Hi! I'm now working from Wordpress. I've spent a great deal of time editing and reorganising this post on Wordpress and it is so much friendlier to read & follow my recipe from there. Click on this link to take you directly to the recipe:
Link to my newest and old recipes, click:
This recipe is for fried candied walnuts. I prefer the Chinese method of frying candied walnuts (as opposed to toasted) as it promises an evenly thin coating of crackly syrupy sweetness around each walnut that toasting cannot achieve.
The ones in the picture above is a sweet, sour, salty and spicy version. You could choose to add other seasonings over the Candied Sesame Walnuts.
The version here has a base flavour that is sugary sweet, with the chilli powder providing the necessary heat. There is a sprinkling of sea salt for the saltiness, and then there is a surprising underlying tartness that one would not expect from Candied Walnuts. Scroll down to the ingredient list for some suggestion of flavours you could add.
This recipe came about after frying numerous batches of walnuts to get them to my liking. It is not an easy recipe. They could not be too sweet and they had to be crispy and not gummy.
The recipes with the least number of ingredients are usually the most difficult to get right as you cannot mask your mistakes under layers of seasonings. You pretty much have one shot at getting it right.
This recipe works for me. There are 4 key points you have to pay attention to:
- Do not over boil the walnuts
- Do not let the syrup boil past the light yellow shade before adding the walnuts
- Do fry in hot oil (380F)(190C) and in multiple batches so the oil remains hot
- Do not fry the walnuts past the golden brown stage
CHINESE CANDIED SESAME WALNUTS
Prep:
|
5 minutes
|
Cook: | 20 minutes |
Inactive: | - |
Level: | Bit of a challenge |
Makes: | 2 cups |
Oil Temperature: | 380 F (190 C) |
Can recipe be doubled? | Yes |
Make ahead? | Keeps up to one week tightly bottled. They will keep better if you freeze them, tightly bottled. |
Ingredients
3 cups water
1 teaspoon salt
2 full cups (7.05oz) (200g) walnuts
I use USA ready to eat baked walnuts
3/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup water
3 cups of oil (or enough to completely cover the walnuts for frying - be generous)
1 teaspoon freshly toasted sesame seeds
Optional - Any or a combination of the following:
For a sour note: Citric acid, mango powder, passion fruit powder
For a spicy note: Chilli powder/flakes, cracked black/white pepper
Other flavours: Cinnamon, cumin, fennel, pumpkin spice mix, smoked salt, sea salt flakes
Method
You will be doing 3 steps simultaneously, so you will need to be organised and be ready to work fairly quickly.
Utensils to have ready:
Method
You will be doing 3 steps simultaneously, so you will need to be organised and be ready to work fairly quickly.
Utensils to have ready:
- 3 cooking vessels/pots/frying pans
Have ready, 3 cooking vessels each with at least a 3" (7.5cm) depth.
- Wider vessel for deep frying,
- One for boiling the nuts and the
- Last vessel for making the syrup. Set all 3 vessels on three separate burners.
You are going to work with high temperatures. Walnuts will cause hot oil and syrup to bubble furiously. You need a deeper vessel to prevent oil and syrup from bubbling over the vessel.
- 2 baking trays for draining/drying the walnuts
- 2 sheets of parchment papers or silpats or lightly oil the baking trays
- 2 slotted spoons, one for use when cooking the syrup and the other for deep frying
- 1 spoon for stirring the walnuts in water
- 1 colander for draining blanched walnuts
- Thermometer
In one of the vessel, bring the 3 cups of water to boil over high heat.
At the same time, in the wider vessel, heat up 3 cups of oil to 380F (190) over high heat. It is best to secure a thermometer to the vessel so that you can monitor the temperature. Visually, the oil will be shimmering and if you look from the side, you will see a slight haze above the hot oil.
Simultaneously, in the last vessel, heat up the 1/4 cup of water with the 3/4 of sugar over high heat.
Blanching
Once, the water boils, add salt and bring it back to a boil. Once water comes back to a boil, add walnuts. Stir with a spoon and bring it back to a boil. The walnuts will turn a paler shade and the water will turn brown. Once it comes back to a boil, give it a final stir and turn off the burner. Remove the pot.
Blanching
Once, the water boils, add salt and bring it back to a boil. Once water comes back to a boil, add walnuts. Stir with a spoon and bring it back to a boil. The walnuts will turn a paler shade and the water will turn brown. Once it comes back to a boil, give it a final stir and turn off the burner. Remove the pot.
