November 23rd is National Cashew Day. Cashews are an interesting nut, well not really a nut. While I don’t have a book solely on cashews, I have various other books that include cashews in their stories. I have a lot of tree and nut books. Today has been researching in the library. Hope you enjoy the adventure.
Let me start with “The Little Nut Book” by Rosamond Richardson, 1983.
This may be a little book, but it has a lot of information. It tells us that: “the cashew tree is a native of Brazil. The tree bears a pear-shaped ‘cashew-apple’ which has a thin, glossy skin and juicy edible flesh. It varies in colour from red to yellow, and it is to the end of this apple that the cashew nut is attached, sunk into the calyx end like a kind of exterior seed. It turns greyish-brown when ripe, is between 1/2 to 1 inch long and is shaped like a thick letter C.”
“It has two shells: the outer one is slightly elastic, the inner one hard enough to require cracking. Between the two is a brown oil which can cause severe blistering, but if removed with care can be used in industry as a lubricant, a waterproofing agent, a preservative on light woodwork and in the production of plastics. Tannin from the leaves and bark is used as a dye, the sap is used as indelible ink for marking linen, and the tree produces a gum which is insecticidal. The timber is used for packing cases, boatbuilding and charcoal.”
I have a wonderful book on Brazilian fruits and nuts, “Frutas Brazil Frutas” by photographer Silvestre Silva, published 1991 in Brazil. It is in Portuguese and English. This book is full of beautiful pictures of nuts and fruits. I ordered it from Brazil.
Let me show two pictures. Each fruit produces one nut on the bottom of the fruit. The red fruits are ripe.
The fruit, while very sweet, is only good for a few days. It does not transport well. The seed can be poisonous. It has to be cooked to destroy the poison oil that is under the first skin. Once that is burned or cooked off, the inner shell has to be cracked to remove the single seed. It is very labor intensive, there are not machines that can crack them without damage to the nut.
Several countries roast the cashews differently, as well as how they crack and sort them. I found out in great detail in the chapter on cashews, in the book “Nuts: Their Production and Everyday Uses” by F.N. Howes, published in 1948 in London. He explains most every kind of nut sold in temperate areas, as well as tropical and sub-tropical nuts.
Vietnam is the largest exporter of cashews, followed by India. While first found in Brazil, missionaries took them to India in the 1560’s.
My next book is “Nut Growers Handbook, by Carroll D. Bush, published in 1946 by Orange Judd Farming Publishers. It gives examples of nut orchards, and how to grow them in United States for long-term farming and profits.
When Bush talks about cashews, he gets upset about two things. One, nuts like cashews that are not grown in United States, are allowed to come in almost tariff free, but can compete with other home nuts in sales. Tariffs should be raised. Second, we should figure where in Southwest we can grow cashews, as they were first found in South and Central America. He feels that there should be a way to successfully raise cashew trees in the United States.
I have one more book that has information about cashews. It is “A World of Nut Recipes” by Morton Gill Clark, published 1967.
There is a small chapter on Cashews. While many recipes are West Indian, like Brown Veal Stew with Cashews, or Malai Korma: Lamb, ginger, coconut milk, and cashew, there is a Cashew Sauce for leftover beef or veal. There is also a roasted nut snack Cashews and Cumin, with cashews and cayenne powder, coriander and cuminseed. The cashews are roasted for several minutes in butter, then have the spices sprinkled on the cashews. Finally, are desserts as Orange Loaf Cake with Cashews, or Stuffed Prunes with Cheese.
The details of the prune dish is to take a small cooked pastry tart shell just large enough for large prune and tablespoon of Gruyère cheese. The prune is stuffed with some chopped chutney and cashews. Then the tart is layered with cheese, stuffed prune, a little heavy cream and a sprinkle of cayenne to top. Cook until cheese has melted. The Orange Loaf Cake with Cashews sounds delicious, the Stuffed Prunes, interesting.
Todays Chinese restaurants all have a Cashew Chicken recipe. I also have a Caramel Cashew Cheesecake, and a Cashew Cookies recipes.
Cash-ew. The sound of a nut sneezing.
Cashew later, alligator!
Nut another word…
Librarytomes 