after closing July and August with 90% occupancy we had a bit of breathing space in September - we are now coming to a finish line with 70%. this week-end there is a sport music festival in Jeri. well, it is always good with something different than traditional weekly samba and forró parties! next month we both are finally going to Moscow. it's been a while!
anyhow, that's for the update. this post is about cashew. i remember the first time i tried cashew - it was in early 90s. my mom asked me to close my eyes and guess what i'm eating. i thought it was some sort of a cookie. then my mom told me it was her favourite nut - my grandfather used to bring them from his trips abroad (his was a diplomatic courier). cashew was not a common thing in USSR!
here in the state of Ceará cashew is one of the most common fruits. the season starts in September. Jeri is surrounded by cashew farms and the strong winds bring the smell of cashew fruits all the way till here. well, there are a lot of cashew trees in Jeri also, we have one of our own. it's quite small but you can see some fruits getting ripe on the top:
the fruit itself has a slightly astringent, but pleasant taste and is mostly used to make juice. we use it a lot to make juice for breakfast - it is nice and also pretty cheap during the season:
well as for the nuts... obviously they don't grow on the trees roasted with salt and packaged to go with a Friday beer. so i decided what lies in between! every local person can tell you how to get nuts out of the cashew, just like any person in Europe can tell you how to grow potatoes. so i didn't have to search long - i asked Dady! here is the process. first, you put the nuts into the sun. this is supposed to make the oil start coming out. this process takes a couple of days:
then we have to "fry" them, as Dady put it. normally it is done on bigger surfaces on the sand, but due to the lack of thereof, we used our grill. ready to go - cashews piled up and straw from coconut palm trees is prepared. Juja is making sure everything is according up to the standard:
well, then you put th straw on top and set the whole thing on fire. the straw picks the fire very quickly. it is only used to set the cashews on fire though - the shell has a lot of oil and it starts burning easily. now the trick is to move the nuts around so that they fry evenly. this is done with a very long stick - the nuts start spitting the burning oil that apparently can make burns that leave scars for life! hence the very long sticks. and - lucky for me, as today the preparation for the construction work started, our handy man Alfredo and his helper were more than happy to take a break and participate in the frying:
as soon as the straw has burned, it is time to stop the nuts from burning:
here we pick the ones that are done and leave the rest a bit longer:
meanwhile we break the first ones with the stone and taste the warm nuts. nice! and totally different from the salty ones you get in Europe, naturally:
well, i use the next hour to crash the outcome. it takes me a while to figure out how much force i have to use to crash the shell and not the nut. after one hour i have a tiny ball ready. no wonder cashews are so expensive here! by the way, here they are normally fried with sugar and sesame seeds, cinnamon etc. mine have to be dried a bit further in a frying pan in order to get rid of the outer shell that is bitter:
well this will be a souvenir that i bring for my mom when i go to Moscow!
check more details about our pousada at www.atlantis-jericoacoara.com
in order not to get bored in medium season now we started a new project - constructing another room where the washing area is now. the washing machine will move into the house where we have a lot of unused space and we will dry the bed-linen behind the house now. the project started today by cleaning up behind the house and preparing the area for putting up the ropes, tomorrow we move the machine and then next weed start with the foundation. the whole thing is scheduled to be completed by the end of October. well, we'll be happy to get some part of the investment back selling the room for New Year's eve - the top highest season in Jeri. the 4 days packages for a double room in economic B&Bs like ours starts at around BRL2.000 (RUB30.500/EUR760/NOK5.600). mind you, we have only one room available, the has been booked for a couple of months now! time to make money!!
anyhow, that's for the update. this post is about cashew. i remember the first time i tried cashew - it was in early 90s. my mom asked me to close my eyes and guess what i'm eating. i thought it was some sort of a cookie. then my mom told me it was her favourite nut - my grandfather used to bring them from his trips abroad (his was a diplomatic courier). cashew was not a common thing in USSR!
here in the state of Ceará cashew is one of the most common fruits. the season starts in September. Jeri is surrounded by cashew farms and the strong winds bring the smell of cashew fruits all the way till here. well, there are a lot of cashew trees in Jeri also, we have one of our own. it's quite small but you can see some fruits getting ripe on the top:
the fruit itself has a slightly astringent, but pleasant taste and is mostly used to make juice. we use it a lot to make juice for breakfast - it is nice and also pretty cheap during the season:
well as for the nuts... obviously they don't grow on the trees roasted with salt and packaged to go with a Friday beer. so i decided what lies in between! every local person can tell you how to get nuts out of the cashew, just like any person in Europe can tell you how to grow potatoes. so i didn't have to search long - i asked Dady! here is the process. first, you put the nuts into the sun. this is supposed to make the oil start coming out. this process takes a couple of days:
then we have to "fry" them, as Dady put it. normally it is done on bigger surfaces on the sand, but due to the lack of thereof, we used our grill. ready to go - cashews piled up and straw from coconut palm trees is prepared. Juja is making sure everything is according up to the standard:
well, then you put th straw on top and set the whole thing on fire. the straw picks the fire very quickly. it is only used to set the cashews on fire though - the shell has a lot of oil and it starts burning easily. now the trick is to move the nuts around so that they fry evenly. this is done with a very long stick - the nuts start spitting the burning oil that apparently can make burns that leave scars for life! hence the very long sticks. and - lucky for me, as today the preparation for the construction work started, our handy man Alfredo and his helper were more than happy to take a break and participate in the frying:
as soon as the straw has burned, it is time to stop the nuts from burning:
here we pick the ones that are done and leave the rest a bit longer:
meanwhile we break the first ones with the stone and taste the warm nuts. nice! and totally different from the salty ones you get in Europe, naturally:
well, i use the next hour to crash the outcome. it takes me a while to figure out how much force i have to use to crash the shell and not the nut. after one hour i have a tiny ball ready. no wonder cashews are so expensive here! by the way, here they are normally fried with sugar and sesame seeds, cinnamon etc. mine have to be dried a bit further in a frying pan in order to get rid of the outer shell that is bitter:
well this will be a souvenir that i bring for my mom when i go to Moscow!
check more details about our pousada at www.atlantis-jericoacoara.com
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