Kabocha korokke - Winter squash croquettes as adapted by an Indian palate

One of the great things about growing up in a foreign country is the inevitable widening of one's palate that occurs as a result.  Additionally, the amalgamation of one's own culinary culture with that of the foreign nation often results in the creation of a wonderful melange of tastes that sometimes surpasses the beauty of the original dish.  Perhaps this is why pizza is so much more delicious in the United States, where it is served in a variety of styles and with endless toppings, than it is in Italy.  (Yes, I said it, and I meant it: American pizza - especially of the type found in local pizza houses, not national chains - is way better than most Italian pizza.)

But, I digress.  The point I was trying to make is that the influence of a foreign palate's preferences on a local dish can sometimes result in the creation of something brand new.  A case in point is the subject of today's post and one my favorite Japanese foods, the humble kabocha korokke.  I have previously lamented about my limited exposure to Japanese food, despite having spent a sizable part of my childhood in Japan.  The largest limitation to my education in Japanese food was the fact that Japanese cuisine offers very little that suits my vegetarian tastebuds.  However, one of the dishes that I relished while growing up in Japan was the delightfully vegetarian kabocha korokke.

Korokke is simply a Japanese pronunciation of the french word 'croquette' and kabocha are Japanese winter squashes with a firm green exterior and a orange interior.  While recipes for these tasty little fried morsels can vary quite a bit, they always involve a filling of the nutty sweet flesh of the kabocha pumpkin coated in a crunchy brown exterior of panko (Japanese breadcrumbs).  Once I started cooking for myself, my own culinary preferences directed me to include a variety of spices and vegetables in my own recipe for kabocha korokke.

Although I sometimes curse my over-saturated Indian tastebuds for frequently wanting to modify foods to spicier versions, I do believe that my alterations to the kabocha korokke elevate this dish from a mere accompaniment to a cold beer to a worthy weeknight dinner...but I'll let you be the judge of that.

Kabocha Korokke - as adapted by an Indian palate

Ingredients

For patties:

1 medium kabocha, or butternut squash as a substitute, if you absolutely cannot find kabocha

2T olive oil
pinch of salt

1 medium red onion, diced finely

1 large green pepper, diced finely

2 medium potatoes, boiled and mashed

1 small bunch green onions, finely minced

1 T red chili flakes

2 tsp cumin powder

2 tsp coriander powder

1 tsp turmeric

2 T canola oil

Salt, to taste

For dredging patties:

2 eggs, whisked

1/4 C all-purpose flour with a pinch of salt and red chili powder

2 C panko bread crumbs

Canola oil for deep-frying

Prepare kabocha:

1.  Preheat oven to 400 F.

2.  Wash kabocha thoroughly and cut in half

3.  Oil kabocha with olive oil, drizzle cut sides with salt, and place cut side down in a roasting pan containing 1 inch of water

4.  Cover tightly with aluminum foil and roast for 30 minutes or until kabocha is fork tender.

5.  Cool kabocha, discard seeds, and transfer flesh to a large bowl

Prepare other veggies: 

6.  Sautee diced onion in oil until browned, add diced pepper, along with spices and salt, and cook until peppers are tender and spices taste cooked.

7.  Combine kabocha pulp, onion mixture, and mashed potatoes in bowl.  Taste for and adjust salt.

8.  Add minced green onions and combine.  Allow mixture to cool.

Prepare patties:

9.  Set up an assembly-line type work station to make your korokkes.  Place flour, whisked eggs, and panko in three sequential shallow dishes.  

10.  Make 2 inch wide flattish patties out of cooled kabocha mixture.  Dredge kabocha patties sequentially in flour, egg, and panko, making sure patties are completely coated in panko at the final stage.

 

Fry patties:

11.  Heat canola oil for deep-frying.  Choose a pan and oil amount that will allow your patties to be completely submerged whilst frying.  Test if oil is hot enough by tossing a tiny bit of panko into the oil.  If it sizzles and rises immediately, the oil is hot enough.  If oil starts smoking, it's too hot.  Adjust heat as needed.

12.  Slide panko encrusted patties into hot oil carefully and fry until golden brown on all sides.  Do not fry too many croquettes at once, so as to not allow oil to cool rapidly.  Your croquettes should take about 2 minutes to brown properly.  If patties are browning faster, reduce heat to avoid burnt korokkes
 
These can be served hot and crispy with some ketchup and/or spicy mayo.  Alternatively, serve with some minted rice for a hot and substantial dinner.
 

