A few more food pictures from Brazil… It is beautiful for the eyes and it is such a shame that you can’t smell them. It’s been a feast for my senses, on the markets and at home as the fruits in the kitchen filled the air with such a wonderful smell.

I had in Brazil my greatest exotic fruits diet I have never had, silver bananas ‘bananas pratta’, (my portuguese is getting better) and guava juice for breakfast, diet of papaya, jack fruits, and of course, litters of coconut and pineapple juice.

 

 

 

 

 

Coconut treat ?

 

Or mango maybe ?

 

Jack fruit so yummy !

 

Also, lots of fruits I had never tried in my life like mangaba (although it’s an extremely popular fruit in Brazil, particularly in the northeast, it’s almost unknown outside the country).

And the cashew fruit:

The cashew is a tree in the family Anacardiaceae, its English name derives from the Portuguese name for the fruit of the cashew tree, caju, which in turn derives from the indigenous Tupi name, acajú. Originally native to northern South America, it is now widely grown in tropical climate for its cashew seeds and cashew apples.

The name Anacardium refers to the shape of the fruit, which looks like an inverted heart (ana means “upwards” and -cardium means “heart”). In the Tupian language acajú means “nut that produces itself”

The fruit of the cashew tree is an accessory fruit (sometimes called a pseudocarp or false fruit). What appears to be the fruit is an oval or pear-shaped structure that develops from the pedicel and the receptacle of the cashew flower. Called the cashew apple, better known in Central America as “marañón”, it ripens into a yellow and/or red structure about 5–11 cm long. It is edible, and has a strong “sweet” smell and a sweet taste. The pulp of the cashew apple is very juicy, but the skin is fragile, making it unsuitable for transport. In Latin America, a fruit drink is made from the cashew apple pulp which has a very refreshing taste and tropical flavor that can be described as having notes of mango, raw green pepper, and just a little hint of grapefruit-like citrus. The true fruit of the cashew tree is a kidney or boxing-glove shaped drupe that grows at the end of the cashew apple. Although a nut in the culinary sense, in the botanical sense the nut of the cashew is a seed.

 I had the chance to try a cashew fruit juice freshly squeezed and unless you go to Brazil or India it will be difficult to find some. In Brazil, the cashew fruit juice is popular all across the country.

Native to Northern South America, the Portuguese took the cashew plant to Goa, India, between the years of 1560 and 1565. From there it spread throughout Southeast Asia and eventually Africa. The Portuguese came to India to get cashews roasted and then trade them in different parts of world because the Indians had mastered the art of roasting cashews.

Cashew nuts also appear in Thai cuisine and Chinese cuisine, generally in whole form.

In Malaysia, the young leaves are eaten raw in a salad or with Sambal belacan (shrimp paste with chili and lime).

In Panama, the cashew fruit is cooked with water and sugar for a prolonged period of time to make a sweet, brown, paste-like dessert called “dulce de marañón”. Marañón is one of the Spanish names for cashew.

In Goa, India, the cashew apple (the accessory fruit) is mashed, the juice is extracted and kept for fermentation for 2–3 days. Fermented juice then undergoes a double distillation process. The resulting beverage is called feni. Fenny/feni is about 40-42% alcohol. The single distilled version is called “Urrac” which is about 15% alcohol.

In the southern region of Tanzania, the cashew apple is dried and saved. Later it is reconstituted with water and fermented, then distilled to make a strong liquor often referred to by the generic name, gongo.

In Mozambique, it is very common among the cashew farmers to make a strong liquor from the cashew apple which is called “agua ardente” (burning water).

I haven’t tried any cashew fruit liquor, just the juice, fresh and milky with cashew nutty taste. A recipe with chicken mango and cashew nuts will come soon, sweet and savoury, so exotic.