boiled peanuts

in hawai'i boiled peanuts are a typical snack. you see them in bags in the produce aisle at grocery stores and in the refrigerated snack section in gas station convenience stores. apparently not so on the mainland. when i was last at home visiting my grandparents i raided grandma ho's recipe box and copied down some cards of recipes to take home with me. boiled peanuts was one. we found raw peanuts in the shell at the korean grocery behind our house, and i finally found time today to make some. i'm hoping to have some solid gratifying but not necessarily fat-inducing snacks around the house, and boiled peanuts are a great way to take the edge off my grouchiness when i start to get hungry.
here's what the recipe says:
1 lb raw peanuts, in shell
1/2 cup hawaiian rock salt
3-4 star anise
1 tsp sugari estimated on the poundage of the peanuts since i don't have a scale, and half a cup of salt seemed out of control to me - plus i'm not sure what they mean by "hawaiian rock salt." what i have is sea salt from salt pond on kaua'i and i figured that may be more potent than whatever they're referring to by "hawaiian rock salt," so i put in a small handful along with some powdered star anise since i couldn't justify the $6 whole foods wanted to charge me for 4 whole star anise seeds.
the recipe states to put all these things together in a pot "with water to cover" though as it turns out peanuts in the shell are stubbornly floatatious, so i'm not sure how you judge how much water you need to "cover" them. i put in enough to theoretically cover them if they weren't floating on the surface. you bring them to a boil and then turn down the heat to simmer, covered for 1-1 1/2 hours, until "tender but firm." they didn't look done to me after 1 1/2 hours, so i cooked mine a little extra and added some more water, which had boiled off during the process. they turned out the right consistency but could have used a little more salt.