Peanuts and chocolate are a gorgeous pair.  They play well with each other.  they are comforting. They hang out well together.  to top all of these compatibility perfections, they are simple to combine.

Both are wonderful on their own.  Aside from those with allergies to nuts, most people enjoy these lovely legumes.  Most people also enjoy chocolate.  Bringing the two together is a match made in culinary and confectionary heaven.  It’s also mind numbingly simple to pull off, which is a plus for someone like me who enjoys instant gratification where food is concerned.

I’m not sure if this is so much a recipe as it is a method, but for the sake of semantics, we’ll say that it’s something worth learning, especially if you would like to get in to playing with chocolate.  I’m sure there are better methods and more advanced recipes for this, and if David Lebovitz can tell me how to keep 60% cacau chocolate from melting the second I touch it, I would be very greatful, as these candies are messy, but so very worth it!

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The holidays always bring about the need for great main courses, lavish tables and … Snacks.  Lots of snacks.  While there are hundreds that can be made to please the kiddies and the less adventurous in the house, there will always be a few people hoping to find something just a bit different to nosh on while the family meal is being prepared, or afterward while friends and family reminisce about the year past and tales of childhood.

This year I also had to consider snacks that would ship well so that I could send them off to my lovely wife in Turkey.  One obvious option was Tea Cookies, and we did make a batch or two of those to send her way, but one of my fondest food memories with her was her reaction to the Spicy Salt-Roasted Peanuts we made around Valentine’s day last year.  she could not stop eating these delectable little morsels, though she complained mightily about it.  They were the perfect choice.

The thing is, I hate predictability.  I wanted to add a twist to the nuts she already knew and loved to go along with the ones she remembered.  Since Curry is a very large part of the rub I use on our Thanksgiving and Christmas birds, I thought that it would be an appropriate choice…  I was right.  These are amazing.

Thanks again to David Lebovitz, from which the inspiration for this recipe belongs.

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What’s not to love about food on a stick?  Anything that breaks the stereotype of a fork and knife at dinner time is something I look forward to, and if you’re planning an outdoor party, skewers are the way to go.  Your guests don’t have to bother with place settings or even tables, they can simply wander and mingle.  Which is what makes a great party, after all.

I didn’t make this dish for a party, though I probably will before the summer is over, along with kabobs and anything else i can think of that can comfortably be skewered and cooked over coals.  This was made at the request of my lovely wife, and i was more than happy to oblige her.

I’ve seen a lot of recipes that call for using whole breasts or chicken thighs, but i find that for satay, chicken breast tenderloins fit the bill perfectly.  Prep is simple, as you only have to cut larger tenderloins in two before marinating and it’s almost impossible to end up with a dry piece of chicken.  The flavor of the marinade works magic.  this may just be the prefect satay recipe.

As for sauce, I tend to simply heat my left over marinade thoroughly in a saucepan and use that.  If the idea doesn’t sit well with you, feel free to either make more or to use a thai peanut sauce from your local market.  You won’t hurt my feelings either way.

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Peanuts are a part of daily life, at least around this house.  They’re consumed as butter, as a recipe addition, as a snack, and pretty much any other way I can come up with to use them.  I started working up a recipe for Valentine’s day a little earlier in the week and I knew from minute one that I wanted it to include peanuts, but not just any peanuts, these needed to have a kick.

I remembered a recipe from David Lebovitz for Salt-Roasted Peanuts (see below), and that seemed a good start.  On closer examination, it was the perfect beginning, since chocolate was to be involved in the next stage, and his recipe was quickly and easily adapted to what I had on hand, as well as what I had in mind.

Originally I was just going to post the recipe for this preparation with the finished treats but in the end, these nuts are so intensely good that I decided that they need their own moment in the spotlight.  They are salty, sweet and ultimately spicy (The more you eat, the hotter they get, I love that!) but the flavors fit so well together that you may find you can’t stop at just a few.  I know I’ve had a hard time not just eating all of them instead of using them for their intended purpose.

Thankfully I’ll only need about half of the nuts I made, the other half are up for grabs!

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