Author Notes
On our last date night (thanks for babysitting, helenthenanny!), my husband and I had a few bar snacks at Swift's Attic, a very cool new restaurant in downtown Austin. By far our favorite was the blackened edamame pods served with salt and spicy pop rocks- we devoured them. Since I just so happened to have unflavored pop rocks on hand left over from my molecular gastronomy dinner party, I thought I'd take a stab at recreating this fun dish. If you don't feel like special ordering unflavored pop rocks, you could leave them out, or get really crazy and try using one of the flavored packs you can find in a gas station- maybe the Savage Sour Apple flavor? Or not! —arielleclementine
Ingredients
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2-3
fresh green Thai chiles or serranos
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1/4 cup
canola oil
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10 ounces
fresh or defrosted edamame, in pods, dried with a kitchen towel
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1 tablespoon
smoked sea salt
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1 tablespoon
unflavored pop rocks
Directions
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Smash your green chiles with the butt of your chef's knife until they split apart in a few places. Give one a cautious taste and, depending on how spicy you like things, add two or three to a cast iron skillet along with the canola oil. Infuse the oil over low heat for 5 minutes or so, then remove the chiles.
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You've got two options for cooking the chiles: 1) If you've got a lit grill and a grilling basket, that's your best option. Toss the edamame pods with the chile oil and put them in the grilling basket. Cook, shaking your basket, over high heat until the pods are black and charred in spots. 2) If you don't feel like grilling, do as I did and keep the chile oil in the cast iron skillet, crank the heat to high, and add the edamame, using tongs to toss them a bit so they all get a coating of the chile oil. Keep cooking until the edamame is well-dappled with brown and crispy spots.
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Mix the smoked sea salt and unflavored pop rocks in a small bowl and serve on a platter with the charred edamame pods. To eat, dip each (pleasantly) charred, (pleasantly) oily pod into the salt mixture, use your teeth to pop out the beans, and enjoy!
I have always loved food. My favorite books as a kid always featured food (eg. The Berenstain Bears Get the Gimmies- so much candy!) and I loved cooking shows like Yan Can Cook and The Frugal Gourmet. I started cooking the Thanksgiving dinner for my family when I was 13 years old. I have food52 to thank for inspiring me to come up with my own recipes, as well as for introducing me to a community of fantastic cooks and their amazing recipes. I try my best to cook locally and seasonally, and I tend to prefer straightforward, simple recipes where the ingredients get to shine. I live in wonderful Austin, Texas with my husband, Andy (a video game programmer) and my son, Henry (an 8-month-old who loves to eat).
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