Pretty much everybody who doesn’t live under a rock knows that we're in the midst of a massive recall of food products containing peanuts processed by a Blakely, Georgia plant run by the Peanut Corporation of America.
But most of us don’t know all the details… It seems sufficient to know that the problem exists in processed products (such as frozen pad Thai, trail mix and nut-topped ice cream novelties) and that privately branded peanut butters (ie. Jif and Skippy) and regular peanuts in a jar/can/package are totally safe.
But I did find some other savory tidbits of info in Kim Severson’s article in this morning’s New York Times. *** Peanut butter got its start in the late 1800s when “a St. Louis doctor crushed peanuts into a paste so patients with bad teeth could get some protein…”
***George Washington Carver “created 105 peanut recipes and hundreds of ways to use peanuts to help poor farmers move away from cotton.”
*** Peanut butter became popular when it was touted at the 1904 fair in St. Louis, along with other new-fangled goodies like iced tea, cotton candy and the ice cream cone.
*** And my own personal favorite bit of lore…..Reese’s Peanut Butter cups were developed in the 1920s by Harry Burnett Reese, “an inventor and onetime shipping foreman for Milton Hershey.”
The NYT article includes a recipe fro Peanut Butter Cookies, form Chris Kimball of Cook’s Illustrated. However, all this talk about goobers has got me craving one of my favorite manifestations of the peanut’s greatness, Chile Peanut Tartar Sauce from grilling guru Steven Raichlen’s cookbook “Raichlen’s Indoor Grilling.”
(The tantalizing photo above is from Allrecipes.com, which features a good recipe that would go well with Raichlen’s “tartar sauce.”)
I’ve adapted the recipe to include a bit of peanut butter as well as chopped peanuts. It’s fabulous on Thai tuna burgers (also in the cookbook); it also does wonders for a plain grilled chicken breast.
CHILE PEANUT TARTAR SAUCE
Makes about 1 cup
1 cup mayonnaise
1-2 tablespoons chunky peanut butter
1 or 2 Thai chiles or serrano peppers, seeded and minced
2 tablespoons finely chopped dry-roasted peanuts
2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh cilantro
2 teaspoons finely grated peeled fresh ginger
1 teaspoon finely grated lemon zest
2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice, or more to taste
1 tablespoon soy sauce
Freshly ground black pepper
Place the mayonnaise and peanut butter is a nonreactive bowl and stir to mix. Add chiles, peanuts, cilantro, ginger, lemon zest, lemon juice and soy sauce and whisk to mix. Taste for seasoning, adding more lemon juice as necessary and pepper to taste. Any leftover sauce will keep, covered, in the refrigerator for up to 3 days.
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