Fresh Pistachios

Harefield Pistachio

Wanna learn a word in Farsi? Peste, which means Pistachio. I have never seen a pistachio tree in person. I think the picture above is so pretty.

I can honestly say that Pistachios are my favorite type of nuts. I have always loved them since childhood. Fortunately for those of us Persians, who have lived in Iran, we are familiar with Fresh Pistachio.  Everyone else is used to seeing pistachios in their hard shell and most of the time they are dried and roasted.

I have to be honest the pistachios in the picture above don’t particularly look good. The thing is that I saw them at our local Persian grocery store and I could not resist not buying them.  Usually, their soft outer shell is a combination of pink and white.

All you have to do is remove the soft outer shell. Then open the hard shell.  And then there it is the fresh and soft pistachio inside.

Here is something very cool that I just found out when I looked up Pistachio on Wikipedia just to see when they are in season usually.  This is truly awesome, I quote: ” The word pistachio is a loanword from Persian via Latin, and is a cognate to the Modern Persian word پسته Peste.”

PS. When you come across fresh pistachio where the hard shell is not open, please don’t try cracking them open with your teeth. You can cause some serious damage to your teeth. 🙂