Spicy, tingly snack mix
Plus, an in-person event ALL ABOUT SPICES 10/3 in Cambridge, MA!
Wow - NY, Boston, you showed up! The Chinese Way is officially published and my heart is so full! I’ll do a more comprehensive recap of the launch and tour next week, when I’ve had a chance to process everything, but in the meantime, a recipe for snack mix
A few links before we get into my new favorite snack mix recipe. Boston/Cambridge folks, I have an intimate book event and spice tasting at Curio Spice shop on Thursday, October 3rd, at 7pm! Claire and I will be chatting about the book and about how we dreamed up the new chile crisp dust. I’m also on Maggie’s genius new podcast, THE DINNER PLAN, with two recipes from the book on the substack!
One of the best parts of being in the food community is meeting like-minded, talented folks and being able to work with them. Many many years ago, I hosted food photography workshops and experiences around the world (Japan, Greece, Italy!!!). Having the opportunity to work with chefs, stylists, and other photographers - meeting them to create an experience, was immensely rewarding. I met Claire a few years ago, and since I first tried the spices from Curio Spice, I was hooked. The one ingredient type I won’t cheap out on are spices: they hold so much flavor, but you have to find high quality ones. We came out with a dream collaboration: a spice mix based on my chile crisp!!!! It’s made of up 10 ingredients: chilies, garlic, shallot, sea salt, shiitake, Sichuan pepper berries, orange peel, fennel, star anise, cinnamon. That’s it. We did a few variations ( as you can see ) and it has been just so much fun developing this with Claire. It’s tingly with citrus-y notes, and full of umami from garlic, shallot, and shiitake. I’m completely addicted to it and hope you will be too.
Now onto this recipe. It’s inspired by the classic Hawaiian snack mix, which uses a soy-butter mix and furikake. Here, I use a similar soy-butter mix, with maple syrup for sweetness, coated then with the chile crisp dust. You can use whatever spicy spice mix you have at home, but I implore you to try this. It’s spicy, tingly and a bit numbing, with citrus notes, and full of umami flavor.
Chile Crisp Dust Snack Mix
3 cups corn chex mix
3 cups rice chex mix
2 cups pretzel sticks
2 cups plain cheezits
1 pack shin ramen (optional, crushed, toss or save their spice mix)
Other optional add ins: bagel crackers, bugles, cheetos, etc
1/2 cup unsalted butter, cut into cubes for easier melting
1/3 cup maple syrup
2 tablespoons sugar
1/3 cup neutral cooking oil
1 tablespoon soy sauce or tamari
3 tablespoons chile crisp dust
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
Preheat oven to 250F.
In a large bowl, toss chex, ramen, and other add ins together. Set aside while you make the soy butter chile sauce.
In a sauce pan, combine butter, sugar, maple syrup, cooking oil together. Heat, constantly stirring, until butter is foamy and the sugar and maple syrup have dissolved and started to caramelize a bit.
Stir in soy sauce
Pour over chex mix, and stir to evenly combine. Add chile crisp dust and black pepper and make sure it is evenly coated. Divide into two rimmed baking sheets, spreading mix out evenly.
Bake for 60 minutes, and at every 15 minutes, take out baking sheets and mix to expose a new part of the cereal/crackers to the oven. The point of this step is to crisp up the crackers and ensure the spice mix is “stuck” on them.
Let cool and store. Try not to eat it all in one batch!
Warmly,
Betty