Nuts about nuts: Roasted cashews and roasted almonds

Nuts are the best to snack on as opposed to fried snacks, chips and crisps. Yes, they are not low fat but the health benefits of consuming them far outrun the fact that they are calorie laden. As opposed to fried pakodas and chewda, nuts have the good fats (mostly monounsaturated and poly unsaturated fats). Nuts are also one of the best plant sources of protein. They are rich in fiber, phytonutrients and antioxidants such as Vitamin E and selenium.

One of the most unexpected nutritional discoveries of the 1990s was that the frequent eating of nuts appears to dramatically improve health. In particular, nut eating greatly lowers the risk of heart disease. Read more here.

This past winter (in Africa: June and July), I kept a regular supply of roasted cashew nuts and almonds on the snack rack. Our favourite nuts to roast, salt and masalafy are cashews and almonds, although we occasionally roast walnuts and pecans too. These nuts can be plain roasted and kept for sweet dishes too. The savoury ones also act as ready made garnishes and additions to things like upma, kaju pulav, shahi paneer. With tea, a handful is enough, they are not to be munched on like popcorn! We get already roasted peanuts in the shops here and we rarely eat them as a snack.

Cashews, a native of eastern Brazil, was brought to the Indian coast of Goa and Kerala by the Portuguese and hence the name ‘Kaju’ for cashews in Hindi is derived from the Portuguese word for the fruit from the cashew nut tree.

Read the cute story about how cashewnut got is name, more like how Sarah was told so, from one of my favourite blogs.

Eating a daily handful of almonds a day may lower LDL, or “bad” cholesterol, see more of the benefits here

My dad swears by the benefits of having almonds every day. Amongst his daily routine, is to soak a handful of almonds before going to bed. In the morning, he drains them and pockets them before leaving for work, and peels and pop a couple in his mouth whilst he’s going about his business; they are his all-day any-time snack!!

During winter he diligently adds a tsp of ‘badam rogan’ (almond oil) in the cup of milk he has before going to bed. (Somehow I could never do this). He recommends this ‘medicine’ as a daily tonic especially in winter and to build strength, in people trying to recover their health (for example from major surgery or childbirth, etc).

To roast Cashews and Almonds

What you need:

Any amount of nuts you wish you roast. (Try other types other than cashews and almonds, and let me know how it came out).

- here I used 500g cashews and 500g almonds.
- 2 tbsp cooking oil (you may try roasting them absolutely dry too; the light oil coating allows the spices to stick to the nuts nicely; or you may add more to roast them better and drain them on a sieve or paper towel to remove the extra oil)
- You combination of favourite spices (salt and black pepper / salt and cayenne pepper / salt, chilli powder and dhania powder, etc)

(Ive used salt and black pepper in both instances)

What you need to do:

- In a large wok, heat the oil to smoking point (very hot).
- Add the nuts and keep tossing to coat the oil evenly on all the nuts.
- Add your preferred spices, and keep tossing and turning, until the nuts change colour to become golden. With almonds, the colour change is subtle to the eyes but evident to the olfactory nerves (smell).
- Cool and let them rest on a strainer, so that any of the extra oil drips away.
- Store in an airtight jar, and use as appropriate.

Some recent nutty recipes that I have drooled over and want to try out:

- Arun Shanbhag’s Almond Pista Milk
- Asha’s Microwave Badam Burfi
- Evolvingtastes’s Very Forgiving Nut Bread
- Sig’s Date and Pecan Pudding
- Kanchana's Badam Kheer