Like anyone else not from Hawaii, I was enamored of the idea of eating my very favorite nut by simply cracking open one of the many husks that literally litter the ground around here. In my pursuit of roasting my own Macadamia nuts, I came to realize why they cost so much -- the labor! (feel free to laugh at any innuendos, they simply could not be avoided)
First, I collected all of the green husked nuts I could find that had just fallen to the ground. These are preferable to the myriad of brown husked nuts as these tend to have nuts that are too soft are have taken on tiny tenants.
I then pulled out the trusty Mac nut cracker to take off the green husk and laid the hard, brown-shelled nuts out on a cookie sheet to dry off for a few days.
Once the nuts were able to shrink enough to allow cleaner cracking, I had a pile of raw Mac nuts that were delicious all on their own, but were destined for the oven in order to fulfill my vision
Before heading into the oven I tossed the nuts in salty water and roasted them for a lot longer than was suggested, but necessary due to the oven's imperfect sealing...
EAT
In conclusion, this whole process was probably not "worth" the effort and I would probably not undertake this task if Mac nuts were always falling on the ground around me, but twas a novelty and I must say, these are some of the most delicious Macadamia nuts I have ever enjoyed.
Laura, you're an excellent storyteller! Your Mac nut story made me chuckle...I don't know if you recall, but when we were at Stella Maris, I had this hair-brained idea to "roast" sunflower seeds by carefully cracking them open and lying them on a high-power Mag light. I know we were in different bungs, but I was mighty proud of myself so I'm sure I shared the story with you (and perhaps a few seeds) the next day. Maybe home-roasting runs in the family ;)
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