weaker nut milk that’s perfect for cooking rice or, polenta, or as the base of a soup, since it’s not thick like the first milk. Squirrel soup cooked with nut milk is delicious, and makes me chuckle.