Carrot Feta Flatbread

There's nothing like some well-timed commercialism to help keep New Year's resolutions.  How else would one explain the slew of brand new hot pink tank tops that have suddenly cropped up at my gym, right after January 1st!  Well, I'm not immune to this trend either, and since one of my New Year's resolutions -- (come to think of it, my only New Year's resolution this year) -- was  to revive this blog after a long hiatus, I was convinced that a brand new camera was just the thing to get my creative juices flowing again.

The dough, before rising...

After hours of internet research, social media poll-taking, and shameless ambushing of unwitting photography enthusiasts, I finally upgraded my trusty point-and-shoot to a brand new ILC.  ILCs or interchangeable-lens cameras are cameras that, as their name implies, come with the option of changing out the lens. This feature, and their enormous sensor size make them similar to DSLRs.  DSLRs, or digital single lens reflex cameras are those professional-looking cameras that so many people carry around in dedicated backpacks these days.  Although I'm not sure what the picture quality differences are between a DSLR and an ILC, the ILCs were very attractive to me, as they come in at a fraction of the cost, size, and weight of a typical DSLR.  My longstanding hesitation with ditching my point-and-shoot for so many years had been that I did not envision myself lugging around a bulky and expensive piece of equipment during my travels.  So, the Sony Nex ILC offered me a great compromise in terms of delivering excellent picture quality in a much-more compact and wallet-friendly package.

...and after it is risen.

Okay, that's enough with the camera-tutorial - when did this turn into a gadget blog?  Anyhow, ever since I eagerly opened up my brand new camera a few days ago, I have been in relentless pursuit of new subjects to photograph.  In that spirit, I took it out for a spin in the kitchen, as I was making these carrot and feta stuffed flatbreads, and I have to say, it did not disappoint me at all.  With my point-and-shoot, I would have struggled for hours to try and get decent non-yellow pictures, while my husband sous-chef passed through the sequential stages of patiently helping to light up my food scene, then impatiently grabbing my camera to try and get the shots himself, to finally stomping off in hunger and irritation.   Contrast that with my Sony ILC, which worked beautifully at reproducing the color and light conditions as I was photographing.  The camera comes with a 16-50 mm kit lens, which is not ideal for food photography, as it does not allow me to get very close to try and capture texture.  However, using some of the smart-shooting tips that are built in to the Sony Nex, I was still able to get far better shots in low-light conditions than I'm accustomed to.  Thus, although I envision additional lenses in my future, I'm quite content with trying to master the lens that came with the camera.

So, without further ado, as I sign off, armed with visions of culinary delights and world travels that await me and my new Sony Nex3N, I leave you with a few pictures from my kitchen to tickle your visual senses and a recipe to delight  the tastebuds. Bon appetit!

P.S. Please excuse the messy surroundings, as I was too excited to try out my camera to bother setting the stage first.  I hope that my jazzy manicure makes up for what's otherwise lacking in my presentation.

A sphere of dough, ready to roll out

Carrot-feta flatbread

For dough:

~1 1\4 cups warm water
2 teaspoons yeast

3 cups whole-wheat pastry flour (can substitute with all-purpose flour for a lower fiber alternative.  Or, use 2 parts whole wheat flour to 1 part all-purpose flour, if whole-wheat pastry flour is not handy)
2 Tablespoons olive oil
1 Tablespoon sugar
2 teaspoons yeast
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 teaspoons salt
Olive oil, for shallow-frying

For filling:

1 C crumbled feta
6 thai green chilis, finely minced
3 large carrots, thinly sliced or grated

To make the dough:

Mix the water and yeast and allow to sit for 5-10 minutes, while the yeast starts to form bubbles in the water.
Mix all other ingredients together in a large bowl.
Add yeast-water and knead to a soft pliable dough.
As you knead, if dough is too sticky, add a little more flour.  Conversely, if dough is too hard, add some more water.

Cover with a damp cloth and allow dough to rest for 1-2 hours or until doubled in size.

In the meantime, make the filling:
Microwave carrots and chilis for ~4 minutes, or until carrots are slightly softened.
Once cooled, add crumbled feta and mix to combine.

Once dough is risen, knead gently again and separate into 8 equal size balls.

Roll balls into a smooth sphere.

