Salted peanuts - pistaches salées

Salted peanuts - pistaches salées

Ingredients:
1 kg shelled peanuts (small),
1-2 cups fine grained sea salt,
pink food colouring,
cold water.

Preparation: (This recipe has been passed on to us by Guito Aliphon from Harare, Zimbabwe).
Wash shelled peanuts carefully without bruising the nuts. Use the smaller variety of nuts as these are easier to salt and cook. Drain the wash water and allow to soak in cold water for 20 minutes (or until the nuts have absorbed some water). The soak time will depend upon the freshness of the nuts. Vary soaking time accordingly.
Drain all water from the nuts and carefully rinse to wash out all impurities. Do not bruise the nuts or dislodge the thin skin from the nuts. Drain the water as much as you can whilst leaving the nuts moist.
Wear a pair of gloves and gradually sprinkle the nuts with the fine sea salt. Mix carefully without bruising the nuts. Add enough salt to flavour the moist nuts. Do not add excess salt as this will crystallise later during the cooking process and give a sharp salty taste to your nuts.
Carefully add a few drops of the pink food colouring and gently mix in with the nuts. Be careful not to bruise the nuts. Make sure that you are wearing gloves as your hands will be stained pink if you don’t. If needed, add some more drops to colour the moist nuts a deeper pink. Mix well with your gloved hands to obtain a uniform colour.
Spread some of the pink coloured nuts in one layer within a flat glass oven plate. Place in the microwave and cook on high for 2 mins 30 secs. Using a wooden spoon, loosen the nuts within the plate. Put back in microwave and cook on high for another 2 mins 30 secs. Again using a wooden spoon, carefully loosen the nuts and cook for another 2 minutes or until the nuts start spluttering. Taste some of the nuts (after allowing cooling time) to check that cooking time is sufficient. Adjust cooking time accordingly. Do not cook for long periods without monitoring, this could lead to your nuts turning black.
Remove cooked nuts from the microwave oven and spread on a flat oven metal plate and allow to cool down. Loosen any cluster of salted nuts.
Repeat with the remainder of the nuts in batches.
Allow the nuts to cool down and dry up overnight in an open container, to eliminate any remnant moisture within the nuts. You can then store in an airtight container.
Enjoy.