West African Peanut Stew (Vegan)

Yes, it's me again and I'm still as craptastic as ever with my updates. Still, there's been lots of cooking on this end which will eventually make its way to this blog. Now on to ugly food.

Remember when I said I was being buried under peanut butter? Yeah. It helps to look in your pantry before you make such claims. Apparently, I only had 4 jars, two of which were already mine and opened. Plus, only enough smooth peanut butter to make one recipe. So for this recipe, it called for smooth natural peanut butter, but I threw in the same amount of chunky chemical-packed PB and it turned out just fine. It's up to you. Also, natural peanut butter is evil. Just saying. Either way, this is a pretty tasty soup. It was a little bland for my taste, but most of it got eaten, so there's definitely nothing wrong here.



This is my first time working with fresh okra. Holy crap, it's pretty. It looked like a whole pile of delicate flowers after it was chopped. Plus, it allowed my best friend to throw "mucilaginous" into our conversation, which she so likes to say.



West African Peanut Stew
from the Vegetarian Family Cookbook by Nava Atlas

1 1/2 T olive oil
1 large red onion, chopped
3-4 garlic cloves, minced
2 cups shredded white cabbage
2 medium-large sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into 1/2" chunks
16 oz diced tomatoes with liquid
1 tsp grated ginger
2 cups trimmed and sliced fresh or 10 oz frozen sliced okra
1/2 c smooth peanut butter
1/4 tsp cayenne or 1/2 tsp red pepper flakes
salt and pepper

1. In a large pot, saute onion and garlic over medium heat until golden.

2. Add cabbage, potatoes, tomatoes, ginger, and 3 cups of water. Cover and gently simmer until potatoes and cabbage are nearly tender, about 15 minutes.

3. Add okra. Stir in peanut butter a little at a time until it melts into stew. Stir in cayenne. Cover and simmer gently until vegetables are tender, about 10 minutes. Add more water if necessary. You want it moist but not too soupy.

4. Season with salt and pepper and serve hot.

The book said it was traditionally served with mashed root vegetables or mushy grains. It's good on its own though.

Dirty Hippy

In America, if you suddenly spout out something like, "I worry that I waste too much water", most people will look at you like you've grown an extra head.

Too much water? What are you talking about? This is the United States, not the Sahara! We'll import more if we need it.

Oh, the follies of my youth.

Regardless of the condescending or totally confused looks I get, I do worry about this stuff. I'm not Super Green Woman (dun du-na na!) but I try not to be completely wasteful and occasionally try to find more ways to cut down. Lately, it's water.

Have you checked your dishwasher lately? Apparently, at some point I set mine to pots and pans to wash something particularly funky and forgot to turn it back. This was probably a few months ago now. That made me cringe a bit. However, I felt even more stupid because I constantly forget that I have a light wash option RIGHT NEXT TO my normal wash option. Guess which one I automatically set it to.

In these old apartments, nothing's been replaced or upgraded for years, so I decided to look up my dishwasher. This took forever because there's no manual online! Even with Whirlpool. Sure, they give you a link, but does it work? No. So after a bit of searching, I found that most old dishwashers use about 12 gallons of water load, more for pots and pans settings I'm sure. I never use the drying option, so that's something at least. I just need to start paying more attention.

I've gotten used to rationing my water for the simple fact that I have to use a filter. I decided to go the cheap route of using a pitcher with a refillable filter, but the downside is that I can only have so much at one time. If I want to cook pasta, for example, I have to wait until I filtered enough. If it's clean, it's not wasted. After that, I don't use my tap (in the kitchen) for much more than rinsing vegetables or dishes. That's good at least.

If you've read articles on water waste, you'll find other kitchen tips like using the water you've boiled vegetables or pasta in to water plants, or not running a dishwasher unless it's full. There's plenty of articles that even dive into the dishwasher vs. handwashing debate (dishwashing is the winner, thank Bob). In case you were interested (I know you're not), I've also been experimenting with army showers and trying to find a brick to put in my toilet tank.

So what are you doing to cut down?

