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.
At first glance, this looks like a non-challenge. Especially for those of us with food processors. Nut butter? Great, you toss nuts in the processor, give it a whir and you're done. Where is the challenge? The challenge was to make savory recipes using the home made nut butter. That, I must say, was a TON of fun!
Instead of walking you through step-by-step like I normally do, I am just going to give you a little summary of the process and show you the pictures.
First was walnut butter, used to make a walnut-garlic sauce for pasta and veggies. Little Girl helped me make the walnut butter. She likes pushing buttons... I used the challenge recipe for inspiration but kind of winged it. In love garlic, but this was too garlicky for me. Maybe next time I will saute or roast the garlic to mellow it out. Using it raw, though, made it way too overpowering...
I also made cashew butter. Because I love cashews. I turned the cashew butter into a mock-Chinese dish. I used my recipe for
General Tao's Tofu and turned it into sweet and sour cashew tofu. This was AMAZING! The cashew added a great flavor, and my best friend who won't eat tofu said she'd eat this again any time!!
This challenge was a ton of fun. While I knew that it wasn't hard to make nut butters, it never occurred to me to do so. I am so glad that I did! I might have to play with home made nut butters a lot more often! I also learned the difference between roasting the nuts and not. I used raw nuts for both of my recipes. Auntie Twin came over to make her nut butters (since she doesn't have a food processor) and roasted hers. We both used cashews, so we did a taste test... The difference was clear. I can't say one was better, but there was a clear difference....!
I would like very much to thank Margie and Natashya for a great, fun challenge! I loved the creativity and freedom, and really enjoyed seeing what my fellow Daring Cooks came up with!!
To see the recommended recipes from the challenge, take a look here.
sweet and sour cashew tofu that sounds like a winner to me inspired choice and nice that your aunty and you could do a comparison of raw and roasted nut butters. And it is so much fun to cook with children you are lucky. Wonderful photos. Cheers from Audax in Sydney Australia.
ReplyDeleteThat sweet and sour cashew tofu sounds wonderful! Great job on the challenge!
ReplyDeletebest friend who won't eat Tofu liked this? oh good, perhaps I can get the Husband to eat it as well! great challenge!
ReplyDeleteHi Ruth - what cute blogs you have! I wish I had time for more crafts and projects...someday! Thank you for visiting my blog. I'm not a Tofu fan, but your cashew butter probably made it delicious!
ReplyDeleteYour general taos sounds delicious! I agree with you that this challenge was so much fun. Nice work on a successful challenge!
ReplyDeleteI believe majority thought this was a no brainer challenge..at least that's the initial reaction but we all went nuts!! i love the concept of this challenge and to let us do what ever we want, was great! I love your ideas..i might do the gen. tso's version. Well done! Oh.. i love your sous chef as well!
ReplyDeleteI am now a nut butter believer! Love your Gen Tso's veggie style.
ReplyDeleteDonna @ fabfrugalfood.com
Great recipe, I think this recipe may make me like tofu too!
ReplyDeleteI love tofu and I'm sure your recipe for sweet and sour cashew tofu must taste amazing!
ReplyDeleteYour helper is adorable! And your cashew tofu dish was inspired. Great idea. It looks delicious!
ReplyDeleteHooray for tofu! :D I'm curious about how you did the sweet and sour, and it's definitely got me interested in trying it myself. Great job on this challenge! I'm glad you got to try the nut butters both ways, too; I like the roasted better, myself.
ReplyDeleteAlthough I've never been one for tofu, that sweet and sour cashew tofu looks and sounds magnificent. Fantastic and creative take on this challenge!
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