Friday, August 15, 2008

Braised Peanuts

In many chinese restaurants, as you sit down and order your food, most often than not, the waitress will bring you a plate of appetizers. This can be some pickled vegetables, diced beancurd, fried nuts, fried crunchies or braised peanuts.

Braised peanuts - that's my favourite. I tried doing this at home and it turned out rather well...


What you need are:

300g giant peanuts (soaked overnight)
2 pcs cinnamon
3 pcs star anise
some dried orange peel
1 litre water
1 tbsp dark soya sauce
salt & sugar to taste

Basically, you just boil all the above for about 1.5 hours or until soft. It would be much faster if you use a pressure cooker. When it's done, leave the peanuts to soak for a few hours in the "gravy" to allow full absorption of the spices into the nuts.

This is a very healthy snack - try it, instead of gorging on those fattening fried stuff!

4 comments:

Center Parted said...

I'd figured out there was cinammon and 'park-kok' in there... but wow, orange peel? Who would have thought of that!

Thanks for sharing the recipe... did you pick it up somewhere or was that your own 'reverse-engineering'? :)

Tummythoz said...

Sounds simple. My pressure cooker is very BIG so hopefully my attempt turns out good enough to share with friends. Else, think can be chicken feed? Err do chicken even eat peanuts?

PureGlutton said...

Center parted: I kinda experimented with the flavours and found that the dried orange peel adds a delightful piquant tangy touch to the nuts!

PureGlutton said...

tummythoz: I'm sure your friends will love your efforts - this appetizer is good accompaniment while chit-chatting with friends!