Nuts+Nuts buzz

Roasted kabocha with brown sugar and honey sesame cashews

2011-10-27T12:15:00.000-07:00

It is squash season! I use Kabocha squash because I just want to experiment with the flavor.

It turn out to be yummy and absolutely delicious with our honey sesame cashews.

Ingredients

1 kabocha squash (you can use any type of squash)

6 tbs of organic brown sugar

2 tbs of honey

1 pack of Nuts+Nuts honey sesame cashew

Olive oil

-Cut kabocha squash in thirds

-Discard seeds of kabocha

-Brush honey on kabocha and sprinkle brown sugar

Try to apply evenly

-Wipe a little bit of olive oil on bottom of baking glass

to prevent squash sticking to bottom of baking glass

-Set oven to 450F

-Put kabocha in the oven for 45 minutes (depending on the size of squash)

-Try to put fork on kabocha and if the fork goes through then it is done

-Sprinkle honey sesame cashews on top

-Put back in oven for 5 minutes

Sea Salt Chocolate Cashew Toffee

2011-02-03T13:29:00.000-08:00

I met Kathy aka The Experimental Gourmand when I was vending at New Amsterdam Market. Kathy is passionate about eating, creating and writing about food and local food businesses. You can find her recipes at her blog http://theexperimentalgourmand.blogspot.com
Since Valentine's day is coming up, Kathy was experimenting toffee recipe using Nuts+Nuts cashews and it turned out so yummy. Thank you Kathy!

Prep time: allow 1.5 to 2 hours total with cooling and setting time

Ingredients:

8 oz. salted butter

1 1/3 c. sugar (white or cane)

1 Tbsp. corn syrup

3 Tbsp. water

1 1/3 c. unsalted Nuts+Nuts cashews, cut into halves or quarters

2 pinches sea salt

1 3 oz. bar dark chocolate

1 3 oz. bar milk chocolate

Assembly:

Prepare a baking sheet (you can also use a 13"x9"x2" inch pan) by greasing it liberally with butter. Have the first five ingredients measured out and close at hand, along with a candy thermometer. Clear the children out of the kitchen.

In large saucepan, melt butter. Add sugar, corn syrup, and water. Cook on low heat. Bring up to a boil and watch carefully as it changes color. When the mixture reaches the hard-crack stage, about 300 degrees Fahrenheit, turn off the heat and quickly add the cashew nuts, stirring with a wooden spoon to incorporate. Immediately pour entire mixture onto baking sheet and shake to distribute candy evenly. Rub 1 pinch of sea salt between your fingers and sprinkle over candy while still warm. Let cool until hardened.

Remove candy from baking sheet and place on waxed or parchment paper and break into pieces of an inch or two in size. Melt chocolate in double-boiler. Dip one side of the toffee into the chocolate, leaving part of the top of the candy uncovered so that you have part chocolate-part toffee showing. Place on prepared cookie sheet. Rub 1 pinch of sea salt between your fingers and sprinkle over candy while still warm. The sea salt will give an extra zing to the candy. Allow to harden; you can use the freezer to speed up the process. Once the chocolate is firm, have a test piece for yourself!

Kaju Katli (Indian cashew fudge)

2010-12-14T14:28:00.000-08:00

A friend of mine have me tried these kaju katli (cashew fudge) since I am always on the look out for any cashew recipes. These kaju katli are really easy to make. I thought to make these since it looks really festive with the silver foil sheets.

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cup of plain roasted cashews
3/4 cup of sugar
1/4 cup of water
pinch of cardamom
silver foils sheets (optional)

- Grind cashews in coffee grinder or food processor.
- To make sugar syrup, combine sugar and water in a pan and put to boil. Once boiled, put crushed cardamom (the black seeds only-see picture above) and put to medium to low heat. It takes about 10 minutes until the liquid thickens and a little bit stringy.
- Pour sugar to cashews and mix well. If it is too liquid, put on a low heat. Stir until consistency is thick and less liquid.
- Pour the mixture to a greased plate and leave until it hardened about 1 hour.
- Once mixture is hardened, put silver foil sheets carefully on top of the kaju katli mixture. These sheets are so thin that they tend to fly away. You can buy these silver foil in Indian grocery store. If you live in NYC, you can buy it at Kalutsyan on Lexington Avenue.
- Cut diagonally the fudge into diamond shapes.

