Candied Peanuts

Over 10 years ago now I read Rilke’s Letters to a Young Poet in English and French and recently I have wanted to reread it. And I thought, why not in Spanish? So today I decided to copy all the letters in the Spanish version by hand in my poem book. That way I reread the letters again, slowly, contemplating each word, meditating on each phrase, in Spanish. And I spent a few hours this afternoon doing that while listening to Granados and Yannick puttering about besides me. Happy moments.

This has always been one of my favourite quotes:

'Si su diario vivir le parece pobre, no lo culpe a él. Acúsese a sí mismo de no ser bastante poeta para lograr descubrir y atraerse sus riquezas'

'Si votre quotidien vous paraît pauvre, ne l'accusez pas; accusez-vous vous-même de n'être pas assez poète pour en appeler à vous les richesses'

'If your everyday life seems poor, don't blame it; blame yourself that you are not enough of a poet to call forth its riches'

All that has nothing to do with the candied peanuts other than the fact that they happened on this same day. These peanuts are extremely addictive and can do a great damage to your waistline. And other bodily parts too as it just happened to me. A finger slipped into the boiling caramel and instinctively I put the finger covered in caramel in the mouth to cool it, only that I missed the mouth and the finger landed on my upper lip and so now I have a burned finger and a burned piece of lip. Boiling caramel is very hot! So if you make this, be careful!

This original recipe is from David Lebovitz and can be found here.

Candied Peanuts Recipe

Ingredients :
2 cups raw peanuts
1 cup sugar
1/3 cup water
a sprinkle of coarse sea salt

Directions :
Stir the peanuts with the sugar and water over moderate heat in a wide pan until the liquid dries up and the peanuts become sandy. Continue to stir, the sugar will melt in spots and turn into caramel. Keep stiring to coat the peanuts with the caramels. When they are done, sprinkle with the salt and stir. Spread the mixture onto parchment paper in single layer. Break into pieces after it's completely cool.

Bon appetit!