Sprinkle some flour on a clean surface, and using a roller, roll spheres into a 4-inch diameter circle.

Fill each circle with a heaping tablespoon of filling and pinch shut dough shut around filling.


Using flour to prevent sticking, roll out filled dough into a large 1/2 inch thick circle.  Don't worry if some of the filling oozes out at this point; those bits will be extra delicious once you cook your flatbread and will also lend an appealing rustic charm to your creation.


Heat up a skillet and add 1 tsp oil; slap on flatbread and cook on both sides until it is dappled with brown spots and the dough is fully cooked.

Serve with a hot soup such as lentil soup or enjoy with hot tea.

Sprouted Moong (Mung) Soup - Microblog

Spinach and Tofu Puffs - Microblog

Spinach and Tofu Puffs - the recipe

Tomato Pumpkin Soup - Microblog

A favorite recipe handed down to me from my mom, this soup combines tomatoes with Indian white pumpkin,  a great source of dietary fiber.  If pumpkin is hard to source, substitute with zucchini or summer squash. Additional variations can include peas, corn, or spinach.

Tomato Pumpkin Soup - the recipe

Chocolate Mango Truffles - Micro-blog

The name pretty much says it all -- make sure to stick with the darkest chocolate that you enjoy -- I generally use equal parts 60% and 75% cocoa -- to maximize both taste, as well as nutritional benefits.

Chocolate Mango Truffles - recipe

Chocolate Mango Truffles.

Fresh Vegetable Spring Rolls - micro-blog

Here's the first of many 'micro-blogs' to be posted on Clean Platter. What is a 'micro-blog' you ask? Why, what a good question! Check out this recent post for more on the format: Micro-blog Format
As always, if you'd like a more complete recipe, please ask for it in the comments section below. Your feedback is always much appreciated, so I'd love to hear what you think of this new format.

The recipe can be found in the first picture, which can be enlarged for clarity. Enjoy!

The recipe - click to enlarge

More pictures...

Freshly shaved Napa cabbage

Spring rolls and ingredients

Introducing the 'micro-blog' -- recipes to inspire you.

Often times when I search for recipes on the web, all I'm looking for is inspiration.  Inspiration in the form of ingredients; inspiration via novel cooking techniques; suggestions for presentation and pairings; and of course, lots and lots of drool worthy pictures.  Many times, this is all I need to get off the couch and into the kitchen to whip up something novel for my next meal.  I suspect that a lot of you operate the same way.  After all, you don't want to have to abandon a recipe just because you don't have one of the ingredients on hand, when you could easily find something else in your fridge to stand in.

This is what makes blogging about anything other than baked pastries extremely difficult.  When you make cakes, cookies and other such treats, recipes are critical.  However, with most of the cooking that we do, recipes are just suggestions -- a starting point to inspire you in the kitchen.


This got me thinking of a new blog post format that might be suited to posting 'recipes' in a manner that piques your curiosity as well as your creativity.  In the spirit of experimentation, I'm rolling out a new 'micro-blog' format for many of my posts.  I will post a quick how-to and other salient details of a recipe, including suggestions for serving and accompaniments, when appropriate.  I will pair these with lots of pictures for your visual consumption.  For those who prefer a more detailed recipe to work off of, you will have the option of requesting it in the 'Comments' section below.  I promise to post a detailed recipe, if requested to do so.

I'm hoping that this new 'micro-blog' format will a) make it easier for you to be inspired to create something new in your kitchen, b) make it easier for me to get posts up in a timely manner, and c) create greater engagement with my readers through interactions in the Comments area.  I will still be posting full-length recipes, mainly for baked pastries.

Your comments and suggestions on this new 'micro-blog' format are welcome!

Tomato Fritters

No matter what the situation, we humans always find a reason to complain.  And nothing, in my mind, elicits more complaints from people everywhere (except maybe those lucky enough to be living in some paradise like Hawaii or San Diego) than the weather!  All winter long, we complain that it’s too cold, or that there’s too much rain or snow.  And then come summer, suddenly, it’s too hot, it’s too dry, there are too many mosquitoes – the list goes on and on.  Similarly, if you live in the Northwest (of the US) and fancy yourself to have a bit of a green thumb, every summer you complain from June to September about how your tomatoes are just not ripening fast enough.  And then, all of a sudden, at the end of September, the tomatoes start coming in all at once, and now you’re stuck with finding a way to consume all those plump, juicy, red (or yellow or orange) fruits, in larger-than-Costco quantities.

