Arigato Bento (#122)

This snack bento was a Thank You present for elm@, who was kind enough to lend me her copy of Iris Murdoch’s The Sea, The Sea. It was sort of a “mea culpa” at the same time, because I’ve held on to the book for way too long!

Elm@ is the same sweet person who gave me a load of bento goodies in March, so this seemed like an appropriate gift.

Contents

• Lollo Rosso lettuce
• emmental Babybel cheese
• mint
• usagi ringo (apple bunny) with sesame eyes and Smarties candy nose, which refused to stay stuck, sitting on..
• a container of powdered sugar for the home-made pumpkin cookie
• sweet ’n spicy nuts (pecan & almonds) with dried cranberries
• mini plum tomato ‘pears’ with basil
• baby fig
• Dove chocolate
• vodka filled chocolate candy
• fake hamburger sweet (hiding under nuts)
• rice crackers

The sweet & spicy nuts make a great bento stash so let’s share the recipe!

Sweet ’n spicy nuts

We have enjoyed this nutty snack on picnics, shared it at ‘bring a dish’ buffets (potluck) and even served it as mezze.

Ingredients

• 250 g white almonds
• 250 g pecans
• 3 tablespoon sugar
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
• just a pinch of ground cloves
• 1/2 teaspoon curry powder
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cumin

Preparation

• Preheat oven at 180 ºC.
• Line griddle with baking paper and spread almonds & pecan nuts over it. Roast for 5-10 minutes in oven until golden.
• Let them cool.
• Mix sugar & spices in a bowl.
• Heat a large skillet.
• Scoop nuts into pan and toss sugar/spice mix over them.
• Bake for 5 minutes on medium heat while stirring: the nuts need to get covered by melted sugar. Shake pan when necessary and use a wooden spoon to keep the nuts from sticking together (too much).
• Spread the nuts on a baking sheet to cool down again.

Preparation time: 20 minutes
Cooking time: 20 minutes
Servings: plenty :)

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