The Chocolate Bunny turns 2! - Rosemary Cashews

I’m very proud and happy to celebrate my blog’s second anniversary today!

Like the previous one, this year just flew by. Although there have been periods when I haven’t posted much, I find that this was always due to lack of time, not lack of inspiration. I still enjoy writing about food as much as I did when I started this blog. In fact, I would say I enjoy it even more, being more comfortable with it.

As with last year, I failed to come up with a gorgeous, jaw-dropping dish for today. Instead, I have something very simple, but extremely tasty: rosemary cashews.

The original recipe by Ina Garten was printed in The Gazette a while back. I made these nuts for the first time that very same day. Flavoured roasted nuts are a favourite appetizer of mine, and we regularly treat ourselves to lime-and-pepper macadamias, or lemon-and-sea-salt almonds from Sunsource (and they are a treat in every sense of the word, as they are not particularly cheap – damn good, though). But I had never tried making them at home.

I can’t describe how delicious these rosemary cashews are. They are rich, salty, lightly sweet, a little spicy, and simply perfect. I’ve served them to guests on a few occasions, and they were a huge hit. They are now my go-to appetizer whenever I need to impress my guests at little effort.

I haven’t changed much to the recipe, just added more butter, as the coating mixture appeared to require more moisture. And I don’t have kosher salt in my pantry, so I adapted the quantity to suit sea salt.

Rosemary Cashews
Adapted from a recipe by Ina Garten

500g (1 pound) unsalted roasted cashews
2 tbsp unsalted butter, melted
2 tbsp fresh rosemary, chopped
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
2 tsp brown sugar
2 tsp sea salt

Preheat oven to 180ºC (350ºF). Spread the cashews on a baking pan, in a single layer. Toast for about 5 minutes, until nuts are warm and fragrant.

In a large mixing bowl, combine the butter, salt, sugar, cayenne pepper, and rosemary. Add the nuts and toss, until the nuts are evenly coated. Let cool and serve warm, or at room temperature. Store in an airtight container.