When I lived in North Florida, there was no time more celebrated and anticipated than Pecan season, when shells hit earth like a Baghdad storm, and children dashed out at recess and after school to fill bags, pockets, folded up tee shirts and anything else they could get their hands on with seeds for roasting at home or smashing with a hammer and eating raw in the sandbox.
Here in Monteverde, all the fruits of the tree and vine are coming in ripe and delicious, which is the one positive consequence of the extended rainy season we had this year. However none of the fruits of the season are so coveted as the fragile cashew (marañon), which is literally littering the roads and pastures these days. The fruit itself is sweet but slightly tart, and the seed sits like a crown jewel at the apex of each, tempting even the most ardent junk food junkie.
I didn’t think to photo document this process until the fruits were all devoured this afternoon, so I here offer stock material, but the roasting was too interesting to pass up. Sandra showed me how to do this. We took the seeds, which have a fleshy outer layer and roasted them over the gas stove, which was an adventure, since they are filled with thick oil, which ignites and sparks, roasting the seed inside within about a minute and a half. The seeds came out a cream color and were indeed the best cashews I’ve ever tasted, proving once again that fresh is exponentially better than the alternative. It is worth the trip to Costa Rica just to try this…
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