Roadside BOILED PEANUTS Down In Virginia, And Why They Are AMAZING
That may look disgusting, but hell if it isn't delicious.
If you keep up with my other posts on Steemit, then it won't surprise you to find out my phone is absolutely filled with pictures of mushrooms. Some are beautiful, many are old and decomposing. It speaks volumes about how these peanuts look that it took multiple tries to distinguish them from the rotting mushrooms in my photo album.
But don't let the "Swamp Thing" look trick you - boiled peanuts are fucking amazing
How (Why?) do you boil a peanut?!
The obvious part is that they are boiled in a pot of water. What I didn't know is that the boiling liquid isn't just plain water but a kind of brine. The boiling liquid is imbued with salt, but also a potentially wide variety of spices and/or hot peppers or even sugar depending on the recipe being used.
I bought mine from a nice guy out near Harper's Ferry federal park and he seems to have used a plain salt brine. But even just just a plain salt brine alone created one of my favorite new treats.
Boiling peanuts turns them into something completely unexpected
You've probably heard that a peanut is not a nut, but actually a legume
This has always seemed, to me, to be a distinction without a difference. My experience with peanuts was previously limited to eating them whole and roasted or in peanut butter form. The "legume" title had no significance.
However, once you boil a peanut, suddenly the peanut's relationship to other legumes becomes abundantly clear. The crunch of a conventional peanut is replaced with a melt in your mouth softness more akin to a bean or a firm pea.
The flavor, meanwhile, changes completely! If I fed you a shelled, skinned boiled peanut, hot and fresh from the pot, you might be hardpressed to understand what you were tasting. Most of the conventional peanut flavor is gone, replaced by a funky, salty, earthy, almost beany flavor that is positively delicious, with just hints of peanut flavor here and there.
The texture is just as enjoyable
Melt in your mouth is not hyperbole
You can basically dissolve a boiled peanut between your tongue and the roof of your mouth, which is a texture that makes zero intuitive sense if you're a fan of conventionally prepared peanuts.
Although boiled peanuts are considered a streetside, simple southern snack food, in my opinion the boiling process elevates the lowly peanut to new culinary heights. Sure, you need to overcome some sensory weirdness, what with the dark discolored shells and pungent odor. But the actual experience of eating the peanuts is divine.
The question now is how can you make them at home?
There are a lot of simple recipes online. Most either use a stock pot or crock pot, and the brine creation and boiling are both super simple.
The bigger issue is what kind of peanut to use. You definitely can't use roasted peanuts, even if they're in the shell.
What you can use are Raw peanuts in their shells, which are fairly readily available in most supermarkets.
But what you really want to use are green peanuts - that is peanuts freshly harvested from the earth. Apparently boiled green peanuts are the height of peanut boiling ecstacy.
I'm not sure whether the peanuts I had were green or just raw. Either way they were a culinary revelation I plan on recreating at home. If you've never tried them before I suggest you rectify that deficiency ASAP.
Pictures are my own
The best place to buy boiled peanuts is from a toothless old guy in overalls sitting next to a truck that looks like it is ready to fall apart. Its an important part of the experience.
Sometimes you can find them in cans at the grocery store, but that just isn't right.
Haha perfect! The guy I bought them from had everything except old age and missing teeth.
LOL well I never boiled peanuts. Yug... hehe .. it's funny how often the ugly stuff really tastes pretty decent. Thanks for posting. Cheer$;)
Boiling peanuts?!?! That's something I hear for the first time! I think I'll give it a try...
If you do let me know how they turn out -it seems super simple on its face but somehow I'm dubious un
Ok! I like to experiment in the kitchen (this means I have to eat it no matter how it turns out), I just hope they won't taste worse than my mud-texture spinach risotto
Main things seems to be make sure its green or raw peanuts and cook them long enough. Roasted peanuts wont work!
Thanks for the tip! If I find some the next time I go shopping, I'll try it ;)
Ok, this sounds crazy haha I have to try it sometime "Boiling peanuts" first time I ever hear about it truly. Does they really melt in your mouth?? Totally following you haha need more things like this in my life. :)
They turn into a sort of firm pea texture, almost a lima bean like texture. They a re very soft and creamy - it was pretty great.
Ohhh God, I need to taste that immediately.
I had these is New Mexico, and I can second this post... They are pretty damn good!
Great post and I couldn't agree more! Boiled peanuts are a nearly forgotten Southern treat. Seriously, once you discover this take on peanuts you'll get addicted to not just boiling them but growing them so you can boil them in different ways. Haha oh and tidbit for you here, they freeze! So you can go back to said dude, rack up and throw those suckers in the freezer. ;-) oh and last thought I feel ya on the mushrooms on phone thing. I had someone recently make me aware that I had more images of mushrooms than of my kids on my phone. Hmmm
Haha - i don't have kids yet, but I definitely had more mushrooms than pictures of my wife or I on vacation until i recently culled some older ones.
It's funny, my mind went to growing the peanuts as well, although my balcony is probably insufficient :(
But that would particularly awesome because you could harvest them when they're still green. Or, apparently, even younger, when the shell is also edible?
As for the freezing, that's really good to know cause i plan on buying some raw peanuts on the way home tonight and boiling them up in the slow cooker
I'm not sure you'd ever want to eat the pod on a peanut honestly...ever. But some people are using the hulls as a mushroom growing substrate!! Most boiled peanuts are harvested earlier than roasting peanuts but both still have a pretty long growing season. This is where you get the 'green' peanut. It's harvested earlier and the hull of the bean has not yet fully darkened....but it's the hull not the shell. The shell to my knowledge is always hard and yuck to try to chew, more like a nut than a bean in that aspect....hence their name.
So, interesting twist - I've also eaten peanuts in yet another bizarre form - and it connects perfectly back to our other comment thread: deep fried peanuts! They sold them on Woot years ago, I bought them, and I ate them, shell and all. And , although super super greasy, the shells were like crunchy chips and fairly delicious and digestible.
Oh wow! That sounds great!
Nice post
img credz: pixabay.com
Nice, you got a 5.9% @minnowbooster upgoat, thanks to @dber
Want a boost? Minnowbooster's got your back!
The @OriginalWorks bot has determined this post by @dber to be original material and upvoted it!
To call @OriginalWorks, simply reply to any post with @originalworks or !originalworks in your message!
To enter this post into the daily RESTEEM contest, upvote this comment! The user with the most upvotes on their @OriginalWorks comment will win!
For more information, Click Here!
Special thanks to @reggaemuffin for being a supporter! Vote him as a witness to help make Steemit a better place!
Nice post. @dber