peanut nishime

After trying peanut nishime in Tokoname, I wanted to re-create it.

My mom and aunties make nishime, mostly for special occasions (or whenever my Grandma wants to eat it) but I've never written down their recipe.

I've also never tried making it myself.

Apparently, adding peanuts to nishime is a southern Japan thing.

I looked online and there were many recipes to choose from.

I adapted this one a bit because the original recipe did not specify how much dashi to use.

Also, the original recipe had chicken in it and I wanted to leave it out.

I was happy that when I went to Kobe, I found raw peanuts at the halal store.

Peanut Nishime : adapted from the internet

handful of peanuts (raw)
4-inch piece of renkon, cut into 1-inch slices then cubed
1 carrot, cubed
1/2 konnyaku (devil's tongue jelly, about the size of your palm), use a spoon to make bite sized pieces
16-inch piece of gobo, cleaned and cut into 1-inch pieces
2 cups dashi (stock)
1 tablespoon sugar
2 tablespoons mirin (sweet rice wine)
3 tablespoons shoyu (soy sauce)
3 tablespoons sake (rice wine)
1 cup water

Put all ingredients into a pot and put in 1 cup of water.
Bring to a boil.
Then put an oshibuta (drop lid) on for 10 minutes, drop heat to medium
After 10 minutes, take the oshibuta off and add the dashi, sugar, mirin, shoyu & sake
Cook on medium for 20 minutes.

NOTES: I cooked this until the peanuts were half-cooked because I like that "crunch". Cook longer if you want the veggies and peanuts to be tender.

At first I used 4 cups of dashi but ended up with way too much "soup", so I would cut it back to 2 cups.

I have a little more peanuts and "soup" left, so I will definitely make this again (soon)!

Hope you have a nice weekend, we have a 3-day weekend here.