Chuckls' Sweet and Spicy Smoked Almonds (with secret ingredient)

chuckls

<p />Here's a recipe just in time for the holidays - make some up & pass out to your friends, or coworkers that are always commenting (enviously) on your microwaved BBQ you bring in for lunch...[p]>>>>>>>[p]I've been working for some time on perfecting my smoked almond recipe and techniques. I'd like to present now my "Chuckls' Sweet and Spicy Smoked Almonds" recipe for the Big Green Egg. Note that my objective was to keep a bit of fire in the product, develop a technique that allows the coarse-grained kosher salt and turbinado sugar to stick, and, of course, imparts that wonderful BGE-smoked flavor.[p]Marinade:
1/3 c soy sauce
2 tbsp maple syrup (or substitute 1 tbsp blackstrap molassas)
1 tsp Tabasco (leave out for not so hot)
1 tbsp chile sauce (for example, sambal oleck or the Vietnamese Rooster brand)
2 tsp worcestershire sauce[p]Primary Ingredients:
1 lb (16 oz) natural (raw) almonds[p]Secret Ingredients:
6 or so dried apricots, cut with kitchen scissors to almond size.[p]Sprinkles:
1 1/2 tbsp kosher salt (I use Morton's)
1 1/2 tbsp turbinado sugar (I use Maui brand)
For an amazing taste, substitute 1 tsp of "Colorado Buffalo Salt", Smoked Jalopeno flavor for 1 tsp of the kosher salt. This stuff is awesome -every Egger should have some in their pantry. www.coloradobuffalosalt.com[p]Preparation:
Whisk together the marinade. Add the primary and secret ingredients. Let sit for 2-3 hours, stirring to recoat the ingredients occasionally. Actually, if you are in a hurry, 20 minutes will do it.[p]The cook:
Mix the sprinkles together in a small dish. Separate the almonds from the marinade, saving the marinade. Put the almonds in a perforated veggie wok sprayed with Pam. Prepare your Egg for indirect at 300 deg or a bit less (I use a pizza stone). Add some hickory chunks or your favorite mild smoke, then cover your pizza stone with aluminum foil. Put the wok with almonds in the egg, spaced up off the pizza stone with some firebrick. Sprinkle with a bit of the sugar/salt mixture.[p]Let smoke for 10-15 minutes, then here's the secret. Open the egg, stir the almonds around with a wooden spoon, and baste with some of the remaining marinade. Sprinkle on more of the sugar/salt mixture. Repeat every 15-20 minutes until the marinade is gone, and so are the sprinkles. The secret is to keep basting with the marinade until it's gone. This technique will develop a nice coating on the almonds that will hold the sprinkles really well.[p]Cook time is an hour and a quarter to an hour and a half. Be sure to keep a close eye on the almonds during the last part of the cook, and stir often. Don't let them burn! [p]You'll be amazed at the flavor these almonds have. The dried apricots really soak up the marindade & after smoking them they pack quite a punch! [p]>>>>>>>>>[p]Chuck

Midnight Smoker

chuckls,
Sounds GREATTT! But I have one question......you say seperate almonds from marinade.....then you talk about the apricots being tasty.......do you smoke the almonds AND the apricots at the same time OR do they just get in there when you're basting? Thanks, Paul

chuckls

Midnight Smoker,[p]You smoke the apricots with the almonds. Gives a nice texture and smokey flavor to the apricots, after they've absorbed the marinade.[p]Chuck

eggor

chuckls,
were you going to put this into the recipe into the submitted recipe section? and does good ol heinz chili sauce work or is "sambal oleck or the Vietnamese Rooster" something special?[p]Scott

Pakak

eggor,[p]I'm purty sure the VietnameseRooster chili sauce is the one I'm thinking of that is a HOT chili sauce. Heinz is more like chunky ketchup. While it may work, they're purty different things.

chuckls

eggor,[p]I can submit this, thanks for the thought[p]Chuck