Homemade Peanut Butter

Today was such an exciting day! Not only do we have fantastic weather again, but it was also the first delivery of the season for The Produce Box. This week provided a nice preview of what can be expected to be a very bountiful year. I chose the Harvest Box this week which included one English cucumber, sweet potatoes, whole wheat bread, one big tomato, carrots, strawberries (add-on) and 2 quarts of raw, unshelled peanuts.

What in the world was I supposed to do with that many peanuts? Everything else can be gobbled up in a matter of no time, but the peanuts - I was going to have to think for a minute. I suddenly remembered that last year I purchased a Produce Box add-on of Mackey's Ferry Creamy Peanut Butter, which is quite possibly the most delicious peanut butter I've ever had (I tasted it at the NC State Fair last year for the first time). Since it contains very few ingredients, I wanted to see if I could make something similar. I did a little googling to figure out what to do.

Turns out that raw, unshelled peanuts are useless unless you boil or roast them. Since peanut butter is best made with roasted peanuts, I oven roasted them on a cookie sheet at 350° F for about 20 minutes, turning them with a big spoon every 5 minutes. The house smelled like peanut butter cookies afterwards!

Step 1: Oven roast at 350° F for about 20 min on a
cookie sheet, turning at regular intervals.

Next I had to wait because they were too hot to touch. The second step was definitely the most tedious and took well over an hour: shelling and skinning the peanuts.

Step 2: Shell and peel

Then came the fun part! Actually making the peanut butter. To do this, I put all the shiny, skinless, roasted peanuts in my food processor.

Step 3: Skinless, roasted peanuts in the food processor

Next I laid out the ingredients I needed. I never really measure so had to go by taste and appearance to get it just right.

The ingredients: the peanuts, peanut oil, molasses,
coconut oil, ground sea salt, brown sugar

The ingredients are really simple (my measurements are approximate because I didn't measure):

1) Skinless, roasted peanuts (It takes more time to oven-roasting, shell and skin the peanuts yourself, but it is definitely worth it)
2) 1-2 tablespoons of peanut oil
3) Roughly a heaping tablespoon of organic, virgin coconut oil (I got mine at Trader Joe's). The coconut aroma from the coconut oil adds the perfect undertone
4) Molasses - approx. 1-2 tablespoons
5) 1-2 teaspoons of freshly ground sea salt
6) Just around 1 tablespoon of brown sugar

Put everything in the food processor and blend at the highest speed until very creamy. Add any of the above ingredients to adjust consistency or flavor.

The result:

Super yummy, creamy homemade peanut butter. Store in the refrigerator to preserve freshness - it will also firm up a bit more because the coconut oil solidifies at colder temperatures, making it easier to spread.

Enjoy!

Some more yummy summer salads!

Since it's been so hot, I've been making lots of yummy summer salads to keep cool. Some of the recipes are familiar, others made up, others borrowed from online sources.

Here's what I've been up to:

This picture features a medley four of my recent salads: tortellini salad, pesto roasted vegetable quinoa salad, green and bean potato salad and my tuna salad.

The tuna salad has appeared on here before - just click the link above. I found the recipe for a delicious, mayo-free green bean and potato salad on allrecipes.com and made it exactly according to the recipe.

The other two recipes are my own creations.




Tortellini Salad:

2 packages of tortellini - 4 cheese and spinach and 4 cheese
Olive oil
1 small head of broccoli - steam for 2 minutes until bright green
Chopped sun dried tomatoes
Sun dried tomato pesto
Red onion chopped
Grated carrots
Kalamata olives, pitted and chopped
Julienned red pepper
Chopped spring onions
Fresh mozzarella, diced into 1 cm cubes
Grated Parmesan
Freshly ground salt and pepper
Fresh baby spinach leaves

Cook tortellini according to package instructions. Drain and drizzle with a little bit of olive oil. Steam broccoli for 2 minutes until bright green. Add to tortellini in large bowl. Add the rest of the ingredients, mix well and serve over fresh baby spinach leaves (or fold in with the rest of the ingredients). Store in refrigerator and serve cool.

Pesto Roasted Veggie Quinoa Salad

Red and Regular Quinoa - For a larger salad use 2 cups of quinoa (1 c. red/1 c. regular), for a smaller salad, use only 1 cup of quinoa.
Squash, zucchini, cherry tomatoes (heirloom blend), mushrooms, red onion, carrots, garlic, yellow/orange/red bell pepper
Green pesto
Olive oil
Parsley
Kalamata olives, pitted and chopped
Juice of 1 lime

Cook quinoa according to package instructions. Add all chopped veggies to a large bowl. Add a couple splashes of olive oil, stir in a generous amount of green pesto and broil on high for about 15 minutes. Add broiled veggies to the cooked quinoa. Add chopped parsley and olives and the juice of one lime. Store in refrigerator and serve cool.

