{"id":161229,"date":"2023-02-06T16:28:09","date_gmt":"2023-02-06T21:28:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gardenandgun.com\/?post_type=recipe&p=161229"},"modified":"2023-02-06T16:28:16","modified_gmt":"2023-02-06T21:28:16","slug":"boiled-peanuts-with-a-japanese-and-mexican-kick","status":"publish","type":"recipe","link":"https:\/\/gardenandgun.com\/recipe\/boiled-peanuts-with-a-japanese-and-mexican-kick\/","title":{"rendered":"Boiled Peanuts with a Japanese and Mexican Kick"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

When Katsuji Tanabe\u2019s family visits from Mexico, he makes a point to serve boiled peanuts. The Chopped<\/em> champion and executive chef of A\u2019Verde Cocina and Tequila Library<\/a> in Cary, North Carolina, views the dish as a vessel for the \u201cSouthern charm of the area.\u201d Tanabe himself came to the regional roadside staple late in life, having grown up in Mexico City with Japanese and Mexican parents. He immigrated to the United States at age eighteen and worked his way through California, Chicago, and New York before settling in the South as \u201cculinary innovator\u201d of LM Restaurants<\/a>. While filming Top Chef<\/em> in Charleston, South Carolina, years ago, Tanabe and his fellow contestants stopped at a boiled peanuts stall, giving him his first taste of the savory snack.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Photo: Forrest Mason<\/div>
Chef Katsuji Tanabe.<\/div><\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAs a chef, the food in the area around you inspires you. I always thought of peanuts as crunchy, but these were good,\u201d he says. \u201cI talked to the vendors about how they prepare them and tried to make them more gourmet and chef-y. It became an obsession.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He added lime, hot sauce, and chiles from his Mexican heritage, plus soy and Worcestershire sauces to nod to his Japanese background. Though the spice list is fairly long, the method\u2014toss everything into a pressure cooker\u2014couldn\u2019t be simpler. \u201cThe peanut is the perfect vehicle to carry these flavors because it soaks in everything,\u201d he says. \u201cIt\u2019s a very easy, approachable dish. It\u2019s given me a sense of pride living in the South.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For one Top Chef<\/i>, perfecting his spicy take on a Southern favorite became an obsession<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":161231,"template":"","categories":[1780,2391],"tags":[405,29711,307,50],"authors":[30003],"issue":[],"recipe-type":[2502],"class_list":["post-161229","recipe","type-recipe","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-food-and-drink","category-recipes","tag-boiled-peanuts","tag-food-drink","tag-north-carolina","tag-recipes","authors-carly-cooper","recipe-type-party-bites"],"acf":[],"apple_news_notices":[],"yoast_head":"\nBoiled Peanuts with a Japanese and Mexican Kick – Garden & Gun<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"For one Top Chef, perfecting his spicy take on a Southern favorite became an obsession\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" 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