China South of the Clouds

I’ve had a lot of wonderful food this week as I’ve traveled around Yunnan. I’ve tried sour and spicy fish flavored with Sichuan peppercorns; cucumbers doused in vinegar, garlic, and chile sauce; stir-fried glutinous rice cakes; and even freshly picked fava beans stir-fried with fiddlehead ferns and slivers of pork belly.

But the recipe that I’m most excited about, the one I fell in love with the minute I tasted it and ate every last bite of, is none of those wonderful concoctions. It’s probably the least healthy thing I’ve ever eaten. It’s deep-fried peanuts covered in a coating of crunchy sugar.

I’m not alone in my love for this dish. My friend Lea Redmond, a broccoli-lover and weekly patron of the Oakland farmers’ market, has been traveling with me this week, and she’s in love too. As much as she’s enjoyed discovering how wonderful real Chinese food can be, this is the dish she swooned over and probably the one recipe that will drive her to look up this blog when she gets home to California.

So here it is, the least healthy and most addictive recipe I’ve found yet.

Sugar-Coated Deep-Fried Peanuts

1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 1/2 cup peanuts
3/4 cup sugar

1. Heat oil in a wok over very high heat, and add peanuts when oil starts to get hot, stirring to coat them. When the oil begins to sizzle and foam, stir-fry peanuts constantly for about 1-3 minutes (if you’re using already roasted peanuts, they’ll take less time to color than raw, dried nuts). When the peanuts have started to change color, remove them from the wok, draining away the oil until there’s only a couple teaspoon’s worth in the wok.

2. Add 1/4-1/2 cup water to the wok (carefully, because the oil and water will spit when they meet), and pour in the sugar. Lower the heat under the wok to medium and stir the sugar mixture constantly, checking the color occasionally by lifting some out into your wok spatula.

3. When the sugar has just begun to take on a golden color, add the peanuts back into the wok. Mix the peanuts into the sugar mixture and cook, stirring constantly, for one more minute. Turn off the heat, but continue to stir and flip the peanuts. As you stir, the sugar will begin to cool and coat each nut with a white crunchy crust. Continue mixing until the sugar has cooled, then pour the nuts into a serving bowl.