glazed maple-soy almonds

These salty-sweet-hot nuts take minutes to make, you can scale them up or down in whatever amount you need. Serve them as something to crunch on with cocktails or toss them in this salmon salad or this cabbage slaw. You can use raw whole almonds, slivered almonds, or sliced almonds. Try them once and you’ll be making them for a lifetime. I guarantee it.

ingredients

1 tablespoon butter
3/4 cup whole raw, blanched, or slivered almonds
kosher salt
2 tablespoons low-sodium soy sauce
1 tablespoon maple syrup (preferably Grade B)
pinch cayenne, optional

directions

Line a baking sheet with parchment or wax paper and set it alongside your stove.

In a nonstick frying pan, melt the butter. Add the almonds and a pinch of salt. Cook, stirring, over medium-high heat, until almonds start to toast (about 1 minute). Pour in soy sauce and maple syrup and, if you want them spicy, the pinch of cayenne if. Keep stirring until the mixture looks bubbly and thickened and smells almost caramelized, 2 to 3 minutes. Remove from heat and spread nuts on parchment-lined pan to separate them. Set aside until cool (they will be a bit sticky). Almonds an be made  in advance; store in a sealed container at room temperature for up to a day or transfer to a plastic bag and freeze for up to a month.