Salted peanut caramel ~ more addictive than crack

A highly addictive and pleasingly simple confectionary that has delighted many of my customers and staff alike. I too am guilty of over-indulging in shards of its ruthless crunch and sweet salty balance. My teeth must curse me every time I make this, but it’s worth the extra effort in oral hygiene. A recent remark from one of my customers had me remembering just how first-rate this recipe is and how imperative it is that I share it with you.   “I gotta get me some of that salted peanut caramel. I read a review online that it’s more addictive than crack!”

My dad used to love this as a child, with the version he used to buy being somewhat more honeycomb-like in texture with the addition of baking soda which causes it to froth uncontrollably. This version looks good stacked in a large glass jar or makes great school fete treats, served in a brown paper bag with a ribbon. I’ve given you the recipe for a large glass jar full, but feel free to cut the recipe in half if 5 cups of sugar sounds like an overly daunting prospect.

Salted peanut caramel recipe

Ingredients:

5 cups of white sugar
2 cups of water
100 gms of butter
2 cups of roasted, salted skinless peanuts

Method:

Spray a large metal tray with non stick oil and then line it with baking paper.

Into a heavy bottomed pot place the sugar and water and heat on high or induction setting 8.

Allow the sugar and water to come to a gentle rolling boil and cook the mixture until the water evaporates and the sugar begins to turn a light caramel colour. This step should take about 15 minutes.

It pays to not walk away from the cooktop as you are waiting for the sugar to turn to caramel, as it “goes” fairly quickly and may surprise you at it’s speed at turning from white to caramel.

As soon as the sugar turns to caramel, remove immediately from the heat and add the butter, stirring through until smooth.
Beat in the peanuts and then carefully pour the mixture on to the lined metal tray.

If the caramel is thick, line the top of the caramel with more baking paper and carefully roll with a rolling pin to flatten, being extremely careful as the caramel is piping hot.

Allow the caramel to cool completely before snapping into rough pieces and consuming.

A recent dinner and masterclass with Peter Gilmore at Quay involved a few quail, the odd pork cheek or two, 17 happy participants and not a vacuum cleaner in sight.

To celebrate the new merger of Peter Gilmore (of famed restaurant ‘Quay’ in Sydney’s ‘The Rocks’ precinct) with Electrolux, I was invited to a fantastic evening  which included a cooking demonstration and 5 course tasting menu, to which  believe it or not, I jumped at the chance of attending.

We were initially treated to a cooking class with Peter demonstrating a couple of his signature dishes, made all the more easier by the use of his brand new Electrolux kitchen that now forms a special part of The Green room,  his upstairs private dining room.  Peter tells us that he has always been a fan of Electrolux and is thrilled to be working with their innovative and forward thinking appliances. On display and  in use in his new Electrolux kitchen is an induction cooktop and compact steam oven, to which he’s most interested in demonstrating as he sees cooking with steam a growing trend in professional kitchens.

With the cream coloured sails of the Sydney Opera House at our backs, we watched as Peter skillfully demonstrated his style of cooking that has gained his restaurant ranking in the San Pellegrino Top 50 restaurants around the world for the third year in a row. A mean feet of consistency and expertise, evident in his seductive style he describes as “nature-based cuisine”

Once seated at a long table elegantly set for dinner in crisp white linen, we were fortunate to be joined by the owner of Quay and hospitality personality John Fink, who regaled us with tales of Peter’s cooking prowess with its magical abilities to render diners into submission.

I could  certainly see John’s point as any attempt to resist was futile as wave after wave of beautifully balanced and carefully thought out dishes were presented to us with minimal fuss for maximum enjoyment.

One dish that still floats blissfully in my memory was the Berkshire Pork Jowl. Imagine the sensation of cracking through the sugar crust of delicately prepared creme brulee, now take that sensation and instead of breaking through to soft pillow like custard, you break through to creamy pork fat, which just oozes at the possibility of you eating it.

I’m not sure if it was the perfumed prune kernel oil, Pear Cider from the Coromandel valley or Mr Finks aftershave that had me light headed by the end of the meal, but it was a glorious night made all the more special by a humble and rare talent that is Peter Gilmore.

4 Expert Cooking Videos with Tetsuya Wakuda

and The Internet Chef

If you like these cooking videos by Tetsuya, please feel free to share them on Twitter and LIKE on  Facebook.

Learning how to cook can be rough, occasionally even intimidating. With the variety of produce and abundance of recipe sources thanks to our ever increasing appetite for knowledge, it’s hard to know where to start. The rational thing to do is to learn from the best. Someone who has years of experience behind the stoves,  a multi-award winning restaurant they call ‘home’ and a humble approach that makes learning fun, iconic Master Chef Tetsuya Wakuda is all that and more. His humble approach to food is so accessible that it could inspire even the utmost cynic.