Some of my more domestic friends look forward to this task and whip out their canning equipment to make salsas and pasta sauces and other delicious things.  But by September, with all the jam that I’ve canned during berry season, I don’t want to see another boiling water bath until at least next year.  To my lazy bones, tomatoes in September are for immediate gratification – after all, I have waited all summer for them to ripen!

In the spirit of wholesale tomato consumption, I try to experiment with new recipes that incorporate these summer ripened fruits.  I recently came across a recipe for a Greek dish, called domatokeftehes, or tomato fritters, which seemed to be just the thing to accompany a Friday evening cup of tea with the hubby.  Of course, as I started making these, my Indian brain took over and turned these fritters into something that no Greek person would recognize, but I think they turned out rather nice.  Do you agree?

 Tomato fritters

1 large ripe tomato, diced

½ zucchini, diced

½ tsp turmeric

½ tsp salt

1 tsp chili powder

1 tsp cumin seeds

2 T chopped fresh herbs such as oregano or cilantro

½ C flour

½ tsp baking powder

Mix all ingredients together, adding the flour and baking powder last.

Add enough water to form a thickish batter

Heat oil in wok on high heat until a drop of batter dropped into oil rises immediately to surface

Reduce heat to medium and drop tablespoon-fulls of batter into oil

Allow to brown on all sides; remove from oil with a slotted spoon, and drain on paper towels

Serve hot with spiced tea.

Pedas for Ganesha: Indian Milk Fudge

Ganesha, the elephant-headed God, is perhaps the most famous from among the pantheon of Hindu deities.  Traditionally, Ganesha is considered the God of knowledge and is prayed to at the start of any new venture.  Every year, the birthday of Ganesha – termed Ganesh Chathurthi --  is celebrated with great pomp throughout India.  This was one of my very favorite times of the year as a child growing up in India.  The monsoons would have come to an end.  My birthday would be right around the corner.  We’d even have several days off from school.  On the morning of Ganesh Chathurthi, we would wake up early and head to the local clay artist who would have set aside a lovely clay Ganesha just for me.  We would bring home this colorful statue with great pomp – I even had a little parasol just for this occasion, so that I could hold it over Ganesha’s head as we walked him home under the scorching Indian sun.  This same ritual would be playing out all around us, as our friends and neighbors also brought home their own special Ganesha statues to install at home.  Traditionally, this would be followed by 3 to 10 days of prayer.  At the end of this period, the Ganesha statue would be taken to the local lake and allowed to dissolve.  As the clay sculpture of Ganesha dissolves, he is thought to melt away all the misfortunes of his loyal devotees.

In Bombay, in particular, Ganesh Chathurthi was celebrated with great fanfare.  In the months leading up to day, almost every temple would commission local artists to create humongous Ganesha statues – the larger the temple, the larger the statue and the more elaborate the display.  After months of seeing these temporary installations being secretively built behind burlap scaffolding, during the week of Ganesh Chathurthi, the drapes would finally be lifted and we would be allowed to wander, awestruck, through the ever-more elaborate sets.  This would all culminate with the city awarding prizes to the temples with the best displays.

Closer to home, other festivities would be brewing.  As is evident from his big belly, Ganesha is considered to be quite the gourmand, so one of the mainstays of this festival is the range of delicacies prepared by my mom and my friends' moms, alike.  

Even today, though I have moved far, far away from these scenes of my childhood, the memories of those celebrations are still fresh in my heart.  While I don’t necessarily have the time to prepare elaborate delicacies before heading out to work in the morning, I do still try to make something special in the kitchen to mark the occasion. A few months ago, I came across several recipes for microwavable Doodh peda, a type of dense Indian milk fudge.  I have since been able to adapt this recipe for just such an occasion.  So, although my ramblings about my childhood memories have been long, this recipe is anything but complicated or time-consuming.  It literally comes together in less than 10 minutes but tastes like you have been reducing milk over the stove for hours and hours.

So, in honor of today’s celebration of Ganesh Chathurthi, I give you this super simple Doodh peda or milk fudge recipe.  With its short, short ingredient list, and the ease of zapping it up in a microwave, I have a feeling that this recipe is going to make into my own fledgling list of kitchen traditions.

