Dean and DeLuca’s Caramelized Walnut ‘Croutons’

Boil 200 gms of whole walnuts for 5 minutes. (Actually, boil more, they’re addictive even on their own.) Dry them properly. Mix ½ cup of icing sugar and several grinds of black pepper, don’t be shy, go on, more pepper! Coat the walnuts properly in the sugar/pepper mix. Now, drop them, about a handful at a time in hot but not smoking oil. Watch them like a hawk from batch 2 onwards, they brown, then burn at warp speed. Cool. Slap the hands that come to steal these crunchy, peppery, sweet things.