Do you think that to gift is to enslave? Sometimes I think that this is true, and maybe that is why I prefer to gift- I sure do love me them slaves. No wait, that's not true. I just love giving. Makes me feel good and all that.
Ummm, I'll just skip to the point and tell you about the tasty gifts that I made for some special people in my life.
Best Savoury Snack Mix (Good for Gifting)
"W" SAUCE MAC NUTS & SUN TOMS
1/2 cup Hawaiian mac nuts (slice nuts down the natural center crease)
1/2 cup dry sundried tomato slices
W SAUCE (rough recipe)
Vegan Worcestershire sauce found at Asian markets or health stores or (make your own if you have a good recipe)
A bit of chipotle powder
A bit of olive oil
A few slices of green onion
A bit of cumin powder
A bit of smoked paprika
Blend W sauce with a hand blender and pour over mac nuts and sun toms and soak for at least an hour. Make sure the tomatoes soak up the sauce and get soft.
OLIVE OIL KALE CHIPS
In a separate bowl:
1-2 bunches of curly kale or baby kale, or heck, any kale, washed, de-stemmed, torn into pieces and tossed with sea salt, black pepper & good extra virgin olive oil
PIRI PIRI NORI
In a separate bowl:
4-6 raw nori sheets, coated in a mixture of homemade piri piri (recipe a few posts down), garlic ferment brine & a dash of water (basically make a thick mixture of blended hot peppers, garlic, a dash of cider vinegar & salt and coat the nori sheets, if you don't have piri piri and garlic brine)
SMOKEY ONION RINGS
In a separate bowl:
Make a mixture of raw honey and a dash of water (enough to make the honey a bit more liquid but not too runny)
In a spice grinder bust up lapsang souchong tea into a powder. Empty into a bowl.
In a spice grinder bust up almonds into almond flour. Empty into the bowl with the tea powder.
Add sea salt to taste. I didn't measure the amounts of tea-to-almonds but don't over-do the tea, it's strong.
Thinly slice 1 red onion into rings and coat in the honey-water mixture, then coat in the almond tea mixture.
Place each component of the snack mix on a teflx sheet and dry overnight or perhaps longer for the onions. When dry, break the nori sheets into pieces relative to the size of the rest of the snack mix goodies.
If giving this as a gift, layer in a clear jar with instructions to toss together in a bowl before digging in.
Homemade gifts are the best, don't you think? Someone took a lot of time out of their busy schedule to think about you and tailor a gift to cater to your personality and tastes - so you better like it and you better be indebted to that thoughtful, wonderful person.
