Peanuts

[Music plays] In Eastern Carolina we treat the lowly peanut with respect.

We eat them green, straight out of the ground.

We boil them in a salty brine and slurp em up warm.

We swig roasted ones with Pepsi and we slide them into brittle to be that salty counter point to sweet cooked sugar.

The Avett Brothers perform "Will You Return" I'm Vivian and I'm a chef.

My husband, Ben and I were working for some of the best chefs in New York City when my parents offered to help us open our own restaurant.

Of course, there was a catch.

We had to open this restaurant in Eastern North Carolina, where I grew up and said I would never return.

[Music plays] So this is my life.

Raising twins, living in the house I grew up in, and exploring the south, one ingredient at a time.

Previously on A Chef's Life A few days after the luncheon, Garden and Gun Magazine called and asked if they could come and shoot our tomato sandwich.

We will get a whole animal.

I think this will happen once a week.

We're gonna start with two small pigs and then the following week we'll get the side of a cow which is going to be.... terrifying.

[Laughter] [Music plays] We're just going over the books for tonight and for a Saturday it's a little bit light.

We've had a county fair all week and we're excited about going tomorrow but it's uhh, never good for business.

You always want to have Friday and Saturday pay for your week because you never know what you're going to get Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday.

Employees laughing You got to have a mind to lose first.

Well, Garden and Gun is here and that is not a tomato sandwich on the cover but we did make the article and actually our.... the cover of the article with my big man hands there.

So that's cool.

This publicity or attention or whatever... you always think it's gonna make some difference in your day to day life but uhhh... so far it hasn't in mine.

I still have people who don't come to work, who don't see the value in working here at all, so-- this tomato sandwich is not going to change my life hahaha.

Okay so, really important for this is that the broth is like, boiling when you get ready to plate it and your bowl is always hot because we're gonna pour it over raw beef and that's gonna cool it down.

You got this really rich aromatic broth right here.

You got those pickled peanuts that I chopped just a little bit and I'm gonna put just a little bit of that pickling liquid in here just for a little acidity.

Okay.

We're also going to add these sweet potato noodles and they're not gonna really cook.

They're just gonna kind of heat so they'll have some texture.

Alright, so we're gonna take some of this beef... just a little pinch full, really.

So, is this sort of like a pho dish?

Yeah, exactly.

I don't imagine this will be like... a huge seller hahaha.

[Music plays] I'm not going to pretend to be an expert on peanuts.

What I do know is that they're not actually a nut, they are a legume or a bean that actually grows under the ground.

They love sandy soil so Eastern North Carolina is a prime spot to grow peanuts.

I remember as a kid going on road trips with my family.

My dad always liked to get up at the butt crack of dawn.

I mean, we're talking like four a.m., drive to the mountains and then go to a boiled peanuts stand.

My parents would eat boiled peanuts all the way home.

My neighbor, Marty Harper is a really successful tobacco farmer and he's recently started growing peanuts so I told him I wanted to learn how to make boiled peanuts and he said that his wife had a true love for making boiled peanuts and she actually goes out into the field to pick her own peanuts because she is so peculiar about the size and the shape and the ones that she wants because she loves boiled peanuts and they have to be a certain way.

Today we're here with my neighbor, Donna Harper.

We're actually right around the corner from my house in a peanut field and it's so wild that I grew up right here, eating peanuts and a part of this culture but I've never actually seen a peanut plant.

This is a little bit embarrassing.

-So these are green peanuts, then?

-These are green peanuts.I like to get mine early so that the juice will have room to saturate inside -of those peanuts.

-Oh I understand.

Like, when you boil them the juice get inside the shell and if it's a really mature peanut there's no room.

Right.

Well let's see what we got here.

Okay.

They're pretty much on top of the ground so you just uhh... Oh wow.

That's so weird looking.

You know, no one knows where their food comes from anymore and to pull this out of the ground and see this little peanuts dangling off this vine is kind of wild.

Oh yeah.

Now see, this is a good size boiling peanut.

You can pop it open.

Oops, there it went.

You can tell by the color these are perfect for boiling.

Peanuts uncovered hahaha.

[Music plays] Alright, we just pour them into the pot.

