My Love-Hate Affair with Marcona Almonds

I love almost everything about Marcona almonds: the albino color,the very slight slickness of their olive oil veneer, the light touch of sea salt, and, of course primarily, that incredible balanced of tastes (sweet, salt, umami).

But.

I hate the fact that this is a long-distance, commuting relationship, from Spain to our soul food kitchen in Tel Aviv. It simply doesn’t fit our sustainability ethos. I hate the price that I have to pay for this long-distance affair: crazy. Which means there are longish periods of time when I simply have to ogle from a distance, not being able to afford more frequent tastings. And of course I hate those intense periods of craving and dependency.

I was determined to find an alternative. Not easy to make a switch later in life and date someone new.

After a bit of hunting around in the south Tel Aviv Spice Market, I finally found a source for locally-cultivated, full-flavored almonds. Maybe not quite as plump as the Marcona brand, but still quite beautiful. Initially, I had planned on buying the almonds cum skins and blanch them myself. But both versions in the Market, interestingly enough, were priced the same. Fuck it. I’ll save myself the trouble. Despite a certain obstinacy about doing everything myself, I took home a kilo of the blanched ones.

Then came the whole issue of how best to roast them while retaining that lovely pallid color. After quite a bit of indecision, I coated a bunch in a habanero-infused olive oil I have handy, the by-product of my habanero confit and something I rarely have occasion to use. This particular oil can be searngly hot, but I figured, what the hell, test kitchen time. It was a quick, low-heat sautee, moving the almonds around constantly to avoid too much browning. A dousing of sea salt towards the end and then off the heat to let them cool off.

I suppose I could stretch this story out indefinitely but the bottom line is pretty simple: Yes, it wasn’t an easy thing to make such a change later in life. But you know what? Despite a few hitches here and there, it also wasn’t as traumatic as I had feared. Almonds are like that.