Easy Microwavable Candied Nuts

Candied nuts are so easy and so delicious. It's great on salads, as a snack, breakfast bowls, on ice cream, or use it as a favor for a party.

Grab a bag of baking nuts. These are raw nuts made for cooking. Do not use salted nuts, cocktail nuts or anything with more than nuts as ingredients. These are from Costco.

Pour 1 cup of walnuts (or pecans, macadamia nuts etc.)  into a microwavable glass bowl with a handle.

And 3/4 cup of sugar

Top the sugar on the nuts.

Add 1/4 cup water.

Pour right on top.

You don't need to stir it...

Just place it in the microwave just like that.

Set it for 6 minutes and press start.

In the meantime, lightly grease a flat baking sheet. This will help separate the nuts when they are done.

Check the nuts every 2 minutes or so. At this point, you can give it a nice stir to coat. Making sure the sugar-water made contact all the nuts. 

Stop again in a minute or two to give it a quick stir to combine.

This is about 4 minutes remaining.

You'll notice the sugar-water starting to thicken.

At the 2 minutes remaining mark, the sugar-water has clearly become carmellized. 

Work quickly to stir and return it back to the microwave for the remaining minute or so. 

Once fragrant, it is ready. If fragrant before the 6 minutes, stop the microwave to avoid burning the nuts. (If the nuts burn, they'll turn into a dark golden color and it will be sticky and shiny. You can keep it or toss it, its up to you.)

Cool completely, uncovered. It will be soft and stale if eaten warm. Once it's cooled, it will hardened back up and taste like candy! 

 Here is the finished walnuts at almost 6 minutes. 

You can also used pecans! Pecans are wonderful to taste and fun to share with friends. The only tricky part is that pecans can burn easy. So keep and eye one them and stir more frequently. 

Pecans on the left, Walnuts on the right.

These are the finished pecans. I think they could have cooked a little longer for a more whiter candied color.

Simple, fast, easy, YUMMY!

Just do yourself a FAVOR! ; - >

My Printable Recipe

Go ahead, print it!

Smoked Salmon Salad

This salad always gets attention. It is beautiful when layered into a platter, on an Asian dish or in a clear glass bowl. 

 Try to buy WILD salmon, and never farmed salmon (which are fed a GMO diet). Costco often sells wild smoked salmon, but not always. They also have another brand of smoked salmon but it has been GMO-ed (Genetically Modified).

 Peel off each slice as thin as they come.

Break them into smaller bitesize pieces. Place them into your serving bowl or dish as the bottom layer.

 Thinly slice sweet onions (Pictured: Maui onions) and spread them on top of the salmon for your second layer.

 Next, add thinly sliced tomatoes (These are Roma's).

 I absolutely love these! Radish sprouts are on the bitter side with a spicy-fresh kick. It goes very well with this dish since the salmon brings in the salt, and the tomatoes, onions and ponzu sauce brings in the sweet. 

 If you wash these, make sure to completely dry them. You can squeeze them into a paper towel then pat dry with another clean one.

 Cut the radish sprouts at the roots. 

 You won't need them.

 Place the beautiful green radish sprouts right on top of the tomatoes.

 Cut some lemon slices to garnish if desired. 

 Here is the key to this salad, PONZU! It is a sweet citrus substitute for soy sauce type of dishes, though this is not salty at all. I use ponzu anywhere I use soy sauce. It is great for tofu salads as well. The ponzu is perfect just as it is. Pour 1/4 cup into the side of the dish so that it sinks down to the bottom layer.

Finally, add tobiko (or a cheaper version, masago). Tobiko is a type of caviar, it is basically fish roe. You might recognize it from your California sushi rolls. Look in the meat section by the fresh cuts of fish in a grocery store or in an Asian store. 

Add about a tablespoon full and place it like a garnish.

A lot of the tobiko will eventually end up in the ponzu sauce which is also really nice.

And here we go! 

You can also make individual bowls to ensure everyone gets a little bit of each ingredient. I made two of these individual servings while making the platter. Enjoy!

UPDATE!

I found my original smoked salmon pictures...

Simple. Fun. Delicious.

My Printable Recipe