And do you start them in cold water?

I start them in cold water.

Get some salt up in here.

And you're not measuring, you're just pouring.

I just put about a box of salt.

Will they actually come up to a rolling boil?

They'll come up to a rolling boil and I sort of keep them going at that pace for at least an hour.

I love that smell.

It smells like, kind of clean almost.

It does.

If you've never boiled any, -you just don't know what you're missing.

-No.

-So we just turn em off... -Soak.

-and let them sit there and absorb the salt?

-Sit there and soak.

I got some hot juice coming out of that one.

Ha.

These are really so good.

I wonder why they're not a bigger trend outside the south?

I got a son who is really interested in what happened during the Civil War and stuff and that's about the earliest time they talked about people boiling peanuts.

Oh really?

That they ran out of their meats and of course a boiled peanut without any salt,,, -Probably not that great.

-Is not real good.

They started putting the salt meat in with their peanuts as they were boiling them.

-Oh wow.

-Salt and I mean they've been a big hit with me.

That gives me an idea actually.

I could do like a ham stock and call them like country ham boiled peanuts... -Uh hmm.

Try that.

-...and get the salt from another place.

Yeah.

Thank you very much.

Well, you are welcome.

[Music plays] Our restaurant is across the street from the farmer's market and when we opened this farmer's market was such a sad excuse.

So Ben, being the idealist that he is made it his season's work to improve the Kinston/Lenora County farmer's market.

Now it is bustling and I try to help with attendance by doing appearances and cooking demonstrations.

Today we are going to be serving a different version of boiled peanuts at our local farmer's market and I thought that I would make kind of an Asian pickled style boiled peanut and then they're really out of balance so I thought I would put some bacon in there hahaha.

So we have some very different boiled peanuts.

So we're gonna see.

I'm sure it's gonna get less than glowing reactions from people over there.

So you always plan to do these things and think that there will be time and lots of hands, helping hands, and then things don't go your way.

It's basically what's happening.

We have one guy, today is his last day.

He gave his two weeks notice.

And we just hired this new guy.

Thank God we hired the new guy because without him we wouldn't have enough people to have a full line at night.

That's really the hardest thing about having this place where it is.

We really have no labor pool.

And people who work here don't understand what a great opportunity it is.

I'm gonna have a nervous breakdown....ha.

It's really not how I envisioned having a breakdown.

Okay, really, seriously y'all.

[Music plays] I've got, you want some boiled peanuts?

-No I don't.

-No, okay hahaha.

Would you like to try some Asian inspired boiled peanuts?

These have, the reason the liquid is dark is because it has clove and cinnamon... Peppercorn, all spice, garlic, and then I put a lot of extra ginger and sugar, rice vinegar, Chinese five spice, and salt.

You'll see.

It's got a lot, kind of going on.

So there's also some bacon ends in here.

You put all that, all that kind of spice in it?

Yeah, just to like... just for fun.

Just to try something a little different.

I can't use the pepper.

No?

-Are they too strong?

-Too strong.

-What do you think?

-I like em.

-You do?

-Uh hmmm.

-Thank god haha.

-Hahaha.

-Mmm I like.

-You do?

Mmm hmm.

You can, you can be honest too, you know?

[Laughter] They are really good.I'm really impressed.

Thank you.

Thank you so much.

-And I'm a cook from scratch.

-Thank you.

I was so worried about what people who -actually boil their own peanuts and really like doing this... -Are you gonna have this recipe anywhere?

[Laughter] I was just telling them that it... it kind of developed as I went along if you know what I mean.

Uhhh so I can try to recreate it.

[Music plays] One of the things I remember about my childhood is this store at the end of Davis Mill Road where I lived.

You would go there and there would be like four or five older men sitting outside, smoking cigarettes and eating Pepsi's with peanuts in them.

And so that's kind of something that I always remembered but never actually done.

Hey, Mr. Mills.

Hey.

How are you today?

Good.

How are you?

Fine.

So, Mr. Mills, we are looking for some Pepsi and peanuts.

Peanuts are over on the right.

Pepsi is in the first box.

Awesome.

Thank you.

They float.

I don't know why I thought they'd sink.

