It's the Nuts

I had the opportunity to test some of Fisher Nuts Culinary Touch Add-ins and Toppings and Fusion Snack Mixes. As soon as I popped open the first bag I knew I was working with a quality product, the aroma was great. I have had problems recently with walnuts from other vendors which smell old and slightly rancid when you open the bag. So I was pleased by the wholesome, fresh aroma.

I added 1/2 a cup of Fisher Culinary Touch Pecan, Cranberry, and Orange blend to give a new twist to the my favorite banana bread recipe. The additional fruit and nuts really gave the bread a wonderful range of flavors. Each bite was a surprise.

I used the rest of the bag as topping for a green salad tossing it all together with extra virgin olive oil and Lucini 10-year Gran Riserva Balsamico vinegar. Again, it was like a symphony for the tongue - a hint of orange here, a bit of tart cranberry there, then the satisfying texture of the pecans.

About that time, we where throwing a big gumbo party fundraiser for our "Ma Louisianne" project and I used the Fisher unsalted cashews as the protein in a vegan gumbo. (The recipe is posted below.) I added the nuts at the end of the cooking so they wouldn't become too mushy. They gave the gumbo an incredibly rich flavor. Chef Melissa Graham of Monogram Events, one of our guests that night, said it was her favorite gumbo out of the 4 selections. She thought I had added cashew butter but it was just the lovely cashews themselves.

The Fisher Fusions snack mixes were a bit too sweet for me. The Ice Cream Sundae mix was especially sweet. If you read the ingredients, all of the fruit was sweetened: pineapple, banana and strawberries. Those were then mixed with marshmallows and chocolate covered peanuts. Whoa! I'll stick to the nuts.

The great thing about the Fisher Culinary Touch bags is that they are small enough to put in ones' bag for a healthy snack on the go. I'd like to see Fisher go even further and make smaller size snack bags of their nut mixtures as an alternative to candy.