Boiled Peanuts

This recipe is so rock-star around the globe that it's hard to believe that it's only a few hundred years old.

Peanuts are ancient. We have evidence. They come from the Andes and date back about 5000 years.

However, their modern incarnation dates back to the Spanish conquest of Hispaniola (modern-day: Haiti and Dominican Republic) in 1502.

The nuts spread quickly across the globe. First to Europe and thence to South-East Asia, China and Africa. They also played a disproportionate role in the slave trade. Many Africans consider the peanut to be "native" but the CC would like to disenchant them of this entirely fictitious notion.

The peanut is not a "nut". It's really a legume more akin to peas and beans than to walnuts and hazelnuts.

If you've never had boiled peanuts, you are totally missing out. This is one of the great joys of life.

The CC presents three recipes from different parts around the globe. Add the ingredients and boil them with the peanuts. (A pressure cooker makes quick work but it's not strictly speaking necessary.)

Eat them with beer. Champagne if you want to get fancy. It's not exactly rocket surgery. But it's delicious.

Ingredients

1 lb. whole raw peanuts
6 cups water

Ingredients 1: Classic

4 tbsp. salt

Ingredients 2: Chinese

4 tbsp. salt
2 tbsp. palm sugar (substitute with brown sugar)

2 star anise
1 small piece of cinnamon
4 cloves
2 dried red chillies

Ingredients 3: Thai

4 tbsp. nahm pla (fish sauce)
2 tbsp. palm sugar (substitute with brown sugar)

2 Thai green chillies (slit lengthwise)

Recipe

Boil the peanuts with the ingredients. About 45 minutes. Test to see. This is hard to predict.

(In a pressure cooker, it takes about 10 minutes.)

Serve with beer.

Indonesian Crackers

The Indonesians have an entire world of fried crackers - krupuk - quite possibly the most variety in the world.

One that particularly stand out are called rempeyek. They are made with rice flour, coconut milk, spices and an extra ingredient.

The CC has seen the "extra" in the following variations - dried anchovies, peanuts, moong beans. Also, combinations of the afore-mentioned.

They are insanely addictive and not to be missed if you can find a local Indonesian market.

Spicy Tingly Peanuts

The CC received these in the mail as a gift. They are totally addictive - your mouth is on fire, all tingly and numb from the Sichuan peppercorns and all you can think of is you need some more.

Indonesian Meal

Making nasi lemak with the traditional ikan bilis, sambal chicken, and all the other fixins.

Pictures to follow.

"Thai" Salad with Cucumbers & Peanuts

There's nothing "Thai" about the salad but it's made by keeping Thai cooking principles firmly in mind.

The dressing was made by blending galangal, Thai green chillies, some kaffir lime leaves and lemongrass in water and passing the result through a sieve. To that was added some nahm pla (fish sauce), lime juice and palm sugar, and turned into a vinaigrette. The resulting vinaigrette was complex - salty, sweet, sour, hot with just a little bit of a bitter edge. In short, "Thai".

To top it all there were thinly sliced cucumbers sprinkled with fine sea salt and crushed peanuts.

How you ask, gentle reader, did it taste?

It fuckin' kicked ass is what it did!