Shaved brussels sprouts salad with red onion, lemon, pecorino and cashews

2010-11-16T16:23:00.000-08:00

I absolutely do not like brussel sprouts especially when it is eaten raw. But a friend of mine made a special birthday dinner recently and made me this yummy salad. It is absolutely delicious. I can't even tell that it is made out of brussel sprouts. He added the crunch with sweet salty cashews. He got the recipe fromhttp://www.food52.com.
Ingredients:
1/2 small read onion
Juice of 1 lemon
1 tsp honey
1 tsp whole grain mustard
1 tbsp olive oil
3 cups Brussels sprouts
1/2 cup finely grated pecorino romano
1 pack of chopped Nuts+Nuts sweet salty cashews
Salt and pepper

- Soak onion slices in a small bowl of cold water for 20 minutes
- In a small bowl, whisk together lemon juice, honey, mustard and a pinch of salt and pepper.
- Whisk in the olive oil until the dressing is emulsified. Set aside.
- Trim all of the Brussels sprouts, cutting off any bruised outer leaves and slicing off a good portion of the hard root end. Using a mandoline, shave the sprouts one at a time. When you're done, use your fingers to gently separate the leaves so that the shredded sprouts resemble a very fine slaw.
-Put the sprouts in a serving bowl and toss gently with the onion (which you've now drained) and the dressing. Mix in the pecorino. Serve immediately.

We did it!

2010-11-10T19:13:00.000-08:00

Thank you everyone who has donated to our September fundraising to find cure for Lupus. We have exceeded our goal! Please check out our fundraising page www.firstgiving.com/nutsplusnuts

Lupus is a chronic autoimmune disease in which the body's immune system attacks its own cells. It can affect various parts of the body, especially skin, joints, kidneys, blood cells, heart and lungs.

Anyone can get Lupus but most often it affects women. There are about 2 millions Americans that are diagnosed with Lupus. And still there is no cure for this disease. To find out more about Lupus, visit SLE Lupus Foundation website http://www.lupusny.org/

Sweet and salty craving

2010-09-29T16:54:00.000-07:00

Banana fritters or known as "pisang goreng" in Indonesia is your typical street food snack. The traditional way to cook this is to batter the banana then deep fried them. This is my healthier version. You can also drizzle honey on top.

Serve 2
Ingredients:
1 ripe banana/plaintain
2 tbs of grated cheese
1 tbs of grated dark/milk chocolate
Chopped lightly salted cashews
1 tbs of butter

-Sauteed banana with butter until banana is soft.
-Grate chocolate bar and cheese
-Sprinkle with cheese, chocolate and chopped cashews

Spicy Rujak Dipping Sauce

2010-09-01T08:51:00.000-07:00

Pictures above: rujak, palm sugar, bird eye chilies

It is so hot and humid today. I am craving for something refreshing and decided to use my mango to make rujak. Rujak is a salad made with different kinds of sliced fruits. The fruits that are used are the unripe fruits which usually are tangy. The combination of the tangy fruit, the sweet spicy sauce and the cashew crunch taste excellent especially in a hot humid day.

