Candlenut
I mentioned candlenuts the other day, very much in passing, so I thought they deserve a post of their own.
Candlenut (aleurites moluccana, macadamia terifolia) is native to this region - from northern Queensland through to Indonesia and its neighbours. It’s particularly important in Indonesian cooking and is called kemiri in Indonesian.
Botanically this nut leaves me bewildered. Candlenut is definitely a kind of macadamia or a close relative, and I’ve seen it postulated that it might have been carried over to Indonesia and Malaysia by traders up north long before white settlement. I don’t know any of it for certain.
In Australia, the candlenuts on sale are definitely more shrivelled than the macadamia, but otherwise very similar. Unlike the macadamia, you can’t eat them raw.
My favourite use for candlenut is in spice mixes. My Indonesian friends also rub it around a frypan so they can cook without it sticking. It has an incredibly high oil content, which makes sense, given its name. You can also grind them to make a very rich thickening for stews and curries.
Both candlenut and macadamia go rancid easily, so if you want to hang onto them for a long, long time, then buy unshelled macadamias. Macadamias won’t taste quite the same as using a candlenut - there is a very slight bitterness to the candlenuts I have eaten (but I’ve never been able to buy them fresh) - so the substitution is possible but not perfect.
March 1st, 2007 at 3:32 am
Thanks Gillian for the great post!
March 1st, 2007 at 7:41 am
Glad you liked it :).