Boiled Masala Peanuts

Many of my growing up years have been in Chennai. Though I totally dislike the sweat and the scorching heat of the city, I undeniably love the beach. Anyday, I would love to get my hair madly ruffled and my duppata gently blown away (only to be gotten back later) by the salubrious breeze at the Marina or the Elliots Beach in Chennai. I can pleasantly recall many lovely evenings spent with K at the beach – merely staring into the sea, watching and listening to the waves, talking everything under the (setting) sun, saying a firm ‘no’ to the sooth-sayers and of course madly munching away the contents of the ‘pottalam’ (newspaper cone) of masala peanuts!

These masala peanuts would be served hot on the beach, a tiny smoke could always be seen emanating from the cart – a sign of peanuts being boiled or kept warm. And the vendor would arrange the tomatoes, onions and other stuff decoratively around the cart. They would do all their business in the few designated hours in the evening and come back the next day. Rains would mean a huge drop in their business. This is an attempt at recreating that magic at home. I definitely succeeded, but the only difference was that I served it cold (from the fridge) as an appetizer before dinner. The cold version was as good as the hot one. These peanuts are a perfectly healthy guilt-free snack to have with tea or before dinner or even just like that. You could easily substitute boiled peanuts with roasted and skinned peanuts for a crunchy snack.

Ingredients:

Peanuts (raw): 1 cup
Onions (medium): 1 No
Tomato (Big): 1 No
Green chilli (chopped): 1 No
Lemon juice: 2 tsp or to taste
Salt: to taste
Chaat masala: 1 big p
Corriander (chopped): 1 – 2 tbsp
Cucumber, carrots, raw mango: (optional)

Method:

Wash and soak the peanuts for about four hours.
Pressure cook it till it turns tender.
Drain all the water and keep aside.
Now chop all vegetables very very fine. Scoop out the flesh in the tomatoes and chop else it might make the whole thing very soggy.
Mix the vegetables and the peanuts.
Adjust salt and chaat masala.
Add some lemon juice and mix well.
Garnish with coriander leaves.
Serve warm or cold. Both taste equally lovely.
Enjoy!

This goes off directly to 'Anyone can cook Series - 4' and ‘Eat Well – Live Well - Heart Friendly Recipes’ hosted by Taste of Pearl City and My Legume Love Affair # 28 hosted by Divya of Dil Se for this month and conceptualised by Susan.