Below are 4 cooking videos that I had the great honour to be part of with Tetsuya . These quick videos take you through 4 simple cooking techniques that are easy to master and call your own.  Induction cooking is well represented thanks to Electrolux, so if you’ve got an induction cooktop at home, these videos are a must favourite!

Enjoy.

Scrambled Eggs with Ricotta and sweetcorn

Warm salad of Kingfish with ginger, shallots and orange

Chicken Tagine with Couscous

Wagyu Steak slow cooked using Induction

If you like these Tetsuya videos,  why not check out this behind the scenes article!

This competition is now closed! Please subscribe to our email alerts for future foodie offers and competitions.

Having experienced the Justin North culinary  magic at the recent Great Barrier Feast on Hamilton Island ~ if you win this competiton you are going to be in for a real treat!

Click on the link below and enter now!

Dinner for 2 at Becasse in Sydney thanks to The Internet Chef, Electrolux and Justin North.

To begin with, Electrolux have reserved the best table in the house for 2 people at Justin North’s fine dining restaurant ‘Becasse’ in Sydney.

You will be wined and dined by Justin and his team as they take you on a culinary journey of fabulous French inspired cuisine through  a memorable degustation dinner.  Whether Justin is wowing you with his Salad of Winter Heirloom vegetables roasted marron tail, pea mousseline and dried olive or an apple cheesecake crumble with sorbet and lemon balm, Justin’s ability to delight the palate and excite the senses have ensured his place as a true “masterchef”

This fantastic prize is open to all Australian residents and for those of you that reside outside of NSW, Electrolux will fly you to Sydney and set you up at a deliciously cool inner city hotel for the night as well.

All that’s left for you to do is enter HERE!

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The beloved pork has suffered harshly in the last few years ~ with the terror that surrounded the Swine flu, and peoples  assumption that you could “catch” the swine flu from eating pork meat… False on all accounts! Pork has taken a hammering.

I grew up eating pork. It was a part of my weekly diet and came in abundant forms of thick juicy pork sausages, pork hock soup, bacon bone boil-ups and tender pork roasts. Pork crackling was always a treat fought fiercely over by me and my siblings.

One question I am frequently asked when doing cooking classes and demonstrations is how to achieve sensational pork crackling on the Sunday roast ~ to which I now have the definitive answer!

photo by gurms

I was fortunate enough to have recently spent time in the test kitchen of Electrolux Australia, where we probed the question of how to attain crackling success.

4 pork roasts, 4 pieces of pork fat and 4 different ovens later ~ the answer to the age old question of good crack is as follows.

Tip number 1

When choosing your pork for roasting, do so from a reputable meat supplier. The more in-depth knowledge that your butcher has over the beast they are selling, the better. Why? The best cracking comes from a female pig ~ so you want to secure your pork roast from a sow.

The female pig meat tends  to be sweeter than her male counterpart and also  have more fat under the skin ~ which is perfect for crackling!

Tip number 2

When choosing your pork roast, avoid purchasing meat that comes from intense farmed piggeries, but rather choose free- range and if possible organic. The meat will be more tender and relaxed and level of fat will be higher. Due to public demand, the pig breeder has been breeding pigs with less and less fat, so the meat is less tender and forgiving and the crackling harder to get right.

Tip number 3

Choose a pork roast with a good amount of rind still attached, and preferably start the following recipe the day before you intend to dine.

Pork Crack~ling

DAY ONE ~ preparation

Lay the pork roast on a chopping board, skin side facing you. Taking a sharp knife, make 5mm incisions in the pork fat ~ slicing down lengths ways. Cut the slices as close together as possible.

Lay the pork loin on a wire rack, skin side still facing upwards and pour 3 cups of boiling water mixed with 1/2 cup of glucose syrup over the fat. Pat the pork dry with a paper towel, and leave uncovered in your refrigerator overnight, as close to the fridge’s fan as possible to help the pork to dry out.

DAY TWO ~ time to roast

Remove the roast from the fridge at least 2 hours before you intend to cook it so it comes up to room temperature. Massage vegetable oil into the rind before seasoning  well with sea salt flakes, rubbing  the coarse salt into ALL the grooves you had previously sliced into the meat.  Try and get as much salt as you can into the grooves.

Preheat the oven on Fan Bake to 240 C/ 460F

Place the pork onto a wire rack with a  roasting tray underneath to collect  any drips and cook the pork  on 240C/ 460F  for 20 minutes before turning the oven down to 220C/ 430F and roasting  further.  The amount of time needed for roasting is dependent on the size of the roast and whether the roast has bones or not.

The rule of thumb is to allow 40-60 minutes per kilo, but a better way to determine when the roast is ready is when it has an internal core temperature of 71C / 160F and the crackling is good and CRISP! If you haven’t got a meat thermometer ~ it would be a worthwhile investment!

Allow the pork to rest on a wire rack, covered with aluminum foil for 20 minutes before slicing.

Enjoy!

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