Wednesday, August 20, 2003

Everybody go nuts

The peanut is making its way back into everything

At Peanut Butter & Co. in New York's Greenwich Village, deciding between smooth and crunchy is the least of your problems.

Regular, spicy, cinnamon-raisin or white chocolate? With Fluff? Bananas, honey and bacon? Cream cheese and chocolate chips? Grilled chicken and pineapple jam?

Should you finish up with peanut butter cookies, Death by Peanut Butter or peanut butter tiramisu? Wash it down with peanut butter milk or a Fluffernutter shake?

When was the last time you had this much fun with peanuts?

"Peanuts and peanut butter are definitely being rediscovered by lots of different people being used in cooking and other ways," said Lee Zalben, who opened the cafe in 1999. "It adds a lot of flavor in a very small amount. People love to eat it, and it makes them satisfied."

In Zalben's shop, thousands of pounds are ground each week to meet customer demand. His 30-seat shop offers six flavors of peanut butter, endless sandwich possibilities, and about a dozen peanut-themed drinks and desserts.

Elsewhere, grocery stores are now stocking peanut butter-flavored Goldfish crackers, frozen PBJ sandwiches and peanut butter Oreos. Peanut flour is being mixed into a number of energy bars. And culinary schools are dedicating summer courses exclusively to cooking with peanuts.

"Peanuts are really doing a resurgence in American cuisine. It's climbing the culinary charts," said Marie Fenn, president of the National Peanut Board in Atlanta.

But before the peanut became an everyday food, it was just a goober that's its name, roughly translated, in the Congo. Africans introduced peanuts to America in the 1700s. The underground pods were grown, harvested and eaten by slaves or fed to animals. That did not change until George Washington Carver, a philanthropist born into slavery, dedicated his life to agriculture and found common applications for peanuts.

Today 25,000 peanut farmers in the United States toil nine months on this high-maintenance crop, earning only pennies a pound.

The peanut's culinary value was starting to be realized when the Kellogg brothers of Battle Creek, Mich. yes, those Kelloggs patented the process to make "nut meal," a primitive peanut butter. The next year, Carver became the head of the department of agriculture at Alabama's Tuskegee Institute, now Tuskegee University.

Carver revolutionized the agriculture industry while also developing more than 300 uses for peanuts, including medicines, cosmetics, soaps, and paints. His research bulletin, "How to Grow the Peanut and 105 Ways of Preparing It for Human Consumption," was published in 1925 and included such recipes as peanut coffee, peanut wafers, peanut bisque and even peanut brownies and peanut-butter fudge.

Peanuts have been praised for their healthful qualities, including protein density, the absence of cholesterol, and low saturated fat. "It fits nicely into a diet for those who are trying to cut down on their intake from animal sources or who are vegetarians," said Laura Coti Garrett, a nutritionist in Hackensack, N.J. "If you are someone trying to maintain or gain weight, nuts would be great because they are a high energy source without containing lots of sugar."

But before you grab a couple of handfuls, consider this: As few as five or six raw, jumbo-sized Virginia peanuts have 45 calories, and roasting can add saturated fat. And mainstream peanut butter contains sugar and hydrogenated fat. Nutritionally, Garrett said, the best peanuts are right out of the shell "even in ballparks" and the best peanut butter is freshly ground.

Peanuts have tremendous versatility, used in sweet to savory dishes. "The Best of Virginia Farms Cookbook" (Menasha Ridge Press, $24.95) includes these recipes from some of peanut country's landmark restaurants.

Hotel Roanoke peanut soup

1/2 cup butter

1 small onion, diced

2 ribs celery, diced

3 tablespoons flour

2 quarts hot chicken broth

1 pint peanut butter

1/3 teaspoon celery salt

1 teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon lemon juice

1/2 cup ground peanuts

Melt butter in a large saucepan. Add onions and celery. Cook, stirring often, for five minutes, but do not brown. Stir in flour, then broth. Cook, stirring occasionally, for 30 minutes.

Remove from heat and strain. Return to saucepan and stir in peanut butter, celery salt, salt, and lemon juice. Garnish with ground peanuts. Servings: 10.

Surrey House peanut raisin pie

3 eggs

1 cup dark corn syrup

1/2 cup sugar

6 tablespoons margarine, melted

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