6.17.14 Togarashi Roasted Peanuts
So I have to apologize for the lack of posts last week. It was a busy one. On Saturday, my little sister got married up in the Twin Cities. And guess who made the wedding cake? Yup, yours truly. Now before you get all impressed, I’ll admit that it was just a small cake, mainly for show, cake-cutting, and the like. Most of the 200+ guests feasted on cupcakes, which (thankfully) did not have to be made by me. But still, making a wedding cake is a big deal. Especially a nicely decorated cake with multiple tiers. Needless to say, there was a lot of cake baking going on. And because of that, unfortunately, minimal cooking.
But minimal cooking doesn’t mean no cooking. After all, one does need to keep up one’s strength for all of the cake building and swiss meringue buttercream that building a wedding cake entails. So I did manage to cook up a tasty snack to sustain me through my cake marathon - togarashi roasted peanuts. They’re easy to make, and sort of addicting, which in my opinion constitutes the best kind of snack food.
If you’re not familiar with togarashi, well you’re in for a treat. Togarashi is actually the Japanese word for “chiles”, but usually refers to condiments containing chiles that are commonly used in Japanese cooking. For these spicy peanuts, I whipped up a riff on one of these condiments - shichimi togarashi, which is traditionally a seven spice mixture (although, not having white poppy seeds readily available, this version only has six). The tasty mix of citrus, chiles, sesame seeds, garlic, pepper, and crumbled nori is quite fantastic. When cooked down in a little oil, mixed with peanuts, and quick roasted, you end up with one tasty snack. It’s practically perfect.
Togarashi Roasted Peanuts
makes about 1 ½ cups peanuts
- 2 tsp sichuan peppercorn powder OR 1 tsp fresh ground black pepper
- 1 tsp flaked nori
- 1 tsp freshly grated orange zest
- 1 tsp black sesame seeds
- ½ tsp ground cayenne pepper (or more to taste)
- ½ tsp garlic powder
- 1 Tbsp canola oil
- ½ lb (about 1 ½ cups) dry roasted peanuts
- salt to taste
1. Preheat oven to 300 degrees.
2.Combine the pepper, nori, orange zest, sesame seeds, cayenne pepper and garlic to combine.
3. Heat the oil in a pan over medium heat, then add the spice mixture, cooking until spices are fragrant, about 30 seconds. Add the peanuts, and stir until well coated with the oil/spice mixture.
4. Remove from heat, then spread the peanuts in a single layer on a baking sheet. Bake at 300 until peanuts are mostly dry, about 15 minutes. Cool slightly, then toss with salt to taste.
