One down, five to go

As I'm sure many aspiring chefs do, I have a list of things I want to try to cook.  A cooking bucket list, so to speak.  It's an ever-changing and growing list, but here's what I have so far:

• some sort of big, multi-layered cake (like this)
• Chinese pan-fried noodles
• Rugelach
• bon-bons
• an entire stuffed chicken
• garlic knots (last night for dinner)
• candied nuts (keep reading)

Last week, I managed to whip up some ice cream (no pun intended) and chocolate-filled croissants (which, in case you're wondering why I didn't post the recipe, were horribly ugly.  They were delicious, but lumpy and burned on the bottom and nowhere close to a shape resembling a croissant.  So once I perfect the recipe, I will share).

Another rained-in afternoon inspired me to turn to my bucket list.  We live in a sort-of studio; the bedroom is cut off from the kitchen by a sliding door, but the door doesn't quite reach the ceiling.  This basically means that anything I cook in the kitchen will inevitably linger in the air of the entire apartment for the following two or so hours. 

Since we were trapped in the apartment for the rest of the afternoon, I didn't want to stink it up / smoke us out.  Indeed, I could seize this opportunity and cook up something so stinking delicious, it would fill the apartment and make us WANT to stay inside and EAT all afternoon!!!

In the streets of Buenos Aires during the winter, little old bundled up men huddle close to big steaming pots of nuts, stirring constantly and chatting up the other little old bundled up men selling newspapers next door. 

I love walking past these men.  Suddenly, after coming up for air from the humid, disgusting subway, I get a blast of the smell of sweet, hot sugar in my face.  They are called garrapiñadas, but I think they're basically candied peanuts. 

It smells good in the street, so it should make my house smell good, right?

 

Oohhh, yes.

They were so easy to make (took about 15 minutes) and I didn't even have to walk to the end of the block to grab that one stupid little ingredient that always seems to be missing.

I chose to use almonds, but you could candy pretty much any old nut you've got lying around the house.  Well, the kinds of nuts you eat... if you live with a crazy old nut, that's a different story.

Candied Almonds

1 cup granulated sugar

1 cup almonds

3 tbsp. water

1 tbsp. vanilla

1 tbsp. sea salt

1.  Heat the almonds, sugar, and water over medium heat, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon.

2.  Once the sugar begins to melt, mix in vanilla.

3.  The almonds are finished when the sugar is brown and sticky and covers the nuts.  Remove from heat and place on non-stick surface.  Break apart any nuts that are sticking together.

4.  Sprinkle with sea salt and let cool for at least five minutes.