Thursday, May 28, 2009

Boiled Peanuts

I crack open the soggy shell with an faint POP and the hot brine drips over my fingers. I squeeze out the three pearls of taste and savor the salty deliciousness that is boiled peanuts.

Yeah, I know. Boiled peanuts, aka goobers, are pretty much a southern thing and most likely you fall into one of three categories:
1) love them
2) hate them
or
3) have never had them.

I fall into the "love" category in case you couldn't tell. The best ones come in paper bags from roadside stands that pop up on the weekends selling local vegetables each summer.

A few weekends ago, I made a batch of my own. So I thought I'd write up my version of boiled peanuts but found that Lisa of Champaign Taste had already done pretty much the same dish and did a bang up job blogging about it. Go check her blog out....I'll wait.
Then I thought that I might write a great post about the history of goobers but I found that What's Cooking America had already done an exemplary job of that.
But darn it (such foul language, Chris?), I spent 8 hours boiling these things and took pictures so you're gonna see them :)

Soak the peanuts in plain water for at least 8 hours (the longer the better....well, reasonably. They'd be pretty gross after 3 or 4 weeks of soaking.) and then rinse them well. Peanuts DO grow underground.
Ingredients are simple. Green peanuts (raw peanuts work but take longer to cook), 3/4 c of salt per gallon of water, and 1/2 cup of Old Bay Seasoning.

Boil them for what seems to be forever, adding water as needed throughout the process to keep the level of liquid up. I ended cooking my batch for just over 8 hours.

Like good BBQ, boiled peanuts are done when they're done. You'll know because the shells soften and the peanuts take on a bean like consistency.

Mmmmmmm can't you just taste them?