Indonesian garlic peanuts (kacang bawang) are delicious and can easily be made at home. These peanuts are nice to serve with drinks, or to snack on at any time. Infused with fresh garlic and salt, then deep fried until golden and crunchy, these peanuts are just so good to eat.
How To Make Kacang Bawang
- Soak raw and peeled peanuts in hot water, mixed with a little lime stone paste for 3o minutes. Drain, transfer the peanuts to a large mixing bowl, add ground garlic and salt to the peanuts and mix well. Let stand for 10 minutes.
- Fry peanuts in hot oil until almost golden. Add garlic slices to the peanuts in the oil and fry until the peanuts are a light golden brown. Remove from heat and drain, allow the peanuts to cool, then store in an air tight container.
Tips For Making Garlic Flavoured Peanuts
1. Use Blanched and Peeled Peanuts
When making garlic flavoured peanuts (kacang bawang), egg coated peanuts (kacang telur), rice flour coated peanut snacks (rempeyek kacang) and savoury flour coated peanuts (kacang atom) use blanched and peeled peanuts.
Blanched peanuts are raw peanuts that have been briefly put into boiling water, to help remove the thin reddish-brown outer skin that sticks to the bean. Blanched peanuts can be purchased from most Asian grocery stores.
Looking for more easy Indonesian recipes? Try one of these!
Indonesian Spicy Pickled Vegetables - This easy achar recipe with Indonesian flavours, makes the best spicy mixed vegetable pickle you have ever tasted. Marinated in a fragrant, sweet, sour, and spicy sauce, the vegetables are crisp and crunchy to eat
Sambal Ikan Bilis (Hot and Spicy Sauce) - A fiery spicy sauce this is a popular side dish for various Asian foods, popular in many countries including Indonesia, Malaysia and Sri Lanka.
2. Use White Lime Stone Paste
Limestone paste is used in cooking as a crisping agent. It can be purchased as a powder or paste.
In this recipe a tiny quantity of white limestone paste is diluted in boiling water, and then the raw peanuts are added to the liquid and soaked for 3o minutes, drained and then cooked.
At then end of the cooking process the peanuts are firmer and crispier than they would have been if you skipped this step.
White lime stone paste can be purchased for most Asian grocery stores. If you can’t buy it, just soak the nuts in the boiling water without the addition of the lime paste.
3. Don't Over Fry The Peanuts
Deep fry the peanuts in hot oil, over a medium flame, being very careful not to cook them for too long. The peanuts should turn a light golden colour, this takes about 10 – 15 minutes, then remove from the hot oil.
On cooling the peanuts will become darker. If the peanuts have been fried for too long and have become darkish brown, the peanuts will look burnt and could taste bitter when they have cooled.
Recipe
Indonesian Garlic Flavoured Peanuts
INGREDIENTS
- ¼ teaspoon white lime stone paste + 2 tablespoons water – mix together
- 1 litre boiling water
- 500 grams blanched and peeled peanuts
- 4 garlic cloves + 2 teaspoons salt – grind these together to a fine paste
- 6 garlic cloves very thinly sliced
- 500 ml peanut oil for deep frying
INSTRUCTIONS
- Mix in the white lime stone paste to the boiling water, add the peanuts and soak for 30 minutes. Drain.
- After the peanuts have drained, add the garlic and salt paste mixing well and let it stand for about 10 minutes.
- Heat the oil and fry the peanuts over a medium heat, for about 10 – 15 minutes, or until it just starts turning a light golden colour.
- Add the garlic slices and continue to fry until the peanuts are lightly golden in colour.
- Remove the peanuts and garlic from the oil, drain on absorbent paper.
- When cool, store in an airtight container.
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