In Roatan, cashews grow in abundance, and the season of cashews is upon us. There aren't specific cashew orchards here, cashew trees are just mixed in among the other trees in many communities, including all over in Sandy Bay.
A fruit (sometimes called a 'cashew apple') hangs from the branches, with the nut curled off the end of the fruit. The fruit itself is edible, and often made into juice, but today, we'll just be talking about the nuts and how to roast them.
Preparing cashews is a labour-intensive process, and once you've done it, you can better appreciate why they're expensive. The fruit will eventually drop to the ground, so you can either pick up a bunch of the fruit from the ground (if you don't care about using the fruit), or pull them off the tree, and then twist the nut free of the fruit.
At this point, the nuts are usually left out in the sun so that any remaining fruit stuck to them is dried out. DO NOT TRY THE NUT YET. The shell of the cashew is toxic before it's roasted (the roasting process burns that off), and can cause a severe reaction if you try to bite it- I remember the son of a friend of mine who bit one, and his mouth all blistered up. I found a funny blog post of someone who had a similar experience: http://matthewcevans.com/blog/2010/08/11/youve-got-to-be-nuts-to-eat-a-cashew-nut-shell/
Once the nuts have been put in the sun to dry, you're ready for roasting. Cashews are roasted on an open flame on a sheet of zinc or other metal. This is an outside activity- a British neighbour of mine once tried to roast them in his oven with very bad results. The oils of the cashew catch fire and huge amounts of smoke billow out, so you can imagine his panic when this happened in his oven!
Once the nuts have been put in the sun to dry, you're ready for roasting. Cashews are roasted on an open flame on a sheet of zinc or other metal. This is an outside activity- a British neighbour of mine once tried to roast them in his oven with very bad results. The oils of the cashew catch fire and huge amounts of smoke billow out, so you can imagine his panic when this happened in his oven!
The cashews have to be watched and stirred frequently as they're being roasted, so that they don't get overcooked and burn. Once all the nuts are blackened, the next step is 'popping' the cashew, which is removing it's shell.
Be forewarned, this stage will stain your fingers black! I find gloves are too awkward feeling to work with them on, but some oil on your fingers will help to lessen the staining. You'll need to tap gently on the shell with something like a stick to break off the shell and reveal the nut. Too hard, and the nut will end up in pieces. Last time we roasted cashews, I discovered that putting them in the garlic press and gently pressing worked really well instead of tapping with a stick. After all that effort, you're left with a very paltry handful of nuts, but they're so delicious. Enjoy!
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