Pumpkin Seed Praline

If you wanted to call this pumpkin seed brittle, be my guest. To paraphrase Juliet Capulet, a praline by any other name would taste as sweet. Not that, actually, this is incredibly sweet- the point about praline is to have the caramel just on the cusp of bitterness so although it's sugary it isn't cloying and the bottle green pumpkin seeds that get strewn in add an oily savouriness of their own. What you end up with is a shard of brittle that looks like a great chunk from a medieval stained-glass window.
This will work fabulously wish many nuts: blanched and flaked almonds, extravagant macadamias, pecans etc. However the important thing is that you buy good, fresh organic ones not the bleached supermarket kind, and although it is true that toasting any nut or seed brings out the flavour, in this context it would mean too much oil would leak into the caramel and you'd get soft chew, not crunch.

All the ingredients are given in the metric system, but it's much easier to use a set of cup measures or even a small mug- it's the ratio that's important which is, 1 cup sugar, to 1/2 cup water to 1/2 cup pumpkin seeds.
200g granulated sugar
125ml water
Good pinch sea salt
125g pumpkin seeds

Place a sheet of lightly oiled foil, or if you own a sheet of non stick silicone do use that, over a baking sheet.
In a medium saucepan with a thick base, mix the sugar, water and salt together until the sugar is immersed and beginning to dissolve and then remove the fork or other stirring utensil and set it well aside before you set a medium-high heat under the pan. Stirring at heating stage is forbidden and will cause your caramel to crystallise. As the sugar melts, gently swirl the pan to help the process along. Without leaving the pan unattended, allow the sugar to boil for about 6 minutes until it thickens and turns a deep gold, but you mustn't let it go very dark or it will taste bitter. Switch off the heat and quickly scatter over the pumpkin seeds and swirl to cover them in the caramel. Pour it onto your sheet of foil and let it set calmly at room temperature before peeling away the foil and snapping into shards, ready to be dunked into strong black coffee or scrunched over vanilla ice cream.