I read so much about co-ops for bulk buying but had no idea how to join/find one or if they even existed this side of the equator! But recently one of Jonathan's work mates sent round an email about buying bulk nuts through her. When I ordered some almonds she asked if I wanted the full product list - did I ever! So I now have 5kg of black beans, 5kg of kidney beans, 5kg of green lentils, 2kg of almonds, and 3kg of peanuts sitting in my kitchen!
I bought the peanuts to try and make my own peanut butter as it is something I've started to use a lot, and at $2.95 a jar for Sanitarium's natural peanut butter I thought I'd look up how to make my own. And it is really very simple! I made my first lot last night. TIP: Make sure you thoroughly roast your raw nuts first! Half raw peanut butter doesn't taste too great so I am using it to make peanut butter biscuits. I shall have fully roasted nuts sometime by the end of today and tomorrow I will try again. TIP 2: don't use olive oil. Try and get peanut oil. I'm going to give coconut oil a go first as I have that on hand and I think it might add a nice sweetness to the butter. Fingers crossed!
how do you make peanut butter?
ReplyDeleteGood on you for doing this blog, I'm looking forward to learning more.
Thats a lot of beans. what do you do with the black beans
Mum, I just processed roasted peanuts (unsalted) with some coconut oil (supposed to use peanut oil) until it became peanut buttery. Mine isn't completely smooth - probably had to keep it processing longer. A recipe I came across says to use about 1T oil per 1 1/2 cups peanuts, but I didn't actually measure anything. Add more oil if it doesn't moist enough.
ReplyDeleteI use black beans mostly in chilli and for flourless brownies. Can put them in pasta dishes or in salads, make dips, make burger patties - Very versatile little bean! They're good with mince as they mush down into it and make it stretch further, so you can use less meat while adding fibre and nutrients. I soak them overnight and then cook them in the pressure cooker (just bring it to pressure and turn it off); I cook lots and freeze what I'm not using straight away.