Acorn Crackers - August 16

Today we spent nearly the entire day preparing for the Annual Chef Cook-Off.  Yes, two hippie foragers pretending to be chefs.  A week or so ago, Andre sent a message to the festival organizers offering our volunteer services.  We were willing to participate in any way, hoping not just to “forage” a free ticket, but also to serve an active role in the festival we both really support.  They asked if we wanted to be in the cook-off, which sounded like fun to me.  Andre wasn’t too interested, so I asked Nico, a dear friend, an amazing cook, and I knew that combining our skills in the kitchen and love for cooking would make for a fabulous, possibly award-winning meal.  As time passed, Andre became more excited about participating, so we started trying to come up with ideas for what we’d make.

We’ve been wanting try using acorns, and I’ve been wanting to get them out of Butter… she’s been hauling them around all over the country since we left LA, but processing them has been a bit of a psychological barrier.  It seemed like so much work, but this competition served as the perfect opportunity.  On first though, I considered acorn polenta, something creamy and warm to top with sautéed mushrooms, a hearty fall dish.  On second thought, plates and plastic silverware would be required, something we both opposed.  No waste.  Finger food.  Crackers. I’ve made them plenty of times before, so I knew generally how to do it even with the acorns.  We’d top them with pate, my mushroom specialty.  Everyone loves it, not just Andre, but he loves it, too. 

We started by cracking open the acorns and removing them from their shells.  Leaving them whole, we filled mesh bags with the nuts and soaked the in the campground creek overnight.  In the morning, though, they were still a little bitter. So we put them into the pots we’d brought, filled them with water, and boiled them gently—being sure to leave the acorns whole so as not to remove all of the starches.  As the water became a tea-like color, we changed it and boiled again.  I think we repeated this process about 3-4 times.  Because we’ve read that the skins are a bit of an issue on this variety, I decided to spend a little time skinning them.  It was a meditative process, touching each nut individually, gently rubbing off the red skin, while at the same time oiling my fingers in the cool water.  Andre had a faster method, of course, Swiss efficiency, which involved simply grabbing a handful and rubbing the nuts together in his hands.  His weren’t quite as clean as mine, but there really is no need to remove the entire skin unless you’re a little on the obsessive side… it becomes addictive handling all those beautiful blond acorns. The last step involved grinding.  We took the leached and skinned nuts into the bathroom (it was the only place with an electrical outlet), and ground them in the food processor. The result was a delicious course meal, not quite flour consistency, perhaps even a bit more coarse than polenta, but perfect for crunchy crackers!

The evening was spent baking, and making videos of the process.  We mixed about 3 cups of acorn meal to 1 cup of flour (rescued, of course), with about ½ cup of flaxseed oil (also rescued) and a pinch of salt.  Stirred, shaped, rolled, cut, baked.  Yum.  Special thanks to our generous friends, Hayden and Mandee, at the Viking Lodge for letting us use your kitchenette!  We still had time to attend the opening ceremony!