These sweet and spicy coated groundnuts are mildly spiced, sweet and crunchy.
I would always frown upon coated groundnuts at parties when it is served. It is mostly bland and taste raw inside with too much oil. Then a relative changed my life completely with her sweet and spicy coated groundnuts when she catered for a party. But with most Ghanaian older women, asking her for the recipe led to “oh, take some groundnuts, boil it. Then take some flour, mix it with sugar, a lot but not too much, add powdered pepper, be generous, if you want, add white pepper or black pepper and a little nutmeg….etc. Try it, it will come out nice.” “… hmmm I might as well figure it on my own”. Forget about getting precise details or weight of ingredients used for recipe, just go with a bit of this, a little of that and so on.
After lots of trials, deciding not to come close to hot oil again, lots of bland raw tasting coated groundnuts, I present this recipe today plus tips for success. I mostly suck at frying, these tips works for me plus I don’t want you to waste your time and efforts not to talk of ingredients.
These coated groundnuts are spicy and slightly sweet. Powdered pepper, black pepper, nutmeg and sugar is added to the flour to coat the groundnuts.
- Parboiling the groundnuts. I prefer to parboil the groundnuts before coating with the flour and frying. I realize frying directly leads to raw tasting groundnuts. Another issue is also the size of the groundnuts. Smaller groundnuts will cook through faster than bigger ones, hence you can skip parboiling smaller groundnuts. To be on the safer side, I highly recommend it.
I made a batch without parboiling in reference to the smaller size groundnuts and we realised there were random raw ones when we were eating. So parboiling we go.
- Rest coated groundnuts before frying: After coating with the flour etc, let it rest a while before frying as it enables the coating to stick better.
- Proper frying: Also, when frying, do not crowd the oil with groundnuts. A little at a time saves the groundnuts from absorbing too much oil and enables it to cook properly. These normally go quickly from brown to burnt, fry on medium heat and remove from heat immediately it goes brown. I realise as it is cooling down, the shade gets darker.
with these tips, you will be successful at making coated groundnuts all the time. Now here is the recipe that we love so much.
Bid goodbye to bland coated groundnuts!
- 2 cups/ 330g groundnuts AKA peanuts I prefer smaller ones
- 1 ½ cup/ 180g all purpose or pastry flour*
- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 3/4 cup/ 135g caster sugar
- 1 ½ tablespoon powdered pepper like cayenne or chilli powder add more or less for preference
- 1 1/2 teaspoon grounded black pepper
- 3/4 teaspoon nutmeg
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 2 eggs
- Oil for deep frying
-
Fill a medium saucepan with enough water to boil the groundnuts. Place on high heat and bring to a boil. Immediately the water starts boiling, gently put in the groundnuts, cover and boil for three to five minutes. Turn off the heat and use a colander to strain the groundnuts. Spread the groundnuts over a big tray or baking pan such that there is enough room for each groundnut to dry.
-
Whisk together the flour, sugar, powdered pepper, black pepper, baking powder, nutmeg and salt in a bowl.
-
Beat the eggs together and set aside. On the same tray the groundnuts are on, pour the beaten eggs over the groundnuts making sure every groundnut is well coated. Pour half the flour onto the egg coated groundnuts and using your two hands, mix everything together carefully. It will look messy and some of the groundnuts might have stuck together.
-
Spread the groundnuts on the tray to separate the ones stuck together and pour the remaining flour on to coat. Let the coated groundnuts rest for eight to ten minutes.
-
Heat a deep fryer with oil on medium heat. When oil is hot, put in some of the groundnuts. DO NOT CROWD the fryer. Continuously stir till the groundnuts are brown. Remove from the oil and place in a colander lined with paper tissues. The groundnuts gets darker and crunchy when cooling so do not keep them in the fryer for long.
-
Store in an airtight container for up to seven days
Other recipes on the blog
