The pinhão is a pine nut that comes from the Paraná Pine or the Brazilian pine tree. These trees are native to Brazil but are critically endangered due to logging and agriculture. I was lucky to be visiting Campos de Jordão for a classical music festival and saw an abundance of these beautiful trees. It’s is a stable food source and very important for Brazil’s small population of natives. There were a lot of stands in the street that were selling these pinhãos.

At first I didn’t know what they were but decided to buy a bag and bring home to try to eat. They’re really difficult to open up but I managed. The nuts inside are whiteish in color and they’re surprising sweet when eaten raw.

Best prepared after they been pressure cooked for about 40 minutes (or boil for about 2 hours+ until the shell is soft). You’ll have to use a garlic crusher or some scissors to remove each individual one from the shell.

I couldn’t find any directions (that I understand) on how to cook them, luckily the dude selling them tried to explain to us how to cook them in dumbed-down Portuguese/Spanish for me. You can eat them as soon as you take them out of the shell of or there’s many other recipes you can try with them here (in Portuguese).