Microwaveable Doodh Peda or Milk Fudge (makes 2 dozen)

1 14 oz. can of sweetened condensed milk

2 C non-fat dried milk

1 stick of unsalted butter

4 pods of green cardamom, peeled and finely ground

A pinch of saffron (optional)

Nuts (optional for garnish)

Place butter in a large microwavable bowl and microwave for about a minute, until butter is melted

Stir in dried milk and condensed milk until well mixed

Place bowl on a plate, and heat in microwave at full power for 4 minutes in 1 minute intervals

After each minute, remove from microwave and stir well

Watch carefully so that the mixture doesn't bubble over while heating (but in any case, that's what the plate beneath the bowl is for)

Once mixture is thickened to a fluffy ricotta-like consistency, add cardamom and saffron.

Mix well, and spread on plate to cool for about 2 minutes

Once it's cool enough to handle, make 1 inch balls and flatten out slightly to form a thick disk

Garnish top of disk with nuts or more saffron

Store for up to a week in the fridge

Mendiants

When life gives you lemons, you make lemonade.  So what do you do when life gives you leftover ice-cream toppings from a sundae party?  Why, you make mendiants, of course!

Perhaps I should explain.

This past weekend, we hosted our annual neighborhood ice-cream party in our garden.  The neighbors came.  We lingered over music and ice-cream sundaes and root-beer floats (that all-American thing that I still can’t stomach, but that’s a story for a different day).  But when all was said and done, we were still left with several cartons of ice-cream and tons and tons of toppings.  The ice-cream part was easy to dispatch – a small celebration at work to congratulate one of my colleagues took care of most of it.  But I was still left with a whole load of toppings including mini chocolate chips, dried coconut, salted pistachios, roasted cashews, and other yummy treats.

So, as I was taking stock of all the leftovers, it occurred to me that this would be a perfect time to make mendiants – something I’ve been wanting to do since Christmas, last year.  As I was also in the midst of planning a weekend getaway, I figured these would be a nice treat to bring along to share.

Mendiants are simply little disks of chocolate that are studded with a variety of nuts and dried fruits and allowed to set.  They are usually made by chocolatiers as a way to quickly fashion something out of leftover tempered chocolate.  Apparently, the name mendiant comes from the word mendicant, which would explain why my spellcheck infuriatingly keeps correcting my typing as I write this post.  Traditionally, mendiants showcased four different kinds of toppings representing the four different Roman Catholic monastic orders.  Inspired by the robes of the four orders, mendiants featured raisins for the Dominicans, hazelnuts for the Augustinians, dried figs for the Franciscans, and almonds for the Carmelites.  A quick search through Google did not satisfy me that the colors of the fruits and nuts really correspond to the robe colors of each of these orders, but then again, mendiants were invented far before the days of Google, so I guess I should not question it too much.

Anyhow, to get back to the kitchen, I decided to melt down the remainder of my chocolate chips and top them with various things to make my first batch of mendiants.  To make mendiants, it’s important to have a properly tempered chocolate.  One of my favorite websites, Cooking forEngineers, does a great job at explaining what tempering is and why it’s important.  But the Cliff’s Notes version is that properly tempered chocolate is essential for that unparalleled snap you hear when you bite into a quality piece of chocolate.  Now, if you go and read through the CforE site, you will see that there are many different ways to temper chocolate.  My preferred method for small scale applications like this recipe is the microwave method.  Essentially, this involves placing chocolate chips in a microwave-safe bowl, and heating at 30 second intervals and stirring in-between until about 80% of the chocolate is melted.  Follow this up with vigorous mixing of the chocolate until the unmelted chocolate melts into the already melted chocolate.  You can read all about the cool science behind this at the CforE site – this post is already too long, as it is.  I love dark chocolate, so this is pretty much the only kind I buy, but you can really make this with any kind of chocolate that you prefer.

Once you have your tempered chocolate, you are limited only by your imagination in making mendiants.  On the first batch, I went conventional with pistachios, dried coconut, golden raisins, and cashews.  But soon after, I was inspired to take it up a notch and made my second batch with dried mango, roasted cashews, toasted sesame, and a liberal pinch of sea-salt.  Both batches were delicious, and I can already see endless possibilities for future recipes.   

On that note, I would love to hear about the imaginative things you decide to put on your mendiants, but I only have one request – please, no BACON!

