When you eat at a restaurant in Malaysia, you are usually served with some peanuts to nibble on while you wait for your food. It seems restaurants have caught on that serving oily fried salty peanuts are not healthy and have now changed to serving these lum heong fah sang (fragrant braised peanuts) instead. They do not taste salty but are quite aromatic from the spices and has a tinge of sweetness from the rock sugar.
It usually takes hours to boil peanuts but I have used my trusty old pressure cooker which only took me 40 minutes.
Ingredients
200g raw peanuts, rinse
1 piece mandarin peel
1 whole star anise
1 pcs 3" cinnamon stick
1 tsp chopped garlic
2 cup water
Seasoning
2 Tbsp light soy sauce
1 tsp thick soy sauce
1 Tbsp oyster sauce
3/4 tsp salt
¼ tsp 5 spice powder
30g rock sugar
Method
1. Add all the ingredients into your pressure cooker. Bring to a boil and stir to dissolve the rock sugar.
2. Lock the lid and once pressure have been reached, turn heat to low and cook for 35-40 minutes.
3. Remove from heat and leave the peanuts in the pressure cooker until the pressure is naturally released .
4. Drain the liquid from the peanuts.
5. The peanuts can be served as an appetiser, snack or with rice porridge.
Tip : Do not throw away the braising sauce. Freeze it and use it to add to your next lot of peanuts.
Note : As different pressure cookers may have varying cooking time, after 40 minutes of pressure cooking, use the quick cold water release to check on the softness of the peanuts. If not soft enough for your taste, continue cooking for an extra few minutes.
Recipe : kuali (adapted)
