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Cooking with Shea Butter: Coconut Curry Mixed Nuts Recipe

Did you know shea butter, called Women's Gold in Africa, is also a cooking oil? Food-grade raw shea butter has a strong nutty taste and scent, and it comes from shea trees that take about 20 years to bear nuts, then can keep producing for up to 200 years. Here it's melted in the oven to toast walnuts and almonds with curry, chili and coconut.

Part of: African Cuisine › Fats, Seasonings & Kitchen Techniques


Shea oil is a multi-purpose food grade cooking oil

Shea butter is a fat extracted from the nut of the African shea tree. Shea Butter contains Vitamins A and E and is high in essential fatty oleic, stearic, linoleic and palmitic acids. Shea Butter, also known as Women's Gold in Africa plays a very important role in cooking and earning living wages for millions of African women.

Shea butter is a multi-purpose cooking oil when food grade oil is used in the recipe. It takes approximately 20 years for a tree to bear fruit and produce nuts, maturing on average at 45 years. Most trees will continue to produce nuts for up to 200 years after reaching maturity.



Shea tree nuts
Shea tree nuts


Eight African countries produce high quantities of Shea nuts; they include Nigeria (the largest producer), Burkina Faso, Mali, Ghana, Côte d’Ivoire, Benin, Togo and Guinea. The nuts of shea tree can be collected and processed by crushing and grinding by hand or a machine to yield shea butter.

Shea has long been recognized for its emollient and healing properties, ideal for soothing skin in the dry climate of the region. Reports of its use go back as far as the 14th century.

African Shea Butter is made from the nut of the Shea Tree
African Shea Butter is made from the nut of the Shea Tree


How do you cook with African shea butter?


Mixing Shea Butter by Hand
Mixing Shea Butter by Hand


African shea butter has been used for centuries for cooking. Most raw and unrefined Shea butter comes from producers in Africa who export the product for further refining. Raw shea butter is butter is shea butter which has not been filtered or molded into shapes and unrefined shea butter is filtered and sometimes molded. Food grade raw shea butter oil is edible and used in many food recipes. Shea butter oil has a very strong nutty taste and scent.

African Shea Butter
African Shea Butter

Shea Butter Oil Coconut Curry Mixed Nuts Ingredients
2 tablespoons food grade raw shea butter
2 cups raw walnuts halves
1 cup raw whole almonds
1/2 cup sweet flaked coconut (optional)
1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
1 teaspoon chili powder
1 teaspoon dried curry powder
1/2 teaspoon garlic salt
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper

Directions
Preheat the oven to 300°. Add shea butter to a 13- x 9- x 2-inch baking pan; set the pan in the oven to melt the shea butter. Remove the pan from the oven; add nuts and Worcestershire sauce to the melted shea oil. Gently stir until well mixed. Bake the nut mixture until it is toasted, stirring occasionally, about 30 minutes. Mix all spices and coconut in a small bowl. Remove the nuts from the oven and sprinkle the mixture evenly with spices. Toss until well mixed. Transfer the warm nuts to a bowl and serve immediately, or let cool and store them at room temperature in an airtight container until ready to serve.

Food grade raw shea butter is edible and used in many food recipes. Shea butter has a very strong nutty taste and scent.
Food grade shea butter is a multi purpose cooking oil

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