It took me a long long time before i could make this peanut soup, of which the peanuts melt in the mouth. I was told that i have used the wrong type of peanuts. The peanuts have to be the white skin and small in size but i remembered that half a century ago, the peanut soup sold in Seremban wet market was so good and the peanuts were long and huge. How did they make the peanut so soft??????? I have tried cooking the peanuts to death and tried pressurizing, still crunchy peanut soup. Ask around and my sifu, tt, came up with the answer, soak the peanuts with alkaline solution. Thanks tt, now i make the best melt in the mouth peanuts.
Ingredients:
12 ozs blanched peanuts
1 tbsp potassium carbonate & sodium bi-carbonate solution(kan sui)
2 pandan leaves (optional)
Sugar to taste
Method:
Wash the peanuts and steep with enough water to cover and add in the tablespoon of potassium carbonate & sodium bi-carbonate solution for at least 4 hours.
After steeping, drain and steep with fresh water for 1/2 hour, repeat this changing of water 2 more times, this should rid the alkaline solution.
Put peanuts, pandan leaves if using and 6 cups water in a pressure cooker.
Close lid and pressurized for 1/2 hour from hissing.
Let the pressure released before opening the lid
Bring the soup back to the boil and add sugar to taste.
Cook until sugar dissolve.
Soup is ready for serving
Enjoy
Serves
Lily! I had this right when I was in Denver? This was sooo good and yummy
ReplyDeletetastes of home
ReplyDeleteyes, i love this soup too, it brings back fond memories of my childhood.
hehe, say Hi to buddy and renee, poh jee no need lah
ReplyDeleteHi Aunt Lily, Thank you for sharing this tip. I had a hard time to get the right texture too. :)
ReplyDeleteHi Lily, i have another trick to make the right texture for the peanuts. Freeze the fresh peanuts before you cook them. They will turn out melt in mouth as well.
ReplyDeleteastrid
ReplyDeletewow, what a good tip. i will certainly freeze the peanuts before i cook them.
thanks
Astrid & Lily,
ReplyDeleteDoes that mean we can freeze the peanuts and skip the alkaline water solution? Maybe i will try that and see if it works! I have been craving for this peanut soup and have boiled the peanuts then fridge it then boil again the next day but the nuts were still crunchy! And I tried searching online but i can't find anything. So you are truely a Godsend. Thanks!
Oh BTW, i've been making the pandan chiffon but with no success the texture inside is not cake-like but sponge like.
matty
ReplyDeletei have not tried freezing yet but if you are making it soon, give me a feedback
matty
ReplyDeletethe pandan chiffon cake should be spongy and fluffy
Hi Lily,
ReplyDeleteI froze the peanuts yesterday (overnight) and steeped the peanuts for only 1-2hrs (when i went out shopping) then when i came back i turned on the stove. Had been steeping/soaking/boiling on and off for the last 5hours.
Yes freezing seems to make the nuts not as crunchy. Perhaps if u soaked the nuts in water overnight after freezing them, and then cooking in a pressure cooker, it will be soft. I don't have a pressure cooker hence my slaving over the stove for 5hrs.
I will recommend this method rather than using alkaline water as too much alkaline water is no good for the body i think. (with alot of our asian food/kueh using alkaline water we should look at other methods).
Cheers mate.
matty
ReplyDeletethanks for the feedback. i too have a pack of peanuts in the freezer and will certainly try to see if it works better than soaking with alkaline water.
Soak the dried peanuts in water overnite first, then freeze them.
ReplyDeleteastrid
ReplyDeleteoops, have to take my pack of peanuts from the freezer and soak it.
thanks for the tip
Hi, may I ask what kind of peanuts are used in this type of soup?
ReplyDeleteCan we use the same type as the lotus root peanut soup? (with brown skin?)
I can't seem to be able to find those raw, skinless, longer peanuts for this tong sui in KL... any clue where I could get them?
Thanks!
angie
ReplyDeleteyou can use any kind of raw peanuts - remove the skin before using.
Thanks so much for posting this recipe. I had peanut soup in Xiamen this summer and I don't know of any place in my city that makes it.
ReplyDeleteFrozen poached chicken does indeed
ReplyDeletetaste softer or tenderer on
defrosting, shall soak peanuts for
24 hours at room
temperature before freezing, defrosting and cooking it, thanks
for the tips, everyone.
On the subject of peanuts, the
ReplyDeletelarger raw and skinned variety
is regretfully no longer available in
in London too that I used to
make peanut butter from, the
commercial variety is made
largely from palm oil that as you
know is saturated fats much like
lard that is not good for you in any
quantity.