Mendiants

Tempered chocolate

Toppings – a variety of dried fruits and nuts

            Suggestions:

            Pistachios

            Cashews

            Dried coconut

            Raisins

            Sea salt

            Toasted sesame

            Dried figs or mangos

            A pinch of paprika

Layer a baking sheet with wax paper

Spoon tempered chocolate into 1-inch diameter disks

Before chocolate hardens, place toppings decoratively on top

Allow to set at room temperature or in the fridge

Store refrigerated up to 3 weeks in an airtight container

Nut Brittle

While I generally consider myself an adventurous cook, there are certain areas of the culinary arts that definitely intimidate me.  Therefore, scared off by burnt fingers, scalding hot sugar syrup, and pots and pans that are a nightmare to clean, I have generally steered clear of any type of candy making since my early experimenting days.  But a while ago, as I was walking down the cook’s tools aisle of my local store, my eye kept being drawn to a cute candy thermometer.  Maybe, just maybe, being armed with a gadget, would somehow help me overcome my fears of boiling syrup, I thought to myself.  Who knows, maybe candy making was my true calling, and I had been shirking from it all these years simply because I didn’t have the right tools.  At least, this is what I told  myself as I marched out of that store with a brand new candy thermometer.  

That was over a year ago.  This past week, as I was rummaging through my baking tools searching for some other impulsive purchase made and forgotten long ago, what did I stumble upon?  Yup, you guessed it – the candy thermometer!  There it was, still in its packaging, fading away inside a dark drawer.  Seized by feelings of shame at my own procrastination, I immediately ditched the original recipe that I was going to make, which is just as well, since I didn’t have any butter, which was called for in the recipe.  Instead, I decided, today would be the day to tackle my fears of boiling sugar syrup.

Having made that first bold decision, now I just had to settle on what to make.  I definitely wanted to start with something relatively easy.  And I had already bought a bunch of nuts for the other recipe that I thought I was going to be making that day.  So, with these two constraints, I settled on a nut brittle as the object of my first experiment with the candy thermometer.

After a quick search on the internet, I came across this recipe on Food and Wine.  Now, when one comes across the “Best-ever” anything, why would one search any further?  Besides, I was intrigued by the addition of salt to the brittle in this recipe, as I have always enjoyed the juxtaposition of salt and sweet.  I did feel that it lacked a little something in flavor, so I added a little bit of cardamom, which I think elevated these to something even more special.  I had both pistachio and peanuts on hand, so I used these nuts in two separate halves of the brittle.  

Since this recipe makes quite a large batch, I brought most of it to work to share with colleagues.  If the speed at which these disappeared is any indication of taste, then I think it’s safe to say that these were pretty darn tasty.  (Of course, it could also mean that scientists are particularly voracious brittle eaters, but you can see why I prefer the former interpretation.)  So, I must say, that apart from a few minor incidents involving hot syrup on delicate fingertips and bare toes, my preliminary foray into candy making was a resounding success.  It just goes to show that gadgets, even little ones like candy thermometers, do improve our lives, even if it is to just give us the confidence to try something new.

Recipe (adapted from Food and Wine)

2 cups sugar

1/2 cup water

1 stick unsalted butter

1/3 cup light corn syrup

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

12 ounces roasted salted peanuts, cashews, pistachios and/or pecans

6 green cardamom pods, peeled and finely ground

Coarse sea salt - enough to sprinkle lightly over your whole brittle

In a large saucepan, combine sugar, water, corn syrup, butter, and cardamom.  Bring to a boil**. 

Cook over moderately high heat, stirring occasionally, until the caramel is light brown and registers 300° on a candy thermometer.  This takes between 10 and 15 minutes. 

Remove from heat.  Place pan over a plate or baking tray and carefully stir in the baking soda. The mixture will bubble.

Stir in the nuts*, then immediately scrape the brittle onto a large rimmed, nonstick baking sheet.

Using the back of a large spoon, spread the brittle into a thin, even layer. Sprinkle with salt.

Let cool completely, about 30 minutes. Break the brittle into large shards.

Cook’s Notes

**Do not, and I repeat, do NOT touch the hot syrup with your fingers, lips, tongue, or really, any other body part.  It will stick to your skin and burn you, and no amount of hopping around screaming unholy words will help the sting.

*If you’d like to make two different types of nut brittles, you can simply spread the nuts thickly on two halves of your baking sheet, and pour the hot syrup over the nuts, rather than mixing the nuts into the syrup before pouring.

The brittle should store well at room temperature for up to a month, but I doubt that it will last that long.