Tomato-Radish Salsa

You'll all be relieved to know that I came up with a rather brilliant way to use some of those pickled radishes I made. I've still got all those tortilla chips lounging about on the counter and some of the leftover fresh vegetables in the refrigerator. To round out my work lunches, I decided to try my hand at another salsa.



The base for this one was just a drained can of diced tomatoes. Add a little red pepper and green onion and you've got the bulk of it. If you're a garlic fiend, a little here goes a long, glorious way. Juice half a lime and add a little of the "pickle" juice from your radishes, plus a handful of them chopped and adjust. All mine needed after that was a little salt and pepper.

I like tomato based salsas, and the radishes added that tangy, spicy addition that it needed. I think I like this better than the last one. Salsa may be my new thing.

Chocolate Chip Peanut Butter Brownies with Chocolate Frosting

This constitutes my first peanut butter recipe. I'm so excited. And not only that, they were pretty tasty. I ate all of them myself. I'm still not sold on the idea, but you can't argue with this much chocolate. Speaking of which...

If you were trying to describe this frosting, I think the word you would be looking for is "fuckawesome". It's the best chocolate frosting I've ever made, though it's best when fresh. (I'm seriously on a roll with this best ever stuff.)



I followed the advice of some of the reviewers and used a little less powdered sugar and a little more cocoa. I only have the dark chocolate on hand (woe is me) so it turned out really nice and concentrated. I even whipped it again after sitting for a while, but didn't notice any graininess to start with so eh. Also, I would spread this pretty soon after mixing, while it's still a little warm, because it hardens up and gets harder to spread. It wasn't the fluffy for days frosting that gets everywhere, rather it stayed hard enough at room temperature that it wouldn't rub off accidentally but was still soft to the tooth.



The brownies turned out springy and didn't try to commit suicide coming out of the pan, which is so lovely. Funny, I forgot it was supposed to be brownies instead of cake until I linked to it. As a note though, I would remove them from the pan immediately, because I let mine cool as is and the sides turned out a little brick-ish. For the batter, I chopped up half a Ghiradelli bar and threw it in. Just cuz.



So far, I'm 1 for 1 on the peanut butter recipes. Actually, I'm a bit more than that, but you'll have to wait for more. In the meantime, be jealous:

Roasted Carrot and Avacado Salad

I had a bag of baby carrots trying to petrify in my refrigerator after making the most awesome tomato soup ever. In defiance, and because it's me and I refuse to stop trying stuff I don't like, I decided not to just mask the flavor of carrots in other recipes. No, I was going to make it the star.

Unfortunately for me and the avocado that's now unused in my refrigerator, I don't like carrots! I just have to accept that fact for a little while. The flavor is just... wrong. Maybe one day I'll find that recipe that makes me believe or something, but it wasn't this day. *sigh* Maybe I'll just make guacamole or something...

Just in case you were really excited about the idea, I was going to steal the recipe from Smitten Kitchen. It looks beautiful over there. Just, you know, full of carrots.

What do you do with peanut butter?

Yes, this is another clean out the pantry post. Yes, I know that I've done these before, but I am getting better at them right? Well, now I've got too much peanut butter. I'm suddenly faced with this dilemma after taking a few jars from my mom's survival pantry. Now I've got about 5 jars staring back at me. We all know how this goes. Luckily, it's not fatal. For the peanut butter, I mean. It'll survive an atom bomb.

I'm sort of biased against peanut butter like I am against cinnamon. I think I don't like it until it's used right and then it's magic. And aside from a few PB&Js or some chicken satay, I'm definitely in a rut.

But let’s back up the bus here and talk about where all this came from. See, I work in a science lab. Sounds way cooler than it is. Still, my boss is Super Science Genius Man, so the job has its perks, agricultural anecdotes being one of them. For the last few months, I’ve been counting peanut germination on a thermogradient table. Again, sounds way cooler. Somehow, Dr. G-Dawg (as he’s named in my e-mails) started giving me a lesson in peanut types.

