Castanha de caju

Two soft fats with the same lactone base. One brings sugar, one brings body.

Fried nut against fried bird: the crunch is the only texture in the wok.

Ground into the gravy it thickens and sweetens where flour would dull.

The nut is fatty and mild, which is exactly what capsaicin needs to spread.

Sharp heat cuts a fat this soft before it coats everything permanently.

Cashew has no acid whatsoever. The lime is doing structural work here.

Ground nut thickens the korma; the pod keeps it from tasting like custard.

Same dairy register — the nut is thickener and flavour in one addition.

Fat is the only thing that carries a dozen spices evenly through a sauce.

Fried cashew is buttery and dull; the leaf is the only thing sharpening it.

Sour fruit through nut cream. Without it the sauce has no finish at all.

Salt and funk on a nut that supplies neither. The nut just carries.

Citral over fat, which is the only place citral does not evaporate instantly.

Caju juice and cachaca is the north-eastern caipirinha nobody exports.

Same lactone-milky base; the nut supplies the body the chocolate never had.

Nutritional yeast plus soaked nuts is the whole vegan cheese trick, unglamorous.

Milky nut fat against grainy custard; blended, nobody can tell where one stops.

Cashew cream reads as the dairy it imitates, and blue mould finds it convincing.