Ingredients:
1/4 cup of palm sugar (shave to expedite dilution)
1 clove of garlic
1 bird's eye chili
1/2 cup of Nuts+Nuts spicy cashews, roughly chopped
salt to taste

-Dilute palm sugar with warm water to smooth thick consistency (like maple syrup)
-Finely ground garlic and chili
-Mix all ingredients together
-Serve with fruits, cut to irregular shapes:
-unripe mango, peeled and seeded
-unripe papaya, peeled and seeded
-jicama, peeled
-guava, seeded
-pineapple

Indonesian Tahu Telor (Tofu Omelette)

2010-07-31T07:19:00.000-07:00

Indonesian Tahu Telor

Tofu on omelette

Street vendor in Lombok, Indonesia

Growing up in Jakarta, Indonesia I am used to eating from street vendors. They are everywhere. They will go around the streets in daytime and at night. Practically you can be sitting outside your porch and a meatball soup guy or a satay guy will pass by. Each street vendor will have a specific sound to notify customers from inside the house what they are. For example for satay, the guy will shout "sateee...tee..." or for a dessert savory called "kue putu", there will be a whistle that toots along the way. All you need to do is call them back if you want to order. They will cook it fresh in front of you. I have included a photo of my recent trip to Gili Trawangan in Lombok. See the background of the blue water!

Gili Trawangan is one of the small island off Lombok. This street vendor in the picture parked his cart next to the beach. He has meatball soup and gado-gado (boiled vegetables with peanut sauce) and some other snacks. Once the customer order, the guy will start preparing it right in front of you. For the peanut sauce, he will crushed the peanuts with "ulekan". It is like a mortar and pestle that is made out of stone.

Tahu telor is a simple every day Indonesian dish. Tahu (tofu) are staple to many Indonesians. Indonesian cooking uses a lot of peanut sauce. For tahu telor recipe I substitute the peanuts with cashews since cashews are healthier. For bird eye chilies and sweet soy sauce, you can find it in Asian supermarket. If you don't like it spicy then you can omit the bird eye chilies. Please beware, those small chilies can be super spicy.

Ingredients
For omellete:
4 large eggs
3/4 of tofu block, cut into cubes
1 shallot
1 tb spoon of olive oil
salt and pepper to taste

For sauce:
3 bird eye chilies
1 pack of Nuts+Nuts sweet & salty
1 big clove of garlic
salt and pepper to taste
3 tb spoon of sweet soy sauce
1 cup of boiled beansprouts

Preparation

-Lightly stir fry cubed tofu with olive oil.

-After tofu are lightly browned, put them aside.

-Beat 4 eggs in a bowl, add salt and pepper.

-Pour egg on a small frying pan like when you are making omelette.

-Put tofu and shallots like toppings (see picture)

-Once one side is done then flip it to the other side.

-Put on a plate

-For sauce, mix together in a food processor (or mortar and pestle), cashews, chilies, garlic, salt and pepper.

-Ground up all ingredients and add hot water until desired consistency.

-Put sauce on tofu omelette

-Garnish with boiled beansprouts and drizzle with sweet soy sauce

-Selamat makan (Bon Appetit)

Eggplant corn salad with sweet salty cashews

2010-06-11T14:21:00.000-07:00

Summer is here and it is corn season! I decided to make an easy summer salad using corn and the sweet salty cashews. It is so easy and the cashews added some healthy crunch to salad. I have never cook with eggplant before so I decided to give it a try for this salad. Please check out the link below to get the bitter taste of your eggplant.
http://www.goodhousekeeping.com/food/cooking/cooking-prep-eggplant

Ingredients:
2 ear of corns (can be substitute with 1 canned corn)
1 medium eggplant
1 cup of cherry tomatoes
3 tbsp of goat cheese
1 pack of Nuts+Nuts sweet salty cashews
juice of 1/2 lemon
1 cup of cilantro

-Cut eggplant about 1/2" thick round and lay eggplant on paper towel and sprinkle each slice with salt. Leave it for about 30 minutes. Then afterwards brush off the water and remaining salt from the eggplant. Cut eggplant into cubes.
-Boil corns for about 10 minutes and let it cool.
-Heat olive oil in pan and stir fry eggplant until soft.
-Shave off corn
-Cut tomatoes to quarters
-Mix eggplant, corns, tomatoes, cashews and goat cheese. Pour lemon juice.
-Garnish with cilantro

Pesto Cashews

2010-04-30T10:20:00.000-07:00

Ingredients:
2 cloves of garlic
1/4 cup of Nuts+Nuts lightly salted cashews
1/4 cup of parmesan cheese
2 cups of basil
1 lemon
salt and pepper
1/2 cup of olive oil

Place garlic, cashews, basil and juice of 1 lemon in food processor until finely chopped. Blend while slowly pour olive oil. Mix all well together. Serve over pasta. Pesto can be stored in the refrigerator for up to 1 week. Store in airtight container.

