Vietnamese Roasted Salted Cashews (Skin On)

These are Vietnamese cashews roasted and salted with the thin reddish skin left on, the style sold on the street in Vietnam as hat dieu rang muoi. The skin brings a faint tannic edge and a rougher, more rustic look than the pale nuts in a supermarket tin, and the bite is crisp on the outside and still tender in the middle under a light coat of salt.

Skin on is the real difference. Nearly every roasted cashew on a shelf here has been blanched smooth; leaving the papery skin in place is how they are eaten where they are grown, and it gives a deeper, less uniform flavour. They arrive already roasted and salted, so there is nothing to do but open the bag.

How to use them

Serve them with green tea or black tea, on a mezze table beside olives and pickles, or on an Eid or Nowruz tray with dried fruit. Chop them over kheer, sheer birinj or ice cream so the salt cuts the sweetness, or crush them over chaat. They hold up in trail mix and in a stir fry added in the last thirty seconds. The skin rubs off easily between your palms if you want clean pale nuts for a garnish, so you can have it either way from the same bag.

Details

Also known as

Hat dieu rang muoi, skin on cashews, roasted salted cashews, salt roasted cashews, kaju, namkeen bhuna kaju, anacardos tostados salados, noix de cajou grillees salees, tuzlu kavrulmus kaju