Everyone once in awhile I stumble across a recipe where I smack my hand to my forehead and say, “why didn’t I think of that??”

This, my friends, is one of those recipes.





My favorite restaurant in Austin is a casual fine dining sushi joint. Their chefs are James Beard and Top Chef winning geniuses. The caliber of cooking is far beyond my self taught skill set, yet their cookbook features recipes that are surprisingly approachable. When I first purchased Uchi: The Cookbook, I thought it would adorn my coffee table rather than my countertop. How wrong I was. Between the pages of beautiful sushi lies simple recipes with minimal ingredients and endless creative talent.

I’ve altered this recipe a smidge, mostly because I’m not a fan of Asahi Dark, which is what the recipe calls for. I also like to substitute the dijon with honey if I plan on making a cashew beer butter and homemade jam sandwich rather than a marinade for chicken. It’s a difficult recipe to mess up. The only trick is to add the beer slowly, otherwise you may end up with a soupy butter.





Ingredients

2 cups roasted*, unsalted cashews 1 tbs. sugar 1 tsp. salt 1 tbs. dijon mustard or honey (optional) 2 ½ tbs. canola oil nut brown ale or honey ale

*If cashews are not roasted, place them in a single layer on a sheet pan and bake in a 350F (that’s been preheated) until golden brown and fragrant.









Ingredients