Walnut Butter, why not.

 I love to make my own nut butter using my Champion juicer, I usually use a combination of almond, cashews and peanuts. Awhile back, a friend ask if I could make him some walnut butter. My first reaction was, no, as I have never heard of it or seen it anywhere. Ever the intrepid chef, I did a quick search and found a great recipe that you can make with just a food processor. I have been making it ever since. It's slightly sweet and unctuous, great on cracker or toast, a nice change from the usual nut butters. Walnuts are a great source of Omega 3 fats, antioxidants and vitamins.

Ingredients

1 1/2 cup raw, unsalted walnuts.

1) Preheat oven to 300 F.

2) Line a rimmed cookie sheet or pan with parchment or a silicon baking mat.

3) Place walnuts of the pan and bake for 12 minutes. Be careful not to over bake them.

4) Add the hot nuts to your food process and whiz for 1 minute, scrape down the sides and continue to process until they become runny. It may take a while depending on the size of your food processor. Be patient. Eventually they should turn into a smooth paste. You can add a dash of salt if you like.

5) Store in a jar in the fridge and enjoy.

Laurie's Easy Peanut Sauce

Two event conspired to inspire me to finally make a peanut sauce and post about it.

First I had lunch with my friend and fellow food blogger at a local noodle house, Charlie Hong Kong. I had a great bowl of veggies and noodles with peanut sauce. It reminded me of how much I love peanut sauce. 

Secondly, with our leftover crab, I decided to make fresh spring rolls, peanut dipping sauce seemed like the perfect accompaniment.

On the box of the rice noodles I use in the spring rolls was a simple peanut sauce recipe which, of course I immediately modified. The results were stunningly good.

Laurie's Easy Peanut Sauce

Ingredients

1/2 cup peanut or mixed nut butter*

2 tbsp. rice wine vinegar

2 tbsp. toasted sesame oil

2 tbsp. soy sauce

2 tbsp. hot pepper jelly** or sweet chili sauce

* I used my homemade nut butter, feel free to use whatever kind of peanut or mixed nut butter you like.

**I used my own hot pepper jelly, you can now find a similar item in the gourmet section of your grocery store or instead use the sweet chili sauce.

1) Mix together all the ingredients in a bowl. I found that using an immersion wand helped to make the sauce smoother.

2) If you want a thinner sauce feel free to add a tablespoon or two of water. 

If you want it spicier add a 1/2 teaspoon of cayenne.

Can you tell I didn't take photos as I was making it...you would think I would know better by now !!

This sauce makes a great dipping sauce, use with noodles or stir fried vegetable. I found myself licking it off the plate ;-)

something else to do with your Champion juicer

If you are luck enough to have one of these juicer in your kitchen ( or your garage), you can make very tasty nut butters.

I use a pound each of cashews, peanuts and almonds.
Trader Joe's carries a %50 less salt version of most roasted nuts, I use those for the peanuts and cashews, the almonds can be raw.

Be sure to mix the whole nuts together in a bowl first !!

With jam you have a very gourmet PB and J sandwich !!

Three pounds of nuts makes about three plus pint jars of nut butter.

Bob says to be sure to do a good job cleaning the axle for the blades.
Dry and even give it a bit of oil.

We have seen a half dozen of these machines at yard sales with the blades stuck on, this makes them useless.