7.16.2006

Rosemary-Infused, Sweetened, Roasted Pecans

sweetened pecansI think the best part of a restaurant salad are those cool sweetened pecans they top it with (although, the crumbled goat cheese is good too). The only problem with these is they're often a bit too sweet, candied. So, I made my own.

The other night, we were still detoxing from too many burgers eaten at a cookout. We had salads with some lentils on the side. Very satisfying. But, at the last minute, I had the urge for some slightly sweetened roasted pecans on the salad. This is how I made mine. Took about 5 minutes on the stovetop with a non stick pan. They were wonderful. Frankie loved them too.

Rosemary-Infused, Sweetened, Roasted Pecans
A handful of pecans (ca. 1/2 cup) were tossed into a non-stick fry pan on medium high heat with about a tablespoon of olive oil and a teaspoon of rosemary sprinkled over it all. Then, I sprinkled about a tablespoon of sugar over the mixture, continued heating and then poured about 3 tablespoons of water over the whole hot mixture. The water dissolved the sugar and suspended the rosemary. For the next few minutes I swirled the nuts in the hot solution letting the water evaporate. After the water was gone, I continued to heat the nuts for about 2-3 minutes and finally dumped them from the pan onto a wooden cutting board. When the sticky hot nuts cooled they were mildly candied and crisp. The rosemary was a fabulous touch. A friend of ours makes something similar but I forget her process. Thanks for the inspiration Amy!

5 comments:

Molly said...

Dave, these sound delicious - and happily, not too sweet. We have some salad greens at home that we'd planned to work on tonight, and now I wish we had some pecans too! Maybe a trip to the store is in order...

Dave said...

Hey Molly,

With the kid, you can never have enouh nuts around. Hope you enjoy them.

Guy said...

Yeah, Pecans. That's nice.

Uh, what about meat? I visited Big Nates (Nate Thurmand) BBQ in SF last night. I had pork ribs. That's meat. Didn't have room for the pecan pie, cause I had meat. I know pecans are good, but did you have meat? ?

Anonymous said...

Yeah, the day before I had so much meat, I almost went into a coma, a meat coma. Needed a rest.

Guy said...

Oh, Meat Coma. Yeah, that's not good. I'll usually start the day with some cereal that makes you poop. It helps.

Biggles