Raw Unsalted Cashews (Kaju)

Raw cashews are the pale, kidney shaped kernels sold before anyone has roasted or salted them. Out of the bag they are soft rather than crisp, with a milky sweetness and a texture nearer a fresh almond than a roasted nut. The flavour is quiet on purpose: it takes on whatever you cook it in.

Unroasted and with no salt on them, these are the cashews to buy when you want to do the cooking yourself. A roasted kernel will not soften enough to blend into a smooth gravy, and a salted one will throw off a milk sweet. Buy these to cook with, and our roasted salted cashews to eat by the handful.

How to use them

Fry them gently in ghee or oil until they are light gold, then scatter them with raisins over Kabuli pulao, qabili or a sweet zarda. Pull them out of the pan a shade before they look done, because they keep colouring off the heat. Soak them in hot water for twenty minutes and blend for the creamy base of a shahi korma, a white kurma or a cashew gravy. Grind them into halwa, barfi and other milk sweets, or into a marzipan style paste. They also give you dairy free cashew cream, homemade cashew butter, and a soft bite in granola and energy bars where you do not want extra crunch.

Details

Also known as

Kaju, caju, badam hindi, cashew kernels, raw cashews, unsalted cashews, natural cashew nuts, anacardo crudo sin sal, noix de cajou nature, tuzsuz cig kaju, korosho mbichi