Cashew nut Barfi (Kaju Barfi) or as the Anglo Indian's call it 'Diamond Cuts'

Cashew nuts in India have a long and illustrious history. In Goa, the fruit are used to make the twice distilled 'feni' and the once distilled 'urrac'.

I tend to use the feni in sorpatel, more often than not and have had the pleasure of witnessing the cashew nut tree in it's fruiting state, it's fragrance is extremely consuming and almost as sultry, intoxicating in the Goan heat as the feni itself.

Stanley and his family adore cashew nuts, as do most Goan families, it's readily available and we would always return to Dubai with packets of Zantye's drum roasted natural cashew nuts!

Stanley has a major sweet tooth and loves the cashew nut burfi, they are 1/4 of a inch thick sweets made from cashew nuts. We would only buy them in Dubai because I thought it involved a lot of ghee, milk and sugar. Was I wrong. It involves two main ingredients, specifically cashew nuts and sugar here is the recipe I use:

Cashew nut Barfi (Kaju Barfi) or as the Anglo Indian's call it 'Diamond Cuts'

Ingredients

• 1 cup cashews (US measurement)
• ½ cup sugar (US measurement)
• 50ml water
• 1 tbsp ghee 
• 1 sheet edible silver paper or 1 tsp chopped rose petals or a few drops of rose water or a few strands of saffron

Method

1. Set aside two sheets of baking paper, a non stick spoon and a rolling pin.
2. Powder your whole cashew nuts in batches, make sure it doesn't become pasty. If it does and oils are released, the cashew nuts are gone and you will need to start over. I pulse in my grinder and keep checking in on them. Do NOT run the grinder at a stretch.
3. Using a heavy bottomed pan, on low heat dissolve your sugar in the 50 ml water.
4. Once your sugar has dissolved add your powdered cashew nuts. 
5. Now this is where your arms of steel come in, you have to keep stirring the mixture even when it starts to thicken, keep going for 10 minutes (Remember your stove top is set to low heat).
6. The mixture will come together and stick to your non-stick spoon, you might have a little of the mixture sticking to the pan but that's fine, don't worry.
7. Remember now that you have a hot, sticky lump of sugar and nuts on your hands. If anything splatters or sticks to you by mistake, run that part of your body under cold water immediately. Remove the whole mixture from the pan and place on your baking paper and allow to cool.
8. Once the mixture is hot enough to handle, then knead till smooth oil your hands, at this step you can add your rose petals or rose water and start kneading your mixture.
9. Place the mixture on the baking paper and flatten, topping off with the other baking paper sheet; using your rolling pin, roll out to your desired thickness. I like it at a quarter of an inch.
10. If you are using the edible silver paper, put it on now as per instructions on the packet.
11. Once cooled slightly, using a knife you can cut out diamonds; I used a cookie cutter to cut out circles.
12. Store in an air tight container but I can tell you they'll disappear fast.