So I've been on a new eating plan lately... lean meats and green veggies at night. Low carb small meals or snacks during the day. This lends itself to 2 things: using the Weber a lot more for smaller cooks (pork chops, chicken breasts, steaks, etc,) and needing healthy snacks during the day. Almonds are my go-to mid day snack. A small handful will generally divert my hunger pangs and cravings for snacky foods. But the canned smoked almonds that I love so much are almost more sodium than almond. So I decided to make my own. I also love the wasabi soy flavored almonds. Maybe too much. Also too much sodium.
A couple days ago, after cooking some boneless pork chops, I still had some coals left and had just bought some roasted (unsalted) almonds that I had yet to dress up. These almonds turned out well. Ingredients were not measured exactly.
Take one pound of roasted, unsalted almonds and dump them in a bowl. Drizzle 1 TBSP peanut or olive oil over the nuts, try to spread it out as evenly as possible. Sprinkle the following over the nuts:
1 teaspoon chinese 5 spice (would use more next time, but a little bit of this goes a LONG way and I didn't want to overdo it.)
2 teaspoons garlic salt
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
2 tbs soy sauce
Mix thoroughly. Lay the nuts out on a cookie sheet, and put in the weber at about 275 until the coals burn out, which was about 2 hours. I used hickory. Turned out really tasty but not as bold as I hoped. Great smoke flavor, though. Next time, I'll skip the 5 spice and cayenne and try to find some wasabi powder, and use more soy sauce.
Last night, I found myself with some roasted, unsalted cashews and the desire for a counterpoint to the slight asian zing of the almonds, so I went for chili spice. It's not really a counterpoint... more of a harmony. A counterpoint would be something sweet, I guess. Same setup, but slightly less oil as the almonds, as cashews are already more oily than almonds. You only need enough to make the spices and smoke stick to the nuts. As Alton Brown might say: in this recipe, the oil is not an ingredient, it's hardware.
2 tsp garlic salt
2 tsp chili powder
1 1/2 tsp cumin powder (might be too much for some people, but cumin is my favorite spice)
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
I didn't get the fire quite as hot or get as much smoke flavor as I wanted - usually the oil will burn off or brown but there is still a little residual oil left on the nuts, which I don't care for usually but its not terrible here. I think I didn't put enough fuel in the SNS since I was only cooking the nuts, not doing an actual meat cook. But they're darned delicious.
A couple days ago, after cooking some boneless pork chops, I still had some coals left and had just bought some roasted (unsalted) almonds that I had yet to dress up. These almonds turned out well. Ingredients were not measured exactly.
Take one pound of roasted, unsalted almonds and dump them in a bowl. Drizzle 1 TBSP peanut or olive oil over the nuts, try to spread it out as evenly as possible. Sprinkle the following over the nuts:
1 teaspoon chinese 5 spice (would use more next time, but a little bit of this goes a LONG way and I didn't want to overdo it.)
2 teaspoons garlic salt
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
2 tbs soy sauce
Mix thoroughly. Lay the nuts out on a cookie sheet, and put in the weber at about 275 until the coals burn out, which was about 2 hours. I used hickory. Turned out really tasty but not as bold as I hoped. Great smoke flavor, though. Next time, I'll skip the 5 spice and cayenne and try to find some wasabi powder, and use more soy sauce.
Last night, I found myself with some roasted, unsalted cashews and the desire for a counterpoint to the slight asian zing of the almonds, so I went for chili spice. It's not really a counterpoint... more of a harmony. A counterpoint would be something sweet, I guess. Same setup, but slightly less oil as the almonds, as cashews are already more oily than almonds. You only need enough to make the spices and smoke stick to the nuts. As Alton Brown might say: in this recipe, the oil is not an ingredient, it's hardware.
2 tsp garlic salt
2 tsp chili powder
1 1/2 tsp cumin powder (might be too much for some people, but cumin is my favorite spice)
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
I didn't get the fire quite as hot or get as much smoke flavor as I wanted - usually the oil will burn off or brown but there is still a little residual oil left on the nuts, which I don't care for usually but its not terrible here. I think I didn't put enough fuel in the SNS since I was only cooking the nuts, not doing an actual meat cook. But they're darned delicious.
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