*This is “passive research”, Eddie Izzard style. If my boss lied to me, tough bananas. I don’t wanna check facts! If I did though, I could give you a citation list as long as my blog. Seriously, he’s got enough publications is the Journal of Peanut Science to make your eyes bulge.*

Apparently, almost 80% of the peanuts produced in this country go to making peanut butter. Shyeah. The most common cultivar was flagrunner. Or polerunner. Flagpole? Florunner*. Let’s say the first one. Anyways, in the 90s, we were slammed with a tomato wilt disease that also affected these peanuts. Long story short, RIP popular cultivar. Lots of tears later, they found a new cultivar that had many of the same characteristics. Thus, peanut butter lived on.

But have you ever noticed those little red dots in your jars of PB goodness? I always though it was some spice or something. I don’t know, I’m not that smart. Apparently, it’s something entirely different. When peanuts are roasted, the paper around the nuts dries up, then they blow it off. That’s all fine and dandy. However, this new cultivar separates a bit, pinching a tiny bit of the paper inside. When it come time to blow off the roasted papers, that bit is still inside, and that’s the little red dots you’ve been staring at for the last two decades. Neat huh?

We’re constantly testing peanut cultivars here, partially to make sure we’ll have a backup in case anything else happens. So, in a small way, I’m personally responsible for the longevity of peanut production and ensuring that you’ll still be able to enjoy a good sandwich for years to come. YOUR WELCOME. I want a raise now.

Anyways, I've started a list of ways to use peanut butter. They range from common recipes to... let's say innovative uses around the house. You shall be privy to my experimentation. Cuz I'm cool like that. Stick around folks!

*Thanks B.

Horsecreek Winery

I went to my first real wine tasting this past week(If you weren't convinced of my laziness before...). I've been really lucky to meet this network of people who always have something going on in such a small town. Much to my surprise, there is a winery in Nashville, Georgia. This tiny little place is on my way home and not too far out of the way, but who would have guessed it?

With a group of about 15 people, we reserved their tasting room for our little vino party. With most of the wines derived from muscadine grapes, it might be more of an acquired taste, but I thought it was nice overall. Several of the wines had what one taster described as a bit of "skunk". The nicest way to phrase that might be musky, but yeah. It was kinda skunky. Despite that, they still had a few good ones and an awesome wine slushy. I don't think any of the bottles are over $15 and I walked out with my favorite red of the night, a merlot-carbernet mix called Hahira Red that lacked the sweetness found in most of the others. We even got to keep our wine glasses.



The most enjoyable part of the evening wasn't the wine. The staff there, including what I assume to be the wife of the grower and one of the owners led us through the tasting. She openly declared that none of them were wine drinkers before and had no idea how to use the fancy terminology of the aficionados. It was awesome. The owner and her two helpers were very nice. The atmosphere was refreshingly casual, with their four dogs roaming the grounds and two of the smaller ones camping out under our chairs waiting for love. I'm so glad someone found out about it and I could enjoy it with such a great crowd. It's amazing to think that I couldn't have done anything like this just a year or two ago.

If you'd like to check out the winery, or you're in the area and looking for something to do, check out their website for more information. Don't let the skunk put you off. A wine tasting might put you out $10 or so, but even if you don't find anything you like it's a very enjoyable time for pretty damn cheap.

Black Bean Mango Salsa

It was meant to make the bitchinest breakfast burritos evar! Then I realized I forgot to take out the chicken and didn't have time. It was also meant to be a simple black bean mango salsa. Actually, it needed a little of this and a little of that until suddenly it was a southwest salsa with mango. C'est la vie. It's still good and I've been tearing through it with some chips. Plus, add this to all the fruit I've been pigging out on and I think I'm hitting most of the food groups now. What a concept.



Let's see. It started with mango, black beans, cilantro, green onions, red pepper, and a vinegar/sugar mix. Then went the jalapenos, then some tomatoes and corn. Then hell, let's throw in a little garlic. Yeah. I'm pretty sure everything still alive in my refrigerator had a shot at this one. After a while, I started trying to mimic a black bean salsa I had recently that was awesome. Needs more kick, but getting close.