CASHEW NUTS FROM KILIFI

I truly had an amazing experience exploring the north coast of Kenya during the x'mas holidays. After spending few days in Mombasa we headed to Kilifi. Absolute tropical weather in the under developed village, but with beautiful virgin beaches. Kilifi is a small town with most of them belonging to the fishing community. Coconuts, Mangoes and cashews grow in abundance here. I was lucky enough to get into one of the cashew nut farm and find out how they take the cashew nuts from the cashew nut shell which is very hard. Even though many industries do this with the machines this one is the traditional way followed in villages to get the cashew nuts out of the shell. It was  a nice experience. My kids had fun breaking the shells and later we enjoyed eating them too.

cashew nut

Cashew nut tree with cashew apples

Ingredients:

Cashew nut shells- 1 kilo

Method: 

1.First he made the fire and later kept a tin vessel on the fire.

2.Then he added the cashew nuts to the vessel and started to stir it with a stick. He was roasting the cashew nuts in batches to avoid uneven cooking.

3.He was roasting further for around 10 minutes with constant stirring. While roasting the sap of the cashew nut started to come out and dry completely.

4.Once done he threw them onto the sand to stop them from getting over burnt.

Roasted cashew nuts

Breaking the shell to get the nut

 5.At last he broke the shell to get the cashew nut out which was super quick and easy. Only thing is the cashew nuts are already roasted in this procedure.


 I tried the same procedure at home on the stove and it worked out very well. I carried some 2 kilos from the farm and I will post those pics too very soon. It is very easy and cost friendly. 1 kilo of raw cashew nuts cost around 200 shillings whereas in the supermarket it is 1200 shillings per kilo. Cost friendly...........Isn't it????