Raw nuts are cheaper. Especially macadamias, which are delicious fresh from the shell raw, too, so I buy them raw in the shell. But I like to toast some myself.
I like a DEEP roast on some, like peanuts. (If you’ve never had a double-roasted peanut, you really need to experience it. YUM)
But as anyone who has ever cooked a nut knows, they can go from not roasted at all to burned in a flash.
So is there a good way to do a slow, controlled roast of nuts in or out of the shell?
On the subject of nuts in general, how many people agree that Brazil nuts at best are boring and at worst are nasty?
Who has tried Turkish/antep pistachios and had their fondness for pistachios completely ruined, in that nothing but Turkish will do? I hate that, because the only place I can find them is online at $12 a pound. But damn, they are yummy.
And here’s my ultra simple nut recipe:
Candied Walnuts
Bring salted water to a boil.
Drop in your raw walnuts
stir for 1-2 minutes.
Drain
sprinkle sugar and a little kosher salt over the hot, damp nuts and stir to coat- it should form a kind of syrup. Make sure that all the nuts get a coating.
Heat oil (preferably peanut, but that’s expensive - use the best-tasting or most neutral tasting oil you can) to 350.
using a basket!!! fry nuts until ALMOST as brown as you want them! If you wait until they are exactly as brown as you like, they will continue to cook after being removed from the oil and they will be overbrowned and bitter.
Drain & cool
OK, I’ll bite (so to speak). Tell us how to double-roast peanuts.
Also, my experience with pistachios is that they go stale faster than any other nut. They last pretty well when in a sealed package, but once the package is opened they lose their flavor and crispness within days.
I don’t know because I don’t really know how to roast to begin with.
There is a nut seller here in LA at the Farmers Market at 3rd and Fairfax called Magee’s that sells absolutely top-quality nuts, cream of the crop, and they sell double-roasted peanuts. Delish. And kinda pricey, and a pain to go all the way down there to get, so it would be nice to be able to do it myself.
They are shelled, and I they are “roasted” via the deep-fry method, I believe, until they are significantly darker than any other roasted peanut you have likely encountered, without crossing over into bitter or burned.Rather than being “tan”, they range closer to true brown. If you are a fan of foods that are well-browned, you will love them. Delicious.
I am very much a fan of darker toasting, roasting, etc. I like my toast dark, my fried foods dark, my fried potatoes dark, my meats very well-browned, etc. So double-roasted peanuts rock my world. YMMV.
I have a simpler one. You need a covered skillet, 12 inch or larger.
Roasted Pecans
Over medium burner, melt a tablespoon or two of butter.
Add raw pecans two or three layers deep - about a half pound.
Cover pan and shake to coat with butter.
Keep shaking (frequently) for 10-15 minutes, watch carefully as pecans start to brown.
Remove from heat before getting too brown (standard warnings apply)
Cool on paper towels and salt well with fine popcorn salt
You can also do this on cookie sheets in a 300 degree oven. Mix nuts with melted butter first. Stir/flip nuts every 5 minutes, they will be done in 15 to 20 minutes.
For a ‘candied’ treat, mix in a generous dollop of real maple syrup along with melted butter.
My first real job away from home took me from PA to VA. My boss, an engineer, also owned a peanut farm, and he would bring in ten pound bags of enormous Virginia peanuts to sell at a ridiculously low price. We’d buy them and roast up a batch and get horribly sick every time we ate them - they were so good we ate way more than we should’ve. Everyone in the office called them sicknuts - and nobody could resist them. Especially hot! My Og, those were good!
Are you talking about just roasting nuts or adding flavours? If you like savoury nuts I find this helps the spices to stick.
Use 1 egg white and 1 tsp of water and beat until frothy but not stiff. Add nuts to the bowl and stir until they’re coated. Each egg white should do about 3-4 cups of nuts.
Spread on your baking sheet and sprinkle with whatever spices you prefer. Bake at 250, watching and stirring regularly. Cook time varies by nut type, number of times door is opened and desired doneness but somewhere around an hour.
I make pecan butter with roasted pecans and it is the best nut butter I have ever had-it is amazing. I roast at 300º but just alone without butter(I will try it with butter). I also mash the pecan butter into vanilla ice cream and it is fantastic. I use a food processor to make the nut butter. At first it just turns it to powder but if you let it run long enough the powder all off a sudden turns to butter.
