Recipe: Braised peanuts 焖花生

I served this at a dinner gathering at my place back in August. ZS was surprised that I cooked my own braised peanuts. EM asked me what I added into the peanuts to get them flavoured.

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Braised peanuts 焖花生

Ingredients:

A packet of raw peanuts 生花生

3-5 tablespoons of mushroom sauce, a.k.a. vegetarian oyster sauce 素豪油

1-2 tablespoons of soya sauce 酱清

1-2 flat teaspoons five-spice powder 五香粉. That is: Ground fennel, anise, ginger, cinnamon, cloves.

Optional: A few shakes of ground pepper 胡椒粉

Note: All measures are approximate, add more/less as per your preference.

1. Rinse the raw peanuts. Put into the cooking pot. Note: The peanuts will expand to about 3 times their original size, so do not overfill the pot.

2. Add water about 3-4 times the level of the peanuts. Note: Throughout cooking, check that the water level covers all the peanuts. Top-up with more water if needed.

3. Add the seasoning.

4. Cook on low-heat (or in a slow-cooker) until the peanuts are soft to the core. It may take up to 4 hours. To check, split open a peanut. The core should not be opaque (i.e. raw) but has a slight translucence (i.e. cooked).

5. Serve on its own or use as an ingredient in other recipes.

6. Do not waste the resultant peanut flavoured liquid. E.g. It can be used to cook soup or flavoured rice.

Note: You can see a photo of this dish in my other blog post "Dîner en couleurs [Dinner in colours]" here.

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Note: Dried shitake mushrooms 茶花菇 can be braised for 3 hours in the same manner, except that you would not need the mushroom sauce in this case.