Greenpoint Food Market: Spring Awakening

2010-04-19T20:28:00.000-07:00

This is our first time joining Greenpoint Food Market. There were about 40 food vendors down at the basement of Church of the Messiah. This was a definetely a food fest for your taste buds. There were pulled pork buns ( I did not get to try them because the line was so long), kimchi empanadas, and sandwiches among other goodies. There was also amazing live music by People's Champs. We had such a great time selling and eating there. Please come and join us for the next Greenpoint Food Market on May 22nd.

Greenpoint Food Market
Church of the Messiah
129 Russel Street
Brooklyn, NY 11222
12 pm- 5 pm
http://greenpointfoodmarket.wordpress.com/

Cashews for a cause

2010-03-15T15:21:00.000-07:00

Thank you Mollie for writing about Nuts+Nuts at Condé Nast Traveler "Moveable Feast".

I’d never thought about where cashews came from until I met Cyrilla Suwarsa, half of the entrepreneurial duo behind Nuts + Nuts, a direct farm to consumer company. In a twist on the old lemons into lemonade adage, she and her sister Caecilia have turned an unfortunate illness into a fledging food company that is invigorating the Indonesian cashew industry. Five years ago, when Cyrilla, a New York-based graphic designer, was diagnosed with lupus, she went home to Indonesia to recover. While she was there, Caecilia introduced her to locally grown cashews, which were delicious but having trouble reaching the global market. To help the farmers, Caecilia was buying bulk raw nuts, then roasting and spicing them using a family recipe. Cyrilla was hooked, and knew that other people would be too—if she added smart marketing and appealing packaging. She created the logo and branding for their new venture, Nuts + Nuts, and enlisted Java artisans to make gift boxes out of indigenous banana bark, wood bark, and pandanus leaves. These days Cyrilla is back in New York, where she handles the business and marketing side of the company, while Caecilia works in Indonesia, sourcing the cashews and creating new recipes. The proceeds, once the company gets off the ground, will go to the Lupus Foundation. As for the cashews? Completely addictive, especially the salty-sweet version. Eat up—after all, it's for a good cause.

http://food.truth.travel/2010/03/nuts-plus-nuts-cashews-direct-trade-sustainable-food.html

Nuts+Nuts at Foozie.com

2010-03-08T08:53:00.000-08:00

We are soo excited to be at Foodzie.com.
It is definetely a website for foodies where you can buy and discover food directly from small food producers. This is our store
http://nutsplusnuts.foodzie.com/

Full antioxidant yogurt with honey sesame cashews

2010-03-01T16:03:00.000-08:00

Everybody is getting sick these days. The winter has been very cold and snowy here in New York. I am trying to stay healthy this winter by eating this breakfast loaded with antioxidant. It is plain yogurt that I mix with blueberries, strawberries and a banana. Blueberries are rich in proanthocyanidins, antioxidants that can help prevent cancer and heart disease. Strawberries contain ellagic acid, a plant compound that combats carcinogens. Banana is loaded with potassium that protect your kidney and heart function. Then I sprinkle Nuts+Nuts honey sesame roasted cashews. Cashew nuts have lower fat content than most other nuts. It contains healthy monounsaturated fat that promotes good cardiovascular health. The combination of the fruits and the crunchy nutty flavors is definetely a satisfying healthy breakfast.

