We’ve been celebrating Mr Fresser’s 50th birthday for (what seems like) weeks now. What’s life if you can’t celebrate the milestones?
Any simcha requires plenty of food. The latest part of Fresser 50th fest was a catered dinner party. Our chef was Kasia Sikora and her food was amazing. More on that in a later post.
She turned up with three courses. In Jewish portions — by which I mean, no one was (even fleetingly) going to think ‘will I still be hungry after this meal?’.
I knew she would — she has cooked for me before — but I still felt the need for pre-meal nibbles. Who drinks without a bar snack? No Jew I’ve ever met.
Earlier in the week I’d bought nuts. Mr Fresser’s favourite. So much so, that he had been unable to resist opening a packet. Grrrrr. I was forced to hide them.
The problem with hiding things is remembering where you’ve hidden them.
Fast forward to the evening of the dinner. Table set. Prosecco chilling and shiny, clean glasses lined up on the lounge table. Olives are in bowls but where were the nuts? I checked all usual ‘out of sight, out of stomach’ places but no nuts.
I ask Mr Fresser — by now displaying ugly signs of schadenfreude. Clueless.
Too late to pop out for snacks, I decide to cook emergency spiced nuts from the plain nuts in my fridge. (I always store nuts there to avoid them going rancid.)
I gathered rosemary from my garden and a few storecupboard spices. In 10 minutes (only 5 of them hands-on) I have a bowl of warm, delicious-smelling mixed nuts. At the very same moment I find the original nuts – squirreled away in a box in the kitchen cupboard I’d looked in about 25 times. (sigh)
The recipe for emergency spiced nuts:
This is pretty well the original recipe adapted by Nigella Lawson from nuts she tasted at New York's Union Square Café. My method is slightly different - mostly to speed it up even more.
I do play around with it from time to time - cumin works well instead of cayenne or combined with it, as does smoked or regular paprika. Swap in maple syrup instead of brown sugar. Smoked salt would also pep them up – but not with smoked paprika or you’ll end up all a bit bonfire.
Ingredients:
150g mixed plain nuts (mine were pistachios, almonds, pecans and cashews)
a pinch - 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper (depending on your tolerance for spicy heat)
a large pinch of sea salt
1 tbsp butter
1 tbsp brown sugar
1 heaped tbsp chopped fresh rosemary
Method:
- Heat oven to 180°C (fan).
- Spread the nuts in a single layer on a baking sheet and toast for 10 minutes – until they smell fragrant.
- Put the remaining ingredients in a large bowl and microwave for 10 – 20 seconds – depending on how powerful your microwave is – just to melt the butter.
- Pour the nuts into the bowl and stir well to combine. Taste for seasoning.
