Valerie Kadiri: Macaroni in Cashew Nut Cream

Macaroni is available in most neighbourhood shops and Cashew nuts are also now every where including the traffic jam hawkers. For the curry leaves or basil you may have to pick this up from the open market but guess what ,I have mine as a potted plant. It’s less lush though during this dry season but I had enough to pluck and use. My discovery of the many things you can do with cashew nut is unbelievable. I didn’t realize that I can easily replace the regular cream made from milk with cashew butter. Today’s dish is another interesting offering. My husband asked for more and even reminded me that there has to be another repeat offering soon. I gladly agreed and also made my demand… Don’t ask me what, it’s my little secret :) He also did say he preferred the Cashew nut cream to stew for his pasta. Why don’t you try it yourself. I will like to know how Your dish turns out You may want to email me your picture of the finished product. Recipe Ingredients 1 cup Macaroni 2 tablespoons Cashew nut paste 1 tablespoon Vegetable Oil 1 tablespoon ground Tomato Ground fresh Pepper to taste 1/2 medium size Onion( chopped) 1/2 cup fresh shrimps 1 /2 cup boiled cubed Chicken Seasoning to taste 1 cup Chicken stock or water 2 tablespoons chopped Curry leaves or Curry leaves Method 1, Boil the macaroni till soft and set aside 2, Grind the Cashew nut until smooth. Cashew nut has quite some oil , so you may want to intermittently pop the ground cashew nut into the freezer to freeze the paste so when you grind again it moves smoothly in the blender 3, Dissolve the cashew nut into a smooth paste with about 2 tablespoons of warm water and set aside 4, Heat up the oil fry the onion, tomato ,pepper ,add seasoning and salt to taste. 5, Add the shrimps , chicken and chicken stock and cook for about 5 minutes 6, Stir in the cashew paste quickly and allow to boil for about I minute stirring through. It is advisable to keep some little quantity of cashew paste near by in case you need to further thicken the sauce. 7, Chop up the basil or curry leaves 8, Stir the macaroni and curry leaves into the cashew nut sauce . 9, You could return the whole pot to the fire for 1 minute stir well to warm things up. Serve the Macaroni in Cashew nut cream hot.