Putting three forms of ginger together to season the almonds in this recipe ends up being just right: fresh ginger for its brightness, candied ginger for its sweetness, and powdered ginger for its warmth, rounding it all off with a peppery bite. Andrea Tutunjian and Cara Tannenbaum coauthors of In a Nutshell have the recipe this delicious snack.
Triple-Ginger Almonds
Makes 3 cups-
1 cup sugar
3 tablespoons finely grated fresh ginger
4 teaspoons ground ginger
1 teaspoon kosher salt
3 cups (15 ounces) whole almonds
1 cup (4 ounces) finely chopped crystallized ginger
Directions
Stir the sugar, 1â„2 cup water, and the fresh ginger together in a medium skillet and bring to a boil over high heat. The sugar syrup will be clear and bubble up from the bottom. Continue to boil for 3 minutes, then remove the skillet from the heat. Cover and allow the ginger to steep in the syrup. In just 15 minutes, the ginger will infuse the syrup with a pure, vivid, robust flavor. Using a fine-mesh sieve, strain the syrup into a bowl; discard the ginger.Return the syrup to skillet, place over medium heat, and bring back to a boil. Whisk in the ground ginger and salt. Stir in the almonds.
Continue cooking over medium heat for about 15 minutes stirring constantly with a heatproof spatula. The syrup will stick to the almonds and reduce. When a small amount of liquid remains in the bottom of the pan, stir in the crystallized ginger. Eventually no syrup will remain, and the sugar adhering to the nuts will begin to crystallize.
When the nuts have been coated completely with sugar and have whitened and crystallized, continue cooking for about 5 minutes to remelt and caramelize the sugar. The sugar from the crystallized ginger will also melt, and the nuts and ginger will stick together nicely. Scrape the nuts evenly onto the prepared pan and cool. Using two forks, separate them, being careful to leave the ginger intact. The cooled almonds can be stored in an airtight container for up to 1 week.
Published 09/01/2014
