Almonds are forever

It can be easier getting hold of the nuts that go with bolts – tuercas – than the things that give squirrels a buzz.  That’s because a dictionary insists on translating a nut as una nuez even though as far as Spanish is concerned this is a walnut. 

That’s a bit of a let-down where you’re hoping for almonds – almendras or hazelnuts – avellanas.  Cashews are anacardos, brazil nuts are coquitos de Brasil and pine kernels are piñónes while humble peanuts are cacahuetes.  They might all be nuts, but they’re not certainly not all nueces.

A man’s Adam’s apple is known as la nuez by the Spanish who presumably believe a walnut stuck in his throat, not Eve’s apple.  In the kitchen a nutmeg is una nuez moscada and a biggish knob of butter is una nuez de mantequilla but una avellana de mantequilla if it’s on the small side.

A nutcracker is un cascanueces but when a boat is called una cáscara de nuez it means it is frail or unseaworthy.  Walnuts are the noisiest of all nuts to crack, which accounts for mucho ruido y pocas nueces, a scornful saying that boils down to more noise than nuts.  It corresponds to much ado about nothing or even, depending on the circumstances and the person involved, all mouth and no trousers. 

Nuts are regarded as frutos secos, a heading that includes pipas – sunflower seeds as well as torrados – gypsum-coated chickpeas and kikos – toasted corn kernels, which are hard, salty and moreish.   Reminders of frugal times when they were cheaper and more obtainable than sweets or chocolate, they are popular for grazing but deemed slightly uncouth by those who care about that sort of thing.

Translated word for word, frutos secos gives you dried fruit and as you’d expect, this includes dates – dátiles; figs – higos; apricots – orejones; raisins – pasas and currants – pasas de Corinto or prunes, which are ciruelas pasas.

You can buy candied peel in little imported packets at supermarkets but you’ll usually find fruta glaseada or crystallised fruit where frutos secos are sold.  And for the sake of your tastebuds, be aware that una guinda is a glace cherry but una guindilla is a red hot chilli pepper.



Early spring in Cap Negret (Altea)

 It’s curious that the Spanish word for nuts should be walnuts when more of the countryside is planted with almond trees – almendros and snowdrifts of almond blossom – flor de almendo turn early spring into a set for a Thirties’ musical.

Many almond groves are overgrown now, their owners waiting to sell them as building land, until recently the fastest track to prosperity. The trees cost more to tend than the almonds fetch and it is cheaper to import them even though Spain’s native marcona variety are the sweetest and juiciest you’ll ever taste.

In Altea at least, crops are increasingly left ungathered but the untended trees blossom bravely year after year, a reminder that the property market booms and busts, but almonds are forever.