Nutrition
| Per 100 g | Per 1 oz (28 g) | |
|---|---|---|
| Energy | 616 kcal | 175 kcal |
| Protein | 20.3 g | 5.8 g |
| Fat | 54.8 g | 15.5 g |
| saturated | 7.6 g | 2.2 g |
| Carbohydrate | 12.2 g | 3.5 g |
| sugars | 4.6 g | 1.3 g |
| Fibre | 7.1 g | 2 g |
| Sodium | 6 mg | 2 mg |
Estimated from the ingredients, for the finished dried product. Actual values vary with the produce you use and how far you dry it.
Ingredients
- 1.8 kg nuts, in any quantity and variety
- Sea salt, approximately 1 Tbsp. per every 4 cups of nuts
- Filtered water (to cover the nuts)
Instructions
- Use a glass or ceramic bowl rather than metal. This is a strong salt solution sitting for half a day and it will pick up a metallic edge from steel.
- Dissolve the salt in the water before the nuts go in. Salt sitting undissolved on the bottom does nothing, and it is salt in solution that draws out what you are soaking to remove.
- Cover the nuts by a good depth. They swell considerably, and any nut left proud of the water dries out and goes grey.
- Half a day in a warm spot suits almonds, walnuts and pecans. Cashews are never truly raw and turn slimy past about six hours, so if there are cashews in the bowl they come out early.
- Rinse until the water runs clear of foam. Skip it and they taste of brine rather than of nut, and the residue on the surface slows everything that follows.
- Spread them one nut deep across the trays. Two deep and the run stretches out, because the lower layer is drying into the moisture coming off the layer above it.
- Dry at 53 °C for 18 hours. The long run is what this recipe is — a nut that took up water for half a day has to give all of it back, and hurrying that at a higher setting cooks the oil.
- Break one open once it has cooled. The inside should be pale and dry all through and the nut should snap; a leathery patch at the centre sends the batch back on, because under-dried nuts mould quietly inside a sealed jar.
- Keep them airtight in the fridge for three months or the freezer for a year. They have been wet once and their skins are open, so the cupboard is a much shorter proposition than it is for raw nuts.