This last salad is a Moroccan eggplant salad, which turned out to be incredibly delicious. I had so much eggplant in my produce box a couple of weeks ago that I simply had to find something to do with it. Most of the ingredients in this salad are local: squash from my parents' garden, local eggplant, local zucchini local heirloom cherry tomatoes, local red peppers (all from the Produce Box). I altered the recipe a bit to include a few more veggies and substituted sesame seeds for pine nuts since I didn't have any on hand. Original recipe courtesy of myrecipes.com, but I made my own adjustments.

1) Make marinade:

Marinade:
3/4 c. olive oil and red wine vinegar (total - half of each)
1 tablespoon of fresh ginger
1/2 tablespoon of minced garlic (fresh, pressed)
3/4 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp. ground coriander
1/2 tsp. paprika
1/2 tsp. sugar
1/4 tsp. ground cumin (I might have used a tad more)
1/4 tsp. ground pepper (I ground it fresh, so not sure how much I used)
Dash of cayenne pepper or freshly ground red chili flakes (I used ground red chili flakes)

Mix all together.

Ingredients for the eggplant salad:

2 large bell peppers (I used red and purple, but you can use red, orange and/or yellow as well) rinsed, seeded and chopped into chunks
1 zucchini and 1 squash, chopped into chunks
1 large eggplant, chopped into chunks (I used several eggplant varieties, Japanese, white and regular)
1/2 large sweet onion, chopped into chunks
1/2 purple onion, chopped into chunks

-----
Later: 1/2 c. toasted pine nuts (or substitute with a few dashes of sesame seeds if you don't have pine nuts)
1/4 c. chopped fresh mint leaves

Mix all the veggies together in a bowl and add the marinade. Coat veggies, spread onto baking sheet and broil on high for about 15 minutes.

When the veggies come out of the oven, allow to cool for a bit, then put back in the bowl. Add pine nuts and fresh mint leaves. Add a bit of red wine vinegar and freshly ground salad and pepper to taste, if desired (I didn't and it was fine). Store in refrigerator and serve cool. Can also be served warm if preferred.

This week's Produce Box, 21 July 2011

This week's produce box was packed full of local goodness - peaches, tomatoes, corn, peppers, cabbage and 2 kinds of melons (sprite and Korean). For an extra $10 I got 4 extra quarts of peaches and have already shared some with my parents and plan to make some peach salsa and other goodies with the rest.

This week's Produce Box, 14 July 2011

Sorry for skipping a couple of weeks - I actually did skip on getting a box 2 weeks ago and last week I just got a fruit box. This week's box was filled with all kinds of goodies and I already have lots of ideas of what to do with them. I have a picnic date Saturday night so I'm thinking I can put a lot of these items to good use! Potential menu items: corn salad, eggplant and bell pepper salad, a veggie pasta salad, peach (blueberry) pie... So many choices!

This week's produce box, 23 June 2011

I ordered the organic box for this week which contained broccoli, leeks, green beans, 5 ears of corn, a honeydew melon and blueberries. Things have been so busy lately that I haven't had time to cook as much as I like. To help me clear out my fridge a bit, I invited my family over last night for dinner. On the menu: broccoli salad, cabbage salad, ratatouille with brown rice, corn on the cob and a blueberry, peach and cherry cobbler. To be hones, the cobbler would have been better as a crisp as the gluten-free version ended up being rather gooey and not terribly flavorful. It was edible though. I think I'll stick to crisps from now on. Everything else turned out quite nicely and I now have some leftovers and more space in my tiny Euro fridge.

This week's produce box, 16 June 2011

Today I've laid out the contents of this week's produce box because everything was transferred into my cooler instead of leaving a box. 1 huge savoy cabbage, 6 ears of corn, 1 pt. of blueberries, precious baby eggplants, 3 cucumbers, a huge head of garlic, large cherry tomatoes. This week's newsletter had lots of good ideas for things to do with the cabbage. It's my birthday weekend (30!) and I probably won't get around to cooking much until next week. Good thing everything's so fresh that it will last!

This week's produce box, 9 June 2011

This week's Produce Box: blueberries, 6 ears of white corn (hopefully super sweet), 3 zucchini (one is hiding behind the corn), 2 cucumbers, fingerling potatoes and amazingly sweet and delicious cherries. I'm tempted to make a blueberry/cherry cobbler, but on the other hand am certain that could easily just eat up all the cherries in one sitting. They are soooo good!

Cool summer salads (vegan and gluten-free)

Napa Cabbage Salad and Shoepeg Corn Salad - both vegan and gluten-free

I met up with friend Andrew for a potluck picnic on the lawn while we watched the Béla Fleck concert at the NC Museum of Art last night. My contributions to the potluck were two cool summer salads: Napa Cabbage Salad and Shoepeg Corn Salad - delicious separately, but somehow they complement each other so well that they are even better when eaten together.

