Roasted Mexican Almonds
I was not raised to consume many dry fruits growing up. My mother still treats dry fruits and nuts with a lot f respect, they are meant to be used for special occasions. So you can easily find a lot of nuts in a basic sheera recipe to the regal biryani recipes. However munching on nuts as evening snack was unheard of...the side of the this spectrum is my post marriage family...My MIL feeds all and sundry with nuts. From the Gods to the guests everyone can munch freely on nuts as much as you like. Her range of nuts are almonds, cashews and raisins..She is not fond of making very heavy on tummy food recipes barring a few sweets which do not necessarily need any cashews or almonds - the popular nuts in Indian sweets.
This also reflects in our kitchen, while I am always picking small packets of expensive nuts and preserve them like gold in the farthest corner of my refrigerator to use only for special meals, my DH goes on buying this in kilos.
Roasting nuts for snacks is a mid path we found to deal with this ...While there is no great recipe to share as we keep playing with various flavors both Indian and non Indian but as part of my JTTC research, I came across this idea when I saw various beverages accompanied with nuts.
I played with some flavors that I associate with Mexico or say latin america...boy was it good? I am completely hooked
Ingredients
2 cups Almonds or cashews or pecans whatever you like
1 tbsp Olive Oil
2 tbsp brown sugar
1 tspn chilly powder
1 /2 tspn cocoa powder
1 tspn lemon juice
1 tspn black pepper
1 pinch of allspice powder
salt to taste
Method
1) In a bowl, mix the almonds with all the other ingredients. Let it seat for 10 min
2) Roast this in a preheated oven at 180 c for 10-12 min. Keep checking and shaking them after every 3-4 min. You can also roast them in a pan.
3) Let it stand. At this point, you can add a little more sugar if you want some crunch on the top. I avoided this..
This also reflects in our kitchen, while I am always picking small packets of expensive nuts and preserve them like gold in the farthest corner of my refrigerator to use only for special meals, my DH goes on buying this in kilos.
Roasting nuts for snacks is a mid path we found to deal with this ...While there is no great recipe to share as we keep playing with various flavors both Indian and non Indian but as part of my JTTC research, I came across this idea when I saw various beverages accompanied with nuts.
I played with some flavors that I associate with Mexico or say latin america...boy was it good? I am completely hooked
Ingredients
2 cups Almonds or cashews or pecans whatever you like
1 tbsp Olive Oil
2 tbsp brown sugar
1 tspn chilly powder
1 /2 tspn cocoa powder
1 tspn lemon juice
1 tspn black pepper
1 pinch of allspice powder
salt to taste
Method
1) In a bowl, mix the almonds with all the other ingredients. Let it seat for 10 min
2) Roast this in a preheated oven at 180 c for 10-12 min. Keep checking and shaking them after every 3-4 min. You can also roast them in a pan.
3) Let it stand. At this point, you can add a little more sugar if you want some crunch on the top. I avoided this..
Comments
I guess most of our mothers in India are like yours when it comes to stocking dry fruits. Here in U.S. buying nuts in pounds is so common that my daughter snacks on them as if it is her meal.
Those roasted almonds sound delicious -- may be I should try them for my husband.