Three successes
Yesterday turned into experimentation day in my kitchen. After a long, hot day Saturday helping my mom with a yard sale in Alleghany County, I was ready for a relaxing Sunday puttering around the stove — and, as it turned out, the grill.
While rummaging around the refrigerator for random produce to throw into my scrambled eggs (artichokes, tomato, banana pepper), I saw the bag of green peanuts I bought at Global Foods in Blacksburg last week. They still looked okay, so I set them to boil in a big pot of water and dumped in an unhealthy amount of salt.
Those of you who read the blog regularly know this made the second time I attempted to make boiled peanuts as tasty as the ones at roadside stands. Well, by golly, I did it this time! They took on the trademark dark, chocolate color and the wonderful, briny flavor. Now all I need to do to perfect them is cut back a little on the salt next time and boil them or let them set about one more hour.
The key truly was to just boil the living crap out of them for hours on end. We finally ate them at 4 p.m.
Success number two came in the form of a cannellini bean paste for bruschetta. I’d had something similar at a restaurant at the Biltmore in Asheville and have been meaning to try and duplicate it ever since.
I flew sans recipe, tossing the drained can of beans into my food processor with 1 Tbsp. of minced, fresh garlic and a drizzle of olive oil. Pureed that. Added salt and pepper to taste and a handful of fresh basil, then pulsed it a couple of times, just enough to chop up the basil. I didn’t want to puree the basil and make a green paste.
We spread this concoction on toasted French bread, then topped it with a mixture of chopped tomatoes and olives with more basil. I will warn you that I may still be reeking of garlic today (apologies to my desk mate, Colleen), but it sure was a flavor explosion.
Success number three was a tiny one, but it involved some of the best buffalo wings we’ve made in a while. As you all know, my husband and I are a bit obsessed with buffalo wings. We had the craving yesterday, but the house was way too hot to fire up the oven.
We chose to grill them instead. A little over an hour later (we kept the temperature on low), we had beautiful wings, rubbed in Hog Wild spice blend and tossed in Frank’s Red Hot Wing Sauce. I’m beginning to think great wings really can come off the grill, if they aren’t cooked too quickly.
With all those hors d’oevres all afternoon, there was no need for dinner. So it seems I actually had FOUR successes yesterday — a little reading, a little ice cream and bed by 10.
I hope everyone else had a good weekend, too. Don’t forget to keep sending those nominations for the best restaurant salads in SWVa.
July 21, 2008 - 9:22 AM
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Congrats on your tasty weekend success!!
Thanks for the post. My husband is actually growing peanuts in the garden. I’ll keep this in mind when he harvests them.
Could you use October (Cranberry) beans in the same
cannellini bean paste you made? I’m looking for a good October bean recipe.
I think you could probably use any white bean. Cranberry beans, if I’m not mistaken, are mostly white with red splotches. But I think it would still taste just as good.
Coincidentally, Rebecca Dillon just wrote about October beans on her blog. http://blog.roanokefarmersmarket.com/2007/07/20/october-beans/#comment-908
I cooked some peanuts the evening I read your previous story on them. I was a little too heavy handed on the salt too, but I loved them. I just drank lots of water.
I’ve been experimenting with cooking my own boiled peanuts for quite some time. This is the first I’ve heard of green peanuts being available in this area. I’d been using the dry ones found in most grocery stores. Talk about long cooking times. Anyway, I’ve come to the conclusion that a good way to estimate salt needed is to pour the salt into the dry pot you’re going to use, and my rule of thumb is just enough to lightly cover the entire bottom. Seems to work out about right. I’ve noticed the roadside stands seem to be cutting back a bit on the salt, but I think that affects the flavor negatively. There’s quite a range from people who’ve never had boiled peanuts. Some love em, others think they’re vile. A friend thinks the discarded shells look like a pile of dead roaches.
I always grill my buffalo wings. I take Texas Pete Buffalo sauce and put a habanero in it for about 2 days. Then I add some red and black pepper (I use about 2 tbs). Marinate the wings for a day or two, grill, and drop them into a bowl with some more sauce when you take them off the grill. As you can tell, I like them spicy, but I think marinating before and rolling them in sauce after works great!
As a former Buffalonian, Buffalo wings are always best with the true wing sauce…the one made at the Anchor Bar. You really can not compare their sauce to any others. Trying to get a table on any night of the week there will show anyone just how the locals feel about the place.
I have made wings using their sauce many different ways and always get raves. Their sauce (THANK GOD) is available online at http://www.anchorbar.com in all their flavors. Try it out, you will not be disappointed and it is great on all parts of chicken also!
Oh, Lauren, I would love to go to Buffalo sometime and just gorge myself on wings.