I thought they'd sink too.

Oh, that's really good.

I'm not doing so great haha.

Good morning.

Pretty good.

Really good.

People would start their day farming, really early in the morning.

Six, seven o'clock and then around ten... Nine, ten, they'd go take a break and get a drink and snack, which a lot of times, peanuts.

I was actually thinking of how to make this into a cocktail.

I think that would be great.

You go to so many bars and they have peanuts on the bar.

People have a drink and a coke.

Yeah, I think that's a great idea.

Would you like a drink?

I need one.

-A tequila drink and a cigarette.

-No, no, no, no, no.

That would be rocking right about now.

You eat boiled peanuts?

Okay you know sometimes you'll get one that's really, like the inside of the peanut is really soft and spongy and it really holds the liquid really good?

Yeah.

That's actually called a pop and it looks like that.

The peanut inside is not fully formed.

I am attempting to recreate our Pepsi and peanuts flavor profile.

So we're going to have pork belly that's been braised.

It's gonna be glazed with a Pepsi syrup type concoction.

I got my Pepsi glaze here.

I just reduce Pepsi down with brown sugar and lemon juice to keep the acidity there and then I have here those peanuts that I was pain stakingly removing from their hulls in a really salty country ham stock and I'm just gonna simmer them until they're kind of tender.

So this is a take on Pepsi and peanuts.

So we got our pork belly the way we always do it, brined.

And then I cooked green peanuts.

They're really good.

They're like porky tasting.

[Music plays] So did your dad drink Pepsi and peanuts or how did you come into it?

No, my brothers worked in tobacco and they would always drink Pepsi and peanuts.

It's very important to me for our food here at the restaurant to be true to my food memories and my vision for modern southern foods.

So I always try to draw from things that I know.

So I have decided that this combination of Pepsi, peanuts, and pork is something that I absolutely have to address.

-It's a pretty pork belly plate.

-It is.

-It looks better than our normal one.

-Yeah.

[Music plays] Today I'm making something that I'm gonna call pickled peanuts.

Once they're done they're gonna become the star of a salad with kale, oranges, and an Asiago cheese.

So we're gonna treat these kind of like boiled peanuts.

I have freshly dug green peanuts.

I'm just gonna fill a sauce pan about half way with my peanuts.

Alright, so we're gonna start with some star anise which is one of my favorite spices.

It kind of has a licoricey sweet flavor and aroma.

Cloves, because I put these into almost every pickle that I make.

Chili flakes.

Next I'm gonna add ginger.

Now typically when I use ginger you'll see me peeling, mincing, maybe grating it but because we're going to eventually pull this out I'm just gonna put it in there in big slices.

Next I'm gonna use citrus zest.

Same principle here.

I'm just gonna pull this off in big ribbons.

Next with the orange.

So with all these, I have the star anise, I have the ginger, I have the chili flakes.

I got this nice zest.

This is going to have kind of this Asian thing going on but at the same time, extremely southern.

So once I get my aromatics in I'm going to add salt, sugar, and rice wine vinegar.

I use rice wine vinegar quite a bit because it's not quite as assertive as say apple cider vinegar or red wine vinegar.

Next, I'm going to add water to cover the peanuts.

So, now I'm going to put these on the stove and bring them up to a boil.

[Music plays] Once you get your peanuts going there is really only a few things you need to look out for.

First, once the water has heated enough so that the sugar and salt dissolve you need to taste your brine to make sure everything is in balance.

You don't want it to be too sweet or too salty or too acidic.

Also, because you are straight up boiling these peanuts the water level over the cooking time will diminish so several times during this hour you probably will have to add some water to your pot.

My peanuts have cooked for about a hour and sat in the bring for a hour and a half.

I'm gonna check to make sure that they have absorbed some of the flavor of the brine.

Oh, that's so perfect.

So now we're gonna build our salad.

We're gonna start with some raw kale.

It is this year's most hot vegetable.

I know that's hard to believe but it is.

Next we're gonna add some orange supremes.

Orange supremes are just oranges that have been peeled and the fruit or the flesh has been cut away from the pit.

Next we're gonna add some Asiago.

