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Peanut Butter Carrots
Cook 6 medium carrots until tender, and dice. Prepare 1 cup medium thick white sauce, and add 1 tablespoon peanut butter to it. Pour over the carrots, and serve hot.
A simple creamed vegetable with peanut butter standing in for cheese. The whole dish hinges on getting the peanut butter fully dispersed in the sauce.
- Medium white sauceThat means 2 tablespoons butter, 2 tablespoons flour and 1 cup milk, cooked until it coats a spoon. Thin sauce uses 1 tablespoon of each; thick uses 3.
- Adding the peanut butterWhisk it into the hot finished sauce off the heat, a little at a time, or it will sit in lumps. Natural peanut butter may loosen more readily than the stabilized kind; either works, but stir until no streaks remain.
- SeasoningThe original gives none. Salt, white pepper and a scrape of nutmeg are wanted, and the peanut butter will already carry some salt and sugar if it is a commercial brand.
- Cooking the carrotsBoil or steam whole, then dice while warm, which keeps the pieces from breaking up. About 15-20 minutes for medium carrots; test with a knife tip rather than the clock.
- ServingSix medium carrots and a cup of sauce serve four as a side dish. Fold the carrots into the sauce over low heat rather than pouring cold sauce over hot carrots if there is any delay before the table.
- If it separatesPeanut butter oil can break out of the sauce if it is boiled hard after the addition. Keep it below a simmer once the peanut butter is in.
Peanut butter entered American home cooking in the early twentieth century first as a health food and sandwich spread, then as a general-purpose flavoring that cookbooks pressed into soups, sauces and vegetable dishes. Its appeal in a savory white sauce may have been partly practical: it added protein, fat and a nutty richness, and it kept well on the pantry shelf.