I am a nut lover, so nut consumption is huge. I couldn’t imagine what it would be like to count my nuts out individually and eat them one by one like I often see other people do. For me, I grab an ounce or more in the palm of my hand, pour it into my mouth and enjoy it. Especially if I mix it with various nuts and raisins, it will taste even better and I will consume faster. Also, when I bake at home two or three times a week, I use peanuts a lot, put it on fried rice as a garnish, and sprinkle it on ice cream, etc.
Malaysia where I am currently staying is not a country that grows any kind of nuts, such as walnuts, cashews, almonds, pistachios, pecans, and hazelnuts and more. All nuts are imported from India, Vietnam, Thailand, Turkey, Iran, the United States and Australia, allowing consumers to purchase online or offline. So, if there is a cheap promo discount through an e-commerce shop called my frequent App Shopee, I basically buy various nuts in bulk amount, weighing up to 5 kilos at a time.
I really like nuts, so even if they are expensive, I tend to consume them too quickly. So I can’t help but consider spending a lot on nuts. But how sad it would be if I couldn’t eat my favorite food while staying at home during this COVID-19 period!
So, as an alternative, sometimes I purchase peanuts, the cheapest nut among all the nuts and bought about 5 kilos of it alone. When I buy a bulk for peanuts, it is about RM8 per kilo, so it is around RM40 for 5 kilos. It costs less than US $10 for 5 kilos in weight, so it’s incredibly cheap. Instead, it is raw peanuts that I have to roast myself. I’ve bought raw peanuts myself and baked them in a frying pan or oven myself. And to be honest, I love how I can create the color, aroma, and flavor of roasted peanuts that I want, without difficulty, after a lot of experience.
In fact, I kept talking about nuts and said that peanuts are nuts, but in fact, peanuts are not nuts. When we say peanut in English, we might think it’s a type of nut, but we have to remember that all nuts come from trees. However, unlike nuts on trees, peanuts are entangled in their roots with the soil buried under the ground. So they are truly not real nuts at all. In fact, in Korean, the name is precisely the bean that(? Kong) grows from the ground(? Ttang). That’s peanuts(??Ttang Kong). It’s just one of my favorite food names, just how much the name makes sense to Korean people to picture the growing and harvesting process in our head.
The botanical classification of peanuts is a legume, a French word. The detailed origin of this legume and the botanical properties of this peanut can be found in detail by referring to Wikipedia.
If you’re a big fan of all kinds of nuts like me, who doesn’t have a peanut or nut allergy, you can’t help but eat lots of delicious and inexpensive peanuts in different forms. And it’s hard to choose from many peanut butter products are available in supermarkets, such as peanut butter jam and spreads or peanut butter jelly with peanuts. Also, YouTubers who run food-related mukbangs consume more peanut butter desserts by repeatedly eating sweet snacks such as Dunkin’ Donuts or Krispy Donuts with peanut butter filling inside it. Peanut butter is consumed as an ingredient in various desserts such as fudge, brownies, cheesecakes, and peanut cookies and much more.
They’re not real nuts, but fortunately they’re the cheapest, most adorable and delicious fake nuts. ????
So, in this blog, I will show you how to roast 1 kg of raw peanuts. Before I go any further, I would like to mention that the non-fried peanuts on the market label are also sprinkled with a little oil. This is because the peanut surface is slippery and glossy to make it appetizing. Instead, my homemade, oil-free peanuts are dull and matte.
When it comes to roasting raw peanuts at home, the only concern is whether to roast them in an oven or roast them in a skillet. When I do roast them, both do not contain oil, and the time does not exceed about 20 minutes or 30 minutes max depending on the weight of peanut. In fact, in order to roast it in a frying pan, a large wok would be ideal, if you have one. That way, it can be roasted evenly, and in the oven, spread it out on an oven tray and roast it. A pinch of salt sprinkled with coarse kosher adds moderate flavor to the raw peanuts.
I like to mix the peanuts around with a wooden spatula while roasting in a skillet or pan. And just like popcorns popping during roasting, peanuts make a clicking sound, and fatigue disappears. Roasting peanuts for 20 minutes will make me feel immersed in meditation. When the skillet is hot, the peanuts cook faster. Usually it is roasted with the skin on, but this time it is roasted with the skin off. If there is a skin, a lot of the skin will come off on its own during roasting. After about 10 minutes, the color quickly turns brown. Then turn it over once. And when you hear a clicking sound from the peanuts underneath, mix them up and down and roast them evenly so they don’t burn.
The aroma of roasting peanuts fills the house. You can tell the color of peanuts with the naked eye, but you can taste one or two. However, be careful when tasting it. It’s so hot it’s hard to even touch one or two to taste. And peanuts aren’t 100% crispy until properly cooled. Peanuts in a heated state have a crunchy taste with a somewhat chewy and soft texture.
Simple, delicious and easy roasted peanuts at home. Plus, how about making a variety of delicious snacks with your own roasted peanuts?
The first idea that comes to mind might start with everyone’s favorite peanut jam and peanut cookies.
<Ingredients>
1 kilo of peanuts
a pinch of salt