Ingredients:
1 cup of plain yogurt
1 handful of blueberries
1 handful of strawberries
(I used the frozen berries since they are not in season. The berries can be substitute with any fruits that are in season)
1 pack of Nuts+Nuts honey sesame roasted cashews
1 tbs of honey/agave syrup if you like it sweet

Mix all fruits and yogurt in a blender, add honey/agave syrup if you like the yogurt sweet. Sprinkle with honey sesame roasted cashews.

Upcoming events 2010

2010-02-04T12:41:00.000-08:00

February 20, 2010
Maker's Market on Sundays
Old Can Factory
3rd Street and 3rd Avenue
Gowanus, Brooklyn
11 am - 5 pm
http://www.xoprojects.com/market/index.html

February 23, 2010
Future of Food Panel
92nd Y Tribeca
200 Hudson Street
New York, NY 10013
Panel starts at 7.30 pm
Food tasting starts at 8.30 pm
http://www.meetup.com/BLKNY30/calendar/12396827/

March 7, April 4 and 18, 2010
Maker's Market on Sundays
Old Can Factory
3rd Street and 3rd Avenue
Gowanus, Brooklyn
11 am - 5 pm
http://www.xoprojects.com/market/index.html

April 10, 2010
Greenpoint Food Market
Church of the Mesiah
129 Russel Street
Brooklyn
12 - 5 pm
http://greenpointfoodmarket.wordpress.com/

May 1-2, 2010
Brooklyn Lyceum Spring
Food and Craft Market
227 4th Avenue
Park Slope, Brooklyn
11 am - 7 pm
BrooklynLyceum.com

Good Spirits

2010-01-27T18:54:00.000-08:00

What a perfect combination. Cocktail and food pairing. Beer and cashews. Our roasted cashews are being paired with Heartland Brewery beers. The Cornhusker Lager goes well with Spicy roasted cashews and the Indian River Light goes well with Honey Sesame roasted cashews.

The Maker's Market on Sundays

2009-11-12T08:24:00.000-08:00

We were participating at the Maker's Market on Sundays 11am-6pm at the Can Factory (Third Street and Third Avenue in Gowanus, Brooklyn). We had a lot of fun. Check out our neighbors. Nicole from Provo Design with her cool design belt and knit sweaters, Deborah and Ju Li with their jewelry designs. Check out The Market www.thecanfactorymarket.org

Boo! Nuts+Nuts pumpkin

2009-11-03T08:35:00.000-08:00

Fun at Food Network Wine & Food Festival

2009-10-27T19:04:00.000-07:00

Pictures from the Food Network Wine & Food Festival. Thank you so much to all my friends (Yoon, Chris, Nonie, Sandee, Didi and Ignacio) who are helping us during the event. Also thank you for the people who stopped by our table and tasted our cashews.

Support Life Without Lupus in the ING NYC Marathon

2009-10-14T05:52:00.000-07:00

We will be cheering the runners on November 1, 2009 for the Life Without Lupus team at ING NYC Marathon. If you would like to volunteer or donate please visit http://www.lupusny.org/show.php?2009_ing_marathon

The SLE Lupus Foundation has been selected as an official charity for the ING NYC Marathon 2009, the first ever lupus team in this famous race. The 25-plus runners on Team Life Without Lupus will cover 26.3 miles crossing all five boroughs, to help raise more than $100.000 for the fight against Lupus.

Lupus (systemic lupus erythematosus or S.L.E) is a complex and disabling autoimmune illness that can attack virtually any organ of the body, including the skin, joints, kidneys, brain, heart, lungs and blood. More than 2 million Americans have lupus but yet not too many people are aware of this debilitating disease. Lupus is a leading cause of kidney disease, heart attack and stroke in young women.

Spicy Chile Pepper Fiesta in Brooklyn Botanical

2009-10-12T13:04:00.000-07:00

This is our second year for participating at the Chile Pepper Fiesta event. Somehow the weather did not cooperate with the event for 2 years in a row. It was pouring! Thank you everybody for coming to our table at the Brooklyn Botanical Garden braving through the rain. By the end of event our table cloth and feet were completely soaked. Regardless, we all had fun. We were sampling the cashews in spicy with lime leaves and cut chillies, honey sesame, lightly salted and sweet & salty. Again the winner is spicy and honey sesame cashews. Also we made dip from the spicy cashews. Since there were many people asked us about the recipe, I thought to share the recipe.

