The versatile nut butter

The July 2010 Daring Cooks’ Challenge was hosted by Margie of More Please and Natashya of Living in the Kitchen with Puppies. They chose to challenge Daring Cooks to make their own nut butter from scratch, and use the nut butter in a recipe. Their sources include Better with Nut Butter by Cooking Light Magazine, Asian Noodles by Nina Simonds, and Food Network online.

While Mike and I have plenty of experience with peanut butter, our experience with other nut butters was pretty much nonexistent. For this reason, we chose to make a nut butter with which we had no experience, almond butter, and then to make peanut butter also.


Peanut butter. (roasted peanuts pulsed in a cuisinart with a teaspoon of canola oil).


Almond butter. While not noticeable in this photo, this was much darker than the peanut butter. We used almonds that had the skins on, which is why it was dark. Because almonds are less oily than peanuts, this butter had about a tablespoon of oil in it, to make it more liquidy.

The challenge required us to use the nut butter in a savory recipe, as nut butters so commonly appear in desserts. We used the almond butter to make one of the four challenge recipes provided by the hosts, chicken with curried tomato almond sauce, and then used our peanut butter to make spicy peanut noodles.

Both recipes turned out great, and I think turned out better than they would have had we used commercial peanut butter. We didn't season the nut butters at all as they were going to be used in savory recipes, which allowed us to season the dishes we made according to taste.

The chicken with curried tomato almond sauce was very reminiscent of butter chicken, but was made in a much healthier way. Mike and I both noted that while we could taste the almond butter in the dish we made we weren't sure that we would have recognized the nutty background had we been in a restaurant or had the "almond" not been in the title of the recipe. The almond butter in this regard was a heart healthy way to thicken the sauce.

Chicken with Curried Tomato Almond Sauce

Yield: 4 servings

Ingredients:

1 Tablespoon (15 ml) olive oil
4 (6 oz / 170 g) boneless, skinless chicken breast halves
Salt to taste

Spice Blend:
1.5 tablespoons (20 ml) garam masala seasoning
1 teaspoon (5 ml) ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon (2 ml) ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon (1 ml) black pepper

Sauce:
4 tablespoons (60 ml) butter
1 large onion, cut in half pole to pole
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 (15-ounce/425 g) can tomato sauce
⅓ cup (80 ml) almond butter
⅓ cup (80 ml) milk
½ to ¾ cup (120 to 180 ml) chicken broth or water, more as needed
1 cup (240 ml) frozen peas (optional)

Hot basmati rice for serving
Chopped parsley (optional garnish)
Sliced almonds (optional garnish)

Directions:

1. Cook the chicken. If desired, pound chicken to ¼ inch (6 mm) thickness to promote even cooking. Sprinkle with a bit of salt and pepper to taste. Heat 1 teaspoon (5 ml) olive oil a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add half the chicken; sauté 3 to 5 minutes on each side or until cooked through. Cook the chicken in 2 batches, adding more oil if needed for second batch. Dice chicken into bite-sized pieces; set aside on clean plate and keep warm.
2. Prepare spice blend. Stir garam masala, ginger, cinnamon, and pepper together in a small bowl. Set aside.
3. Melt the butter in large nonstick skillet over medium-low heat. Add the onion and cook gently for several minutes to infuse the butter with onion flavor. Keep the heat low to avoid burning the butter; a little color is fine. Add the spice blend and garlic and cook for 1 minute or till fragrant, stirring constantly. Add the tomato sauce, stir well, and bring to boil. Reduce heat to simmer. Whisk in almond butter and milk until thoroughly combined with tomato sauce. The almond butter is thick so it takes a while to make a smooth sauce. Return to simmer. Add broth (or water) to sauce to reach desired consistency; return to simmer. Add more broth (or water) as needed to thin sauce as desired.
4. Remove onion from sauce and discard. Stir frozen peas (if using) into sauce. Transfer sliced chicken to sauce. Simmer gently for a few minutes until peas and chicken are heated through.
5. Serve chicken and sauce over rice. Garnish with chopped parsley and/or sliced almonds if desired.

Spicy Peanut Noodles

Ingredients

1 pound spaghetti
3/4 cup smooth peanut butter
1/2 cup unseasoned rice vinegar
3 tablespoons plus 1 teaspoon sugar
6 tablespoons soy sauce
1/4 cup water
1 tablespoon toasted sesame oil
2 teaspoons crushed red pepper
One 2-inch piece of fresh ginger, peeled and coarsely chopped
1 large garlic clove
3 celery ribs, thinly sliced
1/2 cup coarsely chopped cilantro leaves and tender stems
Lime wedges, for serving

Directions:

1. In a pot of boiling salted water, cook the spaghetti until tender. Drain and rinse under cold water until cooled. Drain well.
2. In a blender, puree the peanut butter with 6 tablespoons of the vinegar, 3 tablespoons of the sugar, the soy sauce, water, sesame oil, crushed red pepper, ginger and garlic. Transfer 1/2 cup of the peanut dressing to a bowl and toss with the noodles.
3. In another bowl, toss the celery with the cilantro and the remaining 2 tablespoons of vinegar and 1 teaspoon of sugar.
4. Transfer the noodles to bowls and drizzle with the remaining peanut dressing. Top with the celery and serve with lime wedges.