RECIPE: Spicy peanuts

These nuts are a delicious and easy alternative to offering salted peanuts as a nibble with drinks, but a warning - don't make more than you need, thinking you will keep some for another day, they are so moreish you'll just keep eating them until they are gone!

Use the red or pink skinned peanuts for this, or at this time of year you could even buy peanuts in their shells and have fun shelling your own. Note that if you are buying them in a supermarket, they are often MUCH cheaper in the Asian foods section, and if you are lucky enough to have an Asian shop (Chinese or Indian, they both tend to stock them) nearby they will be cheaper still.

For each 100g of nuts you will need:
a little oil - I like to use Chinese peanut oil but any mildly flavoured oil will do
1 clove of garlic, finely crushed
1 tsp cumin seeds
½ tsp chilli powder (or to taste, we like them quite hot and buy very hot chilli powder)
salt to taste

Heat the oil in a frying pan and fry the nuts over medium heat until the skins start to split and slightly brown. Toss in the cumin seeds and garlic and fry for a further 1-2 minutes, then the chilli powder and fry for one minute longer.

Allow to cool and add salt to taste.

That's all you need to do!