Nice nuts!
I’ve posted a version of this recipe before that uses walnuts, and it was good. Walnuts, for this recipe, are a little less fussy, but I’ve made a few changes; first, in how I can now quickly and easily blanch the pecans for that short, fifteen seconds, and second (and mebbe more importantly) – this spice blend is much more better!
It all started with a salad… a spinach, strawberry salad with red onion and lemon-poppyseed dressing, to be precise.
Rich loves this salad, but…
He thought it needed nuts.
*nuts*
By happy coincidence, I had a bag of raw pecans in the basket on top of teh fridge, and an idea of changing that spice blend. This is what I’ve come up with:
INGREDIENTS
•1/2 cup confectioners’ sugar
•1/2 tsp Aleppo pepper*
•1/2 tsp seasoned salt
•1/2 tsp paprika
•2 cups pecans
*I think the Aleppo pepper is key to this blend; slightly spicy and smoky at the same time, it balances the sweet of the sugar and the salt and paprika nicely. Visit your local spice merchant, or order online here.
Heat oven to 350°.
Whisk the confectioners’ sugar together with the seasonings in a large bowl.
Bring water to boiling over high heat in a large, flat skillet or other wide, flat bottomed pot.
Place the pecans in a large wire sieve, then blanch in the boiling water for 15 seconds. If using walnuts, leave them in for three minutes.
Drain the nuts and then, using a fork, immediately toss in the spice mixture until the sugar has melted into a glaze and all of the nuts are nicely coated.
Arrange the nuts in a single layer on a parchment paper lined baking sheet and bake for about fifteen minutes until golden brown, turning after the first seven minutes.
Keep an eye on the pan toward the end of the baking time, they can go from perfect to burned very quickly.
Remove from the oven and let cool completely.
I store mine in a zipper bag in the fridge, where they are as handy for sprinkling on that salad as they are to pour into a serving bowl to serve as a munchie.