Red Skin Peanuts

Red skin peanuts are whole peanut kernels with the thin reddish brown skin still on. That skin is faintly tannic, much like the papery skin on an almond, and it pushes the flavour deeper and earthier than the pale blanched kind while the kernel keeps the same firm snap.

The skin is the difference. Blanched peanuts have it rubbed off and taste cleaner but flatter; these are left as they come, so the flavour is fuller, the colour holds up in cooking, and they look like the peanuts sold loose at a market rather than the uniform white ones in a vending machine.

How to use them

Salt and roast them for snacking, crush them over chaat, noodles and som tam, or pound them into a chutney with chilli and garlic. They are the base of West African groundnut stew and of homemade peanut butter, and they set well into brittle, chikki and gajak. Technique tip: if you are roasting them yourself, use 160C for fifteen to twenty minutes and let them cool completely before judging the crunch, they crisp as they cool.

Details

Also known as

Red peanuts, Redskin peanuts, Skin on peanuts, Groundnuts, Moongphali, Monkey nuts, Goober peas, Cacahuetes