I note pandan essence is available
in Australia and Malaysia but not in
UK but we have fresh pandanas leaf
regularly flown in.
I wouldn't worry too much about using
ReplyDeletealkali water, the bananas we eat is full of potassium that's supposedly beneficial,
noodle manufacturers like Kam-Feng
of China use a potassium compound for their
wheat noodle manufacture that seems to taste that little bit better as to their premium brand that I buy.The
texture also seems to be better. A certain brand from Singapore is good
too but it is rather expensive.
Mom loves cooking this dessert for us every other weekend. She always allow it to simmer over the charcoal stove for hours.
ReplyDelete(refer http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_5zjvZnDSG90/SYBfWyXZ34I/AAAAAAAABfI/tpS2lzvlquQ/s400/DSCN8197.JPG)
This brings the peanuts nicely cooked and best of all - melts in your mouth. Nothing extra and artificial. Could explain why in the olden days, food are served with mouthful of natural flavors. Just a simple comfort food over the weekend to start the week.
P/s: I don't quite see the stove around anymore. They bring out the best soups and desserts everrrrr..
Auntie Lily
ReplyDeleteThanks again for a wonderfully simple and yummy recipe. I am so glad I stumbled on your recipe because I was all ready to cook the peanuts by just boiling. Thank goodness I didn't end up with crunchy peanut soup!! I used a solution of baking soda and water for soaking the peanuts and it worked beautifully. The peanuts were so soft. Also I used rock sugar to sweeten and that made it taste really sublime. I made some peanut tang yuen to go with the soup (that's how we eat it in Singapore) but alas, the peanut filling I made was not good at all. If you have a good recipe I would be grateful for your tips. The recipe I used added peanut butter, which gave it the wrong taste and texture. The peanut tang yuens we have in Singapore have finely ground peanuts and also some sesame seeds, but the texture of the filling is such that it flows out when you bite into the tang yuen. Heavenly.
'I wouldn't worry too much about using
ReplyDeletealkali water, the bananas we eat is full of potassium that's supposedly beneficial
....'
Alkali water is, I think, diluted
sodium hydroxide or caustic soda(?) which
I wouldn't have too much of anyway, least of all for soaking food in... as opposed to potassium per se that is supposedly good for you...as present in bananas.
BTW we get fresh PANDAN leaf in London but not in essence form... I would extract the juice and store in individual portions in the freezer that seems to keep well for very many months without any impairment in flavour or fragrance.
Heard of or been to SiRusa Inn at 7th
mile, Port Dickson where purportedly had the best beaches... and that's how I got to know Seremban having stopped there for the occasional street food on return to KL...ah nostalgia of days of so very long ago...!
A friend of mine resident in US for over 40 years alternates between US English and British or World English when writing to friends from his old school days. Just like you, I presume.
chinchyechia
ReplyDeleteso nice of you to drop by and leave such a nice comment.
I've soaked a quantity of large, white
ReplyDeleteshelled peanuts overnight, shall freeze
them and thereafter see to making tender and soft hopefully, peanut 'tong sui'.... it's the height of summer in UK... so I shan't be in too much of a hurry to try things out.
Googling, I note boiled (unshelled) peanuts was a favourite (no US spelling here) snack food from Civil War days and still is amongst folks in southern United States.
Lily, yours one the better food websites I've visited which recipes mum (again no
US spelling) would have thoroughly and warmly approved.
chinchyechia
ReplyDeletethanks for reminding me that my english english has gone to the dogs. I think i have also forgoteen to pronouce my 's' and 'd'.
I have tried the freezer peanuts but they still are not as soft - not so melt in the mouth.
Thanks for the valuable info, it is good to know.
Lily... being US domiciled and a US
ReplyDeletecitizen as well presumably... you're perfectly entitled to and justified in using the US brand of English.
English emanating from Britain must of course be of the British variety lah...
though I find increasingly here American influences creeping in thanks to all those imported US TV and movies stuff.
A slight typo in my previous posting that
you probably would have noticed as to omission of a minor word.
could you blend the mixture afterwards? my parents are fond of thick smooth, creamy peanut soup dessert without any hint of peanuts inside. Also saw a recipe that added 3-4tbsp coconut milk at the end for a richer taste. would this be ok?
ReplyDeletelilian
ReplyDeleteyes, you can blend to make into a milk like soup but the peanuts are so soft, it has some texture. of course add some coconut milk if you prefer