I got the basic recipe for Napa Cabbage Salad online (http://www.foodandwine.com/recipes/napa-cabbage-salad) - the Napa cabbage courtesy of the Produce Box - and embellished it with shredded yellow squash, shredded carrots and diced cucumber. I also added the juice of 1 lime to the sauce. Other than that I followed the directions. It was delicious!

The Shoepeg Corn Salad comes courtesy of my friend Brandi - who got it from her mother-in-law. This salad is to die for and I didn't change a thing about the recipe! The only thing I changed in the recipe was that I cut the sugar in half - the canned shoepeg corn already had sugar in it, so I figured it would be fine to cut back on the sugar for the sauce. I also highly suggest nibbling on it to check the taste before the recommended "overnight" period is up, because it is irresistible! I doubled the recipe.

2 cans of shoepeg corn
1/2 cup chopped green pepper
1/2 cup chopped onion (I used sweet Vidalia onion)
3 stalks of celery (chopped)
2 oz. of pimento (drained)
Marninate overnight in:
1/4 cup vinegar (apple cider)
1/4 cup oil (I used canola)
1/2 cup sugar (I used half this amount)
1/2 teaspoon of salt (I used freshly ground sea salt)
1/4 teaspoon of pepper (I used freshly ground pepper)

This week's produce box, 2 June 2011

This week's produce box contained Napa cabbage, tomatoes, strawberries, blueberries, red potatoes and yellow squash. The cabbage is so big that it is almost covering up the squash and tomatoes, but I think they are visible enough. This weekend I'm going to an outdoor concert with friends and can't wait to make up some cold salads to take to our potluck picnic. Definitely will be making a Napa cabbage salad, a shoepeg corn salad and maybe a sweet potato/potato salad. Great weekend plans ahead (getting a head start tonight). Can't wait!

Homemade Mango-Pineapple Salsa

Here's one of my most recent creations that I simply had to share: Homemade Mango Pineapple Salsa. I got the idea while shopping at Whole Foods for my Good Friday meal. At the fish counter I asked the clerk how he might prepare swordfish steaks and he suggested marinating them in mango teriyaki sauce and then either grilling or baking them and topping them off with fresh mango. While fresh mango in itself is certainly delicious, I thought a mango pineapple salsa might be even better. I looked up a recipe for mango salsa on allrecipes.com and then improvised.

Here's what I came up with:

2 ripe organic Mexican mangos, fresh cilantro, sweet and red onion,
scallions, red pepper, jalapeno, avocado, pineapple, cherry tomatoes,
juice of a lemon and a lime

 

 

 

 

Dice mangos, pineapple (about a quarter half a can if using a can - I normally would use fresh pineapple, but Trader Joe's has the best canned pineapple in natural juice, tastes like a fresh pineapple), half to 1 whole avocado, red bell peppers, cherry tomatoes (basically cut them into eighths), half of a sweet onion and half of a red onion into fine cubes and stir together in a bowl. Chop 2-3 scallions into thin slices and add to bowl. Chop a good handful of fresh cilantro and add to bowl. Squeeze the juice of 1 lemon and 2 limes and add some of the pineapple juice to the bowl. Stir well and let the flavors blend together for a couple of hours before serving.

The beautiful result!

The Good Friday meal: mango teriyaki marinated swordfish steak
topped with the mango-pineapple salsa, oven grilled garlic herb
asparagus, oven roasted medley of purple and orange sweet potatoes
and baby red, purple and yellow potatoes tossed in
Arabian spices.

The salsa on a picnic - best with Target's black bean
jalapeno tortilla chips. (Oh and the sandwiches
are tomato avocado sandwiches on Udi's gluten-free
multigrain bread with local tomatoes from the Produce Box,
herbal salt and Trader Joe's garlic aioli spread).

Spicy Eggplant and Veggie Medley Curry

For dinner tonight I made a spicy eggplant and veggie medley curry from the many veggies I had in my fridge.

Ingredients (mostly from the Produce Box): onion, garlic,
ginger, hot pepper, habanero pepper, red bell pepper,
sweet potato, green beans, cabbage, mushrooms,
eggplant, baby corn, yellow squash, ginger curry spices,
cumin, soy sauce, coconut milk, oil, salt and pepper

In a wok, heat vegetable oil, add onion and garlic, saute. Next add chopped sweet potatoes and green beans. Add the ginger curry and cumin. Chop the bell pepper, hot pepper and habanero pepper (remember to wear gloves when chopping the hot peppers), and add to the wok. Chop eggplant, squash mushrooms and cabbage and add to wok. Cut baby corn in half and add to work. Grate ginger and add to the work. Mix everything thoroughly and stir fry. Add coconut milk and cook until the sweet potato is thoroughly done. Add a little less than a tablespoon of sugar and some salt and pepper to taste. Serve over rice (I used frozen brown rice from TJs).

Delicious!