Recipe: Spiced Boiled Peanuts

Again, credit where credit is due, this recipe is adapted from the one within the pages of the stellar publication, Saveur Magazine.

Also, I think Boiled Peanuts are something that allow for great creativity, so do whatever you want and see how it goes.  Any kind of spice would work (mustard seeds, cardamom, etc.) and I think the boiling liquid could be altered in lots of interesting ways (soy sauce, Worcestershire sauce, maybe even some red wine, etc.).  The one thing to keep an eye on would be the salt since you don't want to go too heavy on it.  That being said, boiled peanuts are kind of a salty snack, so be aware of that going in!  Also, these are called out as "Spiced", but they're certainly not overly hot.  To read all I had to say about these, you can go here.

Paprika, fennel seeds, coriander seeds, black peppercorns, crushed red pepper, cinnamon, bay leaves and garlic do a spicy peanut make.

Ingredients:

2 lb. raw peanuts

1/2 to 1 cup kosher salt (depending on how salty you want them)

¼ cup sugar

1 tbsp. coriander seeds

1 tbsp. fennel seeds

1 tbsp. whole black peppercorns

1 tbsp. crushed red chile flakes

1 tbsp. hot or mild paprika

2 bay leaves

2 cloves garlic, lightly crushed

1 stick cinnamon

1. Rinse the peanuts in a colander thoroughly as they are often dusty.  I've seen some recipes that recommend soaking the peanuts for a bit before boiling, but I did not opt to do that.  It may cut down on cooking time, I suppose.

2. Throw everything you have into an 8 quart pot with a gallon of water and bring it all to a boil.  As you can see in that top photo, the peanuts will be floating, which might cause you to be somewhat distressed, but fear not, they'll eventually get saturated a bit and will settle in to the water (see below).

  

3. Once you reach a boil, turn the heat down to medium-low in order to maintain a good simmer and get ready to wait...for quite a while.  You'll want to stir the peanuts and move them around fairly regularly, but know that you've got a minimum of 4 hours before they're ready and it might be as much as 6 hours.  The longer you cook them, the softer they'll get, but I felt they were good around the 5-1/2 hour mark.  You'll also want to keep adding in water as it boils away and the level drops.  You might be able to prevent this by covering, but I just maintained the level by adding in more water.

4. Sample the peanuts after 4 hours by dipping one out, letting it cool and then cracking it open.  Once you have the texture you like, shut off the heat and let the peanuts cool down IN the liquid.  This is an important step since that when a lot of that brine and the flavor it brings gets into the shell.  You might also want to put a lid on the pot that's slightly too small in order to keep the peanuts submerged.  Let them cool for at least an hour.

5. That's it!  You can eat them warm right from the pot or store them in the refrigerator for a couple of weeks.  I'd drain the liquid off before refrigerating.  If you like them warm, you can always reheat in the evil microwave or something like that.  Enjoy and, as I said, you can make adjustments as you see fit (less salt, more spice/heat, etc.).

P-nuts, Girl

I think I've noticed a trend of late.  It seems that my creative pursuits involve me either trying to please someone in my life or recapture a time when I was happier and life was less complicated.  This is often true in the music that I write and listen to, but it seems the most obvious lately regarding culinary activities.

My first entry in this blog series was Deviled Crabs, which is a perfect example of the latter situation.  They were something that I grew up with and I remember them being in the house even before I had the desire to sample one.  It's a massive understatement to say that the "someone in my life" thing mentioned above has been somewhat of a challenge lately, so most of my culinary goings on have been all about nostalgia.  Deviled Crabs, Ice Cream...even Glazed Donut Grilled Cheese is kind of juvenile even if I didn't actually eat them as a kid (and, from the musical side, my recent Stardust blog was all about my past).  Frankie, my English Bulldog, doesn't care one way or the other about my cooking, so I guess it's time for more recapturing of childhood.

You see?  He couldn't care less.

Boiled Peanuts were something my Dad brought home to our house from as early as I can really recall.  If you're not familiar with them, odds are you did not grow up in the South as they are a staple there.  Well, at least they were, I'm not sure if they still are.  I grew up in the suburbs of Bradenton, FL, which was pretty much Anytown, USA, and still pretty much is.  We regularly ventured east to the more rural part of town though since my family owned a bit of property out that way on which we had built a small cabin.  Many weekends were spent out there and it is now the property where my parents live (in a house...the cabin is gone).  It's not as rural as it once was, but you still see horses and cows and U-Pick farms and the like, which I'm fully in favor of.  The "Local" thing was happening in places like this before the "Local" thing was even a thing.

I don't know these people and I don't endorse their derogatory terminology for "Southern Folk"...ahem.

On the drive out east to spend the weekend at the cabin, I would often look out the window to see a guy on the side of the road that looked like a less clean Larry the Cable Guy with a propane rig, a big pot bellowing out steam and a piece of cardboard on which was written "BOILED P-NUTS".  The word "peanuts" was always misspelled that way.  I have no idea why.  Really, you're just saving yourself writing one character since the dash counts as either the "E" or the "A"...is this really that much more efficient or space-saving?!??

But I digress...we would often stop on our way or my Dad would stop later if he was out and saw them.  Honestly, at this point, I would guess it has been close to 20 years since I've had them, but I still remember the taste like it was last week.  Dad would bring them home and, if I recall correctly, they'd usually be in a plastic bag, which was then put inside of a paper bag that was inevitably spotted with moisture from being loaded in straight from the roadside cauldron.

I'm going to have to implore you to just make these if you've never had them since describing them is kind of tough.  I've heard someone say recently that they are like the edamame of the Deep South and that's actually a pretty good start since the ritual of eating them from the pod/shell is the same, but I think there's something more interesting and complex going on with Boiled Peanuts over Boiled Soybeans.  You can definitely tell they're peanuts, but the character of them is markedly different from the roasted peanuts that most people think of when they think of "peanuts".  Also, they are soft in texture and quite wet and juicy (insert inappropriate joke here).

