The Best Cocktail Bar Nuts!

This is the famous NY Union Square Cafe recipe for bar nuts. I've seen a lot of chefs go gaga over this recipe on Food Network. This recipe has also won the 'Best Bar Nuts in NY City' award. And so I thought, I have to make this and decide for myself if its really worth going gaga over.

And yes, it absolutely is.

Here's the recipe for the nuts from the food network site - The Union Square Cafe's Bar Nuts

The original recipe calls for Unsalted nuts and then to add Kosher salt. But, I had salted nuts and just used that and skipped adding the Kosher salt later.

For the nuts, you will need mixed nuts - you can add Cashews, Walnuts, Peanuts, Brazil nuts, Almonds, Pecans, Macadamia nuts etc.

Pre heat the over to 350F. Place the mixed nuts, about 2 1/4 cups, on a baking sheet and bake for about 8-10 minutes until they are a little golden and the oils start coming out. If you are using raw nuts, make sure they get toasted good. Mine were toasted and salted, so I cut down on the baking time a little.

You will need fresh rosemary for this recipe. This is what gives a ton of flavor to the nuts.

Here's my fresh rosemary - washed and chopped roughly. Move the chopped rosemary to a mixing bowl. You will need to add about 2 tbsps of fresh rosemary.

Add 1/2 tsp of cayenne pepper. You could also use regular red chilli powder or kashmiri red chilli.

Add 2 tsp of brown sugar. The recipe calls for dark brown sugar. But, mine was lite brown and I thought it still tasted awesome.

Chop about 1 tbsp butter into small pieces and add to the bowl. Now, you're ready to mix the nuts.

Can you see the nuts are almost done here. They all have a shiny coat of the natural oils.

Now, add the warm nuts to the mixing bowl that has the butter and the other ingredients. The heat from the nuts melt all the butter. Let this sit for a min before mixing up the ingredients. That will ensure that all of the butter is melted.

Just toss around for a few times until all the ingredients are incorporated well.

You're done. Move to a serving bowl and serve at once while the nuts are still warm.

And yes, just like everyone who has talked about or wrote about these nuts, you CANNOT stop at one or two. These are delicious. I can't say much - you just have to try it out for yourself. Go ahead and Go Nuts!

Enjoy. Peace Out!