Peanut Butter (Home-made)

Recently my friend (at one of our gatherings) was surprised to know that peanut butter can be prepared at home easily. She actually thought that this had to be bought from the supermarkets as it involves a cumbersome process.

This small incident inspired me to share this easy, tasty, healthy and highly nutritious recipe with you all. Peanut butter if prepared at home, unlike other variety of butters will not contain any preservative and animal fat. It is also easy on one's purse.

A bowl of roasted peanuts and Peanut butter in Glass jar

Ingredients:

Peanuts	500 gms
Peanut Oil	1-2 tsps

Method:

• Roast the peanuts in a wok (without adding oil) till light brown.
  
• Grind the roasted peanuts (when cooled) in the grinder along with the peanut oil to a smooth paste or till you see a film of oil on the top of the mixture.
• When the mixture is thoroughly cooled, fill it in an air-tight glass jar.

Note:

Peanut oil is added just as a lubricant to start the grinding process.

If while grinding, the mixer jar gets heated, stop the grinding and allow it to cool and start the process again.

Initially the paste may appear dry but as the process starts, the oil from the peanut itself is released and the grinding becomes smoother. The skin of the peanuts need not be removed as it adds to the fibre content of the product.

Suggestions:

While grinding peanuts, you may also add salt, sugar and red chillies for taste. It tastes fine even without these ingredients.

If you prefer the chunky peanut butter variety, then keep aside about 100gms of roasted peanuts and grind them separately in the grinder to the desired size of chunks. Finally add these to the prepared smooth peanut butter and mix well.

It tastes best on bread, toast or on Marie biscuits.

Tip:

Instant chutney can be prepared from peanut butter - Crush salt and green chillies together. Add to it a small amount of peanut butter. Then add curds and mix well. Lastly season it with mustard seeds and curry leaves in oil.

For detailed information on nutritional values check on the following sources :
http://www.peanut-institute.org/NutritionBasics.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peanut_butter