Sweet & Spicy Snack Mix

I have this problem with Racheal Ray.  And, surprisingly, it's not the perkiness.  

When you think about it, I should admire her.  She's the first to admit that she's not a chef--she's a cook.  She rose to stardom by finding a niche and filling it--evidently filling it very well, if her now pervasive media presence is any indication of her popularity.  She earned a loyal following by doing something I fully support--stripping the difficulty from making new, exotic, interesting recipes and bringing quick, easy, and filling recipes to the masses, and giving people the confidence to branch out in their weeknight cooking.  Plus she seems just like a regular person--not a food genius, not a perfect technician, not a super-skinny spokesmodel (GIADA, i'm looking at you.  There's no way you eat the food you cook.) 

All of these things, I love.  I actually like her show, aside from cringing every time she says "EVOO" or markets some product with a twee name like a "spoonula." None of these things, however, are my problem with her.

It's her recipes.  

She's got tons of great food ideas.  But, by and large, at least with her recipes that I've made, they're VERY poorly tested.  The balance of ingredients is way off (like her sausage and spinach drunken risotto that called for 3 cups of red wine, and buried all other flavors besides wine in the finished dish).  The recipes lack specifics when they are seriously  needed, or just plain don't work.  Rarely do I make a recipe of hers without carefully monitoring it every step of the way, ready to fix, adjust, and abandon it halfway through if needed. When you stop paying attention to her recipes and trust them, more often than not you wished you'd modified something halfway through.  

This snack mix is no exception (I'll get to that) but DAMN if it isn't good.  Incredibly addictive, spicy and sweet, it's one bowl you can't stop reaching into.  The first time I made it, however, I was certain it would be a dud.  See, you cook butter, sesame seeds, brown sugar, red pepper and soy sauce on the stove, then stir in chow mein noodles and spread it out to harden into crunchy bits.  

But, because the recipe doesn't say how long to cook the caramel or to what temperature, there is no way to tell if it's reached the right stage to harden, instead of just congealing into a sticky mass--not the consistency you want in a snack mix.  Faced with this traumatic result, I just stuck the whole sheet into the oven for 15 minutes, hoping it would get the job done--and it did!  It dried out the sticky, crunched up the chewy, and resulted in this getting made a second time--and probably many more times to come.  


This is a crunchy, sweet, spicy, salty, slightly exotic snack mix that is worth making, especially when you've had one too many bowls of chex mix or gorp...or just want to try something different.  Adapted recipe after the jump. 


Sweet & Spicy Snack Mix
Adapted from Rachael Ray magazine, not sure what issue


2 Tbsp butter
1/4 cup sesame seeds
1/2 tsp red pepper flakes
1/3 cup brown sugar
2 Tbsp soy sauce
2 cups chow mein noodles
1 cup cocktail peanuts
1 cup wasabi peas


Melt butter in a skillet over medium heat, then add sesame seeds and red pepper flakes and cook until golden.  Add brown sugar an stir until starting to dissolve, then add soy sauce and bring mixture to a boil (be careful, as it can bubble and splatter). Remove from heat and stir in chow mein noodles.  Spread on a parchment-lined baking sheet.  


When mixture is cool, break into pieces and put in a large bowl. Stir in wasabi peas and peanuts.  Serve, being prepared to be astounded at the speed with which it disappears.