Hubby Tony left Thursday morning for a retreat. Today the retreat ended with a mass, and there was a potluck luncheon afterward. Sunday is Tony's day to cook, but I went ahead and prepared a main dish salad that would be easy to pull out of the refrigerator when it was time to eat.
I made a shopping list, then went to the store and picked up ingredients that weren't already in the house. However, when I got home I realized that I had forgotten to put sliced almonds on the list. I could have turned around and gone back to the store, but decided to investigate alternate methods.
My recipe called for a half cup of sliced almonds. We had a Costco-sized bag of whole almonds in the freezer, so I decided to find out if it was possible to convert whole almonds to sliced. Turns out that following this article, it was easy.
There were just a couple of steps:
Blanching - I poured boiling water over the almonds and let them sit for five minutes.
Peeling - After soaking, I drained the almonds and let them cool off a little bit. The skin was really loose, and slipped right off.
Slicing - I tried to slice the almonds horizontally, but it was too much work. My slices were thick and uneven. I wasn't trying to impress anyone, so I decided to sliver them vertically.
Toasting - I let the almonds dry out, then toasted the slivers in a small frying pan until they became a nice light brown color.
Preparing the almonds turned out to be the hardest part of the recipe. I mixed them in with the greens, grains, dried cranberries, vinaigrette, and feta then called dinner made.
Five years ago today: My Friend The Frog
Yay! That sounds great! I think I have Costco sized walnuts in the freezer.
ReplyDeleteWe do too.
DeleteProblem solved!
ReplyDeleteYes! And I saved gas and auto emissions on this Earth Day weekend.
DeleteMy invitation must have gotten lost in the mail.
ReplyDeleteNext time :-)
DeleteI'm hungry.
ReplyDeleteGod bless.
I'm sorry!
DeleteI've blanched almonds a few times and like the way the skin just slips off so easily. For some reason, its entertaining.
ReplyDeleteI agree. Removing the skins was very meditative.
DeleteI imagine the women on the prairies who had to make do. We certainly know how to improvise and find a way. Salad sound delicious.
ReplyDeleteGood observations.
DeleteThat sounds really good! I don't know if I would have gone through the trouble to sliver the almonds but it's good to know how to do it if I ever wanted to!
ReplyDeleteA nice side benefit of soaking to remove the skins was that the nuts were much easier to cut up.
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