Food for Thought
There are many foods that people can enjoy. Many foods provide great nourishment, as well as being delicious. Not only that some foods need to be prepared, even cooked, in order to be eating. Even the way food is prepared affects the nutrients and the taste.
While some foods need preparation and cooking, some are edible raw. These foods can be served up through a variety of ways, with cooking aiding that.
One such food is pecans, which can be enjoyed in a variety of ways. One example lies in glazed pecans.
Pecans
Nuts are one great source of nourishment to be enjoyed, unless you are sadly allergic to them. Nutritious, delicious and adaptable, pecans can be enjoyed in many ways.
It is seen that all nuts are nutritious, with pecans sitting at the top of the tree. High in all the right nutrients, pecans even help lower “bad” cholesterol. Seen as a refined food, they are enjoyed globally, especially hot and humid places. As old as pecan trees are, they only started being commercially harvested in America in the 1880’s.
Art of Glazed Foods
In seeing that foods, or ingredients, can change with the way it is cooked, glazing is one way to change it. Glazing is added to baking, in that it adds flavour. This requires covering a food item in a glazing substance, like egg whites and basic icings.
Here is a look at two tasty alternatives to the traditional glazed pecans.
Recipes
Below are two alternatives to the classic, Glazed Pecans;
Honey Glazed Pecans
Ingredients
• 1/3 cup of warmed honey
• 1 cup of pecans
• 1 tablespoon of sugar
Method
• Preheat the oven to 350 F
• Mix the honey and pecans together. Make sure that the pecans are evenly coated. Does not have to be perfect, but as much as you can.
• Layer these covered, soon to be glazed, pecans in a shallow baking pan.
o I, personally, have found that a skillet does the job to perfection.
• Sprinkle the pecan nuts with sugar.
• Place in the middle of the oven, to bake for 15 minutes.
• Stir the pecans evenly around the mix. This ensures that you end with the perfect glazed pecans.
• Bake for five minutes more to finish off.
• While the pecans are still warm, transfer them to a sheet of foil, separating them all.
• Leave to cool for an hour. Perfect honey glazed pecans.
Maple Glazed Pecans
Ingredients
• 1 lb of pecan halves
• 1/2 c of Maple syrup
• 1.5 tablespoon of heavy cream
• 1.5 tablespoon of Grand Marnier
• 0.25 teaspoon of salt
• 0.25 teaspoon of cinnamon
Method
• Preheat the oven to 350 F.
• Place pecans on a cooking sheet.
• Bake pecans for 12 to 15 minutes.
• As pecans bake, prepare the glazing mix.
o Take a large skillet, and heat the maple syrup, cream and Grand Marnier mix.
• Boil glazing mix for two minutes. Add salt, cinnamon and the pecans.
• Stir the pecans into the mix.
o Make sure that all the pecans are fully coated with the juicy mix.
• Place the freshly glazed pecans back on the baking sheet.
• Slide them back in the oven to bake for ten minutes.
• Remove, and cool for 30-45 minutes.
• Break the glazed pecans apart if necessary.
• If saving for later, keep in an airtight container. This way, you can enjoy your glazed pecans whenever you want.
