Thursday, November 27, 2008

Cashew Cheese Redefined

By now, you probably have figured out that I like playing with my food. And on nights when I can't go out because of bullets and grenades flying helter-skelter, I indulge in food blog surfing. My fascination with food is partly creative; I like to see what kind of tasty things I can "wrestle" up in my often poorly stocked kitchen. And making vegetarian or even vegan foods stretches my creativity to the max.

Chocolate and Zucchini , coincidentally, had an interesting recipe up for cashew cheese. And I had already opened the bag of cashews earlier in the evening, so I didn't feel too guilty about experimenting. Though it was a little difficult to make without a real food processor (I only have a blender), I made do with a little smashing via the wooden banger thing Brazilian cooks use to crush garlic. And while what I made bore no relation to either real cheese or what was described on that site, I roundly devoured all but a half-teaspoon of the mixture on crackers while checking my email. Not half bad.

Because this reminds me more of a salad than a spread, I'm calling it Mock Tuna Salad. Except in no way is it attempting to mock tuna salad. You don't need breath mints after, for starters.

Jenna's Mock Tuna Salad

cashews, roasted and salted
chopped onion
chopped celery (can use leaves too)
very finely shredded carrots
salt, dried garlic, dill and pepper to taste
water
mayonnaise

I used about 1/3 cup of cashews and 2 T of water. But it is a very experimental recipe, so do whatever feels good. Toss all ingredients but carrots and mayonnaise into a blender (or food processor or use a mortar and pestle). When the texture is slightly creamy but still has very small chunks, almost like a chunky peanut butter, add mayonnaise and carrots, adjust spices as needed and spread on crackers or bread.

2 comments:

Julie said...

How does one acquire very finely shredded carrots? There's a Chinese way to cook carrots that I lust after, but I can't figure out how they end up with a million little carrot slivers.

--jenna said...

Julie...
I just use an old-fashioned tower grater. It takes forever on the teeny tiny holes (sometimes I feel like I'm making juice!) but with enough patience, you get a super fine carrot mush. I think what I'm probably using is the hard cheeses side (for parmesan, etc..) so maybe that would work for your Chinese dish. Good luck!