Snacks: 1099 - Cantonés Músico: mixed And 1100 - Nutmeg-flavoured popcorn with Reypenaer 2005

Walnuts, Pistachios, Pine Nuts

1099 - Cantonés Músico: mixed

This is another easy-but-time-consuming elBulli snack. The main ingredient that most of us in North America won't be able to grab easily is Rosemary Honey. Fortunately it's easy to make. Just get yourself a 2 pound jar of regular honey, pour off a little, stuff in three or four sprigs of fresh Rosemary and microwave it for a minute or so. Keep a close eye on the honey as it heats up - you don't want to have to clean a pound of boiling hot honey out of your microwave. Then put the cover back on and set the mixture aside for a couple days.

The Nuts

Walnuts and pistachios are easy. The only catch is you want nice looking walnut halves. Pine nuts are another story. Look at the ones in the picture up there. Those are the real thing. Long and pointy. Do not, under any circumstances, try to make this with the little triangular Asian pine nuts you can get in the grocery store. They taste like dirt. I got all my nuts from Nuts.com.

Cook 'em

I combined honey, water and sugar in a large bowl and warmed the mixture in the microwave for two minutes. Then I whisked the mixture until the sugar dissolved.

Simmering walnuts

I added about a cup of the honey mixture to a little pan, dumped in the walnuts and brought it to a boil. The I scooped out the nuts, poured off the honey and repeated the process twice more. And repeated that process for the pistachios and pine nuts. As each nut was finished I popped them into a small container and covered 'em with their cooking liquid.

Yes, after I shot this I strained the pine nut syrup.

Covered 'em up and into the 'fridge for 24 hours.

Nuts and spices

Next day, I warmed up the deep fryer to 165 C and strained out the nuts. Then I whizzed up the coriander seed, star anise and Szechuan peppercorns in my trusty re-purposed coffee grinder.

Since the pistachios and pine nuts would fall through the regular fryer basket I did 'em all in a regular all metal strainer. You have to fry each nut separately since you're going for caramelized and pine nuts would be carbonized by the time the pistachios were ready. The pine nuts took about 90 seconds, the walnuts about 2 minutes and the pistachios about 3.5 minutes.

I dumped each nut out onto a sheet of parchment paper and sprinkled on some of the spice mix and a little salt.  Then I let them all cool and crisp up. I found they were a little oily so I gently pressed the nuts between paper towels before is served 'em.

An elBulli size serving. Ha.

How it tastes: Amazing. The absolutely best candied spiced nuts you'll ever have. We'll make this stuff in quantity for the tiki bar when we move back to Minneapolis. The best snack so far.

1100 - Nutmeg-flavoured popcorn with Reypenaer

This is another one of those sort of strange combinations elBulli was known for that somehow works amazingly well. It's just cheese crisps, microwave popcorn, and a little grated nutmeg.

Reypenaer is a type of aged Gouda. I just grated a bunch on the fine side of a box grated and divided it into 10 6 cm. circles. Those get baked at 410F until they're melted and starting to crisp up.  Meanwhile, I popped a bag of plain microwave popcorn and picked out 40 nice kernels.

I set the popcorn out in pairs and topped each pair with half a cheese crisp. Then under the broiler for a couple minutes...

1.5 elBulli Servings. The whole batch lasted about 5 minutes.

And there you go.

How it tastes: Yum. Reypenaer is quite salty and somewhat oily when melted. These little guys are pretty much perfect cocktail snacks. It's also pretty obvious that a home broiler isn't up to crisping these snacks the way a commercial salamander would. We both loved these.

Equipment and Ingredients

The Books: El Bulli 2005-2011 - Yes, freakin' expensive. Check with your local library - they may well be "in the system" and available to be reserved.

Pine Nuts: get the real thing. The Asian pine nuts from the grocery store in the little cellophane packet taste like dirt. I bought mine from Nuts.com.

Reypenaer: Even our crummy Giant grocery carries this cheese so it shouldn't be too hard to locate.

Silpat or other non-stick baking mat - Note the various sizes.
A scale that measures in grams