Peanut Sauce in the Land of Little Peanut Butter

So, I had nothing in the house to eat... or so I thought. I went scrounging around and found an old bag of peanuts... hmmm, I thought. Maybe I should make a peanut sauce. But peanut sauce often calls for peanut butter, not just peanuts. Well, I guess I should just make it my own way then. And I did.

The sauce turned out great, but I ate it with pasta. The pasta was just too bland to go with it. I should have used chicken or something- like chicken satay. That would have been amazing... but I was going with what I had. I should have eaten the sauce all on it's own. That would have been just fine.

The recipe I started with was on cooks.com and here is the link:

http://www.cooks.com/rec/view/0,1715,129179-245193,00.html

I can't get the page to come up, so I hope I can remember what I did... of course, it's never going to be exactly the same.

Here we go:

5 tsp oil (to make up for the missing oil in the peanut butter along with the 4 it called for)
1/2 cup chopped red onion
2 T chopped garlic
1 cup water
1 tsp hot red pepper
3 T sugar
3 T vinegar
1/2 C peanuts- shelled (with the papery part off too)
(if there is anything I'm missing in the cooks.com recipe except for the peanut butter, I probably did use it... I just can't look it up right now- my internet is screwy.)

Anyhow, so I put the oil, red onion, and garlic in the blender. I also added just a hint of water (turn the fawcet on and off really quickly) because it wouldn't blend well without it. Once it was done blending, I put it in a sauce pan on the stove on low heat just like the recipe calls for. I then took the 1/2 cup peanuts and the red pepper (I just had a whole dried one... I estimated what 1 tsp would be) and put it into the grinder. I ground it till it was very fine, almost peanut butter consistency (it did start to come together, but I did not form a full peanut butter). When the pan started smelling like garlic and onion, I added the peanut and pepper mixture. I then added the cup water, stirred everything together with a whisk and let it thicken for about 10 minutes on low heat... When it came together I whisked in the sugar and vinegar. I started with 2 T like the recipe calls for, but thought 3 tasted better. Once it was all blended properly, it's done... taste to be sure it's to your liking, but mine was wonderful at this point.

Then, I added a bunch of pasta... Maybe if I only added a little pasta it would have worked, but I really think this is a better sauce for some chicken or something. It just added this starchy-flavorless substance that didn't really add anything and toned down the flavor. Is it okay? Yeah, but disappointing after the sauce worked out so well!

Verdict? The sauce is really good! But don't use pasta (or maybe try rice noodles). Chicken would be better.

Cheers!

Pepper on the Face- remedy for the pain.

Hi! So before I write about this Peanut Sauce I made, I thought I should say something about getting hot pepper on your skin, face, hands, etc.

Actually, It's quite dumb of me, but I have an awful habit of using just regular black pepper (taking a pinch with my fingers) and then forgetting and rubbing my eyes. I got it really bad the other day and it took at least 20 minutes of squirting my water bottle in my face in front of a fan and crying before it was bearable again.

So yesterday, I made that peanut sauce. It calls for hot pepper and I have some dried up red peppers. I took the red pepper and crushed it a bit and then ground it up with the peanuts into everything was very small. Of course I used my hands to split up parts of the pepper, put seeds in the grinder, etc. I even used my (scrubbed clean always) fingers to get some of the peanut/pepper mixture out of the grinder. Somehow, I don't know how, the pepper ended up making it way to the backs of my hands. They started itching a bit, but I didn't think much of it- it wasn't severe. I had an itchy nose... I scratched it. I washed my hands both before and after I scratched it.

I didn't realize how potent the stuff in peppers can be. Despite washing my hands, about 30 minutes later, my face around my nose- top, sides, just around the edges... BURNING. I'm so thankful that my eyes didn't itch!!! They were okay, but still watering because of the pain that was my entire nose area. It was bad. I couldn't see that well, but I found my water bottle and started spraying and standing in front of the fan. Didn't really work... I crashed around till I got to my computer and I sprayed as I one-hand googled hot pepper remedies. I got some suggestions that were just insane- especially on my face (like bleach!!!). I saw milk, so I poured some on a napkin and it worked a bit, but only while it was touching the area... as soon as it dried, burn was back.

What worked finally? (Hamdullah!!!)

Vodka... I had a little in my fridge. It said to try alcohol so I soaked a napkin in it and rubbed my face like I was using rubbing alcohol as a cleaner. It took a minute, but it worked.

Lesson learned?

When you handle peppers with your bare hands, DO NOT RUB YOUR FACE even after you wash your hands... The stuff takes quite a while to come off. My hands just itched, but on sensitive skin, like your face, it hurts much worse. Next time I'll use the alcohol on my hands. I read that the heat in peppers is caused by an oil substance that won't necessarily be cut by regular soap, but alcohol should be effective... It is. Yayyy!

Easy Peace Corps Cream of Mushroom Soup

Are there cans of Cream of Mushroom Soup available here? Maybe in the cities... I don't know.

So, I royally screwed this one up, and it still turned out really good. That's a good sign.

I got the idea for this recipe from this crockpot blog: http://crockpot365.blogspot.com/search/label/soup

However, my recipe isn't even close. It just inspired me to try making my own. Unfortunately I have never seen fresh mushrooms here in the desert. I used a can. Here's my version...

2 c water
2 boulion cubes (I used chicken, but vegi or beef would probably be good too)
A big pinch of salt, pepper, oregano, and basil
1/2 tsp onion powder
1 can mushrooms (smaller can, drained)
1/2 liter milk

Put the water, boulion cubes, spices and mushrooms in a pressure cooker. Heat on high and stir until boulion cubes start to dissolve. Close the lid tightly and when it starts making noise, lower the temperature to low. Pressure cook for about 20 minutes. When 20 minutes is up, open the pressure cooker and put the soup in the blender. Slowly add the milk and blend together. Yum!


If you're paranoid about spoiled food like I am, you can boil the milk ahead of time to make sure it's good. Not really necessary for taste, but who wants to ruin a soup with spoiled milk?

Okay, so what was my big mistake? I left the pressure cooker going for about 40 minutes. It started smelling a little different, so I took it off right away and opened it up... it wasn't burned, but there was no liquid left and the mushrooms were stuck in this brown stuff on the bottom. I panicked a bit because this was all the food in my house for lunch and I quickly added some water and stirred. I scraped all the stuff off the bottom and stirred it into the water which started to look more broth-like. Then I put it in the blender (it started smelling more broth-like too which was good) and followed the steps with the milk. It's still good!!! Yayyy. Very good actually! I'll DEFINITELY make this again... especially since it's easy to find canned mushrooms in my town. I love mushrooms, but not the rubbery, canned kind. Making a soup like this takes away that aspect and you still get the lovely flavor. :-)


In addition:
I added this later on because there are 2 things I would do slightly differently.

1. 1 more can of mushrooms... and perhaps less milk... I want it to be more mushroomy
2. Add a hint of butter for a creamier flavor... right now it's just milky

IMPORTANT- Pay Attention Morocco People! EGGS!

Hey! So I bought 6 eggs today and they were ALL bad. Don't forget to use that float trick... fill a glass of water and gently drop the egg in. If it floats, it's bad.

All 6! I was kind of annoyed but glad I didn't eat them. Watch out, PC Morocco!