Syrup
The sugar and water should be bubbling away at this time. Watch carefully. Once it turns a pale yellow (or starts to show a spot of yellow) and before it turns a golden colour, toss the walnuts into the sugar syrup and stir with a slotted spoon and coat the walnuts quickly. Using the slotted spoon, transfer to the oiled or parchment paper/siplat lined baking tray. Separate the nuts as well as you can to prevent excessive sticking.
Before you transfer the walnuts to the baking tray, take a quick look at the thermometer, if it registers, 380F (190C), transfer the walnuts to the oil instead.
However, if you are making this for the first time, I suggest you sit the syrupy walnuts on the parchment paper to cool for a minute or so and to drain off excess syrup. As, if you are not adapt yet at draining off the excess syrup with your slotted spoon/strainer and directly transfer walnuts from syrup pan to oil pan, you will be throwing in a lot of syrup into hot oil. Not good.
The oil needs to be hot so don't overcrowd the pan. It will bring down the temperature and the walnuts will not fry up a crispy as they should. Fry in multiple batches if you have to.
However, if you are making this for the first time, I suggest you sit the syrupy walnuts on the parchment paper to cool for a minute or so and to drain off excess syrup. As, if you are not adapt yet at draining off the excess syrup with your slotted spoon/strainer and directly transfer walnuts from syrup pan to oil pan, you will be throwing in a lot of syrup into hot oil. Not good.
The oil needs to be hot so don't overcrowd the pan. It will bring down the temperature and the walnuts will not fry up a crispy as they should. Fry in multiple batches if you have to.
Frying
Remember not to overcrowd the pan. Fry in multiple batches if you have to. They need hot oil.
With a clean slotted spoon, stir walnuts continuously in the hot oil to evenly cook it to a light golden brown colour. At such high temperatures, you must stir and it should take one minute, give and take 15 seconds for all the walnuts to turn a golden brown colour. Transfer to the oiled or parchment paper/siplat lined baking tray and separate them as best as you can.
With a clean slotted spoon, stir walnuts continuously in the hot oil to evenly cook it to a light golden brown colour. At such high temperatures, you must stir and it should take one minute, give and take 15 seconds for all the walnuts to turn a golden brown colour. Transfer to the oiled or parchment paper/siplat lined baking tray and separate them as best as you can.
Bear in mind that the nuts will continue to brown even after you remove them from oil so don't keep them in the hot oil too long. They burn quickly.
Whilst hot, sprinkle the toasted sesame seeds.
These walnuts as is, with no other seasonings, will keep up to 1 week stored in an airtight container. They will keep better frozen, tightly bottled.
These walnuts as is, with no other seasonings, will keep up to 1 week stored in an airtight container. They will keep better frozen, tightly bottled.
Tips
- If you want to season the walnuts further, I suggest you eat them up fairly soon as they will not retain their crisp texture for long. How long they stay crispy depends partly on the additional seasonings that you choose to add.
- To prolong their crisp texture, it might be a better idea to add your additional seasonings just before you are ready to serve the walnuts.
- Do toast the sesame seeds before adding to the fried walnuts. Toasting makes them ever so flavourful. Should you realise you have forgetten to toast the sesame seeds after frying the walnuts, do not bother adding the sesame seeds. The sesame seeds will be tasteless without toasting and will provide no flavour to the walnuts. It would be too late to toast them as by the time you scamper off to toast them, the syrup coating would have harden. Remember to toast them the next time.
- These can be bottled up into pretty jars and given away. They do not stay long in a jar as it invariably gets consumed pretty quickly. Goes especially well with drinks - wine, champagne, beer, moscato.... You really don't need much of an excuse to eat them.
This is very likely my last post for the year.
Like many of you, I need to get the year-end party meals planned, specialty food pre-ordered. I am so glad I already have the house all festively dressed.
Would you believe I have all presents bought and wrapped?! I am 2 weeks ahead! That's only because I am going on vacation and when I return just before Christmas, I am expected to go into baking mode.
I have no idea how I am going to churn out Checkerboard Cookies, Buttery Butter Cookies, Chocolatety Chocolate Cookies and Crisp Lemon Cookies in such a short span of time! That on top of cooking for the upcoming dinner parties. I will certainly be relying on some of my meze dishes to see me through all the dinners. You might find my meze recipes useful as they are easy to prepare and most can be made in advance. The list of 10 meze recipes is filed under, Meze, A Selection of Wonderful Little Bites.
Happy Holidays! Stay safe!
No comments:
Post a Comment