This is a local take on Asiago from Chapel Hill Creamery.

It's called calevander.

Alright, I'm gonna take my vegetable peeler and just peel big ribbons.

I'm gonna add just a pinch of salt.

And now for my shelled peanuts.

You should kind of use these sparingly and when you start showing them you'll understand why.

But if you're making this at home, it's totally worth it, that little bit of extra work.

Lastly, I'm gonna add a little, very basic balsamic vinaigrette with some whole grain mustard.

We're gonna mix this up.

And what I love about serving this is people see these peanuts and they think, okay that's gonna be a crunchy peanut and they bite into it and it's creamy and it has all kinds of flavor nuance.

All right, there ya go.

Kale salad with Asiago, oranges, balsamic vinaigrette, and pickled peanuts.

[Music plays] So, I thought we were going to have a meeting?

It's like nobody even cares what I say.

Okay, what's...why can't we all get to the bar?

I don't understand.

We're holding up the kitchen crew so that y'all can...

I mean I don't understand?

[Music plays] Okay so we got two new dishes.

This is a beef noodle soup from the cow that we got this week.

So one of the things that I'm learning through this getting these whole animals is that there is a lot more to the animal than just muscle so we're trying to really make use and get bang for our buck by using all the bones and everything.

So this is like a really aromatic beef broth, that it's kind of a take on pho which is a Vietnamese noodle soup.

You said for the last two years you wanted to focus on doing southern takes on food and that's Vietnamese so... -It's not Vietnamese...

I mean but... -It is Vietnamese.

We got sweet potato noodles and the peanuts.

I'm just saying.

I was surprised.

That's all.

And this is the whole take on Pepsi and peanuts.

Okay, so if ya'll will start passing that around.

-It's too good to even talk.

-Thank you.

[Music plays] Alright ladies and gentleman.

Let me tell you about two of the new dishes that we had just put on today.

Pork belly, peanuts, and Pepsi.

Our soup this evening is an aromatic beef noodle soup.

However, there are no noodles in this soup at all.

Actually gonna be sweet potato threads.

Alright, ordering one pork belly and one salsa.

You can see my hands are glistening.

It's so hot up here from this oven that this fat is rendering.

We've been serving pork belly here for like six years but when we first started serving it we had to call it fresh bacon because people around here thought it was an organ.

[Music plays] Oh my god.

Much better than I thought it was going to be.

So the first dish here is the pork belly skewers with the Pepsi glaze and fresh peanuts.

Oh my god.

But didn't you ever put Pepsi, peanuts in a Pepsi?

Oh yeah.

I just told him from the time I was six years old til I was probably 16 or 18.

They're good too.

Well this right here is good.

It's good.

A lot of flavor going on here.

This is fantastic.

After trying to work peanuts into every part of my menu, the peanuts, Pepsi, and pork dish was a huge hit.

I thought the most successful dish was probably the take on a beef soup with pickled peanuts as a garnish but we didn't sell a whole lot of those so.

It's the end of a very busy Saturday night.

I'm very tired.

I think everyone is gonna be dragging on their way home but I'm excited to spend the day with my kids and my husband tomorrow.

That's a big four by four.

Let's go see if they got a cow.

One of my most fond memories of going to the fair when I was a kid was we used to always show animals.

And I would have a pig and a lamb and I would show it and go around in a circle and hope that I got some kind of showmanship award.

I never did.

But I hope that my kids get to do that some day.

Is some of this stuff yours?

It's mama's.

I come with her.

-She's 91.

-Oh wow.

Hey.

Hi, my name is Vivian.

I heard that you had all kinds... -Oh yeah.

-Things that you canned and preserved.

Oh yeah hahaha.

Now this is corn on the cob.

How about that?

And I canned six jars of corn on the cob.

-And these are some tomatoes that you canned.

-That's my canned tomatoes.

Now did you grow all this stuff?

Yeah.

It's fun.

That's what keeps me living.

I'm 91 and I want to come nine more times.

[Laughter] [Music plays] Thank god the county fair is over.

You can have a successful restaurant for seven years and have one slow week and worry if it's gonna go completely in the tank.

So thank god that the fair is over and our numbers are back.

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