Ingredients: (serve 4 people)

2 packs of Nuts+Nuts spicy roasted cashews

2 shallots

1/4 tsp of olive oil for sauteeing shallots

1/4 tsp of salt

1/4 tsp sambal oelek; only if you want to make it more spicy(available at Asian markets)

-Boil about 1/2 cup of water

-Put 2 packs of Nuts+Nuts spicy roasted cashews in food processor. Puree until smooth. If you don't have a food processor, you can put it in ziplock bag and crushed it with bottom of pan.

-Heat up olive oil and sautee shallots, once browned, take it out of pan.

-Pour in hot water slowly while still mixing spicy roasted cashews puree until desired consistency. Add shallots and salt. If desired, add sambal oelek.

Serve as a sauce with any kind of meat, as a dip with crudités, or as a dressing with salad.
Also could be a substitute of hummus.

Nuts+Nuts Sweet & Salty Roasted Cashew Dip with Cracked Black Pepper

2009-09-30T10:15:00.000-07:00

For the Edible Manhattan event at South Street Seaport, I created a dip from the Nuts+Nuts Sweet & Salty cashews.

Ingredients:
1 pack of Nuts+Nuts roasted cashews in sweet & salty
1/ cup of hot water
pinch of salt
1 teaspoon of cracked black pepper

- Put 1 pack of Nuts+Nuts roasted cashews in food processor/blender.
-Pour hot water little by little depending on desired consistency.
-Add salt and cracked black pepper

This can be a substitute to hummus. Serve with chips or pita bread.

FREE tasting at Foragers

2009-09-23T10:12:00.001-07:00

Nuts+Nuts will be doing the spicy cashew dip tasting at Foragers.
It is on Wednesday, September 23 at 5.30 pm.
56 Adams Street, Dumbo, Brooklyn
Hope to see you there for yummy roasted cashews.

My mom's macaroni and cheese recipe

2009-09-22T06:56:00.000-07:00

My mom is visiting me in NYC and everytime she visits me here, she always make my favorite foods. Growing up I always love my mom's macaroni and cheese. This recipe is hand down from my grandma.

This is a different version of the American macaroni and cheese. Indonesia was colonized by Dutch that some of our food has Dutch influences.

Ingredients:
1 pack of bucatini pasta
4 eggs
2 tomatoes
1/2 lb ham, cut to stripes
2 cups of milk
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1 teaspoon of salt
1/4 teaspoon of pepper
1 tablespoon of olive oil
1 cup of gouda cheese
1 cup of special gouda cheese
1 cup of piave cheese
1 cup of cheddar cheese
(for the cheese you can substitute with any cheese, no soft cheese)
tomato ketchup

-Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Bring a large pot water to boil. Put 1/2 teaspoon of salt when water boils and pasta. Then once pasta is al dente, drain water and put some olive oil so that pasta does not stick together.

-In a big bowl, mix eggs, milk, nutmeg, 1/2 teaspoon of salt and 1/4 teaspoon of pepper.

-Lightly grease a 9x13 inch baking dish. Cover the bottom with pasta, spread cheeses and ham. Repeat layers with pasta and cheese and ham. Top with sliced tomatoes and more cheese. Pour mix batter (egg, milk, nutmeg) all over the dish. (See photo on top)

-Bake in preheated oven for 1 hour. When it is already baked for 50 minutes, put tomato ketchup on top and put it back to oven.

-Let stand for 10 minutes before serving.

