Pictorial: Roasted Peanuts with Nam Yu

[hzrt8w]

This sounds brilliant, thank you for posting it. One question regarding the name — I know 南乳 is red fermented tofu, and 花生 is peanuts, but why is there a 肉 in the name?

The word 肉 in this title name refers to the nuts inside peanuts (versus the skin/shells).

It's interesting that I did some google search about

南乳肉花生

They said the recipe is to soak the raw peanuts in liquid/water mixed with red beancurds overnight. Then air-dry the peanuts. Then stir-fry the peanuts with some "yellow sand" (not sure what that is... probably some coarse sand/pebbles).

I am not sure how they separate the yellow sand from the peanut though. May be a sift?

[Kake]

The word 肉 in this title name refers to the nuts inside peanuts (versus the skin/shells).

Ah-ha, thank you!

[...] soak the raw peanuts in liquid/water mixed with red beancurds overnight. Then air-dry the peanuts. Then stir-fry the peanuts with some "yellow sand" (not sure what that is... probably some coarse sand/pebbles).

Interesting... I know that "golden sand" (金沙) is often used to mean the yolks of salted duck eggs. Could "yellow sand" possibly be the same thing?

Edited July 31, 2010 by Kake (log)

[hzrt8w]

Interesting... I know that "golden sand" (金沙) is often used to mean the yolks of salted duck eggs. Could "yellow sand" possibly be the same thing?

I don't think that is the case. The "yellow sand" is just some coarse sand.

[simplycumin]

I'm about to make this, and I wanted to summarize the steps I intend to follow based on the modifications to the recipe in this thread. Please point out any errors.

Ingredients:

• 3.5 lb peanuts
  

Sauce:

• 3/8 cup water
  
• 9 small cubes of nam yu
  
• 3 cubes of fu yu
  
• 1.5 t table salt (not kosher)
  
• 6 t sugar
  

Steps:

1. pre-heat oven to 350 ^oF
   
2. combine sauce ingredients in blender, blend well and divide into 3 equal portions.
   
3. dry roast peanuts in wok
   
4. transfer peanuts to baking pan and mix in first third of sauce
   
5. roast for 10 minutes, mix well and mix in next third of sauce
   
6. repeat. when no sauce is left, still mix and roast for another 10 minutes for a total of 40 minutes roast time
   

Notes:

• 
  Peanuts will not be crunchy until completely cooled.
  

[Chris Amirault]

That looks good -- but you'll want to be careful about times and check them to make sure they're not burning. Pop one into the freezer when you get close and then snack on it a minute later to see if they're ready.

[simplycumin]

Nailed it. Or should I say burnt it only slightly.

Additional notes

• scaled down to 1 kg peanuts, since I live in metric land. All ingredients *2/3. Flavor was perfect.
  
• nam yu was "WangZhihe" brand (pictured ealier in this thread). Weighed one cube at 21g.
  
• fu yu was "Jiangmen" brand, each piece was about half the size of the nam yu. (didn't weigh these)
  
• I also added 2 T total of tofu brine.
  
• burnt them slightly because I messed up early on, and my oven sucks. Maybe I'll try 5x10minutes at 300 ^oF next time.
  

[Chris Amirault]

Yeah, lower temps are better with all that sugar....