Tom Yum Soup Cashews

I had a version of these nuts at a friends barbecue recently, spicy sweet cashews with hints of lemongrass and tangy crispy Kaffir lime leaf pieces. I thought she had made the cashews but when I asked for the recipe but it turned out she had bought them on a recent trip to Thailand. I googled to see if I could find a recipes but didn't come across many except one using a store bought tom yum soup paste and the only tom yum soup paste I could find was full of msg.
So I decided to make my own from scratch and use the tom yum soup package as a guide for ingredients and omitted the msg! The cashews turned out golden spicy and tom yum flavoured. The fried tom yum soup paste pieces are pretty tasty to nibble on as well if you like spicy hit!

Cooking Time: 15-20 minutes
Preparation Time: 15 minutes

Paste Ingredients:
1 stalk of lemon grass
1 inch of galangal
Juice of 1 lime
1 birds eye chili
1/4 teaspoon paprika
3 Tablespoons cane sugar (or brown sugar)
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1/2 teaspoon tamarind paste
1 teaspoon vegetable oil

Nuts:
4 Kaffir lime leaves
2 cups cashews
1 Tablespoon oil

Paste:
1. Finely chop lemongrass and galangal.
2. Put all ingredients for paste in to mortar and pestle and smash until paste forms. Or put in ingredients in food processor and blend until smooth.

Nuts:
1. Add 1 tablespoon of oil to frying pan, fry paste until fragrant. (2-3 minutes)
2. Add cashews  and finely sliced Kaffir lime leaves.
3. Fry in pan with paste until nuts are coated.  (2-3 minutes)
4. Remove from pan and bake at 140C for approximately 10 minutes until the cashews are golden in colour. (Watch the nuts carefully to make sure they do not burn)