Friday, December 28, 2007

Food Entry One: These nuts, I made 'em.


Balsamic Glazed Pecans

Every year, since I became obsessed with the idea of sweet and spicy combined, my family has requested I make some sort of dressed-up appetizer nuts. My mother prefers pecans, so pecans it is. This year I did my normal sweet-and-spicy recipe (photo below) but also adapted Coconut and Lime's recipe for Balsamic Glazed Almonds. These were pretty tasty, but also turned out a little stickier-- almost too sticky to handle, even after letting them sit overnight. I served them with little olive tongs, and that seemed to work out pretty well.

My recipe for sweet and spicy nuts keeps getting better every year, however. It worked out great, and was a hit. The best part is if you have leftovers, you can throw them on a salad or in a pasta dish. I am mainly pesce, though I eat very little fish, and try to eat as much vegan food as possible, so it's additionally great that both recipes are vegan snacks with lots of richness and flavor. However, please remember to check your labels and use as much local and organic product as you can. This recipe is free form, so please feel free to substitute, play, or alter. Let me know if you come up with something different!


Sweet and Spicy Pecans
Recipe by Jilian Oder last updated 12/24/2007

Ingredients:
2 Cups pecans
1/4 Cup Maple Syrup
2 Tablespoons Oil (Canola, Vegetable, Olive, all fine)
1/2 Cup Brown Sugar
Salt, Pepper, Chili Powder, Vanilla Extract, Tobasco sauce
(or any other sweet or spicy flavoring you have around).

Equipment:

Parchment Paper
Baking sheet
Bowl
Rubber Spatula
Oven

  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
  2. Mix all ingredients together, toss to coat.
  3. Line baking sheet with parchment paper.
  4. Spread nut mixture as evenly ass possible on lined baking sheet with the help of the rubber spatula.
  5. Bake, stirring every 5 minutes, until liquid has disappeared and everything looks brown and crispy.



That's it! Serve in a pretty bowl or put in gift bags for friends or family!


Sweet and Spicy Pecans


Hope you enjoy these, much more to come as I've got sort of a holiday food backlog.



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