Boiled Peanuts

It's a popular snack in a few parts of the American South: boiled peanuts. Usually, 'green' (i.e. fresh, not dried) peanuts are boiled in brine until the shells are a soft and dark brown--the peanut itself is salty and soft like the consistency of a boiled bean. (These were, once upon a time, called 'goober peas.') In my neck of the woods, they are ubiquitous at sporting events; Cromer's of Columbia, SC seem to base their business on them.

I had a craving a couple of weeks ago, but living in the UK presents a major challenge: 'green' peanuts are nowhere to be found. Working through the British Peanut Council (yes, there is such a thing), I contacted every major peanut distributor in the country until I found that out that "peanuts are not grown commercially here in the UK or Europe, but come from such origins as USA, China, Argentina, South Africa, Vietnam, India and some emerging growers in other parts of the world - and West Africa but predominantly for the groundnut oil." The only choice here are raw, dessicated peanuts. One distributor was so kind as to send me a box since he normally sold by the metric tonne. They are also available at Tesco and Asda.

Many recipes for boiled peanuts vehemently assert that dried peanuts cannot be boiled with the same results. I was on a mission to prove them wrong. Here are the major differences: Green peanuts have a moisture content of 35–50%. Dried peanuts hover around 10%. Green peanuts are typically harvested so that the nuts are full but not at complete maturity. It's not uncommon to get a few young, unformed peanuts in a batch in the South (you can eat the whole thing, shell and all.) Dried peanuts however are more mature and selected for standard size. The varieties distributed in the UK appear to come mostly from China and SE Asia, but still have the red husk typical of the peanuts I grew up with.

After making batch after batch, I've perfected a method that works wonderfully. 

Ingredients: dry raw peanuts, cooking salt 

Method:

1. In a large pot, cover the peanuts with water. Dry peanuts have a lot of air in the shells and they will float. Make sure that if you were to push the peanuts under the water level that they could be completely submerged. 
2. Bring to the boil and simmer for 2 hours. Top up water as necessary.
3. Remove pot from the eye and allow to stand overnight. Make sure there is plenty of water covering the peanuts--they are going to soak up a lot of liquid. (I imagine that this re-hydrates the peanuts. Considering how water has to be forced out of peanuts in the preservation process, I thought it necessary to initiate the re-absorption process with boiling water--unlike one would typically do with dried beans which are allowed to dry on the vine.)
4. In the morning, add enough salt so that the water tastes as salty as sea water. (This takes a lot.) Bring to the boil and simmer for 6 hours (at least). You'll need to keep at eye on them and continue to top up the water as it boils off. 
5. Test your peanuts. Run one of them under cool water and then have a taste for consistency. Once they are soft, remove them from the eye and let them sit in the brine. This will make them saltier. Once cooled, refrigerate and they are ready to eat.