Gilding the lily: pistachio nut brittle.

The last entry I posted was one for chamomile poached apricots. Lemme tell you gang. That dessert is FREAKING good. It was very hard for Annalena and her guy, Guy, to not eat the entire pint of them (and since today is probably a weigh in at the gym, as Annalena goes back to personal training), this was a good thing. You should make them
You should also get Claudia Fleming's book, if for no other reason than when she gives a recipe, she also gives suggestions for combining different dessert elements. Every dessert can stand on its own, but if you want something "composed" or "complex" she has suggestions.
She suggested some cornmeal nut cookies to go with this dish, and I just was not in the mood to make the cookies; however, I flipped open the next page and found a recipe for pistachio nut brittle. Well, why not?
I am hard pressed to think of someone who does not like nut brittles. Maybe if you have some sever diverticulitis, or something like that, you can't eat them. But when was the last time you ate a piece of really GOOD brittle? Probably peanut. And well made, that's a truly good thing. I like to play with different nuts, however. Italian cooking has a similar candy, called "croccante," that is always made with almonds. It's good. In fact, it's GOOD. I make it at Xmas.
But candy like brittle is very easy to make. I SWEAR you can make this candy in less than half an hour. And it keeps forever. So Redd, get into the kitchen. You can do this. I'll check with Susan to make sure you made it, and not her.

First, you need half a pound of shelled pistachio nuts. Get the untoasted ones, because you're going to toast them yourself. You spread them out in one layer on a baking sheet, and put them in a 350 oven. It will probably take about 10 minutes, but pay attention to your nose. If the nuts begin to smell toasty, get them out of the oven ahead of time. No man wants to burn his nuts!

Make of that what you like.

While those nuts are toasting, get a heavy pan (this is where I use nonstick) and combine 1 1/3 cups of sugar, a half cup of water a quarter cup of light corn syrup and 2.5 tablespoons of unsalted butter. Bring this all to a boil, and then lower the heat. Keep an eye on it, and let it get to a nice dark golden brown. Sugar turns to yucky coal very quickly, so again, watch this. You'll get a lot of bubbling at the top, and that will be white, so shake the pot every now and then.

While this is happening, grease a baking sheet, and a spatula. And when you get to the dark shade you like, pour the nuts in, together with a quarter teaspoon each of salt, and baking soda. Then, move FAST. Dump this all onto the buttered baking sheet, get your buttered spatula, and spread it out thin. Press down if you have to, this is going to harden very quickly. Then just put it aside, and let it harden. It won't take long. Maybe half an hour

When you have that, break it into small pieces and put it in a metal container, unrefrigerated ,where it will keep until the end of recorded time. Put it in as a shard to entertain with ice cream, or with the apricots we just made, or just dole it out as a nice little candy at the end of a meal.

I guarantee you, once you make this, you will make it again. You'll substitute nuts (try macadamians), you'll explore different sugars, and you'll have a ball. And you'll have new good friends, because everybody loves candy.