Boiled Peanuts are made using either Green Peanuts (meaning fresh and recently picked) or Raw Peanuts (meaning fresh peanuts dried in the shell, but not roasted or salted or anything like that).  Honestly, you will likely have a hard time finding green peanuts unless you have a Latino or Asian market nearby that happens to have them in the store during the season.  From what I understand, they don't last very long, which is why most of them are dried; raw peanuts, once dried, will last a very long time, which is why you'll have a much better chance of finding them this way.

Again, be sure you are getting the right thing.  Raw Peanuts will be labeled as such, but most of the in-shell peanuts you see in store will be roasted.  It's worth asking someone at the store for help since, if they do have them, they might not be in an obvious place.  Additionally, as a friend of mine found out the hard way, if you just eat dried, raw peanuts as they are, you'll not be happy an hour or two later...so, yeah...don't do that.

As always, I give credit where credit is due and the recipe I'm using here comes from the brilliant Saveur Magazine.  I've never boiled peanuts myself, so I figured I'd try this recipe first even though it is clearly a different spin on what I grew up with.  The next time I make them, I might try to go the traditional route, but, honestly, I think you'd just take this recipe and eliminate everything but the salt to end up with the flavor I know from my childhood.  The recipe I used though might be good for the modern palate since it employs spicy, flavorful things like fennel, coriander, crushed red pepper, garlic, etc.

Interestingly, the flavors and aromas are not dissimilar from what happens when I make fresh pickles (the Half-Sour Pickles blog is forthcoming!), but with a spicier note.  It makes sense though since the end result is kind of Peanut Pickle-esque.  Speaking of aroma, if you're sensitive to a lot of spice, you'll want to open the windows since these did kick up a lot of strong smells that caused me to cough a bit.

Finally, the best part, they couldn't be easier to prepare.  You just throw it all in the pot and let it simmer for around 4 hours. You have to stir and keep the water level up, but while you're doing that you can easily do laundry, watch a movie, read a book, feed a goat, varnish a neighbor...low-maintenance cooking!

Recipe can be found here!

Now My Consolation is in the Stardust of a Song

You know those albums that Rod Stewart and his ilk put out in the late '90's/2000's where he'd sing a bunch of standards?  The ones that were terribly popular and eventually lead to volumes 7, 8 and 9 of the same pap despite the fact that they really weren't any good?  If you ever bought any of them, go throw them out...I'll wait...

Done?  In the trash?  Good.

Now go buy Willie Nelson's Stardust and listen to the man that originated this whole idea and the only one to have ever done it right.  And saying that he did it "right" is a terrible understatement, but I'm hoping the redheaded stranger gives me a pass on that one.

Willie Nelson is a brilliant songwriter.  He wrote tons of great songs that he himself made popular, but he also wrote "Crazy" (Patsy Cline), "You Were Always on my Mind" (Elvis Presley and, later, the Pet Shop Boys) and plenty of others.  When he released Stardust in 1978, the country music world likely thought him mad.  He was one of the biggest names in country at this point (and, keep in mind, this is when country music was amazing and didn't completely suck the way it does currently) and he was a highly respected songwriter...and now he was releasing an entire album of covers.  And not even country covers, but standards from the 30s and 40s.  If ever there was an album that had "bad idea" written all over it, this was it.

Never underestimate the brilliance of Willie though.  The record, produced by no less than Booker T. Jones, was HUGELY successful and still regarded as one of the highlights of an enormous career that still goes on today.

Go listen to it.  It's on Spotify, you can download it through iTunes or Amazon or I'll let you borrow my copy of it.  You can hear how much Willie loves these songs (they were all favorites from his younger days) and that's something that's kind of gone from modern music for the most part.  Not all of it, there are plenty of exceptions, but...it's just different.

Personally, the record has massive significance to me, so, yes, I'm a bit biased, but the world supports my appreciation for it, so I know I'm not off-base with my assessment.  It was released in April of 1978 when I was 5 years old.  I'm not sure when my parents purchased the 8-track (that was definitely the format we had it in!) and I can't be sure as to when I heard it first, but I heard it MANY times over the sound system that we had running through every room in our house.  It immediately causes me to think of my Mom and Dad, my brother, my grandparents...it, along with a couple of other 8-tracks, was the soundtrack to my childhood, which is something that I really love.

The album evokes emotions in me similar to the ones I feel when watching the movie Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.  I absolutely love it, but it brings me great sadness...while also making me happy.  That is contradictory, yes, but, somehow, it makes sense for me.  Hearing it causes me to miss people I love.  Those that I have lost to death from my family, relationships that fell apart and even those that are still in my life, but might just be far away.  I still remember being very upset while lying in the dark in my then-girlfriend's bedroom the night after my Grandma Jackson's funeral and listening to the whole album.  I was sad and upset, but it also helped me to just listen to it with someone else that cared about me.  It's an album that still does that to me to this day...it makes me sad and causes me to miss others, but it brings me comfort, too, so I don't think I'll ever stop listening to it.

The song that hits me the hardest is still "Moonlight in Vermont", an amazing song that has the unique quality of no rhyming lyrics.  That may not sound that odd when you read it, but think about nearly any song and it will have lyrics that rhyme.  "Moonlight in Vermont" is almost a free verse poem that someone just opted to set to music and it works beautifully.  I'm not sure why it makes me as emotional as it does, but, well, it does.  The title track and "September Song" are also standouts.

And, finally, it has an AMAZING photo of Willie on the back in the most ridiculous hat/jacket/neckerchief combo that still brings me great joy.  Go listen to it!