Author Notes
I will not pretend to be a Southern food connoisseur. I had never even had boiled peanuts until they were served as an amuse bouche at the tiny and lovely To the Wind bistro. In Denver. And I have no idea why I suddenly needed to make my own vat of them, but I did. After reading through several recipes I determined I needed a flavorful brine and lots of time. I wanted to infuse some flavor into the peanuts too and settled on an orange coriander mix. But I really wanted to add smoked tea too and pondered different ways to do that without adding bitterness. I ended up keeping the brine as is, but tossing them in different blends once done. —savorthis
Ingredients
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1.5 pounds
Raw peanuts
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1/3 cup
Sugar
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4 tablespoons
Salt
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1
Orange
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1 tablespoon
Coriander seed
Directions
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Rinse peanuts and scrub to remove dirt. Soak about an hour more to help remove any remaining dirt. Using a peeler, remove orange peel in strips and quarter orange. Strain peanuts, add to a fresh pot with orange, peels, coriander salt and sugar. Cover with water and bring to a boil stirring to dissolve. Taste mixture. It should be very flavor and balanced in salty and sweet. Gently boil peanuts, stirring occasionally, for about 4 to 5 hours adding more water as necessary to keep them covered.
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Test a few for doneness. They should be soft like a bean with no crunch left. Cook longer if necessary. Let cool and store in the fridge up to ten days.
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*Optional: you can strain and toss peanuts in a variety of different spice mixes. My favorite was a blend of lapsang souchong tea, orange peel, salt, sugar, pepper and ground coriander. They would also be good with a mix of kaffir lime leaf, salt and dried chiles.
The peeled nuts are also great mixed into salads and asian dishes like lettuce cup pork or tofu.
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