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

Gudpara

Using Gud (Jaggery) instead of regular sugar for the syrup in this recipe takes these lovely paras to another level. This recipe is from one of my fav bhabhi, whose an ace gudpara maker. These can be stored in an airtight container for a month or two and is yummy in the winter months. The saunf also gives them a lovely flavour. I usually pop a couple in my mouth after lunch, which satisfies my sweet tooth and the saunf leaves a great taste in the mouth till the evening... this goes amazing with a hot cup of tea too... pure winter indulgence at its best!!

what you need:
- 500gms maida (all purpose flour)
- 1/3 cup (150ml) ghee/oil
- water to knead the dough
- oil for deep frying

for the syrup
- 250gms gud (jaggery)
- 1 cup water
- 2 tbsp saunf (fennel seeds)
- 1 tsp elaichi powder

1. Combine the ghee into the flour to resemble dry breadcrumbs. Add little water to get a fairly hard dough (not too hard). Knead thoroughly to make the dough smooth.

2. Divide the dough into two. With the first half, roll it out to about 1/2 cm thickness. Using a knife cut out strips of size (1cm X 3-4cm). Deep fry the strips and and drain on kitchen paper. Repeat with the second half of the dough.

3. Combine the gud, water, saunf and elaichi to make a thick syrup. Boil the syrup until it reaches 2 string consistency (Cool a drop of syrup on a plate and stretch between two fingers to see approximately two strings). Basically it should be thick and should be solifying at the edges.

4. Quickly add the paras (the strips) into the syrup to coat them evenly and spread them onto a tray to solidify. When cool, store in an airtight container. Eat whenever you like :), makes about a kilo of gudpara.

Another entry for the RCI-punjab to Richa of As dear as Salt, conceived by Lakshmik of Veggie Cuisine.

Cream Cheese Crackers

Hmm evening tea time is the most important meal of the day, ahem for me that is! Well, I could skip or rush though any meal of the day, but come 5pm I need my cuppa with a yummy snack. When I am super hungry I know I need to assemble something fast, and my fav thing is to spread some cream cheese or cottage cheese on some salty crackers and throw in some toppings, the results are always yummy and different every time!!!

you need:

salt crackers of any kind (as many as you want to make!)
cream cheese - (as much as you want to smother!!) seriously you just need enough to spread on the crackers, which is maybe half a teaspoon per cracker. Also there are different cream cheese variety available that adds more flavour to each cracker. Some typical flavours found are garlic, spring onion, chives, pepper, plain salted. you could add your choice of flavour to the tub of cream cheese too before using it, like finely chopped coriander.

toppings:

anything really! Here Ive put a thin slice of tomato and thin slivers of cucumber and bellpeppers and topped it with a thin slice of cheddar cheese. Ive crushed come black pepper and sprinkled dried basil.

More tweaks:

You coud put a small blob of ketchup or green mint and coriander chutnet too. You can also experiment with different cheeses on top, try mozarrela instead of cheddar.My other favourite thing to spread on top is avocado salsa (which is just mashed avocado mixed with some lime juice and finelly chopped onion and tomato) which is just divine!! Sometimes I put one or two pearls of chick peas or red kiney beans. Really its about using your imagination here in combination with whatever is leftover in the fridge!

The most important thing: is to eat it as fast as its ready. Thats because you would have added so many wet ingredients on top of the cracker and you dont want it to go soggy at all. This time, I managed to take a quick picture before devouring them!! Enjoy and do let me know the toppings that you've tried so I can try them too!!!!

Cheese Veggie Potato Cutlet

I hadn’t blogged for so long and I promised I would cook for Jihva for ingredients by mahanandi, this month it was hosted by Vaishali from Happy Burp and the ingredient for this month was potatoes. As she rightly describes it, it’s the most versatile vegetable I have ever come across, it can be boiled, baked, fried in hundreds of ways. It is true that we have a love-hate relationship with it. As much as we love it, any potato dish is sure to be calorie loaded. For me any potato dish is an indugence and any preparation livens up the family meal.

I had cooked on 17th feb and all ready to publish it on the 1st of march…. even then I am only managing to publish it now because I had to go for an emergency surgery, that’s why they say you never know what’s in store for you tomorrow! So live all you have for today.

Here is the recipe for Cheese Veggie Cutlet which is enjoyed so much in my home.




(Makes 16 medium filled cutlets)

Ingredients:

6-8 medium sized potatoes (boiled)
6-7 brown bread slices
Salt to taste
Jeera powder
Chilly powder
Finely chopped coriander leaves

Breadcrumbs (dried) for coating
1 egg or (1 tsp white flour mixed in water)

Filling:

100g cheese (any will do especially mozzarella)
100g grated carrots
100g grated cauliflower
5-6 chopped green chillies
50g grated ginger
½ tsp coriander powder
Salt to taste

Method:







Combine the ingredients for the fillings with salt and coriander powder.

Grate the boiled potato in a large mixing bowl. Soak the bread slices in water, squeeze out the excess water from your hands and add to the grated potato. Add, salt to taste, chilly powder and jeera powder, chopped coriander leaves to the mixture and fold together.


Divide the potato-bread mixture into medium sized balls. Make a depression in each ball and fill with about 2 tsp of the filling mixture. Cover up the filling and shape into a patty or cutlet shape.




When patties or cutlets are ready, dip in a bowl with beaten egg (a mixture of water and 1 tsp maida can be mixed and used instead), and dip into a plate of dried breadcrumbs. Deep fry until golden brown and serve hot!