Cooking with Braddy: Ginger Almonds

Once upon a time, I had a roommate who was pretty into Alton Brown's Good Eats. We sat down and watched an episode focused on health food and came across this recipe, which Mr. Brown recommended as an alternative to overly sugary or salty snacks.

I'd made the recipe before, but the results were less than optimal. I tried to double the recipe, but my poor little cast-iron skillet wasn't quite up to the task, and the seasonings didn't get spread around as much as they should have. I tried it again with the correct amounts of everything, and it's worked much better this time.

The recipe calls for a single arbol chile. I don't use arbol chiles that much, so it took me a while to find them. Turns out they're sold in the Mexican food aisle, and they come in packages like this:

And I needed ONE chile. So I'll probably be making this recipe again... out of necessity.

It's pretty easy to make up a batch of ginger almonds, and they're aromatic enough that it's worth it. I mean, it's good enough to have the scent of the chiles and the ginger, but when it comes time to tip in the Worcestershire sauce, the entire room fills with a really spicy aroma. My nose literally ran with excitement.

Ginger almonds don't take that much effort to make, and a lot of that time is pretty passive (they bake for about twenty minutes, just enough time to watch an episode of My Little Pony Manly Guns and Chainsaws on YouTube. Each handful is full of flavor, and they make for a very satisfying and healthy snack. Well, "healthy" if Alton Brown is to be believed. Which I'm not sure he is. He looks like a liar sometimes.