"The Art of the Cheese Plate" - Tandoori Cashews - Holiday party food!

Date I made this recipe:  December 3, 2017 – Party food!

The Art of the Cheese Plate – Pairing, Recipes, Style, Attitude by Tia Keenan

Published by Rizzoli

ISBN: 978-0-8478-4982-6; ©2016

Purchased at Barnes and Noble

Recipe:  Tandoori Cashews – p. 66-67

Earlier this year, I was shopping at the store, Anthorpologie, when I spied this book and should have purchased it right then and there but didn’t.  My bad.  If I pass up a book, I almost always write down the title, so I can purchase it another time, but by the time I decided to purchase it, I found I had lost the notation with the book’s title.

Uh oh.

No worries, right, I would just go back to Anthropologie and ask them about the book.  Easy, peasy.  It was a great idea except none of the young ladies working there had any clue whatsoever.  This was not helpful!

Then I went to Barnes and Noble, and tried to enlist their help:  “Well, it’s about cheese and it has the words “cheese tray” or “cheese plate” in the title.”

I think that was extremely helpful, don’t you?

At the time, they came up blank but months later, while doing a casual browse in the same store, I found it:  The Art of the Cheese Plate.  How simple! 

Reader, shall I just tell you though that once I got my hot little hands on this book, it disappointed? First, and this may sound dense, but even though it was clear that the book was about CHEESE, I was more interested in it for the nibbles and noshes to go with the cheese.  You’ll be happy to know there are 81 recipes which is quite a few.

The second reason I was disappointed in this book was because instead of posting recipes with all the ingredients and instructions laid out in a nice little list, all of them were incorporated into the narrative that mixed cheese discussions with recipes, and none of the recipe titles were bolded or otherwise stood out, making it absolutely annoying to read this book!  Yes, there is a great Table of Contents that directs one to the recipes, but that is not how I used this book which is to say, I flipped through it. Even if I had gone to the specific page listed in the Table of Contents, it still took a minute to find the recipe itself.

This was annoying and the main reason I didn’t like the book.  The recipes sounded great and the photos are stunning, but I do not like working that hard to figure out what’s going on!

Nonetheless, I forged ahead and out of the 81 recipes listed, culled these from the herd:

• Meyer Lemon Marmalade with Goat Cheese – p. 24
• Papillion Black Label Rochefort with Cranberry-Gin Compote – p. 29
• Tandoori Cashews – p. 66-67
• Blu de Bufala Cheese with Butternut Squash Golden Raisin Chutney – p. 71
• [Cabot Creamery Clothbound Cheddar with] Vermont Smoke & Cure Summer Sausage, Tin Wholegrain Mustard (no recipe, just a photo)

 Any and all of these sound pretty good, right?  Exactly! I particularly liked the “Cranberry-Gin Compote” since a gin martini is my drink of choice (up, very dry, with olives), but the thing is, by this time, we were “at capacity” with some of our cheese spreads, and although we always put out cheese, we don’t spend a lot of time planning which cheeses to offer, we just select a few that sound good.  With that in mind then, we selected the cashews as we felt that they would be a great little nibble to have along with our other offerings (which, as always, were numerous).

Turns out we made the right call as these were a hit.  If you like the spices of Tandoori Chicken, you’ll love these.  They are easy to make, and can be made ahead and stored.  “Made ahead” is my favorite phrase at this time of year. My only complaint is that the recipe ingredients were listed as part of the narrative, so I had to separate them into the list you see below.  Yes, I am anal, but it also meant I wouldn’t forget anything!

Tandoori Cashews – Makes 1 ½ cups

1 egg white

2 teaspoons ground ginger

2 teaspoons ground cumin

1 teaspoon ground coriander

1 teaspoon paprika

1 teaspoon ground turmeric

½ teaspoon ground cloves

½ teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg

½ teaspoon ground cinnamon

½ teaspoon freshly ground white pepper

½ teaspoon kosher salt

½ cup sugar

1 ½ cups unsalted cashews, roasted

Ann’s Note:  I don’t know why I get so irked when I see “freshly grated nutmeg” or even “freshly ground white pepper” (not black pepper, white) but I do.  I am not overly fond of nutmeg in general, and I am sure not going to keep buying and storing nutmeg pods when I can keep already-ground on hand.  Furthermore, I did not discern any difference in the taste, so there!

Preheat the oven to 300F.

Beat 1 egg white until soft and foamy and set aside.

In a medium bowl, whisk together all the dry ingredients (from ginger to sugar).  Whisk in the egg white until thoroughly combined.  Stir in the cashews and mix until evenly coated.  Ann’s Note:  I believe I found roasted, unsalted cashews all ready to roll, but if you don’t, [lightly] roast them first to bring out the flavor and then add them to your spice mix.

Spread the cashews in a single layer on a baking sheet and bake for about 20 minutes, until the nuts are medium brown. Remove from the oven, toss, and stir.  Cool in the pan on a wire rack—the cashews will crisp as they cool.  Break the nuts apart before serving or storing.

Store in an airtight container in a cool, dry place for up to 1 month.

Suggested cheese pairings:  Fat-Bottom Girl, Mahon, or Goudas.  Suggested wine pairings:  Champalou Vouvray Brut Method Traditionelle (Chenin Blanc) and Clos Huet Vouvray Sec (a drier Chenin Blanc).