The Union Square Cafe's Bar Nuts
From Nigella Bites
'You might think that nuts, untampered with, are perfect picking food as they are. But try these, modestly adapted from the recipe for the spiced nuts served at the Union Square Cafe in New York, and you'll truly know what perfection is. '
500 g assorted unsalted nuts.
2 tablespoons coarsely chopped fresh rosemary
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
2 teaspoons dark muscovado sugar
2 teaspoons Maldon salt
1 tablespoon unsalted butter, melted
Preheat the oven to 180C/ gas mark 4
Toss the nuts in a large bowl to combine and spread them out on a baking sheet. Toast in the oven till they become light golden-brown, about 10 minutes.
In a large bowl, combine the rosemary, cayenne, muscovado sugar, salt and melted butter.
Thoroughly toss the toasted nuts in the spiced butter and serve warm.
egg custard
Serves 4
400ml double cream
175ml full fat milk
6 egg yolks
6 tbsp runny honey
freshly grated nutmeg
Preheat the oven to 160 degrees / gas 3
Heat the cream and milk together until almost boiling, then remove from the heat. Beat the eggs and half the honey together, then pour in the hot cream mixture.
Drizzle the remaining honey into ramekins. Grate a little nutmeg on top of the honey, then pour in the custard. Sprinkle the top with a little more grated nutmeg.
Put the ramekins in a baking tray and pour in hot water to come halfway up the sides of the moulds. Place in the oven and bake for 50-60 minutes or until just set. Remove ramekins from water and allow to cool. Keep in the fridge until half an hour before serving.
Hazelnut Cake for Passover
200g ground hazelnuts
5 eggs
175g caster sugar
100g melted butter
1 tsp vanilla extract
Heat oven to 180c / gas 4. Butter and line the base of a 20cm round deep cake tin.
Separate eggs into bowls. Tip sugar onto yolks. Whisk for about 3 minutes until pale and frothy.
Gradually whisk in the melted butter, then fold in the hazelnuts and vanilla.
Whisk egg whites until stiff, then gently fold into cake mixture. Pour into the prepared tin, then bake for 50-60 minutes until cake feels firm.
Cool in tin for 10 minutes, then turn out, peel off the paper and cool.
