R E C I P E S
Roasted Cashews
Freshly roasted cashews — barely colored, just cooled — combine that very soft cashew crunch, exceptional among nuts, with a distinctly buttery and faintly almond flavor, something I had never noticed until I roasted my own. Besides perfect freshness, the advantage to doing it yourself is that you can use as much or as little salt as you like, be sure that nothing extraneous is added, and get the exact degree of roast you want. Roasting your own ought to save money, but online prices for raw and roasted cashews are all over the map, so maybe not.By Edward Behr
The cashew tree originated on the northeastern coast of Brazil and now grows in various tropical countries. Among the many cultivars, the wilder ones have smaller and apparently tastier nuts, but those aren’t exported. On the tree, the nuts are very odd looking. A single kernel is enclosed within a curving greenish shell, which protrudes sensually from the bottom of the orange-red, fleshy cashew apple (whose sugar makes an alcoholic drink).
For all the countless references to “raw” cashews, they aren’t ever sold raw because the shell contains a toxic chemical related to the poison in poison ivy. In order to make the shell brittle and easier to remove, the nuts are given a preliminary roasting, and then the skin is peeled too. So even “raw cashews” have been partly cooked to shell them and make them safe.
When you roast cashews, assuming you prefer them salted, the big question is how to get the salt to stick. Finer salt clings more easily than coarse granules (it’s easy to reduce salt crystals in a mortar), but not much dry salt will ever stick to dry nuts. Maybe there’s no perfect solution, but coating hot cashews with a little oil will help the salt to hold better. Raw cashew oil would be ideal; it’s said to exist, but I’ve never seen it. I like the oil tactic, but it also works to spray the hot cashews with brine, which leaves a bit of dry whitish crust. Either way, you can get a smack of surface salt. And whatever you do about salt, slow roasting is important: it’s more even and makes it easier to catch the nuts at the doneness you want.
cashews
salt
water or mild, fresh-tasting oil, such as olive
If you prefer a dry surface, then before you roast, make a strong brine by dissolving 3 tablespoons (60 grams) salt in 1 cup boiling water. Let it cool completely, and put it in a spray bottle.
Choose a flat-bottomed container, such as a gratin dish — ceramic is better than metal (the part of the nuts in contact with metal darkens faster than the rest). Heat the oven to 325° F (165° C), and set the container in the oven to warm for a few minutes. Then fill it with a single layer of nuts, so they roast evenly, since in the oven you can’t continuously stir as a machine would.
Roast the nuts on a middle rack, away from bottom heat, for about 20 minutes, removing the dish from the oven a couple of times to stir — until they reach a pale golden color. (Taken much further, the roast flavors hide the cashew ones.) Spray the nuts with the brine, stirring once or twice, and return them to the oven momentarily to dry, or pour a little olive oil in fine stream over the hot nuts and stir them, add salt and stir again. Cool the nuts at least 15 minutes. If you don’t wait, the interiors of the hot nuts will be strangely soft.
