Alfresco Friday is back. With the start of the warmer weather and the promise of another Summer at the beach, just around the corner, I felt it was time for the recommencement of Alfresco Friday. This is a day when I post ideas for nibblies, picnic dishes, BBQ’suggestions or perhaps a recipe for a tasty Sangria or punch, anything to help kick start your weekend.
This weekend Little Miss A wanted to have a play day with her friends. Actually she wanted to have her first ever sleepover. Her best friends just happened to be twins so we will be having two extra little ones for Alfresco Friday this week. Anyway, Mr GG and I stopped in at the family’s house to organise the event, while the littlies were playing, were given a handful each of the most gorgeous homemade candied nuts to try.
With three little ones running around, our host was a little distracted, in the meantime Mr GG polished off all of my nuts, little A’s nuts, and a fair wack of both flavoured containers of nuts. Now I would hate to be one of those bossy wives who tells their hubby what to do but I was watching about 500gm of cashew disappearing at a rate of knots, and I was starting to panic. Very soon I would be able to see the bottom of both jars.
Eventually I had to whisper to hubby “darl… stop” He said, “I’m trying!!! I can’t stop, they are so good.”
I had to laugh because they were fantastic! It had taken all my willpower to stop eating them too.
Needless to say I had to get the recipe to share with readers, and to satisfy Mr GG. You can use any spices on the savoury candied nuts and the chilli can be omitted.
I decided this would be the perfect snack food to start this year’s Alfresco Friday, I hope you agree.
Sweet Candied Cashews
Ingredients:
350gm Cashew Nuts
1 egg white
¼ cup sugar
1 tsp salt
Method:
The method is the same for both sweet and savoury version. Preheat the oven to 200 degrees fan forced.
Line a baking tray with paper.
In a bowl combine the nuts, egg whites, salt and sugar, mix thoroughly. Pour the mixture onto a baking tray in a single layer.
Bake for 6 minutes and stir the nuts. Bake for a further 6 minutes until the toffee is bubbled and golden brown.
Remove from the oven and allow to cool before breaking it into pieces to serve.
Savoury Spiced Nuts
Ingredients:
350gm Assorted nuts
1 egg white
¼ cup sugar
1 tsp smoked salt
1 tsp chilli flakes
2 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp ground coriander
1 tsp ground cardamom
1 tsp sweet paprika
1 tsp hot paprika
Method:
The method is the same for both sweet and savoury version. Preheat the oven to 200 degrees fan forced.
Line a baking tray with paper.
In a bowl combine all the savoury ingredients, with the nuts, egg whites and sugar, mix thoroughly. Pour the mixture onto a baking tray in a single layer.
Bake for 6 minutes and stir the nuts. Bake for a further 6 minutes until the toffee is bubbled and golden brown.
Remove from oven and allow to cool before breaking it into pieces to serve.
Use the same method for the sweet candied nuts.
So please raise your glasses dear readers and say cheers to another season of warm weather, beaches and barbeques. Have a cold beer or glass of bubbly and celebrate the weekend with me.
