It was a long weekend at my side. Schools and offices were closed for nine long days due to Eid. We chalked out on plans to keep kids entertained and at the same time busy with their activities. This meant I had to think of some delicious power snack to help kids re-fuel between meals while carrying out their activities. The first thing that came to my mind was peanuts, the legume with nutritional punch and the snack I prepared was "Salted Peanuts". You can read about the nutrients that peanuts provide over here.

Shengdana is an all time favourite snack sold at beaches, gardens, theatres and even in Mumbai local trains. They always take me back to the days when as a newbie train commuter on my way back home I used to have them to recover myself from the exhausting race. Yes you read it right,,, exhausting race starting at the station till we entered the train and few times till we reached our destination. Its not an easy task taking a Mumbai local train. After the usual announcement about train arrival at the station, one could see the crowd going frenzy trying to bring themselves in a position, so that they could jump in the compartment even before the train stopped. As the train entered the platform we would push, pull, rush to enter and grab the seat, if not successful than struggle to get a place to stand ...PHEW ! The train would stop for few more minutes before starting its journey and one could see vendors entering the train to sell drinks, eatables, household items, cosmetics and many more. Most of these vendors would get down at the same station just to avoid being caught by ticket collector. Peanuts seller was one of them whose entry was hinted by the slight aroma of roasted peanuts that wafted through the air. Immediately I would search for loose change(chutta coins) in my bag and keep them ready in my hands. We could hear "Bhaiyya ek rupaya ka shengdana dena" from all the directions and the seller had to be quick in his action of rolling the warm peanuts in paper cones, passing the cones in all the directions and collecting money before he exited the compartment. 


Ingredients

1 cup raw peanuts [shelled ones]
Salt as per taste
Water enough to coat the peanuts.


Spread the peanuts evenly on a microwave safe plate. Microwave on high for one minute minutes. Now sprinkle the salt water, mix it well. For light roast, microwave them with stirring after every minute for three minutes. For a darker roast, stir and microwave for two more minutes in 30 seconds increments. Peanuts continue to cook when removed from microwave oven, so ensure there is no over-roasting and this can be done by checking the skin of peanuts which starts to split and the color changes from pink to red. Remove the plate from the oven and allow it to cool. Rub the roasted peanuts between your fingers to deskin them. Enjoy them as snack !

Note: The cooking time may vary depending on watts of the oven. Adjust the time as required. 

So do try this snack that will provide with extra little protein kick and let me know if they could bring back any memory for you while having them.

Happy snacking!

Sending this post to the WTML event hosted by Asiya started by Gayathri
and What's with my cuppa started by Nupur