knitting a life

Happy New Year!  Our New Year’s Eve celebration involved a small gathering of neighbors at my brother and sister-in-law’s home.  We served dinner and drank lots of champagne.

My contributions to the meal (along with a large tossed salad) were two kinds of toasted nuts:  Pecans with brown sugar and smoked paprika and Pistachios with maple sugar and black pepper.

They were a hit so I thought I’d share the recipes.

Toasted pistachios with maple sugar and black pepper

1 egg white

2 teaspoons water

3 cups raw, shelled pistachios

1 tablespoon Real Salt

1 tablespoon maple sugar

2 teaspoons freshly ground black pepper

a little oil for coating the baking pan

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Mix the egg white with the water in a small bowl and whisk with a fork until it is a bit frothy.  Toss the nuts in a large bowl with the egg white mixture and the salt, maple sugar and black pepper.  Make sure to fully coat all of the nuts with the spice mixture.  Spread the nuts evenly on a lightly oiled, rimmed baking pan and bake, shaking the pan occasionally, for 20 minutes.  Make sure the nuts come to room temperature before tasting them as they crisp as they cool.

For the Toasted pecans with brown sugar and smoked paprika, I used three cups raw pecan halves, 1 egg white, 2 teaspoons water, 1 tablespoon Real Salt, 2 tablespoons brown sugar, 1 teaspoon smoked paprika and followed the same instructions as for the pistachios with one exception: the pecans only need to bake for 15 minutes.  They also need to cool before they are ready to taste.

Enjoy!