FREE TASTING September 16th 2009 in Brooklyn

2009-09-01T18:16:00.000-07:00

Please come and join us at Greene Grape in Fort Greene, Brooklyn on Saturday, September 16th, 2009 from 4-6 pm. We will be having our addictive roasted cashews in spicy, honey sesame, sweet & salty and lightly salted.
http://brooklyn.greenegrape.com/

Ceviche with fresh fluke from Sheepsheadbay

2009-08-08T12:31:00.001-07:00

It was such a nice day last weekend that we went fishing at Sheepsheadbay last weekend. It was so easy to reach by B/Q line subway from Manhattan. We took a half day trip fishing and ended up catching the biggest fluke (21") at the boat. At end of trip the the deck mate helped us fillet the fish so that we can take it home. It was so hot outside that we decided to make fresh ceviche for dinner. You need a fresh fillet fish to make a good ceviche. We added fresh grapefruit juice to add a kick to the ceviche.

Ingredients:
1 1/4 lb fresh fluke, thinly sliced
4 limes
4 lemons
4 small pink grapefruit
1/2 cup of cilantro
1/2 onion
1/2 mango

Mix all ingredients and add salt and pepper to taste. Refrigerate for at least 5 hours. Serve chilled with tortilla chips.

Spicy cashew sauce recipe

2009-07-09T19:43:00.000-07:00

I served these cashew sauce/dip at recent Fancy Food Show in New York. People loved it and asked if I can post it at my blog. So here is the recipe...

Ingredients:
2 packs of Nuts+Nuts spicy roasted cashews
2 cloves of shallots
1/2 tsp of olive oil
1 tsp sambal oelek (available at Asian markets)
pinch of salt

-Put 2 packs of Nuts+Nuts spicy roasted cashews in food processor. Puree until smooth. If you don't have a food processor, you can put it in ziplock bag and crushed it with bottom of pan.
-Heat up olive oil and sautee shallots, once browned, take it out of pan.
-Mix together spicy roasted cashews puree, shallots and sambal oelek and add boiling water until the desired consistency.
-Add salt

Serve as a sauce with any kind of meat, as a dip with crudités, or as a dressing with salad.

Upcoming events 2011

2009-06-26T08:26:00.000-07:00

Dec 5, 2011

Plymouth Holiday Market

75 Hicks Street

Brooklyn Heights, NY

8.30-3.30 pm

Dec 10, 2011

Bust Craftacular

82 Mercer Street

New York

11-8pm

http://www.bust.com/craftacular/craftacular-home.html

Dec 11 and 18, 2011
New Amsterdam Market

100 Peck Slip
11-4pm
http://www.newamsterdammarket.org

Dec 17, 2011

Tasting at Blue Apron

814 Union Street

Brooklyn, NY 11215

3-5 pm

Cashew plates by Michelle Lee

2009-06-22T17:48:00.000-07:00

Thanks to my really good friend, Michelle Lee. These plates are inspired by the cashews. She is a ceramic artist and designer who is based in Los Angeles (starting this Friday). Check out her website at www.extraboldlee.com.

How we ended up in cashew nuts business

2009-06-22T16:45:00.000-07:00

Hey I am new to the blog world so I am super excited to finally be able to write about cashews, food and my business.

We started our business when my sister's friend, Nuning who worked in the cosmetic industry did an extensive research with cashews. She had to travel a lot to middle Java to meet with cashew farmers. After several meetings, she realized that these farmers produce a high grade of cashews but desperately need support to continue their farm. So Nuning asked my sister whether she will be willing to help them out by buying raw cashews from them. My sister tried it out by buying 100 kg (220 lbs) of cashews! She did not realized how many of them until the shipment arrived.

Luckily it was near the holidays that my sister was thinking about giving those cashews to friends and family. So she asked me to come up with some nice packaging and logo for the cashews. She roasted the cashews herself using our mom and grandmother's recipe. At the time we only had 2 flavors: lightly salted and sweet & salty. We packed them up in plastic bag and put them in small pandanus boxes from local artisans in Yogyakarta. After Christmas everybody loved them and friends wanted to buy more. Wanting to know more about the farmers, my sister and Nuning travelled to the village of Wonogiri in Middle Java. They met with the locals there and decided to continuously buy cashews to support them.

I am putting some pictures from the village.