Provence: The Cookbook by Caroline Rimbert Craig

Author:Caroline Rimbert Craig
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Octopus
Published: 2019-05-09T00:00:00+00:00

toasted almonds

Almond trees blossom early in the New Year, in the dead of winter and the fruit is picked at the height of summer. Our family production isn’t commercial by any means. We pick those we can reach and those we can’t we knock off with long sticks to fall on the ground. The best way to eat them is raw, as nature intended, but toasted and lightly salted, as my great uncle Tonton Jo did in vast quantities after his own harvest, they make a perfect savoury apéritif nibble. Tonton Jo would soak them before roasting, but I find this an unnecessary step.

Apéritif snacks are very much a thing in France and home drinks cabinets are stuffed to the brim with assorted packets of cheesy biscuits, peanut-flavoured crisps and other gloriously odd-shaped shop-bought nibbles. It’s always rather nice to have something homemade, too, though. When I’m having people over on weeknights, a bowl of toasted, salted almonds on the table and a negroni cocktail thrust in friends’ hands as they step in the door amount to borrowed time for me to finish clattering around the kitchen.

Serves 8

400g shelled almonds

1 teaspoon rock salt

½ teaspoon paprika or piment d’espelette

2 teaspoons olive oil

Preheat the oven to 160˚C/140˚C fan/gas mark 3. Lay the almonds on a baking tray and bake for 25–30 minutes. Keep an eye on them as oven temperatures do vary. Pound the salt to a fine powder in a mortar and mix with the paprika.

After the almonds have toasted, drizzle over the olive oil and sprinkle over the prepared salt and paprika. Shake the tray to coat evenly, then return to the oven for a further 5 minutes. Remove from the oven and cool before storing in an airtight container or placing in bowls and eating. They will keep in a sealed container for a few weeks.

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