Oven Roasted Peanuts | Varutha Kadala | Roasted Peanuts

My family and my extended family, we all like to munch on salted roasted peanuts.. Even the kids and toddlers too follow the trend :) Everyone loves to munch some good salted "kadala" or "kappalandi" or  "nilakadala" or "verkadalai" whatever name you call it ! I remember in my childhood days my mom and dad used to try to re-create the kappalandikaran's way of roasting peanuts by adding sand in the kadai and then heating them to an optimum temperature and then trying to roast the peanuts in them.. If I ask them about that, they will still reminisce them with more failure stories than success ones ; The idea was to re-create the perfectly roasted peanuts that we get from the road side vendors, but it's quite a feat to achieve at home without damaging your utensils. And in those days it was cheaper to buy the roasted peanuts from them than try to recreate at home...

But nowadays it is so costly to buy from them, have you noticed? You just get three fistfuls for 10 bucks. And every time you want to munch on peanuts you can't go searching for the kappalandi chetan right :D So I learnt to roast these peanuts very gracefully in a microwave from my Mil.. It's very easy and fuss free and you do not leave behind a spotted dirty looking kadai.. Cool right? And now the different microwave brands work differently.. Some heat up fast while some are slower, so take baby steps first and know your microwave lest you are left with bad looking burnt peanuts !

Soaking Time : 60 minutes

Cooking Time : 10-15 minutes

I Used:

Peanuts	-	As Needed
Salt	-	As Needed

The Way:

1. Soak peanuts in salt water for 30-60 minutes. The water should be salty when you taste it. Hence taste and add salt accordingly. If salt is not sufficient, the roasted peanuts will not taste great

2. Once soaked. spread the peanuts on the microwave tray. Set your oven to microwave mode and power to max (in my case 900 W) and timer to 3 minutes

3. After 3 minutes, open the oven and quickly stir the peanuts with a spatula. This is to ensure that they get roasted evenly

4. Then again keep in 900 W for another 2 minutes. Again open and stir with a spatula. I continued like this for a total of 11 minutes and the peanuts were roasted. In my mil's microwave she keeps for 5 minutes twice or thrice till done. That oven doesn't heat too fast and hence she is able to keep for a longer time. So know your oven and test with smaller time during the first time. Then you will get the hang of it and can improvise 

5. And watch out for the burnt smell. If you get them, immediately switch off the oven and open the door and allow it to cool. And from next time keep for a lower time :)

Hope my tips are helpful and you could roast some good peanuts :) Let me know your comments and thoughts in the comments section !

Cheers,
Chitz