Back to Snacks
Spicy Peanut Balls
Serves 16 Prep 15 min Total 15 min Type Snack Origin Chinese

Spicy Peanut Balls

Sichuan spicy peanut balls: roasted peanuts coated in a glossy chilli-sugar caramel and rolled into small clusters.

Serves 16 Prep 15 minutes Units Rate

Overview

Spicy peanut balls are deep-fried rice balls seasoned with garlic, ginger, chilli, soy sauce, and lime, then coated in chopped peanuts for a satisfying crunch. They make an excellent snack or starter, and pair naturally with a chilli dipping sauce.

Ingredients

  • 1 garlic clove (crushed)
  • 1 cm piece root ginger (peeled and finely chopped)
  • 1 red chilli (de-seeded and chopped)
  • ¼ teaspoon ground turmeric
  • 1 teaspoon sugar
  • ½ teaspoon salt
  • 1 teaspoon chilli sauce
  • 2 teaspoons soy sauce
  • 2 tablespoon coriander (freshly chopped)
  • ½ lime (juice)
  • 225 grams cooked white long grain rice
  • 115 grams peanuts (chopped)
  • oil (for frying)

Method

  1. Put the crushed garlic, ginger and chilli in a food processor.
  2. Add the turmeric and process to a paste.
  3. Add the sugar, salt, chilli sauce, soy sauce, coriander and lime juice.
  4. Process briefly to mix.
  5. Add three-quarters of the cooked rice to the paste in the food processor, and process until smooth and sticky.
  6. Scrape into a mixing bowl and stir in the remainder of the rice.
  7. Wet your hand and shape the mixture into small balls.
  8. Roll the balls, a few at a time in the chopped peanuts, making sure they are evenly coated.
  9. Chill the balls in the fridge for 30 minutes.
  10. Heat the oil for deep-frying to 180°C, or until a cube of day old bread browns in about 45 seconds.
  11. Deep fry the peanut balls until crisp.
  12. Drain on kitchen paper, then pile on to a platter.

Notes

  • Chilling the shaped balls for 30 minutes before frying is important, it helps them hold together and prevents them from breaking apart in the oil.
  • Wet your hands when shaping the balls to stop the sticky rice mixture from adhering to your fingers.
  • Processing only three-quarters of the rice to a smooth paste and stirring in the remainder gives the balls a better texture with some bite.
  • Test the oil temperature with a cube of day-old bread (it should brown in about 45 seconds) before frying to ensure even, crisp results.

Serving

Serve with: chilli dipping sauce or sweet chilli sauce on the side Temperature: hot, straight from the fryer Amount: 3-4 balls per person as a snack or starter

Storage

  • Store unfried, chilled balls in the fridge for up to 24 hours before frying.
  • Once fried, store leftovers in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 2 days and reheat in a hot oven until crisp.
  • The balls are not suitable for freezing once fried as the coating loses its crunch.

Tasty rice balls, rolled in chopped peanuts and deep-fried, make a delicious snack. Serve them as they are or with a chilli sauce for dipping.

More like this

1 / 4
Chilli oil

Chilli oil

Two-stage flavour build: first a spice infusion (whole spices soaked briefly in water, then simmered slowly in vegetable oil with spring onion and ginger), then a sizzle (the hot strained oil poured over a heat-proof bowl of chilli flakes, smoked paprika, soy and Chinese vinegar). Cooling. Mixing in the textural elements: caster sugar, salt, chicken stock powder, crispy fried shallots and crispy fried garlic. Jarred, rested 24 hours so the flavours marry, stirred vigorously before each use because the oil and solids separate.

Snacks 25 hours 20 minutes Serves1
Thai Green Curry (Vegetarian)

Thai Green Curry (Vegetarian)

A spice paste of green chillies and aromatics blends fresh (or starts from a good Thai paste with fresh additions). Coconut cream from the top of the can is cracked in the wok until oil splits out; paste fries; coconut milk loosens; vegetables, Thai aubergine, pea aubergine, bamboo shoots, broccoli, baby corn, go in by cook time. Tofu joins; the curry simmers briefly. Soy sauce (instead of fish sauce), palm sugar, lime leaves, Thai basil to finish.

Thai 50 minutes Serves4